Minutes of March 14, 2002 meeting
Public Services Council requested that summaries of the Access Services Committee's meetings be posted to the
rul_everyone list. Questions about the meeting summaries can be submitted to Judy Gardner at jgardner@rci
1) Unicorn issues, Systems updates.
- Two new WorkFlows overrides will be implemented March 18th. An announcement will be made to the circ_sub list and staff can telephone or see in person a committee member or Systems staff for the overrides.
- We will make all libraries closed in the system on days when only a few libraries are open with limited hours. These closed days will be based on RUL Hours schedules and will change each academic year. Reserves checkout on closed days has not been a problem.
- IRIS will be down 3/16/02 for database conversion. Libraries will not use Standalone software.
- Chris talked about IRIS response time and reviewed remedies. New configuration parameters recommended by Sirsi were read in over the weekend, new switches will be installed this Wednesday, and more memory may be needed.
- When investigating a spike in the number of reprocessed overdue recalls, Bob and Chris discovered that filled holds get a status of INACTIVE and are not automatically deleted in U2001. They do not display in WorkFlows or Web Cat but do show up in Reports. The Overdue Recall report was modified and we will look at new reports to purge inactive holds.
- Chris and Michele tested and confirmed that we can add more than one email address to locally created user records. We will begin to include professor and RA email addresses on Research Assistant records. The RA application form will be revised to include space for RAs' email addresses.
- Bob and Tracey sometimes contact the AAL team member of the day with additional information about patrons who write to AAL and claim never to have received a first recall or overdue email notice. AAL team members are happy to receive this additional information. Final decisions to waive fines are based on many factors, including whether or not an email notice was sent or received. Guidelines are posted on the staff resources web pages: Staff Resources/Access Services/Procedures/Billing/ Guidelines for Waiving Recall Fines.
2) Primary Borrowers Chart, UMDNJ borrowers.
The primary and guest borrower charts have a new layout, and the primary chart has been updated. Instructions for
registering guest and primary borrowers accompany the charts. Changes to the primary borrowers chart include a
new slot for nonmatriculated students, instructions for two email addresses under research assistants, and
breakdown of the three UMDNJ borrower categories: RWJMS, School of Public Health, and Graduate School of
Biomedical Sciences. UMDNJ faculty may now qualify as VALE guest borrowers; a signed form from their home UMDNJ
library is required. Cross-registered NJIT students receive 2-yr. expiration dates; we will investigate a method
for expiring these students on a regular basis and rely on the data loads to update the expiration date current
cross-registered students. The new primary borrowers chart will be posted on the web and copies distributed to
each library and member of ASC.
3) Change of User Addresses- draft #2
We reviewed the revised document, "Change of User Addresses- Staff FAQs and Standard Replies," for answering AAL
questions and when working with patrons at the circulation desk. The document will be posted on the staff
resources web page.
4) Misc. items.
- Reviewed inventory of plastic red and white borrower cards. If Chang sends ½ box of white cards and Douglass sends 1 box of red cards to Lucye, she will have a sufficient supply on hand to distribute to libraries as needed during the next FY year. The RUL logo will be updated when cards are reordered.
- Examined sample spine labels that Blackwell supplies on shelf-ready books, a service that Acquisitions is investigating for a trial. Font size is much smaller than on our current labels.
- Henry Charles maintains a supply of U.S. postal mailers for articles that are processed and mailed to off-campus sites from unit libraries. Staff can contact Lucye or Henry if they need a supply.
- Libraries reported on status of Ariel scanning for RRS: Alex is still sending RRS to Imaging Services, Chang is scanning for RRS, Dana's scanner is not working (services calls placed), Kilmer is not yet scanning. Staff indicated it's a difficult time of the semester to begin a new workflow, especially since scanning initially takes longer than processing photocopies for RRS.
5) Ask a Librarian Access Team. The following issues were discussed.
Tools to help answer questions (not just FAQs), more sharing of standard replies, and better communication of
changes when teams turnover are needed. Workload and volume are increasingly an issue, even with the split day.
The number of questions coming in and time it takes to answer are hard to handle given other things to do. Even
when relieved of desk duty, AAL is often on top of regular work and means extra hours. Although preferred by many
patrons, AAL is not always the most efficient way to solve a problem or answer a question. It can be more
difficult and time consuming for staff to resolve a patron's problem electronically than by a simple conversation
at a circulation desk. Can we stop responding to statement questions like "I'll return it tomorrow," or is it
necessary for the question to be counted? Are there other routine questions/answers that can be filtered? In
addition to written documentation and site monitoring, other types of training would be helpful. Face to face,
big group training sessions would be useful. Short meetings when the team changes to review responsibilities, how
to handle multi-part questions and questions answered twice, changes in policy and procedures, etc. would be
useful. Tips on mechanics to make work easier also needed-- using different email systems, KeyBoard Express, how
to organize work, use of filters, etc. Discussion to be continued . ..
6) Updates and Information Sharing.
- NB Reserve group is bringing ereserve resources and instructions together in one place, working on an Ereserve FAQ. Roger can be reached at LSM 8:30-5 and is supervising SERC, where Joanna Karwowska is working a day schedule.
Peter Anderson is now at Chemistry.
- Chris reported that Rutgers is hosting a one-day conference, next Fri. in the Pane Rm, for Sirsi staff to meet with small and medium sized DRA libraries in the region about the merger of the two systems, migration issues. Rutgers' LIS Implementation Comm. members will attend as resources and to answer questions.
- Mary Fraser reviewed developments at SMLR. A glass office is going to be taken down, new circ/reference desk added, and space opened up for small groups to work more easily. A study of the journal collection is underway in preparation for adding serial orders and fund accounting to WorkFlows next FY. Six new computers have been added, electronic reference sources may be acquired with one-time money, and an inventory of materials in the basement has commenced.
- Dean has been working on Unicorn reports (reserves, holds, etc.)
- Barry and others have noticed an influx of tours of prospective students in the libraries. The NB Billing group is working on training documentation.
- Bill reported that the NB RRS group has almost completed its html manual, is working on a project to clean up Holds that have been available more than 2 weeks, and is tracking high-use patrons for patterns or trends.
- Jan, working with Dana media staff, has placed two short digital videos on reserve.
- Ed reported that Alex-ILL has started to test Ariel web document delivery.
- Sothy noted that ground water monitoring of wells on Busch campus has started.
- Bill McNelis is working part-time as Asst. Citation/Location Librarian.
- Access service's user-initiated holds and billing projects are included in Systems' next quarter's goals.
NEXT MEETING: We meet again Thursday, May 9th, 9:30 a.m., NRUTGERS, Alexander Library.
The April 11th meeting is CANCELED.