MnPALS Cataloging User Group: Spring 2007

Tuesday, April 17, 2007
1:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Cataloging User Group Steering Committee

Sheila Hatchell, 2008, Co-Convener (MHS)
Bobby Bothmann, 2008, Co-Convener (MSU, Mankato)
Deb Faulhaber, 2008 (MCT, Minneapolis Community / Technical College)
Tess Kasling, 2007 (SBJ)
Joan Klanderud, 2008 (SCM)
Kathy Malec, 2007 (PCA, Pollution Control Agency)
Adam Marsnik, 2007 (NDC)

MINUTES

Opening Remarks
Co-convener Sheila Hatchell (MHS) called the meeting to order. To start the meeting, Sheila asked people to introduce themselves.

Since there were no agenda items submitted by the group, Sheila announced that today’s meeting would combine business with some training from Mary Ann Greenwald (PALS).
Recorder
Tess Kasling (SBJ) agreed to be the recorder for the session.
Additions / Changes to Agenda
There were no additions or changes to the agenda.
Approve Fall 2006 Minutes.
Joan Klanderud (SCM) moved to approve the minutes as recorded, Robin Horowitz (MSL) 2nd. The minutes were approved, without discussion.
Steering Committee Elections (Terms Expiring Spring 2007)
- 4-year private (outgoing - Tess Kasling, SBJ)
- 2-year MnSCU Community College (outgoing - Adam Marsnik, NDC)
- 2-year MnSCU Consolidated Colleges (outgoing - Deb Faulhaber, MCTC)
- CALCO Libraries (outgoing - Kathy Malec, PCA)
Elected:
- 4-year private (Lynn Burg, GAC)
- 2-year MnSCU Community College (Adam Marsnik, NDC)
- 2-year MnSCU Consolidated Colleges (Jane Young, Century College)
- CALCO Libraries (Robin Horowitz, MSL)
PALS Report and WorkPlan update, Mary Ann Greenwald (PALS)
The PALS office would like the Steering Committee to help with some testing, in particular, with fix routines in Aleph. To date, this has been done in the PALS office but Mary Ann would like to get input from the Steering Committee to create fix routines for the consortium to use. There will be a session on this at the ELUNA conference this summer and she encouraged people to attend.

