Proposed BIG changes to borrowing, reference, eligibility, rules of conduct, and internet access policies (UPDATED)
UPDATE: We have attached a document that describes in more detail some of the changes proposed by the Borrowing Committee.
Happy Thanksgiving Week! We are proposing some pretty big changes to a few public services policies, especially AM 100 Borrowing. Please read the attached policies and share what you think would positively or negatively impact your ability to provide excellent customer service in your job. The first page is a briefing sheet the describes the major changes to each policy. Some of these changes are significant and we really want to know what staff thinks will and won't work.
We expect to take these policies to the commission's Public Services committee on December 15 or sometime in January. It will go to the commission on January 19 or February 16.
Below are the policy leads for each of the policies reviewed:
Borrowing: Meghan Attalla
Eligibility/Library Accounts: Chris Stofel
Internet Access: David Newyear
Reference: Erin Bedford
Rules of conduct: Tracy Simpson
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Comments
Proposed change: Increase renewal limit to 6 months [8 times @ 3 weeks/each renewal]
I know many teachers use the library and check out all of the materials they need for a unit, often all those available at the time. Right now, this means that within two weeks of Thanksgiving, we have few materials on the subject, as they've all been reserved. This policy change will enable the same teacher to check out all the materials he needs for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's as early as June, as long as he renews them right away. No one's going to be waiting for Christmas book in June. He'll be within his rights, but we won't be serving our other customers very well when we have none of those books in December. There are several similar scenarios to this. I cannot see any reason for the renewal limit to be so long, especially with the ability to immediately max out renewals, as exists now. Perhaps three months would better serve our customers. Perhaps we could remove the ability to max out renewals and let customers keep the items six months, then?
Hello Kara,
You actually make a case FOR immediate renewals by showing how a teacher could use the proposed changes to prepare for the whole semester. This is exactly what we want members to do. Not to downplay your concerns, but we will have plenty of materials to keep members happy. I know some employees currently don't agree with renewals for six weeks and I would never expect them to think six months is okay, but I am confident all will be well and we can mitigate perceived problems by monitoring the appropriate data. Thanks!
Kevin Sendall
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Hi Gatlin,
Thanks for your comment. The link you shared reflects the last time that AM100 was revised & it just so happened to be one of the first policies up for revision during this new review process in which staff will be conducting rolling reviews of all policies every couple of years. After seeing this renewal feature in action on the ground for a couple of years & after having talked to many of our peers, the review committee felt that the limit of 2 renewals for a maximum lending period of 6 weeks was arbitrarily low, especially considering the size of our (physical & digital) collection. I hope that helps & please let me know if I can be of more help.
I believe the immediate renewals are an excellent member service tool and I use this feature daily to assist members. Some employees feel that when an item is renewed it should be for only 3 weeks from the current date, which is the way the old ILS worked. Because CarlX is designed to add the renewal period to the due date upon each renewal, some feel this is a bug in the system when it is actually a member friendly design.
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