WLS Circulation Committee, November 14, 2019

Meeting began at 9:30 am, there were 26 people in attendance.

Allison Midgley introduced the new Systems Librarian, Lindsay Stratton, who joined the meeting via Google Hangouts.

Repair/Damage cards are going the way of the dinosaur. Damaged items and items in repair should be marked with the appropriate status. Checking items out to cards leaves them available for holds. This may not be appropriate for items that will be out of circulation for some time or on their way to the dumpster.

Missing items will be purged after one year. Inactive/expired patrons will be purged after 18 months if they have no fines, or after 2 years if they have less than $25 in fines (no lost items). This information is on the IT Wiki under Circ/Policies. Setting up these purges are on the ILS committee list for implementation in 2020.

Allison reports Acquisitions is very close to working.

The ILS Committee is addressing the following issues:

  • Additional Juvenile fine rules for the libraries that lost the J fines – Lindsay is making this a priority.
  • Getting rid of access to the patron’s record via old barcodes.
  • Getting rid of “Clear Holds” button.
  • Holds filling priorities.
  • Alphabetize drop down choices for patron permission group.
  • Auto-print receipts (without dialogue box if desired).
  • Allow search filters to function after preliminary search
  • Create/change future suspension dates for holds.

NEW INFORMATION ABOUT HOLDS NOTIFICATION:

Changing holds notification from the patron record does not retroactively change notification for existing holds! Notification for existing holds is done by selecting the holds and choosing “Edit Notifications” from the drop down. This was demonstrated at the meeting.

 

Adding key words to a patron record can assist with searching for the patron. This is useful if the patron has multiple names, a name where first/last name is likely to be reversed, or for certain groups. Adding key words will show as a label tag next to the patron name.Patron Keyword Label displays patron keywords on mouse over

Pre-cat adds are often really mis-scans at checkout. Scan the item again and check the barcode before you do a pre-cat add. When the item comes back, the pre-cat record should be deleted.  A report can be used to find and correct/delete these temporary records.

There was a discussion about Claimed Returned.  It is a “Fine Stopped” reason, not a status.  Allison demonstrated how to add the fine stopped reason column to the Item Status display. Claimed Returneds are visible and holdable in the catalog. For this reason the Circulation Committee voted to recommend Claimed Returneds be marked missing or deleted after six months. The Claimed Returned count on the patron recorded and/or notes should be used to record any recurring problems with claimed returns.

It is important for every library to check their Transit List. Items in transit longer than expected should be found and sent along, or have the transit cancelled and the item marked missing. If every library takes care of the items on their “To” list, the list will be greatly reduced. Allison provided a demonstration. Instructions are on the Wiki under Evergreen Help and FAQs/Daily Maintenance.

Items without proper entries in the Statistical Categories field will not provide proper statistics in the monthly reports. Information about statistical categories can be found on the Wiki using this link: https://it.westchesterlibraries.org/help-and-faqs/evergreen-help-and-faq/evergreen-technical-services/

To find the items at your library that need stat cat entries, run the report in Allison’s shared WLS report templates folder titled “Items with no Stat Cat…”

Item Templates are not settled. We are hoping the upcoming version of Evergreen will save more at the server level to eliminate some of the problems that have been occurring.

Allison is starting a Code Library so we can share our best printer receipts. Its on the IT WIki at Evergreen Receipts and Slips.

Angela reminded us not to pass along damaged items until you’ve made an effort to resolve the issue with the responsible patron. When a damaged item should no longer be circulated, it should be sent home in an envelope along with a note explaining what has been done and who to contact if there are questions.

The Circulation Committee voted to recommend that items that have been renewed once, but are not required for a hold, checked out a second time to the same patron at an away library. This is to save transit on an item that the patron wants again. This is not the same as second renewal since the item must be physically presented for check-in/cancel transit/checkout.

Bib records/titles that appear to be dupes can be emailed to wls-cat@wlsmail.org. Including the Title Control Numbers (TCNs) makes the job fast and easy for WLS catalogers.

There is a bug that is causing some items to issue long receipts with lots of text and/or refuse to check in. These problems appear to be by workstation and may have to do with number of holds. Send examples to the Help Desk, Allison, or an ILS Committee Member.

We need the interactive map back.

Next meetings: Jan. 9 – minutes by DOB

March 12 – minutes by GRE

May 14 – minutes by OSS