Minutes of June 13, 2002 meeting

Pat Womack was introduced and wished a happy retirement.

1) Goals - review of 2001/02 goals and discussion of goals for 2002/03. 2001/02 Goals:

• Implement user-initiated Holds. [In Test]
• Remove long overdue books from the system. [Not Done]
• Create standard policies and procedures for Damaged Books, Lost-Paid and Lost-Replaced books. [In process]
• Train additional access services staff to run basic Reports.[Not Done]
• Load email addresses with RU-ONLINE records and introduce automatic email Notices. [Done]
• Implement automatic email notification when RU and ILL requests are filled/unfilled. [Done]
• Redesign Research assistant card procedures. [Done]
• Expand the Audio Reserve pilot project. [Pilot expanded; system wide implementation not done]
• Begin media circulation and implement delivery of media to libraries for faculty pickup. [Done]
• Distribute electronic reserve scanning and file management responsibilities. [Done]
• Implement RRS and ILL document delivery to the user's desktop using Ariel 3.1. [ILL scheduled to begin 7/1/02, planning for RRS in-process]

2002/03 Goals:

• Implement user-initiated Place Holds in production.
• Remove long overdue books from the system and implement Sirsi's new Process Long Overdue Items report
• Expand the Audio Reserve pilot project; review media circulation policies.
• Improve user education and awareness of email addresses and library records.
• Introduce a new cycle for placing academic holds.
• Offer users Knight Express and/or credit card payment options.
• Implement web document delivery for RRS articles.
• Create a combined electronic & paper brief item record for Reserve materials.
• Train additional access services staff to run basic Reports.
• Compose, review, and consolidate procedures and training documentation on the Web (e.g., standard toolbars and wizard properties, reserve and circulation functions, borrowers charts, billing, RRS and new user-initiated holds processes)

2) Unicorn updates and Systems issues

• Place Holds testing.
  The "Place Holds" function is configured and operational in the test system. Testers have placed holds in test Web Cat and are now processing holds in test WorkFlows. Staff will need to cancel holds placed for pickup in their libraries, are pleased with less paper and immediate blocking of some ineligible holds and are thinking about best practices and procedures. Various reports will be investigated and tested next.
• Bills from Geac Days
  Bob, Chris, and Judy have identified over 8400 "lost" items with bills from Geac days that migrated to Unicorn in 1997. In preparation for Place Holds, we would like to shadow these titles so that users won't place holds on them. Then develop a process to remove them from the system, involving access staff for searching/billing, selectors, database management, and others. A new shadowed location (GEACLOST) has been proposed. Judy will continue to work with Chris and Bob on this evolving project. ASC recommended that owning libraries search these titles one last time before they are withdrawn.
• Removal of SSN from IRIS forms and Self Services.
  Requests for University IDs (SSNs) will be eliminated from IRIS forms and Self Services logins on July 1.
• 8/15/2002 Summer session expiration dates.
  Expiration date of Rutgers students taking summer classes was restored to 11/1/2004 with the last patron load. This fix will be documented and saved for use next summer.
• Summer Holds Clean Up.
  About 1,900 old, not-checked-out holds were expired, set to inactive, and removed during the regular purge of inactive holds.
• Revised notices.
  IRIS and Ask a Librarian URLS have been added to the notice text for 1stoverdue and term reminder notices.
• Lst Attd field in patron records.
  Bob has suggested we use the Lst Attd field for the yr/mo. that student records are loaded (we currently load the yr/semester students last attended, when it's available). ASC agreed. This will give us a current affiliation date for all students in the weekly patron load, will more closely parallel faculty/staff's yr/mo of last payroll, and can be used when we purge records.
• Removal of Spring reserves.
  Review lists, control and brief item record remove reports, and removal of files on the Web server are on track.
• Sat., Sun. summer hours in the system.
  We will continue to configure the system with each library's weekend hours during summer sessions.
• 6/29/02 Purge.
  Patrons with 2/29/2002 expiration will be purged at the end of the month.

3) Knight Express.

We've received quotes on the Knight Express readers. There is a 3.5% processing fee on all Knight Express transactions. Loss of income may be balanced by user convenience. Users' Knight Express account info is now on RUconnection cards. Judy will continue to investigate Knight Express, along with online credit card payment, for fines and replacement fees.

4) Publications: Recall, Self Services bookmarks.

We decided not to update the Self Services and Recall bookmarks. Bookmarks will be created to highlight new services and timely messages to users; and they will change every 3-6 months. We will begin work on bookmarks for Web doc delivery and how to change your email address. Publications contacts at each library will be asked for the number/title of publications needed for fall.

