SRG

September 17, 2008

Meeting Minutes

Attendance: Karen Shiles (GCLS), Ralph Bingham (GCLS), Brenda Muhlbaier (GCLS), Flo Rosenberg GCLS/MHB), Pat Woodruff (GCLS/GRE), Carol Atkinson (GCCL), Bunny Jacobsen (DPL), Jean McGowan (DPL), Judy Ballard (GCLS/MHB), Anne Wodnick (GCLS/LGB), Anne Mathis (GCLS/EAS), Ann Kohn (GCIT), Susan Mroz (FRA), Jacki Moore (NEW), Karen Boucher (WDPL), Kathy Capobianco (WDPL), Debra Rosner (MHPL), Mary Ward (WVL), Lynn Harpool (MON)

The meeting opened with a review of the minutes. There were no corrections.

Margaret Heggan library requires their patrons to use PINs in iBistro. This has become a problem when their patrons access iBistro at a library other than Margaret Heggan. Since no other library uses PINs for their patrons, there is no place to enter a PIN. Therefore, when Washington Twp residents try to place holds via iBistro at another LOGIN library, they receive an error message “UfRequired Field Missing”. Karen has discussed this with Sirsi, and they have recommended some options. The Directors will make a decision about this at their next meeting in October. In the meantime, staff can place holds for Margaret Heggan patrons in Workflows. Patrons can also go to www.login-libraries.org and choose Margaret Heggan (Washington Township) to access iBistro and place holds themselves.

Ralph has discovered a problem at Margaret Heggan; their OPACs were timing out after 15 minutes. They are not supposed to time out unless they have not been used for 3 hours. He has a ticket open with Sirsi about this issue. He knows some libraries have reported a problem with the OPACs timing out; if you notice it happening after 15minutes, please let him know. He can go into the library’s individual page and make changes, but this is supposed to be set up system-wide.

Karen reported that the de-duping of patron records did not occur, so there are duplicate patron records in the system. Please pay attention to the record the patron is using to borrow materials. If there is more than one record for the patron, use the record for the municipality they live in.

Ann Kohn asked about an instructor at G.C.I.T. that had attempted to get an Educator card at Mullica Hill, but was turned away, as he already had a DPL card. Judy recommended that we could change the User Profile to GCLSEDU, if Deptford does not object to us modifying their patron’s record.

Anne W. also asked about GCC card holders that are no longer students and want a card from their home library. GCC leaves student records in the system for 3 years as sometimes students come leave and come back to school. Karen announced that Sirsi now allows us to enter a 2^nd barcode to a patron’s record, but this feature needs to be turned on for each computer.

After some discussion on this topic, it was decided that we need to standardize how we handle modifying patron records (when they move, are no longer a GCC student, etc.). This will be brought up at the next LOGIN Director’s meeting.

Occasionally, staff may see an error message when checking materials out to a patron: ‘User has too many charges’ – even if it is the first item scanned, and there is nothing else on the patron’s checkout screen. This message occurs for GCLS patrons that have applied for a library card online, and are issued a card with a profile of GCLSDBONLY. These patrons can access GCLS databases, but do not have borrowing privileges. [If they come to a GCLS library, we will validate their card and change their patron profile to a borrowing one. If they come to a non-GCLS library, they need to be sent to any of the GCLS libraries to have their card validated. (SRG minutes, 10/19/05)].

Karen was asked about a note that sometime comes up in a patron’s record for the Requests/Library Manager. This shows up if a patron requests to have their record updated while in iBistro. Karen periodically checks for these messages and cleans them up.

Monroe Township is in the process of getting a new building, so their migration to Sirsi has been pushed back to mid-February.

McCowan has also pushed their migration back to mid-November.

Karen has not heard from Paulsboro lately, they may be delayed as well.

Brenda asked if anyone else offers a home delivery service to patrons unable to come to the library. Westville said that they do have a few patrons they take materials to. Karen pointed out that we have a module for Homebound Services, called Outreach. Brenda volunteered to demonstrate it to Westville if they are interested, after they reopen. She will also be willing to demonstrate the module to any other LOGIN library that is interested.

Logan brought up the issue of tape again. Some staff are using large amounts of packing tape to secure bags of materials shipped via Velocity. It is difficult to open these taped packages. There really is no reason for staff to use packing tape; rubber bands secure the packages well enough to travel through the delivery. If one MUST use tape, please only use a SMALL piece of Scotch tape with the rubber bands.

G.C.I.T. was closed for the summer, and only recently received their deliveries. They had, in storage for 2 months, many packages meant for GCC, and some for other libraries as well. The problem was that staff had placed the wrong shipping label in packages meant to go to the college, and they were sent to G.C.I.T. in error. Please make sure you are using the correct shipping label when packaging materials for delivery.

Deptford had a few comments/questions:

They do not barcode their magazines; you can just put them in the delivery.

Items that are ON ORDER, can holds be placed on those materials? Yes, once an item is in the catalog, even with a status of ON ORDER, holds may be placed on those items.

Fines: what is the limit for the library collecting the fines to keep? It was thought that the LOGIN directors has agreed that any fines owed to another library that were under $5.00 could be collected and kept by the library the patron was at, paying fines. Anything $5.00 and over, needed to be paid at the library owed, or the patron could write a check for the amount made out to the library the fines were owed to, and the check could be sent on in delivery. It was agreed that this was probably in one of the LOGIN Director’s meeting minutes, which are available on the LOGIN blog.

Westville will open at least 4 weeks after construction is complete; probably around Thanksgiving.

The next meeting will be held November 5^th at 9:30 at the GCLS/Mullica Hill Branch.