Charge

The Library Staff Portal Task Force will undertake a pilot project that will result in the creation of a Library Staff Portal.

• Target subjects for the portal which may include the development of a knowledge base of BLC library policy documents, forms, contract wording, training manuals, research guides, pathfinders, best practices, grant opportunities, statistics for circulation, ILL, ejournals, etc.
• Identify a host site.
• Investigate the deposit of data by disparate entities over a network in a consistent template format (content management software) in order to build this portal.
• Demonstrations of software and pros and cons of each should be reported out to the BLC community and recommendation for implementation should begin in January.
• Select pilot subjects and request samples from each consortium member to build the critical mass needed.
• Pilot project should have a "product" by June 6, 2003.

The Task Force will communicate with the BLC community through news items on the BLC's web page, BLC-L, and any COI that may have interest in the project. The Task Force will work closely through the BLC Office and the Director Liaison to make sure information about the project is distributed.

The Task Force may hold at least one program for the BLC community on this topic.

This task force is aligned with the BLC Goal: The BLC Portal "To take advantage of available technology, staff expertise, and collective information resources to advance the teaching, research, and service missions of the member institutions." And specifically, "To share staff expertise in specialized areas of scholarship through the development of guides to research resources or methodologies" and "To develop a means of managing information resources in a shared environment."