Minutes of March 25, 2009 Meeting

Present:

Kristen Ko(recorder), Shirley Lewis, Sandra Marsh, Melanie Miller, Nita Mukherjee, Antoinette Peteet, Jeff Teichmann (Coordinator), Penny Weniger, Paul Young

Agenda

1. Announcements / Information Sharing
2. Standard Letters – final drafts
   1. Claims returned
   2. Damaged items
   3. Returned checks
   4. Payment plans
3. Billing Training and Documentation project
4. Statistics reporting
5. Mid-year report
6. 029 Report cleanup project
7. Diploma Holds 2009

Announcements/Information Sharing

• Paul Young has joined the group as the Kilmer Library representative.
• The libraries were approached by the Summer Session office, asking for long summer hours at some locations. LSM & Alex will stay open until 10pm M-Thurs and until 8pm on Sundays for the summer session periods.
• Katie Anderson has accepted a faculty position at the Robeson Library, to begin on April 1, 2009.

Standard Letters

Standard letter templates have been posted on SAKAI. Group has agreed to the final drafts and Jeff will present in the April ASC meeting for approval.

Billing Training and Documentation project

Current documentation needs to be updated. Group also discussed the need for training sessions for staff.

During the discussion a number of suggestion/questions were raised:

• Penny – Stressed the need for billing specific staff documentation.
• Melanie – Suggested creation of a flow chart illustrating Billing process/procedures.
• Sandy – Reminded the group to use pub-notes whenever speaking to a patron in regards to Billing; this insures that the patron is given consistent information and staff are not having to repeat pricing and other processes.
• During the discussion there was a question raised about the timeframe for holding damaged items for patrons to inspect. Billing staff should hold damaged items for 14 days.
• Jeff will include a separate notes section in the training documentation which will cover all aspects of notes. This will include notes that are generated to the patron and also standard notes that staff should input during the Billing process.
• Members also suggested a section for cash transmittal in the training documentation and need for public documentation that can be distributed to the patron.
• Question about replacement procedures was asked. Currently some staff use Books in Print, while other use Amazon.com for prices. It was stressed that only new copies should be accepted, unless the selector has approved submission of a used copy. Group stressed the need for clarification and standardization in procedures. Jeff will include a section in the documentation.
• Jeff will organize the training and documentation needs for the next meeting. Volunteers will be recruited next month to assist in the project.

Statistics reporting

There are questions about the accuracy of Director Station report used for billing statistics purposes. The amounts generated in the report do not seem to accurately reflect the true amounts that have been collected at each location. Jeff believes that the numbers are linked to the item’s home library and not where the bill was paid. He will follow up with Chris Sterback to get clarification.

If possible, members were encouraged to add the bills collected at their own locations for a certain time frame and compare their number to the amount generated in Director’s Station for the same time frame. Please report your findings to Jeff.

Melanie and Kristen have volunteered to look more closely at the reports available in Director’s Station to see if the amounts can accurately be reflected.

Mid-year report

The mid-year report was distributed and reviewed by the group. Members should forward comments and/or suggestions to Jeff.

029 Report cleanup project

At the Access Services Committee meeting it was suggested that the 029 Academic Hold List be cleaned up – holds before a certain year removed. A report was distributed showing dollar and number amounts of the current holds by decade. The group discussed the report and the initial recommendation was to remove all holds prior to 1990. Records before this date will be cleared and written off.

Questions etc. that arose:

• If the holds are removed – we are giving up all claims to the materials – correct?
• Nita suggested finding out what other departments are doing with their old holds.
• Paul will look into the legality of collecting debt outside of a 6 year time frame.

Diploma Holds 2009

• Courtesy notices about Diploma Holds will go out on or before Monday, April 6th. (Note: They were sent out Thurs 4/2/09 – 116 total sent)
• On April 20th reports will be re-run and the lists of holds needing to be placed will be distributed amongst the group members. This year in addition to the diploma hold, an academic hold may also need to be placed.

Next Billing group meeting is scheduled for:
Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 2:30pm, Douglass Conference Room, Douglass
Videoconference locations: Dana and Robeson libraries