Minutes of May 11, 2006 meeting

Present:

K. Anderson, R. Barbalace, Z. Bonianian, J. Gardner (chair), B. Lipinski, D. Meister, R. Smith, C. Sterback, J. Teichmann (recorder), M. Tokar, D. Voorhees, A. Watkins, P. Weniger.

Guest:

Sybil James, Ombudsperson for Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus

Absent:

Y. Ishii, A. Martinez, T. McNally, N. Mukherjee, J. Reinhart, G. Sandberg

Agenda

1. Sybil James, Ombudsperson for Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus
2. GL3.0 - Results of testing, conversion of user records last load dates, other
3. Group Reports
4. Announcements and Information Sharing

1. Judy introduced Sybil James to the committee.

Sybil is the Ombudsperson for Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus. Judy asked that each committee member introduce themselves and speak a little about their perceptions of the student users of their respective libraries. Sybil then spoke about herself and her position that becomes full-time July 1, 2006. The position was created in response to student groups requesting someone to work on their behalf in negotiating some areas of University bureaucracy. Sybil explained her office will not act as a student advocate, but will remain a neutral party in all instances. Many large institutions have similar positions, but only a few have a position that is in place solely for the students; most also work with faculty and staff members. At the present time, Sybil's responsibility is working with the New Brunswick Campus students, but may expand to the Newark and Camden campuses. Together we discussed the confidentiality issues we all face and are in agreement on the confidentiality of library records. Sybil recommends informing her office of changes in policy, procedures, and/or services so that she is aware of the current situations.

2. GL 3.0

All groups tested functions and there was only one serious problem to report. If a patron record was modified, you could only find the record for the rest of the day via userID or with the new Browse User helper, but not by a user keyword search. These records were retrievable by keyword the next day, following the run of the nightly indexing report. Chris added that he reported this bug to SIRSI and they already have a patch for it. Chris will install the patch in the next day or two. The minor problems reported will be fixed by systems prior to the upgrade. One instance where GL 3.0 differs from the current client is in the display of the last load date. GL 3.0 will store and display the date in the month/day/year format rather than the year/month format as in the current client. Using May 11, 2006 as an example, Judy explained that newly loaded records would receive a last load date of 5/11/2006 while existing records will be converted as part of the upgrade and receive 1/1/ in front of the existing year/month. Chris explained there were two possible fixes and the committee needed to decide which method to incorporate:

• Fixing before the upgrade - only the year loaded would be preserved.
• Fixing after the upgrade - the month and year (currently listed) would be preserved.

The committee decided that preserving the month and year of a last load date was important, so the fix will be performed after the upgrade. Since there were no problems that were deemed 'show stoppers', the committee signed off on the circulation aspects of GL3.0. Chris indicated the upgrade would be done Sunday evening into Monday of the Memorial Day weekend. Other changes that will occur after/with the upgrade: The last discharge date will be added to the pull list and there is a new field in the location table that may be able to be used to determine the onshelf 'holdability' of the item for patron request.

3. Group Reports

• Circulation - The group worked on testing GL3.0 and is currently designing a WebCT quiz for the circulation desk students that may be expanded for use with full-time staff members. The group was looking at PUB NOTES in patron records which prompted a discussion about a possible clean-up project.
• Billing - The group is now sending notification when another unit removes holds placed by another unit. Previously a paper copy was sent. The group placed a total of 137 Diploma holds (100 NB, 27 Newark, 10 Camden). The number continues to rise each year (~10%) - it is yet to be seen if the courtesy graduating student notices have the desired effect. It was suggested to try and send the notice out a week earlier next year.
• Reserves - The preview list for spring reserve removal was sent out - these items will be removed by 5/31/06. The 'Still checked out at closing reports' have been suspended for the summer. The summer report will be instituted for Alexander.
• Resource Sharing - The annual PALCI password change is scheduled for June 1, 2006. Arden de la Cruz from Imaging Services has joined the group. A continuing topic of discussion is the delivery of articles to distance students. While they do have a 'home campus' (due to school affiliation) they typically do not visit the campus on a regular basis.
• Security & Facilities - Continually disruptive patrons is an ongoing topic of discussion - when individuals are continually disruptive and/or destructive can they be banned and who 'orders' the ban? The covered drink policy has been approved, but mugs cannot be purchased and distributed due to budgetary constraints. The group discussed the format of their minutes due to the posting of all group minutes on the RUL website. Sensitive areas are routinely discussed and a strong effort will be made to produce informative minutes that do not reveal sensitive information.
• Student Coordinators - The May meeting was cancelled, but the coordinators have been busy projecting expenditures for the remainder of this fiscal year and also projecting budgets for next year. For next year projections are two-fold - the impact of the minimum wage increase and the possible decrease in voucher funds.

