Minutes of June 24, 2004 meeting

Present:

Ray Balter, Sal Cardinale, May Chin, Marc Forster, Priscilla Lee, Michele Tokar(recorder), Nicole Warren, Paul Young

Excused:

Megan Doyle), Will Torres(

Absent:

Dave Warner

Agenda

• WorkFlows 2003.1 Testing
• WorkFlows 2004 Beta Testing
• Circulation Issues
• Annual Report
• Goals for the Next Fiscal Year
• Tour of the Douglass Library
• Information Sharing

1. WorkFlows 2003.1 Testing

The test system for 2003.1 is up and running. Any staff member still wishing to use the test system needs to have the O drive installed on their PC. To do this, staff should talk with their supervisor who will contact systems and get the PCs networked properly. The live system should be upgraded to 2003.1 on July 1st.

Results from testing 2003.1 from Michele and Priscilla:

The biggest change in circulation functions is in the user display search. There are several beneficial search enhancements. These are:

1. Comment: search for a user or multiple users by the notes placed in either the staff or pub note field. This in essence would yield the same results as running a report without having to run a report in the system. Notes in either the staff note field or pub note field would have to be precise. This could, for example, be used successfully as a way to search all entries for RA cards and Claims Returns in the system.
2. E-mail: search for a user record by their e-mail address. Searches can be done in the following manner: mtokar or mtokar@rci. The full e-mail address is not necessary. The e-mail address does not have to be a Rutgers e-mail. It does not make difference if the radio button is set to address 1 or 2.
3. Phone: search for a user by their phone number. Searches are done the following way: 7327452349 (all numbers must be together without hyphens or parenthesis. It does not make difference if the radio button is set to address 1 or 2.
4. Street address: search for a user by their address. This can be a street address or Rutgers address. It does not make difference if the radio button is set to address 1 or 2.

All of the above listed new search methods should help alleviate using the SSN as a search tool, and thus help protect patron confidentiality.

Some minor challenges with the new system are the following:

• Using the pull down menu for user display search is not as easy to manage as using the current method of choosing a radio button displayed across the top of user display.
• When we enter a search string in user display and it is not found, we get the message, "no users found because of option," and the search string completely disappears. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get that search to stay in box even if it does not yield results.

2. WorkFlows 2004 Beta Testing

Michele passed around the release notes for Unicorn WorkFlows client version 2004. RUL has accepted Sirsi Corp's invitation to beta test WorkFlows 2004. WorkFlows 2004 is a windows based system and very different from our current product. Circulation, cataloging, and academic reserves are the first modules scheduled for release in the 2nd quarter of 2005. Most of the functional group coordinators along with some additional individuals will be testing this new release. Some library units will have the live system set up at their circulation desk. Alex, LSM, and Camden will have one terminal set up with the live release at their circulation desks.

3. Circulation Issues

• Megan Doyle in her absence made a recommendation for an update to the downtime charge form. Megan pointed out that the manual charge forms we use do not allow for the barcodes that we see on PALCI items. When you fill out the form, the first 39030 is already filled in and since PALCI barcodes don't start with these numbers it makes it hard to write them in. Perhaps we could leave the last one or two item lines blank for PALCI barcodes. The group thought this was a good idea.
  Michele will forward this to the appropriate channels for their thoughts.
• New Library website demo. Nicole has reviewed the new library website demo and will forward her review to Michele. The group agreed that sending constructive criticism to the web designers would be helpful.

4. Annual Report

Michele is currently working on the annual report. The group re-reviewed the mid year report to determine if anything new should be added to the annual report.

5. Goals for the Next Fiscal Year

• Finish and update the FAQs for circulation Training
• Provide more training at each unit on circulation processes
• Provide more documentation for the Access webpage as necessary

6. Tour of the Douglass Library

Everyone commented on the beauty of the new office space and public space.

7. Information Sharing

Alexander:

The fire alarm went off due to building renovations. 2B is being shifted.

Chang:

The library received some old furniture from the Douglass library. They are preparing for a minishift of the bound periodicals.

Collection Services:

The Collection Services department has put up new cubicle walls in the office space on the third floor of LSM.

Douglass:

Shifting projects are coming up. Some security issues such as young adults without parental supervision are on-going in the building.

Kilmer:

Ref Folio is being pulled out from the Ref section and given its own location.

LSM:

The Special Collections project is nearly complete. The weeding project on-going.

Next Meeting - Thursday, July 22nd