Circulation Services Subcommittee Minutes

January 12, 2021, 9:30 am

Phone/video conference

 

Action Items:

·         The CSS recommends offering the option to extend patron expiration dates again in 2021.  The proposal is to stagger the future expiration dates in order to not set all expirations to one date.  Patrons with the expiration date between Jan 1, 2021 and Jun 1, 2021 would be as follows.  Those surnames starting with A – D would have their expiration date extended to July 1.  E - H August 1.  I - M September 1.  N - R October 1.  S - V November 1.  W - Z December 1.  A survey will be sent to all libraries and they will need to opt-in to provide these extended expiration dates for patrons with their library as their home library. 

 

Present: Steev Baker (SUN), Jeff Kauffeld (MAD), Margie Navarre-Saaf (MAD), Kelly Heasty (MCF), Bailey Anderson (STO), Erica Kersten (PIN), Eddie Glade (STP), Barbara Henderson (MID), Jo Clark (REE), Autumn Baumann (POR), Tanya Bolchen (FCH), Emily Noffke (MTH), Jeff Pond (MRO)

Absent: Ronda Evenson (VER)

Excused: Zach Ott (BAR), Emily Harkins (WAU)

Recorder: Michelle Karls (SCLS)

SCLS Staff Present: Heidi Oliversen

 

1.      Call to Order at 9:34 am.

a.      Introduction of guests/visitors

                                                              i.      Jeff Pond (MRO), Tracie Miller (SCLS).

b.      Changes/Additions to the Agenda

                                                              i.      H. Oliversen added “Patron expiration date extension discussion” as 4(h).

c.       Requests to address the Committee

                                                              i.      None.

 

2.      Approval of previous meeting minutes: December 8, 2020

a.      Motion: The December 8 meeting minutes were approved by consensus.

b.      Discussion: none.

c.       Vote: motion carried.

 

3.      Action Items

a.      None.

 

4.      Discussion

a.      RFID tag guidelines discussion – Results from testing tag placement on CD, DVD, Playaway covers.

                                                              i.      Discussion: H. Oliversen displayed the document.  T. Miller made the suggested changes discussed at the last meeting for tagging books.  They are highlighted.  Need to remind staff not to place the tag too close to spine crease, bending the tag may deactivate tag.  Place the tag about ¼ inch away from spine crease.  For CDs/DVDs, she tested both the 2x3 rectangular tag and the hub (donut) tags.  Applying the 2x3 tags on the CD/DVD inserts would maximize the ability for the readers to read the tags.  Do libraries circulate inserts?  REE does.  Most libraries put spine label and barcodes on inserts.  None of these cases are big enough to have the tag not encumbered by the disc.  We can add wording/drawings or photographs to the updated instructions and state that the tag should be placed on the blank side of the back insert.  T. Miller will remove the Envisionware illustrations and replace with photographs of her tagging materials.  S. Baker suggested that libraries can submit photos for certain materials that T. Miller doesn’t have access to at WYO (Playaways, mp3 players, and games).  She asked libraries to take pictures of these items and send to her. We will bring this back for review and further discussion at the February meeting.        

b.      Review suggested changes for Section IV Renewals

                                                              i.      Discussion: H. Oliversen received suggested changes.  She would like to table this until the February meeting.  She hasn’t had the time to update and post the Check In section yet.   She sent this Section out to the group and got several requests to view the document from staff using email addresses other than those they use for CSS, so she’s not sure everyone has had a chance to review this section.  The group was fine with discussing this at the February meeting. 

c.       Discuss possibility of LINKcat library registration form (to include enhanced Messaging preferences).

                                                              i.      Discussion: H. Oliversen added this because she was reviewing Section 5 of the Circulation manual, and remembered that this group had previously had a short discussion about creating an application form that included all of the various ways Bibliovation can deliver message/notices.  The problem is that our Messaging Preferences may not be available to the non-LINKcat libraries and so they would not need those listed on the application form.  Before we review Section 5, HJO can send out a draft of an application form that includes these enhanced messaging preferences.  M. Navarre Saaf says it makes sense to have LINKcat and non-LINKcat version of this form.  J. Clark agreed.  HJO will post the draft and notify members via email that it’s ready for them to review and we will discuss it at the February meeting.

d.      Review 12/7 Bibliovation upgrade and testing results of back-ported fixes (Request to Test emailed 12/21).

