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MnPALS Circulation Users Group: Fall 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008, 1:00 pm

Draft Minutes

Attending: Chad Gilman (IHC), Kathleen Ashe (SSU), Brenda Besser (IHC), Susan Dueis (PALS), Erin Johnson (BLC), Cynthia Jorstad (Northland CTC), Liz Keeler (MTR), Michael Kirby (DCT), Joan Klanderud (SCC), Carolyn McDonald (SSU), Ron McGriff (PTC), Joni Myers (MSU), Amy Naughton (ADC), Kelly Jo Nelson (MSU), Jay Nordstrom (GAC), Al Rykhus (PALS), Angie Schaper (RVL), Amy Soma (TRC), Roberta Spangenberg (MSU), Pam Sukalski (MWL), Janet van Oosten (CWN), Lynne Weber (MSU), Pam Werre (TRM), Bruce Willms (MTR), Angela Wortham (SCS), Orrin Ausen (BLC), Michelle Ehlert (MTR), Peg Lawrence (MSU)

1. Opening Remarks - Pam Sukalski (MWL) - Convener : Members were asked to fill out the evaluations, which will be sent by e-mail, particulary providing feedback on the format of this and future meetings. Members were also encouraged to become more active in the forums. It is possible to have e-mail alerts sent to your for forum boards or topics, to alert you when new activity takes place.

2. Recorder--Angela Wortham (SCSU)

3. Additions/Changes to Agenda : No changes or additions were made to the agenda.

4. Approve Spring Minutes: Spring minutes were approved, including the correction to item 9. (Amy Naughton (ADC) moved; Joan Klanderud (SCC) seconded; passed unanimously.)

5. Steering Committee Elections

  • 2-year Community & Technical College Representative : Pam Sukalski (MWL) continuing through 2011.
  • Need a private college representative to replace Gretchen Pyle (SMU) : Erin Johnson (BLC) will step in for Gretchen and continue through 2011.

6. PALS Report: Susan Dueis (PALS) reviewed the Circulation portion of the Support and Training Services Report.

  • V. 18 fixes include ability to input closing hours later than midnight, patron deletion. Display of blocks for libraries other than the patron's home library are no longer appearing in the Borrower's Page of the web OPAC;  Ex Libris is working on this. A fix for the return entries that are not being recorded in the Circulation Logger is in the January Service Pack.
  • Several topics are under discussion in the forum: the MnPLS Libraries Circulation Policy, tracking billed patrons and patron loan history/privacy.
  • New answers have been loaded in the Support Center.
  • Expired patrons can be manually deleted by using the “Delete Patron” function in the Circulation module.
  • P-mnpals-09 has been created to force changes to patron records.
  • The Fast Patron form now accepts the Registration ID as the “Additional ID.”
  • Further testing of the transfer of cash transactions determined that transactions can only be exported from Aleph, but credits cannot be imported back in. Further testing is needed before this functionality can be implemented, but will only be pursued if institutions are interested. There may be functional or policy barriers to using this functionality at MnSCU schools. Contact Susan if your institution feels this limited functionality merit the effort to implement.

7. The term "lost" in ALEPH (MNSU, Roberta & Joni) In Aleph, there is a circulation status controlled by billing through cir-04 currently identified as “Lost.” This is different from the process status of “Lost” used by many libraries. To help reduce confusion between the two statuses and because there can be the perception of carelessness when patrons see many items as Lost in the OPAC, it was proposed that new terminology be used for the circulation status. After discussion, it was decided the new language will be “Overdue/Billed.” PALS staff will send a notice to the consortium in advance of implementing the change. This language will appear in the GUI and the OPAC, but can be overwritten by assigning a process status to the item. (Roberta Spangenberg (MSU) moved; Liz Keeler (MTR) seconded; motion passed unanimously.)

8. Interest in 2 reports regarding statistics for patrons and their use? : Amy Naughton (ADC) proposed two new reports to track patrons with activity and to view activity by budget category. Al Rykhus (PALS) indicated that much of this data is lost due to scrubbing. Amy passed around a survey to determine interest in the reports.

9. MnPALS Libraries Circulation Policy : A task force was formed to rewrite the policy for review by the Circulation User Group for submission to the Executive Committee for their April 2009 meeting. Members are Liz Keeler (MTR), Pam Werre (TRM), Jay Nordstrom (GAC) and Ron McGriff (PTC).

10. Planning for Workday (Spring 2009) : Some interest was expressed for the idea of a workday. Possible topics include: workflow, billing, patron loading and RFID implementation. The steering committee will contact ILL about interest in a shared workday.

11. Rosie Mock (MSU) commented that MSU ILL overdue notices are being sent without any bib data and recommended that each institution check their notices.

12. Adjourn. (Orrin Ausen (BLC) moved, Liz Keeler (MTR)seconded; motion passed unanimously.)

Agenda

  1. (1:00 pm) Opening Remarks - Pam Sukalski (MWL) - Convener
  2. Recorder--Angie Wortham (SCSU) -Please identify yourself when speaking at the meeting to ease the recorder's job.  As the recorder you may ask someone to repeat his or her comment to verify your notes.
  3. Additions/Changes to Agenda
  4. Approve Spring Minutes -
    • Note change under 9. - Carrie Curie/MSCTC said that they have developed a way to use the cash-06 (not Cash-05) and make a list for their institution.
  5. Steering Committee Elections
    • 2-year Community & Technical College Representative
    • Need a private college representative to replace Gretchen Pyle (SMU)
  6. (1:10 pm) PALS Report: Susan Dueis (PALS)
  7. (1:20 pm) The term "lost" in ALEPH (MNSU, Roberta & Joni)
  8. ( 1:25 pm) Interest in 2 reports regarding statistics for patrons and their use? (Amy Naughton - ADC)
  9. ( 1:35 pm) MnPALS Libraries Circulation Policy (currently a discussion topic on forum; want to move it on to DDC/EC to update)
  10. (1:45 pm) Planning for Workday (Spring 2009)
  11. Adjourn.

Discussion Notes for Agenda Items
  1. "Lost" -- We would like to have the OPAC status of “lost” (for late things) changed to something more accurate and informative for the patron, such as “overdue”.  Items go to “lost” in the OPAC now as soon as they go to bill.

  2. Patron Reports  (Requested through the Reports Task Force on March 11, 2008;
    Requested through the Pals edesk on June 10, 2008)
    Active User Report:
    Query: how many valid (non-expired) patrons loaned material during a period of time.
    Filters: date range, patron status
    Data provided: total number of valid patrons and total number of "active" users
    Reasoning: this will provide an accurate picture of what percentage of different types of users are utilizing the collection.  This information is not available via any other report or excel-work-around. 

    Addition to Cir-30 General Circulation Statistics
    Request:  add another variable to retrieve by (aka "group results by")
    Variable to add: <z303-budget>  (which is actually populated by the major and/ or class designation field from the Plif data load 
    Reasoning: getting circulation statistics by major and/or class designation.  This information is not available via any other report or excel-work-around. 
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