Minutes of September 12, 2002 meeting

1) Access/Systems Academic Calendar.

A second override change has been added to the calendar; we will change override codes before the beginning of fall and spring semester.
Summer 02 eres files have been removed from the Web server. Results of summer 02 reserve control record reports will be emailed to reserve staff.
Address 2 has been switched to Address 1. [If Address 1 is blank, Address 2 stays selected. If the address selection button was switched from 1 to 2 by staff, Address 2 stays selected.] After the majority of new student records have been loaded we can review instances of 2 blank addresses.

2) Contact Lists.

Revisions will be posted on the staff resources web pages. Chris will update email distributions for Unicorn reports based on changes staff noted on the lists.

3) User-initiated Holds.

Chris reviewed the two major issues reported since the introduction of user-initiated holds: copies selected for recalls and requests for a 2nd volume in a multi-volume set.

We thought the system would fill holds from all available ‘in library’ copies before recalling a ‘checked out’ copy. It doesn’t always do this. Examples have been identified and reported to Sirsi. In the meantime, do not attempt to fix these. If users report this as a problem, ask them to write to Ask A Librarian and Bob or Tracey will cancel the recall hold, reset the notice counter, and place a hold on another copy.
When patrons have at least one volume of a multi-volume set checked out they are not permitted to use “Deliver/Recall” for another volume in the set. Sirsi reported that this is fixed in the next release. In the meantime, if users report this as a problem you can place a copy level hold on the additional volume(s) they need in WorkFlows at the desk. Bob or Tracey will also fix any reported via Ask a Librarian. A third issue reported on the Sirsi list (trapping a hold more than once puts it in its pickup library) has been fixed.

Other comments and observations about holds:

If the message “item has no holds” appears when trapping items on your pull list, send the book back to the stacks.
Occasionally Display User shows the number of holds but doesn’t list them in the ‘holds’ tab; use Display User Holds to see a complete list.
Reserve staff can place copy level holds when requesting items for Reserve.
Annex’s customized pull list is coming up with duplicates.
Items in noncirculating sub-locations are showing up on pull lists (Bindery, SOC, etc). Send examples to Judy so that system configurations can be reviewed and reset to exclude them.
Is there a limit to the number of requests that patrons can submit for articles? No.
Can the headers on each page of the pull lists be eliminated? Not by the system, the report’s output options. It was suggested that staff could easily delete the headers before printing their lists.
Question about our ‘when to charge to Missing’ policy. Rather than charge to Missing right away, some libraries continue to search before canceling the hold. These will continue to show up on the libraries’ pull lists, and not move on to another pull list if other copies are available, until charged to Missing and canceled.
We will look into setting up “Aged” Hold Reports, modeled on the reports that identify Requests in process longer than 7 days.
Remote users do not need to configure their browsers to use IRIS and the Delivery/Recall option.
Chris is continuing to investigate use of the comments field for a specific reply when canceling holds. Another possibility is to create reports that identify holds canceled for specific reasons and send a different notice for each reason.
Staff are helping users with the new interface, choice of button, etc.
Some Douglass materials sent to the Annex are temporarily inaccessible in boxes. When requested, staff are charging them to Missing and ILL becomes an option.

4) U2002.

The next release of Unicorn software, U2002, will be loaded into the test system the 1st week in October, with a projected rollout in the production system during January break. Release Notes will be posted on the Staff Resources web pages for easier access than we had to them logging onto the Sirsi site. Chris presented highlights of interest to access services staff:

larger versions of the WorkFlows icons will be available,
WorkFlows will launch more quickly,
a new Helper will print the entire user or item record,
the Request module will be ‘wizardized,’
an ILL toolbar will be available,
changes in the algorithm for the holds Pull List will allow us to set up groups of libraries within the system,
capability for fines to accrue on a weekly basis and for graduated fines will be available.

5) Announcements/Information Sharing.

We occasionally see an email address in an RU-ONLINE record, but not in the Rutgers Online Directory. Systems has queried RUCS about this.
Staff who read AAL are more aware of cases when two email addresses on an RA user records conflicts with the one email restriction for Web document delivery. A reminder for circ_sub was requested.
The AAL team has been busy with online PIN and registration requests.
Students do not need PINs and barcodes to view ereserves in the libraries and campus labs.
We will ask Natalie if the Registering with the Libraries form could be revised to ask for hyphens when typing SSNs.
Bookmarks have arrived at libraries.
Don Wilson is now working 5 days/week at Kilmer, Sun-Thurs.
Open positions at Art, Kilmer, and Alex have been posted.
Megan Doyle has moved from Douglass to Chemistry. Recon stopped at Douglass on Sept. 1st, waiting for posting of the Douglass position.
Megan Ingegno has moved from LSM to Physics.
The combined paper & electronic format, single record format for Reserves is working well.
Collection shift is taking place at Chang.
Annex replacements shelves need to be replaced.