SRG

November 5, 2008

Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Brenda Muhlbaier (GCLS), Anne Mathis (EAS), Flo Rosenberg (GCLS/MHB), Susan Mroz (FRA), Kathy Capobianco (WDL), Ann Kohn (GCIT), Jacki Moore (NEW), Judy Ballard (GCLS/MHB), Lynn Harpool (MON), Carol Lutner (MCC), Pat Hirsekorn (GCCL), Carol Atkinson (GCCL), Karen Shiles (GCLS), Anne Wodnick (GCLS/LGB), Debra Rosner (HEG), Mary Ward (WES)

The meeting was opened with a reading of the minutes from the last meeting. Kathy had one correction. In the paragraph about collecting fines belonging to other libraries, it was stated that fines owed to another library that are under $5.00 could be kept, and fines $5.00 and over must be sent to the library owed the fines. She found in the LOGIN Director meeting minutes that each library could keep $5.00 and under that was owed to another library, anything over $5.00 needed to be sent to the library the fines are owed to. If a customer is writing a check for the amount owed, the check needs to be made out to the library owed the fines.

A question came up if the total amount owed to other libraries was over $5.00, but smaller amounts were owed to individual libraries; ex: a customer at WDL has fines of $2.50 owed to MHB and $3.00 owed to WOD. Since the total amount to each of the other libraries is not over $5.00, WDL may keep the whole amount collected.

Power Outages: Mullica Hill has recently had some power outages. The directors are investigating having the server hosted with SirsiDynix. This is quite expensive, but it would mean that the server would never go down as SirsiDynix had several backups to their server hosting service. This would also mean a migration to the new hosted server; Karen has heard that libraries going with this option have had a down time of up to 3 days. Most of the comments from attendees is that this does not happen often and usually not for very long. We would not be eager for a lengthy down time.

Notify_Via Field: other libraries are going to be using SVA for their holds and overdue notices. Problems have been occurring due to empty or incorrectly filled Notify_Via fields. This is a free-text field, so anything can be typed into that field. Unfortunately the system will only recognize – MAIL, EMAIL, or PHONE (you must use all caps)– anything else causes SVA to not contact customers. Ralph has found a report that will make PHONE the default for this field.

Anne W. commented that Ralph had run a report for her a while back for the phone number fields. She had found that when ‘Cell’ or ‘Cell phone’ was entered before the phone number, SVA could not work properly. SVA does not skip over the letters and will cancel the phone call attempt. If it is important to note that a phone number is for a cell phone, add that after the number.

Migration Update: We are in the middle of the Pitman migration, the bibliographic records were sent Nov. 3^rd, and the customer records will be sent on Nov.10^th. The go-live date is November 13^th. Unfortunately, there is a problem with compatibility with their old ILS and current holds will not transfer to SirsiDynix.

Monroe’s go-live date is set for February 19^th. Paulsboro does not have a go-live date set right now, it probably will not happen until May.

Searching Tips: Karen thought some searching tips she had shared with the GCLS staff on their staff in-service day might be helpful for the rest of the libraries as well.

SirsiDynix recommends using Exact Search for exact number searches, such as item barcode. ISBN often also have other information included in their fields, so Exact Search will not work in those cases. If a title has a subtitle included in the title field, an Exact Search will not bring up that title. The example Karen used was a title called ‘To America’ by Stephen Ambrose. An Exact Search only brings up 2 sound recording records. A Browse Search brings up the correct print title record, as the title is actually ‘To America : personal reflections of an historian’. Since the title was more than ‘To America’, the Exact Search was unable to bring up the print record. Browse Search brings up an alphabetical listing of titles. Keyword Search will bring up any title with the search terms included. For example, a Keyword Search for ‘To America’ will bring up any title with ‘America’ anywhere in the title record.

Also mentioned were problems using Keyword Search including Boolean Operators (and, or, not, xor). The example Karen used was the title ‘Bud not Buddy’. The Keyword Search brought up all titles with Bud in the title record, but not ‘Bud not Buddy’ as ‘not’ is a Boolean operator that cancels out any word following ‘not’. If you want to find the title with Keyword Search, you must use quotation marks “Bud not Buddy”. If you use Browse Search, this is not a problem and you do not need to use the quotation marks. Other problems with Keyword Search are Positional Words (near, with, same, adj). For example, ‘Love the one you’re with’ brings up an error message as SirsiDynix is looking for a word on both sides of ‘with’.

Karen will add the search tips she had handed out to GCLS staff to the blog.

Another tip shared was allowing more than one window to be open at a time. Click on Preference at the top of the monitor, then select Desktop and Desktop Setup. At the bottom of the window, is a check box for Multiple Windows Mode. Checking the box will allow you to have more than one window open in Workflows.

Also of note: if there is not a match for an Exact Search, SirsiDynix will default to Browse Search. This will display above the search results box.

If you are using Keyword Search when looking up customers, the list will not automatically be alphabetic. If you use Browse Search, the results list will be alphabetic. You can fix the default search by logging in as Supervisor or Administrator and right clicking on the Display User wizard, select Properties, then Helpers. In the User Search area, there are radial buttons for Keyword and Browse, select Browse and then save the changes when you shut down Workflows.

Westville Update: They are waiting for shelves; they are not expected to arrive for another 6 weeks. Karen or Ralph will update the reopening message on the LOGIN page to reflect the delay.

Lynn mentioned that Monroe uses the Cutter Classification System and wondered if this would be a problem when searching for authors. Karen said that information would be part of the individual item record, and not the bib record.

Pat H. asked about a problem she has been having with ILL checkout since the last upgrade. She has been getting messages that the ‘loan period has been shortened due to…’ She did not think the message mentioned ‘patron’, which is a common message when a customer’s expiration date is sooner than the usual 2 week loan period. She will send examples to Karen.

The next meeting will be February 4^th at 9:30 at Mullica Hill.