User Council Meeting - May 2006

Thursday, May 4, 2005, 9:00 - 12:00
Room H195, Hennepin Technical College, Eden Prairie Campus
Edward Swanson, convener
Sharon Evensen, secretary

MINUTES

9:00 Introductions, sign-in sheet
- Members present: Edward Swanson (MINITEX-Cataloging); Jan Carey (HCC-Systems); Kathleen Ashe (SSU-Circulation); Sharon Evensen (VCC-ILL); Diane Richards(MSU-Acquisitions); Peter McDonnell (IHC-Reference); Bobby Bothmann (MSU-Cataloging); Lynne Weber (MSU-Circulation); Adam Marsnik (NDC-Cataloging); Keith Ewing (SCS -Systems); Todd Martinson (SBJ-Serials) Sheila Hatchell (MHS-Cataloging); Michael Kirby (DCT-Systems); Kathleen Daniels (MCT-Reference); Sandra Fuhr (SSU-Exec. Committee)
- Staff present: Becky Bell, Dee Nolan, and Linda Richter
- Other guests and participants: Todd Digby (MnSCU)
Note: Bobby Bothmann and Sheila Hatchell are co-conveners of the Cataloging User Group and share one vote on the User Council.
Amend/Adopt Agenda
Agenda approved with the following additions:
- Discussion of steering committee to item 12c;
- Pals website to item 12;
- Task Forces versus working groups to item 13
Approve minutes/highlights from February meeting
Last Council minutes/highlights were approved (Edward Swanson /Linda Richter, recorder)
Elections
- Convener (2-year term)
  Unanimous ballot was cast for Bobby Bothman (MSU-Cataloging) as User Council Convener for 2006-2007
- Representative to the Executive Committee (2-year term)
  Kathleen Ashe -current representative will continue since she is in the middle of her two year term.
- Secretary (1-year term) It was discussed and decided that the secretarial position be shared among the members of the User Council. The following have volunteered:
  - September - Shelia Hatchell
  - November - Peter McDonnell
  - February- Keith Ewing
  - April-Adam Marsnik
Input to the Executive Committee on meeting dates for next year
Approved the following meeting dates:
- September 7th
- November 16th
- February 1st.
- April 26th (last Thurs of the month)
Annual meeting: Discussed spring UG meeting and its relation to the date of the annual meeting Spring User Group meetings; Week of April 9th (avoid Monday)
Todd Digby, System Director of Libraries for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
It has been one year since Todd began as Director of libraries for MNSCU. He indicated that it has been a year of challenges and he thanked the Pals staff for their help in getting all the libraries on Aleph, with the upgrades and training. It was also a year that funding increased for the ILS and other projects in development. Currently Todd is working on staff criteria and a briefing document for MNSCU Academic Affairs and the presidents. Todd announced that the MNSCU IT department is pursuing a change in the ISRS record system that would create a central authentication for each student and would report on how this will affect libraries.
Question: What do you do for non-MNSCU libraries? Response: Todd will outline his role and responsibilities for both MNSCU libraries and non-MNSCU libraries. Discussion followed concerning the need for Todd to communicate non-MNSCU libraries concerns, issues and successes to those within MNSCU. Todd ended this discussion by stating he would put his outline into a report for the deans and directors and put it out on the list serve.