Highlights from the Cataloging Report :
1. Work Completed:
  1. Correction. OWN control on Holding Record. Functionality works fine and OWN subfield $a has been added as a keyword index in SYS60, both as WRD and WOW. The statement should not include WRD.
  2. Identify bib records that have another library password/cataloger level and correct them. This is a reminder that catalogers should not be correcting subject terms in SYS01 and this denial should be reflected in your password permission. All software that now comes out is already set to deny this function.
2. Work in Progress:
  1. Investigate exporting bib records from MnPALS to OCLC. PALS is looking for 2 libraries that will help test exporting non-OCLC records from Aleph into OCLC, such as records purchased from an outside source that are not yet in OCLC.
  2. Summary Holdings to OCLC. PALS provided a series of Webinars on building the summary holding statement. They are looking for 2 test libraries (one that uses the serials module, and one that doesn’t) to help them go through the procedure in v.17. More specifically, they want help in testing the procedure of getting local serials holdings back to OCLC.
  3. Inventory Marking. PALS wrote a procedure for doing inventory using the Item_04 service in v.15.5 (Knowledge Base #3043). This still works. There are some new jobs in v.17:
    1. Item_01 (defines your inventory). The call numbers in both the Item and Holding records need to be entered correctly and exactly for the report to run correctly.
    2. Item_08 (used for batch processing)
    3. Item_09 (used to process the status of missing)
    4. Item_10 (produces a Summary Report)
    PALS would like to work with 2 libraries in testing these in order to work through a few identified problems. Moral of the story&133; if you’re going to run inventory, it’s better to clean up first.
  4. Tab_z30 automatic creation of Holding and Item record upon load of bib record. In v.18 release notes, it states that Tab_z30 should not be used in a multi-ADM environment. So the consensus is that this isn’t going to work for MnPALS. The University of Minnesota has abandoned working with tab_z30 and MnPALS will most likely abandon it also.
  Mary Ann added new Knowledge Base answers since our last meeting in October along with the rep changes that PALS has encountered since migrating to v.17.
ELUNA meeting. This is a reminder about the ELUNA meeting in June. The consortium has a membership so if an individual institution doesn’t, one can still register as a member through the consortium. The PALS office will give out that membership number.
MnPALS Catalogers work day.
The general consensus is in favor of the work day. Sheila Hatchell and Bobby Bothmann will follow up with a survey for the group.
Should MnPALS catalogers have their own Web page on the PALS Web site?
There are so many places that information about the system is currently stored: the WebBoard, the various Task Force WebBoards, PALS tickets, recorded sessions, Power Point presentations, emails from the PALS office, etc. It was felt that a single location would help organize the material. One suggestion was a PALS Website, another suggestion was a Wiki. The Wiki idea was favored because FuseTalk (WebBoard) will not be supported after the end of this fiscal year, making it necessary to move the documentation somewhere. PALS agreed to host the Wiki. After some discussion, Adam Marsnik (NDC) moved that the Cataloging User Group request that PALS hosts a Wiki for the Cataloging User Group. Robin Horowitz (MSL) 2nd. The motion passed. Hopefully there will be something to report at the Fall 2007 meeting.
Task Force and Working Groups.
1. Authorities Task Force - Anne Levin (MHS, convener)
2. MARC Records Task Force - Robin Horowitz (MSL, convener)
  After a discussion of the guidelines for loading non-OCLC records, Jane Young (Century College) moved to approve The Guidelines for the Import of non-OCLC MARC Records into the MnPALS Catalog, Diane Nierenberg (BSU) 2nd. Motion passed.
3. MnPALS Indexing Task Force - Adam Marsnik (NDC) for Bobby Bothmann (MSU, Mankato)
  The Task Force will be looking at the adjacency indexing issue, in particular, to verify that it’s working.
4. Validation Work Group - No report.The work of this group has been completed and the group disbanded.
  As directed by the Task Forces’ Policy document, the co-conveners, Bobby Bothmann and Sheila Hatchell have received written notification from The Group that they would like to be disbanded. Any future problems will be submitted to the PALS office via the Helpdesk function.
  
  Adam Marsnik mentioned a problem with the 029 coming through as invalid. PALS will add the tag to the validation table. A motion was made by Adam Marsnik to put the 029 field in the validation table, Robin Horowitz 2nd. Motion passed.
  
  According to the Task Forces’ Policy document, a motion is needed to disband a group. Adam Marsnik moved the Validation Work Group be disbanded, with the addition that they be thanked for doing an excellent job. Anne Levin 2nd. After a short discussion, the motion passed.
  
  It was noted that everybody who works on the Task Forces should be thanked. In addition, people are encouraged to volunteer for any future task force because it’s a great learning experience and a way to help improve the system.
Demonstration/Discussion
Mary Ann Greenwald (PALS) demonstrated the following:
1. New Services in the Cataloging module
2. Import/Export of bib records
3. Summary Holdings
4. Fixed Field keyword searching
5. Global changes to item records
6. Workflow for creating a new title list
Other/Adjourn
There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 3:12pm.

