Minutes of January 29, 2003 meeting

Present:

Ines Gessner, Shirley Lewis, Barry Lipinski(recorder), Andy Martinez, Ana Ramirez-Luhrs, and Jeff Teichmann.

Excused:

Georgina Alonzo (sick), Nita Mukherjee (vacation), Antoinette Peteet (vacation).

Agenda

• Revised Billing Statistics Form
• Billing Documentation
• Midyear Report
• Email Notices
• WorkFlows New Release
• Information Sharing

1. Revised Billing Statistics Form

Andy distributed to the group the billing statistics form that he updated for the group (available in the Math folder on the LSM T-drive). The form now includes the statistic USERS BARRED, capturing the number of users each billing staff member bars when books become 40- days overdue.

2. Billing Documentation

Ines agreed to work with Marc Forster so that the group’s documentation for billing training would be made available in the group’s section on the NBAS web.

3. Midyear Report

The group reviewed its activities and achievements for the first half of the year. Five Most Significant Achievements by the New Brunswick Access Services Billing Functional Group since July 1, 2002:

• On October 12, 2002 the group’s proposal for a new, more efficient way of placing academic holds on delinquent student borrowers was accepted by the Access Services committee and became system-wide procedure. Instead of placing academic holds every work day for users with material 40 days overdue, billing staff now will continue to bar the delinquent users, but will place the academic holds on a 3 times per year cycle. This new procedure will prove to be a service enhancement for both student borrowers and library staff.

• The group delivered training to staff in sessions at the units in August. The trainers used PowerPoint presentations and handouts developed by the group in conjunction with test WorkFlows to teach policy and procedures. In addition, the group assisted in training five new staff members in how to handle billing situations.

• Not captured in last year’s group annual report because the event took place at the very end of the fiscal year (June 26, 2002), was the success of the group’s contribution to the enthusiastically received New Brunswick Access Services Open House. The presentation was delivered in a shorter version on July 9, 2002 to a receptive group of Rutgers University Library retirees.

• The group has begun work on a project examining old academic holds from the 1970s and early 1980s.

• The group has advocated to the Access Services Committee the purchase of Knight Express capability to allow users another option in the payment of their library bills and fines. The option is under strong consideration.

• For new goals, Jeff suggested that we look into using receipt printing in WorkFlows. Barry agreed to take this up with Judy Gardner and Chris Sterback. Jeff and Ines both said that they would like to have a report of how many fines we have canceled or waived. Barry said he would again examine this proposal with Judy and Chris.

4. Email Notices

Ines and Jeff both commented on how bad address problems with user emails have leveled off.

5. WorkFlows New Release

Andy commented on how the holds available message that comes up when discharging a returned recall now always includes the requesting user’s name. He pointed out how this can cause errors. Already staff have been placing material on their home unit’s hold shelf that instead should be shipped to another unit. Barry said he would ask Chris if we could propose a switch to red print for the name of the library to which the item is to be shipped.

Barry reported that the new release did not correct the problem with $5 fines beginning to accrue on the second day late rather than the first. The policy remains to charge the user the amount that the software has calculated.

6. Information Sharing

Shirley described to the group the difficulty she had with an angry faculty member who didn’t want to take responsibility for books charged to the card of his research assistant.

Ana reported on her billing activities during Nita’s vacation. She also provided an update on renovations at the Douglass Library.

Andy and Barry spoke of the new exit security corridors installed at Math and Kilmer.

Jeff updated the group on the new employees in NBAS.

Barry reported on his attendance at the teleconference on Safeguarding Privacy on December 11th, an event in which over 200 locations in the United States participated. The New York Times reported on the teleconference in its December 12th edition. Information shared at this teleconference helped to shape RUL’s revised Access Services Policy Memo #3: The Confidentiality of Library Records (rev. 2/6/03).

Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 26, 2003 at 2:30 p.m. at Kilmer.