Westchester Library System Circulation Meeting~11 May 2017

Members Present:
Valandro Barden, Teresa Beebi, Mary Black, Stephanie Cappola, Melanie Carnes, Nina Colavolpe-Leone, George Cuttitto, Lori Depaulo, Edith Felis, Virginia Fetscher, Vinnie Gallo, Margaret Groccia, Angela Groth, Kathy Iglesias, Suzanne Johnson, Irene Kobziar, Adam Marciano, Alison Midgley, Elizabeth Nguyen, Marge Perlin, Erin Provenzano, Reisa Quela, Kathi Righetti, Kathy Schmidt, Marie Trapasso, Marianne Wingertzahn

News:
Janice Ryan, Head of Circulation of the Armonk Library will be retiring at the end of the month.

Welcome to Erin from BDH

Irene Kobizar from the Pelham Library is cleaning house and offered several items to the group that they no longer have use for. At the Grinton Will Library we are always replacing CD cases that get broken and she will gladly send us a supply. Scrap paper in strips(2.5″x11″) was also offered by WLS.

We will be able to send messages to patrons through a send message wizard. e.g. you left your umbrella at the library (This will not appear on their record). It will not appear in sirsi it will be on the PAC when they log in

 

 

 

 

If we receive a damaged book for an inter library loan we should check it out to missing and send it back to the owning library. This will enable the patron to get the next available copy. (Do Not Check the Book In as it will trap for a hold).

Dealing with Challenging Patrons has been archived for 11 more months. Basically Common Sense. Well put together and comprehensive.

May 24th “Everyone Served Families with Young Children” will be offered twice. (Once in the morning and once in the afternoon). Still taking registrations!

Holds alert…on shelf hold list. New option in the next upgrade (before Sept)to select a different option on way items are chosen for addition on the Onshelf Holds. Change to date discharged or last activity? Last activity might not work because an edit would count. It was agreed to have this report run as has in the past based on available copies.

There was a conflict with On-Line Bill pay but it has been resolved.

Fixes for the upgrade:

Sometimes have found an item checked out and also appearing on the Clean Holdshelf. This has been resolved.

If select subtotal by bill reason when paying multiple bills, the receipt will print out the correct totals

Alison asked if anyone uses Blue Cloud Analytics. This was helpful when a Director asked for a specific report. Also useful when librarian wanted to check a specific area that was weeded as well as circulation for the items.
In the next week a template will be created that will list checkout for a certain time period. There are Bill Reports, number and amount billed by your library over time. How many titles are in a collection compared to libraries around you? How many Graphic Novels, etc. Alison will be giving more classes on Blue Cloud Analytics.

E-Mailed Question: Do we extend pick-up dates if so why if not why…Yonkers checks out the item when the patron calls. Some libraries suspend the holds if the person calls and says they are on vacation.

The question was asked if a rule could be in place that patrons can only place Inter-Library Loans through their own library so that if there is a problem it is their Libraries problem. Angela thought that was the rule but Melanie said we are here to serve all patrons. However, these holds cost the library money and it is frustrating when someone doesn’t return the item. When an ILL is not returned the patron’s card is blocked. Bronxville charges $5.00 for not picking up an ILL.

Several libraries keep inter-library loan material on a shelf and let patrons pick up their own holds. This caused a problem when patrons were looking at other patron’s information. The receipt printers were changed to only show the last four (4) numbers of the patron ID. Yonkers tried this procedure and we quickly changed back to keeping all holds behind the Circulation Desk.

NOTE: Due to unexpected and undocumented results, the automatic in-transit from the clean holdshelf report will remain as is in place. Staff are encouraged to do the clean holdshelf report first to avoid problems.

Melanie asked if there are any success stories and did anyone have to report something going on at their library. I told of our renovation project and everyone said that they saw it on the News! Angela was concerned about our identifying colors being taken off and I explained about the screened panels and that they would still show the colors at the end of the panels.

The topic of the VDI~Virtual Desk Top was brought up and there seem to be problems with it. The Receipt printer is not communicating when you log in…WLS is constantly called to fix this. This is in process and will be addressed. You have to use the director’s log in. All software is through the internet and it takes about five (5) minutes to log in and it doesn’t communicate with the printers.

Patrons have to set up their own history or staff can use Modify Patron wizard to select charge history rule – all charges.
There was one library that didn’t receive the alerts any longer when the patron (with charge history activated) checked out an item that they had already had out. That is a setting that can be changed with supervisor logon.

If a patron cancels a hold it shows up on the clean hold shelf list the next day.

Submitted by Suzanne Johnson

Next Meeting September 14, 2017

Peekskill will take minutes.

Have a Good Summer!