Meeting Agenda: May 13, 2025, 9:30-11:00 AM

Member Intros and New Member Welcome 

Sally Scudo from Chappaqua joined us in place of Marge Perlin.

Topics/Updates/Demos 

Evergreen Upgrade:

Lindsay explained the changes in the Evergreen 3.14 upgrade that is scheduled for June 4, 2025. Lindsay has 2 demos scheduled for the Reporter Module changes (Tuesday, 5/20/25, 2:00-3:00 PM AND Friday, 5/23/25, 11:00-12:00 PM). They are on WLS’s calendar. One of the sessions will be recorded. Lindsay then went through changes that we can expect with the upgrade.

  • When staff log in after the upgrade, the first thing they should do is clear their cache. Some things with Evergreen are sticky and need to be cleared out before the new settings can come through.
  • Upgrades will include:
    • Accessibility changes: colors, fonts, etc
    • A new “Dark Mode” option
    • Keyboard shortcut hints in the Circulation dropdown menu
    • The Manage Columns menu will look different
    • Patron notes and alerts on records have more noticeable colors
    • There is an example of what a phone number should look like in the User Settings to the right of the Default Phone Number field when registering a patron or updating a patron record.
    • 2 columns can be added: “Hold Canceling Staff” & “Hold Canceling Workstation” which will allow staff to see who canceled a hold.
    • “Hold reset Entries”: Shows all actions that caused a change to a hold (canceled, suspended, retargeted, etc- when and who made the change and notes can be added here as well)
    • Record Buckets now have more options.
    • Reports will have a completely new display.

Evergreen Email Opt-In Functionality:

With PLDA approval, WLS will be implementing Evergreen functionality to add an opt-in / opt-out for Evergreen email notices. This functionality can be added before or after the upgrade in June. This setting ONLY addresses email notifications sent from the ILS regarding circulation and hold notifications. It does not cover library marketing or other emails sent from the library. 
  • The default is opted in. If this functionality is implemented, all existing patrons will be opted in by default. This will ensure that patrons who currently receive email notifications will continue to receive email notifications.
  • The patron can not do it themselves in Aspen as it has not been integrated into Aspen as of yet. However, it is being worked on. So for now, a staff person would have to opt the patron out.

Holds Limit Raised:

PLDA approved raising the holds limit from 25 to 35 and it has been implemented. So far there don’t seem to be any issues or concerns.

Libraries’ Fines Older Than 5 Years:

PLDA approved that all libraries’ overdue fines, older than 5 years, can now be forgiven at ANY library. This does NOT apply to lost or damaged items.

Tech Services Interest Meeting:

The first meeting took place and was successful. There will be another meeting in June (June 10, 9:30-10:30 AM) if any libraries have staff who would like to attend.

Reminders 

Patron Renewals:

It is a PLDA- approved WLS-wide policy that any patron can go to any library to have their card renewed. They do NOT need to go to their home library to do this. If they have the proper documentation, whichever library they are in, should renew their card the same way as they would for their own patron.

    • If a patron would like to get a library card and they are not in their “home” library, that library can make a TEMP card and send all the information to the patron’s home library to make the permanent card. This has been the practice for years and some staff may need a reminder, especially new staff.

Partial Payments for Lost Items:

Please do not accept partial payments for lost materials. Also, when a lost item is paid for that belongs to another library, please remember to send the payment to the owning library.

Condition Etiquette:

All libraries need to be mindful about the condition of the items they are sending to fill holds. Please have staff do a quick check of the condition of the item before sending it and if it is water damaged or has mold or mildew on it, do not send it. Retarget the hold and set the offending item to damaged or delete it.

    • Lots of libraries are ok with other libraries setting their items to damaged if that library deems it to be damaged.

Unpaid Fines Un-anonymized:

Unpaid fines, no matter how small, prevent circulations from being anonymized as that bill is still attached to a patron.

  • Unfortunately, we cannot do a sweeping clean up of fines where Equinox would clear these.
  • There are reports available to run that would show each library’s patrons who have old fines so a staff person can manually remove them from their record.
  • This is a great project for a new staff person on the Circulation Desk.

Updating Patron Records When They Move:

If a patron moves to another Westchester town, please make sure all fields are updated in Evergreen on their record (Barcode, home library, pickup library, address, etc) Also be sure to merge their records in Libby if they were previously using it. There is someone on staff at every library who knows how to do this.

Summer Hours:

There was a discussion about the best way to input Summer Hours. If your library closes on Sundays over the Summer, WLS cannot set your library to closed until week of the first closure. This means that due dates, holds expiration dates and pickup dates could theoretically fall on a day when the library would be closed.

  • For example: Ossining closes on Sundays in July and August. Since WLS cannot set Ossining to closed until June 30, a patron who checks something out on June 29, would have a due date of July 13 when the library would be closed. A good workaround for this, is to go to the Closed Dates Editor and input the first few Sundays your library would be closed so that the holds pickup and expiration dates and due dates do not become an issue. Then, please send a Helpdesk ticket to WLS to let them know your Summer Hours (ex: your library closes on Sundays).
  • Your Library’s Aspen Administrator would have to change your library’s hours in Aspen.

Discussion/Q&A 

New Status “Damaged and Paid”:

There was a discussion as to whether having this status in Evergreen would be helpful which is similar to the “Lost and Paid” status. Many libraries agreed this would be helpful because as it stands now, if a damaged item is paid for, the status stays as “Damaged.” Having this new status would be easier to catch with a report and help staff make informed decisions about replacing these items.

  • Lindsay will update on whether or not this can be implemented.

Replace Barcode for Lost Items (please don’t do this):

There was a reminder to please not use the “Replace Barcode” function when an item is Lost and still charged to the patron. If a barcode is changed while that item is attached to a patron’s record, it causes confusion and headaches.

Book Sale List:

Many thanks to Amanda Allen from BDH for compiling a list of upcoming Book Sales and book donation sites. It will live on the WLS IT Wiki.

ILLS:

Libraries are noticing that some ILLs are coming in with loan periods that are shorter than the PLDA approved loan duration of 4 weeks. Libraries are still checking out the ILL for 4 weeks by changing the due date. Allison Pryor will check on this.

  • It was also mentioned that WLS putting in a placeholder of $30 for these items, when some are much more expensive, is not a great practice. There have been a few instances where a patron has lost an ILL, gone online and paid the $30 for the item and then this caused lots of headaches between WLS and the owning library.

Announcements

  • BRI is now fine-free!
  • Nora Mulligan from the Field Library is retiring at the end of May. We all wish her the best in this new chapter! It’s been a true pleasure working with her over the years!
  • The next Circulation Committee Meeting is in September.
  • Many libraries acknowledged how helpful Allison’s reminders about this meeting were.

Next Meeting: September 9, 2025, 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM

Respectfully submitted,

Marie Trapasso

OSS