Minutes of September 23, 2010 Meeting

Present:

Marc Forster, Maggie Harris-Clark, Shirley Lewis, Barry Lipinski (coordinator, recorder), Jill Locascio, Mike Mansouri, Eugene McElroy, Dean Meister, Nita Mukherjee, Ramon Negron, Brian Stubbs

Excused:

Zohreh Bonianian, Jennifer Dickerson, Eric Fizur, Helen Funnye, Antoinette Peteet, Jan Reinhart, Joyce Watson

Agenda

1. Projects and Priorities for the Group
2. Access Services Committee Meeting Review
3. Incident Reports

1) Projects and Priorities for the Group

Website Review and Reorganization: First, the group needs to examine the current web pages and all documents and links for the former groups (Circulation Group, Billing Group, and Security and Facilities Group) and reorganize and integrate them into one web page. How many headers to place on the first page and what to link to at a second level are important to consider. As the documents are reviewed, inventory them for what needs updating. Barry will ask two group members to work on this.

Claims Return Process: We need to look at how we handle claims returns and consider creating a new process. Our focus should be on what are we trying to accomplish, and how can out automated system help us.

Old Patron Records with Bills in IRIS: Do we copy in paper or have Chris Sterback save them in an electronic file? How far back? Our underlying reason for pulling these records is our preparation for OLE. Our current schedule needs to be more aggressive-need to contact current people who have left the University or graduated.

Lost and Found: Complete documentation of procedures.

Training: Identify training needs and bring them to the new Training Group.

Ask a Librarian: Training and standard replies.

Online RA Application Form: Rotate group members in processing applications.

Bad Address Team (Database Maintenance): have in place.

Other Database Cleanups: e.g., cleaning up duplicate user records; assigned to members of the group with deadlines for completion.

Miscellaneous Projects: e.g., updating Honors records.

Billing: Financial holds and diploma holds; daily barred with no charge report; annual crosscheck of the 029 delinquent accounts report; annual billing statistics.

Security: Archive the incident reports; report them in the minutes without names.

Public Services: Look at trends that are developing as we work with the public. Examine RUL Counting Opinions comments regarding circulation services.

Communication: We will use Sakai to examine documents and eventually do some Chat meetings. It is important that we share information with our fellow staff members at our libraries.

2) Access Services Committee Meeting Review

Barry reviewed with the group issues discussed at the September 9, 2010 ASC meeting. Included in the discussion were the diminished relevance of PINs for primary borrowers and the early results of same library/same campus holds.

3) Incident Reports

There have been 12 incident reports since the beginning of July 2010 through September 22, 2010.

ALEX

• Water leaking from the mechanical room through the 3rd floor ceiling in the Z collection. (Sun, 7/11/10)
• Water leaking again from same area on the 3rd floor. (Sat, 7/17/10)
• Patron observed acting in an uncoordinated, wobbly manner, head nodding, bumping into or narrowly missing desks and doorways, having difficulty using his guest account on the public computers, and seemingly to pass out or fall asleep in front of the computer he was using. RUPD and EMT arrived; patron was advised to go home and get some rest. (Sat, 7/17/10)
• Water leak from mechanical room through 3rd floor ceiling resumed with greater intensity; plastic sheets were put up to funnel the water; Facilities staff again vacuumed the area. (Sun, 7/18/10)
• Patron reported that a man was in the first stall of the men's room on the first floor for more than an hour and a half with an adult magazine. Same patron had reported to the staff the presence of holes in the stalls the previous Sunday. RUPD were contacted; when they arrived, patron who had been in the men's room was gone and could not be located. (Sun, 7/25/10)
• Guest user was found in building at 5am by custodians. He said he had fallen asleep and when he awoke in the dark was afraid to exit the building and set off alarms. RUPD was contacted to speak with the user when he returned to the library to pick up his belongings that he had left behind. User was identified as a person who had been in incidents before in the library. (Thurs, 7/29/10)
• First floor men's room toilet overflowed. (Sun, 8/8/10)
• Extended hours part-time staff encountered a disturbing incident. Guest user approached the staff at the circulation desk at approximately 1:40 am with a copy of the Quran and a lighter that he began to flick. Student worker told the man to please not do that again. The following day, the supervisor I made sure the extended hours staff knew to call RUPD if this or other similar situations happen again. (Wed, 9/15/10
• Strong wind and rain storm hits the library at about 5 pm. Large windows in the Undergraduate Reading Room facing College Avenue leaked heavily. (Thur, 9/16/10)

CHANG

• Student came to the circulation desk and reported he felt like he was about to faint. RUPD was contacted and arrived within 10 minutes with EMT workers. (Wed, 9/22/10)

DOUGLASS

• Off and on power failures beginning at 2 pm culminated with an extended power failure at 4:40 pm. Francoise Puniello was contacted and when the power did not return after one hour, the library was closed for the day. Power was restored to the building so that it could open the following morning. (Thurs, 8/5/10)
• Power went out briefly-for a few seconds-at 6:43 pm and then was restored. Media Center staff reported hearing a noise like an explosion with some smoke visible from the outside emergency generator unit. RUPD was called and later Emergency Services reported that a generator battery had exploded. (Tues, 9/21/10)