Electronics Communications Advisory Meeting Highlights

ALA Midwinter Meeting 2006

Steven M. Cohen
January 22, 2006

It was decided as a group that we should try to accomplish short term goals to spruce up the PLA site without too much work.   Work that will be done includes:

1)     The creation of a site index.
2)     Use Javascript to display the latest posts from the PLA Blog.
3)     Create a tutorial for 2 so that other associations and libraries can display the content from the blog as well.
4)     Link to the LibSuccess Wiki for examples of best practices
5)     Mask e-mail addresses so that they are not hyperinked.
6)     Interview different committee member heads and have them write a piece on what their committees are doing for the site and the blog.
7)     Put TOC and articles from the magazine on the site.

Members present: Steven M. Cohen – Chair, Kathleen Hughes – PLA contact, Sue Calbreath, Larry Neal

Members absent: Anne Dougherty, Louise Sevold, Lauren Stokes, Elizabeth Ward

ALA Midwinter Meeting 2005

Pauline Baughman, Chair
January 16, 2005

Members present: Sue Calbreath, Louise Sevold, Pauline Baughman

Members Absent: Anne Doughtery, Elizabeth Ward
Nora Jacob (Electronic member)
Janet Stone (Electronic member)

Visitors: Kathleen Hughes, Barbara Spruill

The Electronic Communications Advisory Committee met twice to discuss the PLA website. Prior to our meetings, we created a list of changes we would like to see made to the PLA website. This list was reviewed and given to Kathleen Hughes to implement.

We discussed the current PLA electronic newsletter. The committee would like to see some improvements to this publication to make it inviting and useful to PLA members as the current format is currently unfriendly, unappealing, and too much like a press release.

Prior to our next meeting at ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, the committee would like to craft a vision/mission/purpose for an ongoing PLA blog and to create guidelines.

ALA Midwinter Conference 2004

Pauline Baughman, Chair
1/11/04

Members present: Pauline Baughman, Sue Calbreath

Members absent: Janet Foster, Deborah Lammers, Louis Sevold, Nora Jacob, Janet Stone

Visitors: Kathleen Hughes

The Electronics Communications Advisory Committee met to discuss the PLA website. We discussed possible additions and changes to the site, including content changes, adding a Quick Poll, and surveying users in order to be responsive to member's needs. Most of our discussion focused on the survey and questions we might ask.

Previously, this committee was not very active but we would like to rectify that by having more active members. We would also like to improve the PLA website and plan to draft a document of suggestions for the site.

Prior to our next meeting at ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, we will draft a document of proposed changes to the site. Katheleen will look into tools to conduct the survey and try to find a few more members that will be able to attend the meetings.

In attendance: Pauline Baughman, Sue Calbreath, Kathleen Hughes

1. Background information from Kathleen Hughes:
   This committee was formed in 1998 as an advisory group to the staff that maintain the PLA website. The committee meets at both ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual Conference. As a committee, we are welcome to post any documents on our committee page.

2. Web Site - suggestions, comments, a new look?
   We had several suggestions for improving the PLA website:

   1. Content - keep content current; i.e. the Best Practices section - whois responsible for this? other content ideas: CIPA, wireless; survey libraries to see what they are doing and how they are doing it; maintain a contacts list for libraries to call each other for help on particular issues.

   2. White papers

   3. Text and image versions of the page for those using dialup

3. New items for the site
   Kathleen suggested adding a Quick Poll to the site. Some ideas for topics: filtering, conference attendance. Other ideas: Could people propose questions and then read the blogs? People could share ideas and information about policies, reference questions.
4. Survey
   We would like to be responsive to users. Should we do a survey to see what people would like on the site? Kathleen will look into using Zoomerang or some other survey mechanism. This survey could either be a popup on the main page or a splash page. We discussed making the survey multiple choice with the option for comments. We would like it to be no more than 5-6 questions. Some possibilities: Why do you use the PLA website? Did you generally find what you are looking for? Is there something you didn't find that you would like to see? Please rank the organization/navigation of the site from easy to difficult.
5. Other ideas
   Kathleen mentioned that the committee is not limited to just discussing the web site. If we have any ideas, we can discuss them as a committee.

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