                                                              i.      Discussion: HJO added this before we knew there would be an upgrade last night.  (It hadn’t yet been scheduled).  There were problems reported after the December 7 upgrade.  These have been reported to LL.  LibLime backported two Circulation fixes into the 6.2 database and some library staff were able to test the fixes in the Sandbox before the fixes were upgraded in Production.  Those were for the Ignore button in the hold found pop-up slip and Cancelling holds on the hold shelf from the BIB list of holds.  Everyone that tested reported that they were satisfied with the fixes.  There is still an outstanding problem when you attempt to cancel a hold on the hold shelf from the Patron’s list of holds so remind staff to continue to cancel these holds from the BIB list of holds.  Please remind staff to clear their cache after upgrades, this should be a regular practice going forward.  Can we send out an email?  A. Gannaway did send out a notice of the upgrade and included the statement of clearing your cache, as well as putting the reminder to clear the cache in the ILS News article and in the status wiki post.  Members said finding an additional way to remind staff to clear the cache after upgrades would be helpful. 

e.      Request to switch display of items in patron’s Checked Out list to display oldest checkouts first (reverse order of the display now).

                                                              i.      Discussion: Moving to BV we lost the session checkout list that we had in Koha.  A library staff person would like to reverse the order of items checked out so that the oldest checkouts and overdue items display first.  Most libraries sort by the date column to get that information.  MID needs the current checkouts at the top of the list for confirm checkouts for curbside services.  Overdue items are in red text so that is another indicator.  MTH prefers to keep the default sort order the way it is. FCH also prefers current default sort order.  Consensus among the subcommittee members present to keep the display order as is.  Some members expressed their dislike of the pager as a fix to the response time issues, creates more work.  Pager screen has helped increased response time when libraries are checking out large numbers of items to patrons that already have a large number of items checked out (homebound, homeschooled, etc.).  Plan was to put this fix into place, work on the changed system as normal, and find out areas where it’s still not giving us the faster response time we’re used to.  Once we are able to indicate and replicate the remaining problem areas, we will be able to document those areas and scenarios that are still experiencing slowness and report to LibLime.  We should give it a little more time because the fix was only applied a month ago, need more testing data to point out areas where it’s clear the pagers aren’t giving a fast enough response time.  Remind staff of how the pagers work – in order to sort or search an entire list that is broken up by pagers, you must select the View All or Show All button first and then perform your sort or search. 

f.        Volunteers for Workgroup to review packaging of multi-part DVD sets.

                                                              i.      Discussion: HJO sent out a call to this subcommittee and some have replied. Deadline to volunteer is Jan 19.  Two people from CSS have volunteered so far.  MAD circ staff purposefully not volunteering so as to get input from other libraries since this request came from MAD.    

g.      Volunteers to join Discovery Interface Subcommittee – they need input from circulation staff.

                                                              i.      Discussion: HJO thinks having a circulation person on DIS would be helpful so that they can get immediate input from circulation staff on patron-related issues that come up in that subcommittee. Would anyone in this group or do you have a colleague that may be interest?  Steev SUN.  Bailey STO.  They should email Amy Gannaway directly and ask to be added to the DIS.

h.      Extension of Patron Account expiration dates.

                                                              i.      Discussion:  Three libraries indicated that they would like to extend patron expiration dates again.  ORE suggested that we stagger the future expiration dates so that thousands of records don’t expire on the same day.  M. Navarre Saaf likes the idea of staggering the dates.  Will all people get the email notice of patron record expiration at same time?  Yes.  We could still get bombarded.  Could we stagger over a longer period of time?  There are multiple ways to do this.  Let’s propose this and see how they respond.  We will send a survey to get feedback.  Libraries would need to opt in on this.  Feb 1st expiration will be a large group.  By last name with a certain date range parameter?  Patrons with expiration date 1/1/2021 and 6/1/2021 A-H.  Margie - could we divide alphabet into six sections and then use July 1, August 1, Sep 1, Oct 1, Nov 1, Dec 1 to stagger.  The group agreed, we’d be caught up by the end of the year.  MCF and MID don’t want to extend.  Opt in.  HJO will send out a survey to other libraries in the next day or so.  CSS recommends offering the option to extend patron expiration dates again in 2021.  The proposal is to stagger the future expiration dates in order to not set all expirations to one date.  Patrons with the expiration date between Jan 1, 2021 and Jun 1, 2021 would be as follows:  Those surnames starting with A – D would have their expiration date extended to July 1.  E - H August 1.  I - M September 1.  N - R October 1.  S - V November 1.  W - Z December 1.  A survey will be sent to all libraries and they will need to opt-in to provide these extended expiration dates for patrons with their library as their home library.  M. Navarre Saaf moved.  E. Glade seconded.  Vote: motion carried.

 

5.      Plan for Next meeting:  February 9, 2021 at 1 pm

a.      M. Navarre Saaf – does anyone else want to be the Chair for this group.  Is anyone else interested?  Let Heidi know, otherwise Margie is happy to continue.

b.      Section IV Renewals: review and post suggested changes.

c.       March meeting - Section V Patron Record and Registration: review and post suggested changes.

 

6.      Adjournment at 11:09 am.

 

For more information about the Circulation Services Subcommittee, contact Heidi Oliversen.

SCLS staff are available to attend cluster meetings to share information and answer questions pertaining to this committee meeting and other departmental projects.

 

Circulation Services Subcommittee/Minutes/01-2021