It was suggested that the MNSCU Library Director's website be linked from the PALS Website.
PALS Update (Linda Richter)
- Location of future meetings, conference call option
  UC will continue to meet on the west side of the Metro with conference call option for the November and February meetings.
- Pilot project for support
  This worked some, but very few had the time to document how many people/calls they helped. Generally agreed that the E-Desk support is very much needed. It was mentioned that it is difficult to find things in the e-Desk Knowledge Base. Can this be improved?
- On-call hours
  Discussion whether PALS should have on-call procedures for evenings. Currently PALS has on-call weekend staff. Evenings there are operators on duty until 9pm. Calls to help desk are told how to get the operator who then will go through the list of 3 people to try to reach someone. It can be difficult to locate help. How much on-call do you want to pay for? Discussion followed about the need for more additional tech staff. There was a system crash a week ago. It was recommended to continue with the current plan for the summer and add evening coverage beginning in fall.
Aleph Update (Becky Bell)
- ELUNA
  Conference in June, if anyone plans on attending you will need a membership number. Contact the E-Desk for our member number before registering-early bird registration ends May 15th. All products will meet together for the first time. MnPals members and staff will be presenting on Thursday at this conference.
- Shared patron file issues
  - Issue currently under discussion is what patron info should display to circ staff. Becky will be looking at the contract language, and perhaps the attorney general opinion to help clarify the issue and address concerns raised by Tom Eland. Discussion followed.
  - Susan is investigating the fines set for your patron at other libraries and why they are not showing. This may be an area where Ex-Libris did not follow thorough on the RFP.
  - ILL
- All but 30 libraries are live on Aleph ILL. It appears to be working smoothly. The last group will get training next week. External library issue and OCLC ILL are worked out but no documentation is available at this time.
- Aleph reports, especially those needed for NCES (IPEDS)
  - PALS staff, Bill Shackelton, is looking into what reports libraries need for NCES and how Aleph services, the ARC and SQL reports can be used to provide this data. Extracts can take time with 63 libraries and it is important to look at cost/benefits of which is the best viable option?
  - The Council recommended that PALS reports on this issue at our September meeting. PALS is forming a group of library staff to assist in compiling a list of reports needed for NCES. They will work on this project during the summer.
- New Aleph versions - need for data review
  - Becky feels that moving from one version to another, the data should transfer OK. Version 17, Pals will look at data in July, there will be a number of table changes in Oracle in this version. The list is in the release notes within the version documentation on the ExLibris documentation site. Florida's data converted pretty well with only minor issues, but had 81 problems in implementation. The major problems were in the patron file and this has been fixed.
  - Priority to keep communication up-to-date for all libraries on version changes. Discussion followed about using clear subject lines in e-mails.
- Work plan
  - Most of the work plan was not evaluated by user groups since many ran out of time or forgot to include it on the agenda. Becky is looking for any input on prioritizing items on the list. Contact E-Desk if you need information about any of the items on the list.
  - Currently working on inventory, especially on how to receive the file and barcodes and then copy to appropriate file in Aleph for libraries.
Review of Spring 2006 User Group meetings
- Review of schedule, general session
  - Possibly have a keynote speaker to help start off the two days. Cataloging and
  - Reference need to meet on the same day and merge the two for a joint meeting also.
- Review evaluation results
  - Discussion from evaluation indicated that we should consider an educational component.
  - Many enjoyed the panel discussion, but others felt that actually having the person speak
  - to the group would be better. Sharing what works and helping each other were high comments on the evaluation.
- Reports from each User Group
  - Cataloging
    - Passed three motions: 1.) To have Pals strip all 938 tags from every record; 2.)
    - Recommended adding indicator 7 within the 650 fields, sent on to Reference for approval; 3.) Recommended creating additional index for languages and recommended removing Gov Doc type from Document type configuration-to be jointly discussed with Reference
  - Circulation
    - Lively exchange of information, but little interest in restoring birth date in patron record
  - Reference
    - Recommended that MATF focus on issues that would affect Version 17 and those interested to get together to explore useability issues.
  - Interlibrary loan
    - Recommended change in note lender in Aleph ILL
  - Serials and Acquisitions
    - Recommended to stay as two separate groups. Spent a lot of time on the work plan and on Collection Manager.
  - Systems
    - Recommended increasing retrieve results to 5000 in GUI and OPAC. If no problems, increase to 9999.
Fall 2006 User Group meetings
- Set for October 23 and 24 at Minnesota State University, Mankato
  A conference call will be scheduled near the end of August to plan the Fall User Group meeting.
- Schedule for each day
  It was recommended to keep the basic schedule used at the spring meeting
- General session topics, topics for User Groups
  Ideas: Be brief, but content specific; possible have a speaker at one of the meetings
  Spring may be the best time; Version 17 issues
- Breakout sessions
  Ideas: Reports and Services; MARC Cataloging Format; Indexing and Display including explaining what Task Force groups do; Emailing Notices; Statistics; Enhancement process
- Celebrating the completion of the migration
  A committee was put together to begin planning an evening celebration. Members: Sheila Hatchell, Becky Bell.
Future User Group meetings
- Two per year?
  The council discussed whether it was necessary to have two meetings a year. Would it be better to make the Task Forces the work engine and then vote online? If User Groups are only for reporting then would all members consider it important to attend? Ideas presented: Discuss with members the importance of reading reports online before attending meeting; Put more education into the meetings; Arrange a whole day outside of User Group meetings for Ref/Cat/Systems to deal with joint issues; This is a transition year; Try to include more topics of interest to technical staff.
- Spring, 2007 - plan for the week of April 9 in the metro?
  Location: metro area, avoid Monday
Consortium discussion
- Communications
  Re-do website, information not updated, plan is in the works for complete revision of the PALS website. Also Task Forces on the website, who do you contact, and link to Web Board. Try to generate better subject lines in e-mails coming from the PALS office. We need clear direct information, help the communication lines by providing pro-active information not just reactive information. Develop better and stronger communication within the PALS office.
- Governance structure changes needed?
  - Address the different models and how the steering committees are used within the User Groups at the next User Group meetings to help strengthen the use of the steering committees within User Groups.
  - Review the governance structure of the User Council in the fall. What is the charge of the User Council? Also discuss the structure of the User Group meetings.
Task Forces
- Uniform Process Discussed changes made to the Task Force document. Edward Swanson recommended changes on deleting "in the online catalog" on the second page of the document, which the group approved. But it was determined that the User Groups did not get a chance to review this document, so it will be added to the fall agenda of User Group meetings. Also recommend that the Task Forces look at this task force document.
- Charge revisions
  - The validation task force would like to become a working group. Discussed the difference between a task force and a working group. Task forces have an end date, whereas a working group is continuous. It was recommended and approved by the council that the task force chairs work on revising the current task force document.
  - Task force groups need to review the current document and make sure it reflects current charges and practices. The revision of the current task force document should help everyone get on the same page. It was suggested that the document provide an introduction of general information about group responsibilities; then separate into sections for the task forces and working groups. The revised document will then be forwarded to the User Council for discussion in the fall.
  - Discussion followed about the database task force and whether it should be a task force of the User Council or the User Group. No action was taken
Other/Adjourn
A thank you was given to all those retiring from the User Council.

