MnPALS Consortium
Cataloging User Group
April 21, 2006


MINUTES

Attendees List (Adobe Acrobat)

  1. OPENING REMARKS - EDWARD SWANSON, CONVENER (MII)
    Edward Swanson called the meeting to order at 10:50 AM, in the Voyageur North room at the Willard Learning Center, SCSU.

  2. RECORDER - DENNIS MEISSNER, MHS
    The convener noted that Dennis Meissner, MHS, would serve as recorder for the meeting.
    NOTE FROM THE RECORDER: For purposes of both accuracy and convenience, the electronic version of these minutes maintains the links to the full reports discussed at the meeting.

  3. ADOPT AGENDA
    The convener proposed agenda changes and entertained others from the floor:
  4. APPROVAL OF Fall Minutes - October 25, 2005.
    Tess Kasling (SBSJ) moved to approve the minutes as posted on the MnPALS website; 2nd; passed without discussion.

  5. STEERING COMMITTEE ELECTIONS (TERMS EXPIRING (2006). Sheila Hatchell (MHS) was elected to succeed Edward Swanson as Special Libraries representative. Bobby Bothmann was elected to succeed Kathleen Ashe as the State Universities representative.The other representatives were elected to another term. Sheila Hatchell and Bobby Bothmann will serve as co-conveners for the next Cataloging User Group meeting.

  6. PALS REPORTS (MARY ANN GREENWALD).
    Mary Ann highlighted a few issues from the full report, especially:

  7. Stripping junk tags: PALS staff need to know which tags to strip. Library systems people have the ability to strip them out, so individual libraries will deal with them locally. After some discussion, Adam Marsnik (Normandale CC) moved that PALS strip out 938 tags from every record in system. A discussion on the mechanics of this followed. Bobby Bothmann noted that we should spend our time focusing on SYS01 fields of greater import, not on things that are just an annoyance. Adam suggests we identify everything we want stripped out globally. Al Rykus (MNPALS) no problem with such global modifications as long as we are able to identify a fairly small number that don't affect re-indexing (50K could be done in a day; however more than 100K might take weeks). The stripping would be made across the server, so libraries need to agree on which terms to strip Motion was seconded, and passed. Action: the PALS Cat UG is to determine a proposed list of tags to be stripped.

    A report was requested that would identify unlinked holdings in the database: Mary Ann stated that this is already on the workplan. Al Rykus said that he will create the procedure in SQL. Adam Marsnik suggested perhaps changing this from priority 1. Adam moved that the priority level of both these requests get changed to priority 2 on the workplan; 2nd; passed.

    Mary Ann reported that OCLC records from CatExpress can now be imported directly into Aleph.

    Bobby Bothmann asked whether Aleph has accepted upcoming OCLC-MARC changes. No response has been received on the matter from ExLibris. Action item: Mary Ann will investigate this with the vendor. Also, can individual libraries make these changes within their own databases? Action item: This question will be investigated by Al Rykhus.

  8. ELUNA ENHANCEMENTS SUBMITTED FROM MNPALS. The following reports were received on enhancements that have been submitted to the ELUNA enhancements group from MnPALS:

    Breakout agenda item on proposed NAUUG enhancements: Monica Ralston (MHS) suggested a breakout session at Fall UG meeting to discuss and prioritize MnPALS enhancements. Consensus was that we should do so. Anne Levin (MHS) suggests creating a space on MnPALS website where these suggested enhancements can be collected prior to the fall meetings. Action item: Monica Ralston volunteered to head a task group to gather requests and priorities from all the user groups. Edward Swanson sent around a sign-up sheet to recruit other members for the task group.

    Kathleen Ashe asked as a related point why MnPALS members have to handle items related to standards adherence as system "enhancements." Linda Richter (MnPALS) said that MnPALS priority requests tend to make it to the Aleph priority list, but it's frustrating that they don't get through, and that it's a matter largely of point weighting. She suggests that we alternate years among functional groups: one year cataloging gets all the votes for its priority; one year reference, etc. Action item: Mary Ann will check w/ Patty Hatch to see the status of the request that MARC standards compliance NOT be treated as enhancements.

  9. REGIONAL EX LIBRIS USER GROUP MEETING REPORT - SHEILA HATCHELL (MHS), ANNE LEVIN (MHS), AND MONICA RALSTON (MHS):
    These attendees reported on the inaugural regional UG meeting held in St. Paul earlier in April. Registration maxed out, indicating significant interest level (200). Session topics: Regional Set Ups, Working Within a Consortium, Working in a Single Institution, Course Reserves, Authorities, ILL, User Interface, Implementations of SFX, Basics of EDI, and discussion groups for technical services, circulation, ILL and Aleph Reporting Center. One finding: ARC needs a lot of work in order for us to tailor it to our needs, and we should possibly look into a third party report writer instead.