5) Persistent bad addresses

We discussed Jeff's idea of barring users who do not update their address with the university and libraries, based on returned notices over time. Questions: how would barring users for persistent bad addresses impact efforts to automate barring/unbarring user records for 40-day overdues? how would users barred for bad addresses get "unbarred"? how can we be certain users receive notification about their responsibility to update an address? The User Database Management Team (B.Lipinski, J. Teichman, S.Lewis, M.Harris, T.Meyer, A. Martinez (new), J.Gardner) will meet within the next month and discuss these issues further.

6) Misc. items:

• Sales of CDs.
  Specs for ordering blank CDs have been given to campus administration offices. Libraries with new digital microform reader-printers may wish to stock a supply for sale at circulation desks. Imaging Services is already selling them (for $2, same as diskettes) at Alex and LSM.
• RUconnection at Newark.
  First-year Newark students will be issued cards from the RUconnection Office with library barcodes starting this fall. Judy will find out if there will be an RUconnection office/contact in Newark.
• ELF equipment.
  PCs and Fujitsu document feeder scanners will be ordered later this month with ELF funds for the following-- Annex, Dana, Robeson, Alex Access Services, and Chang libraries.
• Meeting dates.
  ASC will meet the second Thursday of the month again next year. The NRUTGERS Conf. Rm. at Alex on College Ave. has been reserved for the fall semester meetings.
• Confidentiality, student responsibility & use of online systems.
  Please remember to review with new student workers, and periodically with returning students, their responsibility for confidentiality of library records and responsible use of our online systems. You can give them the student employee letter posted on the Access Services staff resources Web pages under Forms.
• Priority and nonpriority notification for "on order" titles.
  The "request this item" form is used for priority processing and notification when "on order" titles arrive. Requests for "nonpriority" notification are sometimes submitted on order forms. Access services staff who change the status of new books from "in process" to "stacks," etc., at the libraries need to be alert to these requests for nonpriority notification and place holds on items for users.
• AAL standard replies.
  New standard replies for access services Ask a Librarian questions have been posted on the AAL page, revised guidelines will be available soon.
• Creating brief title records.
  Brief records created by access staff for circ-on-the-fly do not get shadowed. Michele will investigate the "helper" on the CheckOut wizard, if it can be used to create brief title records for circ-on-the fly-, or whether we should continue to use the Add Brief Title wizard with appropriate properties.

7) Updates and Information Sharing.

• Bill reported that RRS staff in NB have been testing Place Hold. Reviewed our policy for when a user brings a book to the circ desk to check out and it has a hold on it-- we check it out immediately to the person in the library. We then cancel the hold if it is old and investigate it if it's new. This may change with Place Hold (need to test).
• Roger's group is discussing a combined format record for reserves, working on a space allocation plan for the 3rd floor of LSM.
• Michele reported that the circulation functional group is working on a manual. Sothy's retirement party is June 25.
• Chang is accepting transfers from Douglass, working on various cleanup projects.
• Staff at Alex are working with end of year lists, have started to check out bookings, reported on Phyllis' party.
• Maggie will be working Wed.&Thurs, 2-10pm with Pat Womack's retiring.
• Jeff announced Access Services in New Brunswick will have an open house on June 26th in the Pane Room, highlighting the work of functional groups, and what staff do.
• Antoinette will be working on clearing backlogs this summer, damaged books.
• Mary reported that the Annex shelving does not appear to be installed correctly, reserves at Douglass have been removed, recon is progressing, identified some charge/discharge bugs with the CS-Alex user.
• Alcohol Studies summer school has started, Pat's been testing Place Holds.
• The NB billing functional group has created a PowerPoint for access services staff who work at circ desks, what they need to know about billing questions and how to pull up more detail. Asuncion will be doing RRS at Kilmer with Gloria's retirement.
• Chris reminded us that Systems is planning the summer index rebuild for after summer session in August; it may run faster this year. Read-only IRIS will be available.
• Dana is reexamining its full-time shelver position. JSTOR titles are being pulled. Re-carpeting on the 2nd floor south wing is scheduled for summer, books will be paged.
• In ILS, Stella has announced her retirement and Jane Mihalick is out on sick leave. Web document delivery is scheduled to being July 1s for ILL articles. ILS will be implementing JerseyCat, the State Library's new statewide catalog and ILL system, this summer.

New meeting: July 11, 2002, 9:30 a.m., NRUTGERS Conference Rm, Alexander