AGENDA

9:00 Introductions, sign-in sheet
Amend/Adopt Agenda
Approve minutes from February meeting
Elections
1. Convener (2-year term)
2. Representative to the Executive Committee (2-year term)
3. Secretary (1-year term)
Input to the Executive Committee on meeting dates for next year
9:15 Todd Digby, System Director of Libraries for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
9:20 PALS Update (Linda Richter)
1. Location of future meetings, conference call option
2. Pilot project for support
3. On-call hours
9:30 Aleph Update (Becky Bell)
1. ELUNA
2. Shared patron file issues
3. ILL
4. Aleph reports, especially those needed for NCES (IPEDS)
5. New Aleph versions - need for data review
6. Workplan
9:50 Review of Spring 2006 User Group meetings
1. Review of schedule, general session
2. Review evaluation results
3. Report from each User Group
  - Cataloging
  - Circulation
  - Interlibrary Loan
  - Reference
  - Serials and Acquisitions
  - Systems

10:40 Break

10:55 Fall 2006 User Group meetings
1. Set for October 23 and 24 at Minnesota State University, Mankato
2. Schedule for each day
3. General session topics, topics for user groups
4. Breakout sessions
5. Celebrating the completion of the migration
11:05 Future User Group meetings
1. Two per year?
2. Spring, 2007 - plan for the week of April 9 in the metro?
11:15 Consortium discussion
1. Communications
  - Current communications methods
  - What else is needed?
  - More frequent UC meetings or conference calls?
2. How could libraries serve each other?
3. Governance structure changes needed?
11:30 Task Forces
1. Uniform process
2. Charge revisions
11:50 User Council report to the Executive Committee
1. Meeting dates
2. User Group meetings
3. Consortium communications
4. Other
12:00 Other/Adjourn