Consortium of MnPALS Libraries Annual Meeting 2006

CONSORTIUM OF MnPALS LIBRARIES

USER COUNCIL

Report to Annual Meeting

2006 April 11

The Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Council has met four times since our last report at the 2005 Annual Meeting. Highlights of the May 5 meeting:

• Adopted the motion submitted by the Systems User Group as amended below, and asked that it be implemented as soon as possible:

All patron records coming though the ~~PLIF~~ patron loaders should no longer include Social Security Numbers, and Social Security Numbers should be removed from all existing records in both PALS and Aleph.

• Voted to support the proposed Mission Statement

• Defeated (3 to 7) the motion adopted by the Interlibrary Loan User Group at its April 26 meeting:

That the MnPALS Consortium ILL User Group recommend that the Aleph ILL system product go to the Beta Group Libraries that choose to participate, for testing, and to go live on July 1st, 2005.

• Discussed the following motion that had been approved by the Reference User Group:

That MnPALS Reference User Group instruct the PALS Office to work with those libraries that would like to move to v. 17 this summer, while not allowing diminution of support services that PALS needs to provide to other libraries. This work would include meeting with PALS / ExLibris / Deans & Directors / Chancellor's Office / beta libraries.

Three options had been presented to the User Group meeting: 1) Move version 17 into production before migrating any more libraries; 2) Move version 17 into production before migrating the last group; 3) Complete migration before moving version 17 into production. An informal poll was taken among the Eta Group of libraries; 9 favored option 3, 1 favored either option 1 or option 2, 1 chose none of the above. A motion was made to investigate what would be involved in adopting the Reference User Group recommendations. Becky Bell pointed out that it would not be possible to have two versions of the system up at the same time. The motion was withdrawn.

• Voted to adopt the following motion from the Systems User Group:

That the PALS Office set a date no sooner than October 2005 by which libraries on the old proxy server software move to the new software.

• Voted to return to a two-day format for the User Group meetings. Voted to look at additional sites for the User Group meetings.

Highlights of the September 8 meeting:

• Agreed to standardize future User Group meetings to the last week of October and the second week of April (holidays permitting). Documentation for all future meetings will be distributed in advance of the meeting, rather than at the meeting.

• Discussed the charge, membership, terms, reporting, etc., of the various task forces. Concern was expressed about the need for more structure, understanding about what happens to recommendations, sunset dates for the groups, among other topics. One of the reasons for the discussion was the fact that the Access Task Force currently is without a chair, as well as there being a need for membership balance to be restored. The User Council agreed to prepare a proposed revised charge for discussion at the October Reference User Group meeting, with the new charge to be completed at the November User Council meeting.

• Todd Digby, the new MnSCU System Director of libraries, was present to introduce himself and talk about his expectations, goals, and responsibilities. Members of the User Council shared their concerns about the future of the consortium.

Highlights of the November 10 meeting:

• Adopted the motions submitted by the Cataloging User Group:

- The Council recognizes that the top three priorities this year are Migration, ILL, and version 17, and that all approved changes in the work plan are to be used for direction of the PALS staff as time allows.

- The Council requests that the PALS office continue to communicate regarding approved changes as they are done and identify approved changes likely to be worked on in the coming year. Additionally, the Council requests that the PALS office communicate which approved changes they expect will be fixed in version 17, and which approved changes are unlikely to be addressed this year.

• Discussed a request to remove birth dates from PALS records

• Discussed patron records that come from registration without barcodes; there may be a work around for this

• Discussed the use of the terms "User" and "Member" in the context of PALS. It was felt that "User" is the preferred term. Agreed that the name for the User Council will be Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Council

• Approved a revised charge for the MnPALS Access Task Force and approved appointment of a new chair for the Task Force

• Agreed that the current convener of the Serials and Acquisitions User Group could continue in office until elections were held at the Spring 2006 meeting, even though she has moved to another area of library work

• Reviewed the evaluations of the October 2005 User Group meetings

• Began discussion of task forces in general, including a recommendation that there be a uniform method of handling task force recommendations

Highlights of the February 2 meeting:

• This meeting was an experiment in using conference calls as a method for conducting the meeting. Approximately half of the members of the User Council participated in that manner; the consensus was that the meeting was a success

• Reviewed the proposed schedule for the April 2006 User Group meetings and discussed suggestions for the general session on both days

• Continued the discussion of task forces in general and the recommendations that there be a uniform method of handling task force recommendations. Appointed a group to draw up a proposed statement on task forces

Any questions about the meetings can be addressed to me at swans152@umn.edu Edward Swanson User Group Convener