Minutes of September 9, 2004 meeting

Present:

P. Bellanca, A. Peteet, J. Reinhart, R. Smith, P. Weniger, B. Lipinski, C. Sterback, J. Teichmann, A.Martinez, E. McElroy, J.Gardner, Katie Anderson, Y. Ishii

Excused:

N. Mukherjee, D. Meister, D. Vorhees

1. PALCI/E-ZBorrow: turnaround time, statistics, STACKS-COM.
2. Off-campus book bands.
3. New user registration.
4. Systems updates, issues.
5. Announcements, Information Sharing.
6. Next Mtg will be held at ROBESON LIBRARY, Camden Campus.

1) PALCI/E-ZBorrow: turnaround time, statistics, STACKS-COM

Dan Iddings analyzed E-ZBorrow turnaround time in August and reported overall averages for all requests, excluding weekends or holidays, as follows: Create to Ship: 1.86 days; Ship to Receive; 3.85 days, and Create to Receive; 5.71 days.

RUL borrowed 9,234 items and loaned 5,822 to PALCI libraries last FY. Camden and Dana interlibrary loan staff acquired approximately ¼ fewer books via traditional ILL. But NB/P s ILL borrowing of originals (which also includes microform and dissertations) increased 14%, despite staff converting all possible ILL book requests to E-ZBorrows. 61% of the originals borrowed from, and 61% of the originals loaned to, libraries outside RUL were E-ZBorrow transactions, but the overall volume of traditional ILL did not decrease. E-ZBorrow was clearly a supplementary service last FY. Also, we sent 12% fewer Recall notices, suggesting that E-ZBorrow is being used to get copies of high-demand titles we own and that are checked out.

Incoming PALCI requests for STACKS-COM items were becoming problems due to local libraries varying practices (shelving books and discs separately with different barcodes, local decisions not to circulate, etc.), and we decided to make STACKS-COM a noncirculating sublocation in our PALCI catalog configuration, until a standard RUL policy is implemented.

2) Off-campus book bands

Samples of new off-campus book bands were reviewed and copies will be distributed to RDS staff next week. They include return address for our four UPS sites in case off-campus users wish to return materials via UPS, FedEx, or U.S. mail.

3) New user registration

New students are appearing in the database now. Lots of PIN requests on AAL.

4) Systems updates, issues

• The system stores multiple recall dates. We decided to display the due date on the notice and label it recall due date on notice.
• Notes with 40-day overdue recall transaction data that are created when holds are removed will always display at the bottom of the notes list on the user s record; they cannot be brought to the top.
• NBL is adding an Item note ( Withdraw when returned ) whenever a copy of an item is sent to the Annex and there is also a Geaclost copy on the record. The Annex does not accept duplicates.
• Alumni courtesy notices will resume later this month.
• W2004. Comments were solicited about how current user works when two of the same wizard are opened at once. Sirsi s beta test coordinator position is vacant, which may delay testing and release of W2004.
• All user records have Notes alerts, but a note may not actually display because it s the SSN previous ID note, which is shadowed.

5) Announcements, Information Sharing

• Alcohol Studies is busy despite building and road constructions
• Collection transfer at Math and phase 1 withdrawals at LSM are complete, a shift of Douglass folios is in-process
• Media has started UPS delivery of videos to Camden. Videos circulate for 3 days with no renewals and whenever the due date falls on a closed day, the date may be backdated. If you encounter any unusual back due dates, contact Chris.
• Access services staff have settled into a new circulation desk and office areas at Robeson.
• Christa Dandurand is new LA2 at Kilmer, working evenings and Rita O'Donnel Post transferred to Kilmer and is working days. The evening position at LSM is open.
• Summer reserve records and files on the web server have been removed.
• Staff at Douglass are training for merged information service.
• Air conditioner has been replaced in the Systems Office, no more daily breakdowns. Chris is working on PromptCat, which will speed book processing and is a first step toward shelf ready processing. Director's Station, a turnkey statistic product, with 10 simultaneous users will be purchased from Sirsi this year. Systems will coordinate hardware, software, and training, beginning with Cabinet members. ILink, the next generation of WebCat, is part of the purchase, though the extra content (book jackets, TOC, reviews, etc.) is an additional annual subscription fee of $25,00 and we re not sure if it will be funded. IPAC will be working on configuring iLink.
• Melissa John new RUL-SCILS intern has started work at Alex Access services. Alex is seeing lots of work-study students this semester.

6) Next Meeting

Next Mtg, Oct. 14, will be held at ROBESON LIBRARY, Camden Campus. A university van will be reserved.