    The last session of the first day was a demonstration of the new features coming in version 18 and was led by Barbara Rad-el who was in Israel but connected live to the conference. Enhancements to the GUI of interest to cataloging include a split pane in the client; you may correct bib headings through the authority module; for ambiguous headings it will recognize the 2nd and 3rd position of the tags; improved records navigation in that you can cycle through open records; you will be able to move items from one bib to another, move a holding record and its items to a different bib record, and will be able to delete multiple items with one click; lost, missing, and other process statuses will automatically be removed when the barcode is read. A PowerPoint presentation from the ExLibris speaker is available on MnPALS website: http://www.mnlink.org/prog-serv/conferences/2006-03-07/.

    Anne Levin (MHS) was on a panel that discussed authority control. Anne addressed issues of authority control in a consortial environment, and also the work she and the task force have done to make the Aleph authority file display and perform in the OPAC view as one would hope and expect that it would. She asked the Cataloging UG whether authorities search tools-Aleph vs. OCLC (free and robust)--is a topic people would like to see investigated. There followed a discussion on how people use authority tools in their work.

  10. Acquiring State Document Cataloged Records - DAVID SCHMIDTKE (LRL)
    David explained the Legislative Reference Library's creation of Minnesota E-docs, a database of electronic state publications. They began the project by concentrating on those documents specifically mandated by the legislature; since 2003, nearly all mandated items have been archived. David explained LRL's use of ASP-generated URLs to create dynamic links that will never need updating, thereby creating a system of permanent, reliable links to digital state government publications. The link to a group of eDocs described in a single bibliographic record takes you to an HTML (?) document containing individual links to all the works. Al Rykus noted that after we get onto version 17, there will be a single Alephe, which will allow you to see holdings and item records in a logical base other than your own. LRL also maintains a web page of newly received state docs. Kathleen Ashe (SSU) commented that they have included LRL in their drop down list of libraries list and advise students to go there for state docs.

  11. TASK FORCE REPORTS
  12. REACTION TO MORNING SESSION: FUTURES PANEL DISCUSSION.
    NOT CONSIDERED, due to the press of more important business.

  13. PALS WORK PLAN
    Open / Completed
    There were no comments concerning the open and completed work plans distributed by MnPALS staff before the meeting.

  14. OTHER / ADJOURNMENT
Dennis Meissner
Minnesota Historical Society
Recorder




AGENDA
  1. Opening Remarks - Edward Swanson, Convener (MII)

  2. Recorder - Dennis Meissner, MHS

  3. Adopt Agenda

  4. Approval of Fall Minutes - October 25, 2005

  5. Elections
    Terms Expiring (2006) All MnPALS User Group Steering Committees can be found here

  6. PALS Report Adobe Acrobat - Mary Ann Greenwald (PALS)

  7. ELUNA enhancements submitted from MnPALS
    1. Service for finding orphan records - Bobby Bothmann (MSU)
    2. OPAC Location and Display Order - Bobby Bothmann (MSU)
    3. Allowing services reports to run across libraries - Bobby Bothmann (MSU)
    4. Validate indicator/subfield combinations within a field - Monica Ralston (MHS)
    5. Linking fields in bibliographic records should link directly to the bib records they represent - Sheila Hatchell (MHS)

  8. Regional Ex Libris User Group Meeting Report - Sheila Hatchell (MHS), Anne Levin (MHS), and Monica Ralston (MHS)

  9. Acquiring State Document Cataloged Records - David Schmidtke (LRL)

  10. Task Force Reports
    1. Authorities Task Force - Anne Levin (MHS)

    2. Indexing Task Force - Bobby Bothmann (MSU)
      1. Addition to Browse Index of 650 #7
        Discussed lack of indexing of 650 fields with second indicator 7. Adding this to the browse indexing would allow browse searching on thesauri other than LSCH, LCAC, and MESH. It would also allow libraries to use local subject schemes when necessary. We agreed that allowing browse indexing of 690 fields would not be advisable since these headings are not controlled. Adding 650 #7 to the browse index could not happen until summer when the indexes are set up for version 17.

      2. Language Index
        Rationale: The current index for language (WLA) indexes data in 008/35 and 041. The 008/35 allows for only one language code. The 041 allows for multiple. When using Boolean operators, particularly NOT, it does not retrieve records that might be wanted.
        Example: 041 $a spa $a fre $a eng would be excluded from the search not wla=eng even though this is not a "true" statement, because there are other languages on the resource.

        Separating the language index for the different fields would allow for better use of Boolean terms in the CCL. By excluding 008/35=eng, you can see the vast majority of your foreign language resources and not exclude those which have "eng" in the 041 field, such as DVDs.

      3. Recommendation to remove <Govt Publication> from tab_type_config.
        Rationale: The coding for 008/28 indicates that the publisher is a government body. It is also misleading to the patron. There is no code or any type of MARC field that defines a government document as such. This should be done with collection codes if there is a need to separate documents.

    3. Validation Task Force - Monica Ralston (MHS), Stephanie McConnell (BSU), Lori Pesik (SMU), and Jessica Schomberg (MSU)

    4. Access Task Force

  11. Reaction to morning session: Futures Panel Discussion

  12. PALS Work Plan
  13. Other / Adjourn


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Modified: Monday, 06-Nov-2006 17:02:13 CST
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