ILS Committee Minutes

August 2, 2023

10:00 am

Virtual

 

Action Items:
The IC approved creating the Patron Reading History Retention Policy.

 

Present: Erin Foley, ACL (1), Debbie Bird (POR) (2), Suzann Holland, MRO (3), Eddie Glade, PCPL (4), Lauren White (5), Katherine Elchert, MCM (6), Kate Hull, SUN (7), Phil Hansen, FCH (8), Nate Snortum, DCL (9, 10), Margie Navarre Saaf, Molly Warren, Susan Lee, MAD (11 -13)
Absent: None
Excused: None
Recorder: Michelle Karls (SCLS)
SCLS Staff Present: Vicki Teal Lovely, Heidi Oliversen, Amy Gannaway, Martha Van Pelt

1.      Call to Order at 10:02 am

a.      Introduction of guests/visitors

                                                              i.      None.

b.      Changes/Additions to the Agenda

                                                              i.      None.

c.       Requests to address the Committee

                                                              i.      None.

 

2.      Approval of previous meeting minutes: June 7, 2023

a.      Motion: M. Warren moved approval of the June meeting minutes.  P. Hansen seconded.

b.      Discussion: none.

c.       Vote: motion carried.

 

3.      Action Items

a.      The Circulation Services Subcommittee recommends creating the Patron Reading History Retention Policy.

                                                              i.      Motion: This recommendation came from the Circulation Services Subcommittee.

                                                             ii.      Discussion: H. Oliversen reviewed the proposed policy.  This formalized policy is based on the agreed-upon settings from the Koha software and the continuing practice in Bibliovation. It also provides information about how this optional functionality is enabled and disabled.  Patron records automatically default to disabled; a patron must enable it themselves through their Discovery Layer Dashboard.  M. Navarre Saaf mentioned that if someone does disable their reading history it is not recoverable.  This procedure/practice has been in place for some time and has been documented in the Circulation Manual. We had not previously formalized a policy stating the parameters of data retention.

                                                           iii.      Vote: motion carried.

 

4.      Reports

a.      ILS Report

                                                              i.      V. Teal Lovely reviewed the June and July ILS Reports. D. Bird asked about the status of placing holds on OverDrive records from LINKcat?  A. Gannaway says that would not be part of the initial phase of OverDrive integration but that we would plan to work on this in the future.  D. Bird reported that sometimes patrons are confused about why the OverDrive records are available in LINKcat. 

b.      Circulation Services Subcommittee

                                                              i.      M. Navarre Saaf reviewed the minutes from the July meeting.

c.       Collection Maintenance Subcommittee

                                                              i.      A. Gannaway reviewed the minutes from the July meeting.

d.      Discovery Interface Subcommittee

                                                              i.      A. Gannaway reviewed the minutes from the July meeting.

5.      Items from clusters for initial discussion

a.      Progress and decisions/concerns regarding Sticky Holds and Talking Tech (Cluster 2)

                                                              i.      Discussion:  H. Oliversen reported that last night’s upgrade promised to provide a fix for the “Sticky Holds” bug.  She has sent out a response to the initial problem ticket created, asking library staff for feedback on the fix. Libraries should clear their browser cache for the update to work in Bibliovation.  K. Hull reported that at first glance this morning there were no sticky holds for SUN.  The holds request should now disappear from your holds queue report after the items are checked in.  H. Oliversen will also send out an email to link-circ to report any new instances of this problem if they do occur again.  V. Teal Lovely reported that the Talking Tech installation is waiting on AT&T.  Libraries can call patrons, print and mail their hold notices, or they can create a Help Desk ticket to have MAD print and mail their notices in the meantime.  SCLS is providing a call list for libraries who want to call their patrons.

b.      Cluster 1 – Problem with Call Number searching. 

                                                              i.      Discussion: E. Foley reported that call number searching was not finding all of the items with the call number that was searched. She finds it difficult to believe that we cannot do a search for the numeric call number.  She is concerned that the catalog indexing is wonky.  A. Gannaway explained that the Call Number is a keyword search and is searching multiple fields, not just the item call number field, and that the call number in those fields may have additional letters or numbers, so truncating the search works best.  We do have a browse call number index development project that will be available in the sandbox for testing after we have finished the current release.  That should resolve these issues.  We haven’t had a Call Number browse search since we migrated. This is not on the Known Problems web page because it’s not a bug.  It’s the software and has been this way since we migrated. 

 

6.      Requests for New Service

a.      None.

7.      Discussion

a.      Discussion: Plan for fall ILS Users’ Summit

                                                              i.      V. Teal Lovely suggested that this might be a good opportunity to talk about what an ILS evaluation would look like.  Maybe we could have some demos?  The group would like a hybrid option.  In-person participation is usually a better experience.  ILS staff will consider locations (perhaps one with lockers).  We usually have this near the end of October. We will have more information at the next IC meeting on October 4th.   

b.      Discussion: Bibliovation Development Plan

                                                              i.      V. Teal Lovely explained that it does not make sense to plan for new development if we’re doing an evaluation.  We have quite a few development projects that will appear in 7.4.  We can review any remaining bugs and make sure they are still relevant. 

c.       Discussion: Review marketplace reports for ILS software and peripheral software (committee members will report on new features and services found in the marketplace)

                                                              i.      There is a summary in the ILS July report and V. Teal Lovely reviewed it.  At ALA, ILS staff and some library staff did a check in with the two main ILS vendors we would consider, Polaris and SirsiDynix.  Our last evaluation was very intensive and was done in 2017/2018.  Each of these software products had gaps, but the biggest deterrent was that neither had fully web-based software yet. There is some indication that SirsiDynix at least has more fully web-based software. They also received a demo of the Aspen discovery layer and really liked it.  Aspen has more to offer than our current discovery layer. Aspen is supported by Bywater Solutions which also supports Koha and Evergreen.  Polaris offers a discovery layer called “Vega”, which is similar.  Both discovery layers integrate more services into the interface.  It would require working with LibLime to integrate them with Bibliovation.

                                                             ii.      A. Gannaway and H. Oliversen created a 7-year third-party product evaluation plan. Some are reviewed on an as-needed basis and some should be reviewed regularly. The ILS team believes it doesn’t make sense to look at only discovery layers at this point due to the need to integrate with Bibliovation.  They are proposing that in 2024/2025 we do a full-scale ILS evaluation, including discovery layers, which will be very staff intensive for SCLS.  It’s also a major commitment from library staff.  A. Gannaway reviewed the proposed third-party product review outline (handout). The libraries present were very interested in doing the ILS evaluation and thought library staff would be willing to volunteer.  SUN will have its renovation going on, but they would look forward to it.  At the next meeting, we can formalize this plan.  Please discuss it with your clusters.  It’s important to have a commitment from libraries and library staff as it requires a lot of time.         

8.      Plan for Next meeting:  October 4, 2023, at 10 am at SCLS Headquarters or via phone/video conference

a.      Discussion: Review 2024 draft Technology Plan: ILS section

b.      Discussion: Review draft 2024 Meeting Calendar (change)

c.       Discussion: Prepare for fall ILS Users’ Summit

 

9.      Adjournment at 11:08 am

 

 

For more information about the ILS Committee, contact Vicki Teal Lovely.

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

 

ILS Committee/Minutes/08-2023