Submitted by Tess Kasling
4/25/07

Agenda

**Please read linked reports before the meeting**

1:15 Opening Remarks - Sheila Hatchell - convener.
Recorder. We do not yet have a recorder! Please consider taking the minutes. Please identify yourself when speaking at the meeting to ease the recorder’s job. As the recorder you may ask someone to repeat their comment or verify your notes. (Note: Minutes are due to the PALS office by April 24.)
Additions / Changes to Agenda.
Approve Fall 2006 Minutes.
Steering Committee Elections (Terms Expiring Spring 2007). [Member Libraries by type]
- 4-year private (outgoing - Tess Kasling, SBJ)
- 2-year MnSCU Community Colleges (outgoing - Adam Marsnik, NDC)
- 2-year MnSCU Consolidated Colleges (outgoing - Deb Faulhaber, MCTC)
- CALCO Libraries (outgoing - Kathy Malec, PCA)
1:30 PALS Report and WorkPlan update.
1:40 ELUNA meeting - Spearfish, SD. June 5-8, 2007. Anyone going? Read about it: http://www.sdln.net/eluna2007/?mode=eluna2007
1:45 MnPALS Catalogers work day. (see Discussion Notes below).
1:50 Should MnPALS catalogers have their own Web page on the PALS Web site?
(see Discussion Notes below).
2:00 Task Force and Working Groups.
Please read reports ahead of time and ask questions or make comments during this time.
1. Authorities Task Force - Anne Levin, Minnesota Historical Society, convener
2. MARC Records Task Force - Robin Horowitz, Minnesota State Law Library, convener.
3. MnPALS Indexing Task Force - Bobby Bothmann, convener.
  - Use of MARC 599 field in old PALS and now in Aleph - Adam Marsnik. (See Discussion Notes below).
4. Validation Work Group. No report. (See Discussion Notes below).
2:25 Demonstration/Discussion
1. Import/Export of Bib Records
2. Summary Holdings
3. Demonstration fixed field keyword searching
4. Global changes to item records
5. Other global changes that are available (and direction to PALS for those we would like)
6. Export of holdings to OCLC
7. Creating a new title list
3:15 Other/Adjourn

3:20 New Steering Committee will meet briefly after the meeting to elect a new representative to User Council (outgoing - Adam Marsnik, NDC)

Discussion Notes for Agenda Items:

8.    A suggestion has been made to organize a work day for MnPALS catalogers; a day for sharing and learning. Is there interest in doing this? Would people come to the work day? Where should it be held? What time of year? Any suggestions for topics? One idea is to discuss local practices - what are people doing - does it work - are there other/better ways to do the same thing? If there is enough interest, a survey will be sent to the catalogers to determine the date and agenda.

9.    We have discovered and created a lot of information about our Aleph system. Much of this information is scattered among Web Boards and PALS Tickets, or buried in emails. As people who organize information for our livelihood, how can we get an organized handle on all of this? A Web page? A blog? A Wiki? Other ideas??? Note that in the PALS February technical report it states that PALS is installing a Wiki. Hmmm....

10c.    The MARC 599 local note field has been used by member libraries as a searchable (indexed) field to retrieve records for a specific end-user need. When we migrated to version 17, the 599 notes were no longer indexed as a note, but instead only as a keyword. 599s indexed only as a keyword has created retrieval difficulties - too many false hits - and a new index point was created - WLN. The Cataloging User Group Steering Committee and MITF have concerns about this development and wonder if the 599 is the most appropriate field to use to obtain the desired results for the end-user. Member libraries using the 599 field are invited to talk with a member of the Cataloging UG Steering Committee or MITF to discuss new cataloging options that may not have been available years ago when indexing of the 599 was first implemented in old PALS. Indexing decisions in Aleph may have huge consequences, and we have learned it is desirable to avoid a proliferation of new indexes.

An Example of 599 use where there is a better option: "599 _ _ Internet resource" is more appropriately a form/genre heading and better coded as "655 _7 Internet resource. $2 local". This would allow for a browse search on Internet resource and avoid the many false hits a keyword search on the same terms would generate. 599 is a valid note tag and some uses of it "599 _ _ $a MSF FY01" "599 55 $m MINN. DOC. NO. $n 99-0001" and others are correct and perfectly valid. These tend not to cause false drops as a keyword search. The Steering Committee and MITF want to help members make the best decisions in order to get the best search result for their end-user and avoid creation of new indexes, when possible.

10d.    The Validation Work Group has completed its work and disbanded. All of the changes made to the validation tables in version 15 converted cleanly to version 17.