Circulation Forum Minutes February 2013

Date:  February 13, 2013
Time:  1:30-4:30
Location:  Belle Isle

Present:    Melody Kellogg (ED), Denise Ryan (Bus), Cheryl Mann (CC), Patricia Ortiz (SO), Kevin Sendall (LO), Van Bielstein (VI), Jennifer Adkisson (NW), Shahin Asghari (ED), Janet Bowen (BE), Nathan Clymer (AL), Regina Fields (BE), Katie Hatfield (MC), Sharon Nelson (WA), Crystal Easley (DC), Lee Mata (CH), Alice Murphy (DN), Pat Whisenhunt (BI), Regina Wolfinger (BI), Sharon Thompson (DN), Aleisha Phillips (NW), Jef Fredericks (ED), Karin Daugherty (CT), and Sheila Fixel (DC).

Business Office is working on policies and procedures regarding accepting mutilated money. They are also looking into purchasing counterfeit pens for each library location. They have been receiving counterfeit ten dollar bills and twenty dollar bills from library deposits.

ILL Presentation - Pauling Rodriguez-Atkins, Cataloging Manager, presented information on the Interlibrary Loan process targeting areas of specific interest to Circulation Clerks. Pauline announced that she will follow up by sending an ILL manual to all libraries. The presentation was very informative.

Accepting credit card payments for multiple cardholders - Cheryl Mann followed up with a question that had been asked about combining charges from several family members’ card on one card to allow one swipe (charge) when accepting a credit card for payment. At first this seemed like a good idea, but Jimmy Welch recommends we not combine charges for many reasons – staff time, potential for error, possibility of credit card not working once the charges have been combined, inconsistent application system-wide, and the lost information that is often needed when IT balances the credit card charges each day. If the customer debates a credit card charge, we have eliminated our records to support the charge. There are privacy considerations as well. If the customer insists on paying with a credit card for amounts lower than the recommended threshold, staff should comply with their request.

Announcements

• Customers have questioned why their library card is needed to check out reserves if they provide the reserve notice which has their name, library card number, and email or mailing address. The notice states the customer should print/bring the notification in to pick up reserves. This is helpful but not required. MLS policy requires a library card or ID to check materials out.
• A reminder was made for staff to be consistent when dealing with Reserves that have been accidentally sent to BI (or AL or any other library). Each library should follow up and serve its own customer by doing the following:
1. Placing another reserve on the item.
2. Call IT and ask for the customer to be moved to the top of the waiting list.
3. Call the library where the item is currently shelved. Tell them the customer code and ask them to check in the item.
4. Advise the customer a new notice will be sent – email or regular mail – when the item is received or that they may check back in a day.
• Circ Clerks were reminded not to use the Clear Card. It is library card number 1 and is only for Circulation Control’s use.
• New cards are expected by the end of the week.
• Remember to use the pound sign (#) before apartment or lot numbers in VCirc.
• And the USPS zip code is the best way to determine address accuracy.
• Some time periods were shared (Staff use only, not to be shared with the public): 
• Fines come off customer cards after 6 months
• Overdue items come off after 3 years
• Inactive cards are erased from the system after 5 years of non-use.
• Special stops stay on indefinitely.