Circulation Meeting Minutes

December 6, 2012
Angela welcomed members and offered her best wishes to everyone for an easy and speedy recovery from Hurricane Sandy.
Melanie outlined the following information

  • Paper notices, including pink lost book bills, will discontinue March 1, 2013. Libraries may email the Help Desk to request a list of patrons designated as “notify by” PAPER. The “notify by” field should be updated to reflect either PHONE or EMAIL. Libraries wishing to generate their own paper notices should contact the help desk for a list of patrons with lost items.
  • A new I-type, DVD-JSER, circulates for 14 days. Libraries wishing to use the I-type should contact the Help Desk to post their fine rate and fine max to the circ. map.
  • “Alissa” is the new voice (bilingual) for the WLS notification/renewal system. Eventually text notification will be available, but not yet.
  • Patrons now have the ability to save their checkout history. This can be done for the patron using Workflows, or by the patron using the online catalogue. [At the time of this writing, I was not able to find the “keep my checkout history” option under Preferences when logged in to the online catalogue.] In Workflows, this preference can be selected using Modify Patron. The choices are “No History”, “All Items”, or “Circ Rule” (which excludes certain short-term checkouts like laptops). Checkout history can be seen from a tab in Display Patron or by using a helper in the Checkout screen. The checkout history for an item can also be seen using Item Search and Display. Only patrons who opt in will be displayed in an item’s checkout history. The checkout history option is the reason for the system alert “Item previously charged to this user.” As of now, WLS plans to maintain checkout history for about one year.
  • Alt ID is a field that allows a patron to login using a user name of their choice instead of a library card number. Library staff must complete this field for patrons. Staff should encourage patrons to use email addresses since they are easily remembered. The field must be entered in all caps. Patrons should be reminded to use all caps since the login is case sensitive. There was a question about what would happen if more than one patron tried to use the same Alt ID and PIN number. [I tested this and found that the system would not allow me to enter the same Alt ID for more than one patron.]
 IMPORTANT REMINDER: update your library calendars to reflect next year’s days off.
  • Library Card Survey results:

Will the library send a new library card to the patron’s home?

11 libraries will

16 libraries will not

Does the library place checkout limits on new cards?

7 libraries do (3, 5 item limit)

20 libraries do not

Does the library have age restrictions if send out cards?

8 libraries do (ages 5,12,18)

16 libraries don’t

Is the registration procedure different for teen registration (with or without parent)?

20 libraries: no difference

6 libraries: procedure is different
A general discussion followed. Items discussed included:

  • At some point, Long Lost items were deleted, pulling them off the patron bill record. Information about these items was added in the patron note field, but the information does not include price. Detailed data about these items is no longer available. There is some confusion about when the decision was made to do this and how the process was carried out.
  • How long should patrons be held responsible for lost items? Seven years? If it is considered theft, perhaps longer?
  • A question was raised about items billed as lost on a patron record that are not coming off the patron record when checked in. Melanie believes this has something to do with how the item is being billed and asked for more information.
  • A question was raised about DVD limits system-wide. The 20 item limit is only blocked if 20 DVDs are checked out during one session, not over multiple checkout times or days. Only the 50 item total limit seems to be a firm limit (which can be overridden).
  • How long with the Classic Catalogue be available?

Wilson answered this question after the meeting was over: There has not been an end-of-life announcement for the Classic Catalog. When that decision is made, the date will be posted on the WLS website. There are still features to be migrated from the Classic Catalog to Enterprise.

  • Clean Holds List is still missing some items. Problem is still in development.
  • There are frustrations with the quality of catalogue records. Most of this is due to the poor quality of vendor or MARC records being downloaded and a limited number of catalogers at WLS.
 Meeting dates for the coming year:
 Feb. 14 (minutes by TAR) 
 April 11 (minutes by PEK)
 June 13 (minutes by OSS)
 Sept. 12 (minutes by DOB)
 Nov. 14 (minutes by CHA)

Respectfully submitted by

Marge Perlin

Head of Circulation

Chappaqua Library