SRG Meeting Minutes

January 30, 2008

Attendees: Brenda Muhlbaier (GCLS), Ralph Bingham (GCLS), Anne Wodnick (GCLS/LGB), Judy Ballard (GCLS/MHB), Kathy Capobianco (WDL), Karen Boucher (WDL), Pat Hirsekorn (GCCL), Carol Atkinson (GCCL), Flo Rosenberg (GCLS/MHB), Pat Woodruff (GCLS/GRE), Carol Wolf (GCLS/GLA), Susan Mroz (FRA), Jacki Moore (NEW), Laurie Cranston (WOD), Ann Kohn (GCIT), Anne Mathis (EAS), Marge Dombrosky (GCLS/SWE), Bunny Jacobsen (DPL), Anne Zuber (WEN), Karen Shiles (GCLS)

After reviewing the minutes from the last meeting, there were some corrections to be made. On page 2, in the first paragraph, it was Kathy from WDL, not Karen, who had asked about a report for expired patrons. Also on page 2, in the fourth paragraph, the change requested could not be made as that particular change could only be made globally. Some changes can be made to affect only individual libraries, but not the one requested. On the last page, last paragraph, it is best to call the reference desk at Mullica Hill (223-6050) first; they can redirect the call to an available IT staff person.

Karen informed the group that we would likely be upgrading to Symphony, the new Sirsi/Dynix product, in March – probably mid-late March. It should be a very simple process for us, as Symphony is similar to Workflows. Everyone will need to make sure they have the minimum hardware requirements – the list is available on the LOGIN blog (link: http://blog.gcls.org/login/2008/01/workflows_symphony_hardware_re.html). Please review and make any changes necessary by March. Karen asked if anyone has anything coming up to let her know so they can schedule the upgrade around it. West Deptford will be having an event on March 19^th, during the evening and would not want to have to deal with a back log of circulation transactions. We probably will be down for half a day for the upgrade.

The reason we are moving to Symphony now, rather than later, is that GCLS has been awarded a grant to mail their holds to patrons upon request and Symphony will allow for this to happen.

Karen has been informed that the ‘C’ client will still work; however, GCLS will not be supporting it. If you choose to continue using the ‘C’ client and there are problems, they will not be able to reload it for you.

It was asked what had happened to ‘Rome’. Karen informed us that Sirsi/Dynix had renamed ‘Rome’ to ‘Symphony’. ‘Rome’ was just a working title while the product was in development.

One change will be to allow us to differentiate between in-person and ‘unseen’ renewals. ‘Unseen’ renewals would be renewals done over the phone or via the catalog renewal feature. Pat H. asked about other changes. Karen let us know that there is a 412 page document of the upcoming changes if anyone wants to read it. Mostly the changes are bug fixes.

Karen announced that the Margaret Heggan Library will be joining LOGIN this year. They may be coming online in the summer. They do not have a budget for training, so we will need to assist with training their staff. Karen asked for volunteers from the LOGIN libraries, so they can get different perspectives on how various functions are handled. Pitman is talking to us, but they have yet to indicate they wish to make a commitment to join LOGIN.

Wenonah is changing their hours in February; they will now be open 6 days a week. Their new hours are: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Wednesday 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, Friday 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and Saturday 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Please update your records to reflect the new hours. Anne M. asked if their library cards would ever scan with our readers. Karen mentioned that they use a different vender for their library cards, and they use a different coding that can not be read by some of our barcode readers. That might change as we upgrade our readers.

Karen discussed a tip for registering patrons into the system. Called ‘Customer Duplication Check’, this allows the system to check for patrons already entered into the system. You can check for duplicate names, addresses, etc. This will be especially useful when Margaret Heggan comes online, and their patrons want cards. GCLS has many already in the system as paid memberships. To use this feature, you must log in as Admin or Supervisor. Right click on the User Registration wizard and select Properties. Make sure the ‘Duplicate checking’ is turned ‘on’. You may select the options that work for you.

West Deptford had problems with this feature before; they were unable to override the duplicate check to register a patron that happened to have the same name as another, different, patron. Judy said that they were not having that problem, though she remembers having complaints about it in the beginning. It was thought that perhaps this had been fixed in a subsequent upgrade; they should test it again.

Ann Kohn stated that she uses ‘Copy User’ to look for duplications. She is worried about committing a barcode to a patron that does not get registered. She was assured that if you do not select ‘Save’, the barcode is still available for use.

Open dicusssion:

Pat H. introduced Carol Atkinson to the group; she was hired to take Shawne’s job. They are also looking for someone to work part-time on Wednesday evenings.

Pat H. also mentioned that they were having problems with some non-holdable items that were going out on hold. Karen asked her for the Item Type so she could fix it in the Holds Map. Pat wasn’t sure and will get back to her.

Kathy mentioned that West Deptford will be changing their 2-day movies to a 7-day loan period.

Laurie asked about lost items belonging to another library. Could we please call the other library before setting an item to Lost? We were told that this was going to be brought up at the next Director’s meeting and a procedure would be agreed upon.

Jacki mentioned that Alice had a problem with placing holds on specific copies. Jacki had a long note explaining Alice’s problem; Karen asked Jacki to go over it with her after the meeting.

The next meeting will be on April 16^th at Mullica Hill at 9:30.