5. Announcements and Information Sharing

• JG -
  • There will be a full Access Services staff meeting in June to discuss the 2007 FY budget situation. It is possible that branch library hours may be curtailed this summer, the RDS could run be cancelled (Materials would move with regular library mail runs), and ILS may scale down voucher help at LSM and rely more on the RDS staff at LSM to fill requests.
  • Judy and Jeanne Boyle have been meeting with University counsel and other department to discuss the issue of banning patrons and the RUL Code of Conduct (Public Services Policy Memo #1 - Access to Library Resources and Services, User Conduct and Security). They have been strongly advised not to pursue ID card checks or to limit study hall hours to Rutgers affiliated persons only.
  • The RLG / OCLC merger may have an impact on interlibrary loans. It is been carefully watched to determine impact.
  • The Ask.com commercials, filmed at the University (Alexander Library and the Geology Museum) are now on TV.
• MT - LSM is in the final stages of the renovating of furniture and is now hanging some prints.
• BL - Kilmer will be without air-conditioning for a five-day period in June. Plans are being made to alleviate the heat with large fans.
• RS - NBL Access Roger thanked those involved with the Lunchtime Seminar on the Access Services Symposium. He received many compliments on the presentation and mentioned the committee to plan the event at Rutgers in the Spring of 2007 will form and meet soon.
• DV - Imaging Services is assessing the impact of a lower budget on the department. Already their open position has been frozen. Scanning to disk on the microform machines has been suspended. Arden, Charlie and Darryl attended a meeting on document management for organizations and found it may be useful in the future.
• DM - Annex working on plans for summer projects - will be working on a serials conversion project.
• KA - Robeson has setup remote equipment for patrons to view DVDs etc. It is working well on both sides.
• MH - Dana is fine and dealing (as is everyone else) many, many book returns.
• CS - Systems will run the report to change the lost-assumed items to LONGOVRDUE, that were due between 8/1/1997 to 6/30/2004, and insert the notes in the patron records this coming weekend. The items reported missing between 7/1/2003 to 6/30/2004 have been batch withdrawn from Unicorn, RLIN, and OCLC. Unicorn logins PINS (for all logins) will change on 5/23/2006. The IP address for the production Unicorn server will change sometime during the month of June. In preparation, all Workflows configuration files have been updated to the server name to assist in making the change transparent.
• JT - At Alex - Will Torres is back working as of April 2006.
• PW - Douglass had a power outage this past weekend lasting about 90 minutes. There were also scattered outages on other campuses.

The Art Library will be closed May 17and 18 due the commencements on the Voorhees Mall area. Douglass Library will be open on Saturday June 3, for Alumni weekend. Judy and some other Access staff will attend a VALE user group meeting on May 25, 2006 at Raritan Valley Community College.

Katie offered to host the June ASC meeting. The next meeting is June 8, 2006 at the Robeson Library in Camden. Katie also mentioned Robeson staff expressed an interest in traveling to New Brunswick for the group meetings this summer. She asked that the coordinators move the meeting times earlier in the day, where possible to accommodate the travel time needed.