Tech Support Meeting Minutes for June 2004

Tech Support Meeting Minutes

Date: June 22, 2004

Present: Janet Brooks, Randy Wayland, Teresa Goggins, Jim Welch, Judy Walden, Anne Fischer, Lloyd Lovely, Kay Bauman, Donna Morris, Karen Marriott, Crystal Giles, Traci Jinkens

Update on Action Items:

1. Scott will compile a “top 20” listing of more inviting wording than “MLS Databases”. He will investigate each name due to copyright issues.
   This is still a work-in-progress. Scott will e-mail Kay what he has before next Tech Support meeting.
2. Judy will review new location codes, YA Sequoyah and YA Award.
   This has been implemented. The new locations codes are as follows:
   YAA – Young Adult Award YAS – Young Adult Sequoyah
3. Kay and Jim will work on revamping the advanced search instructions on CyberMARS.
   This is a work-in-progress.
4. Kay will discuss mlsSerials with Jim and give Janet a possible timeline for training purposes.
   Kay reported that they have not gotten together regarding this issue due to the Downtown move. This is a work-in-progress.
5. Judy and Jim will discuss the “Display” location code.
   This has been done. There are now five “Display” location codes available. Once an item is checked out/in, the item refers back to the original location code. Judy and Jim will be working on a memo which will then be sent out to staff.
6. IT will disable the address bar from the computers used only for CyberMARS and databases.
   IT will look into this further.
7. Lloyd will look into updating the parking voucher and parking maps to reflect new location.
   This is a work-in-progress. The parking map is currently done. Parking coupons are currently being used only for training purposes. Lloyd will be working with Lori Kane in the Director’s Office regarding parking coupons for visitors to the building (i.e. meetings, etc.). Lloyd and Woodrow Howard will work with Traci on updating the parking map to reflect only those locations that visitors to the building can park.
8. Kay will look into changing “Department” header on the Intranet to be more meaningful to employees.
   See the response to this issue in the Internet/Intranet section of the minutes.
9. Current Topics:
1. Demo of change to mlsHRPay – Jim Welch
   Employees’ social security numbers will no longer be displayed on the mlsHRPay screen. The social security numbers will only be available to Human Resources and Business Office staff. This change will be implemented on Thursday, July 1st. Judy will be sending out an e-mail to all staff alerting them to the change.
2. Demo of mlsCatClerk – Jim Welch
   Jim demonstrated the new mlsCatClerk program which will be available to Cataloging staff.
10. Standing Topics:
• Intranet/Intranet – Teresa Goggins
• Thanks to Kay Bauman, Anne Fischer, Jim Welch and Traci Jinkens for making updates to the Internet/Intranet in her absence.
• Alerted Tech Support members that we already have 150 people signed up as of June 21, 2004. The Book Passing information and graphic has been added to the rotating graphics on the Library’s main page.
• Scott will be sending Teresa guidelines/restrictions on using the logo on the Internet/Intranet.
• MLS Intranet Guidelines – We are moving away from using “Departments” as a header. All information presented on the Intranet will be presented as “Topics”. Teresa will be creating drop down menus from the current header.  She will send updated Intranet pages as they are completed to all Tech Support members. Discussion followed.
11. ILS Issues – Attention Employees: When submitting Tech Concerns and Suggestions, be sure and write down specifically what is needed and/or wanted. Find out the specifics:
12. Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? The more details provided in your e-mail, the better! Thanks, Tech Support
13. Tech Concerns
• Something should work a certain way or differently
• Information is not needed ASAP
• Something to be fixed without bringing the issue before the whole Tech Support committee
14. Tech Suggestions
• Suggestion or idea for improvement
• Something to be done in the future
1. A concern was sent in regarding pop-ups appearing on staff computers. The employee wanted to know if it would be possible to get some sort of anti-pop up software installed on staff computers.
   Pop-up blocking software is not 100% effective against stopping pop-ups from happening on staff computers and could possibly cause more problems. If staff are noticing a lot of pop-ups on their computers, alert IT staff to the problem. It may be due to spyware on the computer, which IT will remove.
2. A suggestion was sent in asking if there was any way to have a “book drop renew” button so that on Sundays staff can renew items on the book drop date.
   Judy will discuss this issue at the next Library Manager’s meeting.
3. A request was sent in wanting to know if it would be possible to write into the daily deposit screen a limit of how many times a deposit amount can be entered.
   This has been done.
4. A suggestion was made regarding having items grouped together on the transaction printout so that everything due at the same time would be grouped together. Furthermore, another suggestion was made regarding sorting the transaction record by Due Date instead of date checked out.
   Right now items on the transaction printout are grouped chronologically by the events that take place by a customer. As stated in previous minutes from October 2003, trying to sort by due date could lead to various other problems (i.e., fines listed first). This will not be done.
5. A suggestion requesting the use of a cross-reference in the author file was made so that customers and employees would be able to find artists/authors who may have changed their names during the course of their career or have names that may be difficult to find.
   There are two issues to be discussed: cross-references and added entries. Cataloging and Materials Selection will discuss the issues presented.
6. A concern was sent in requesting a label to be placed on videos stating, “Please be kind and rewind.”
   We used to have a similar request on the video containers and did not find it to be effective so we discontinued the practice. Therefore, we will not be pursuing this.
7. A suggestion was sent in requesting CDROM capabilities at public computers.
   There are security concerns with this issue. Discussion followed. More specific information is needed regarding what the public wants to do with the CDROM. Judy will speak with the Library Managers about the types of requests. IT would like for staff to ask customers (when they ask if the CD Drive is available) what types of files they would be accessing from a CD if this were made available. We will not be pursuing this at the present time.
8. A concern was sent in stating that a customer could not access a particular link on a site.
   Anne has requested assistance from N2H2. Please check back periodically on the website to see if the link has been updated.
9. A suggestion was made to have the pick-up screen be defaulted to the library that staff is working from to prevent customer frustration and delay from having to wait and/or go to another location to pick up reserves.
   For this to happen, staff would need to logon to the staff catalog every time they used it for the software to know where they are located. It was not believed that the staff would want to logon every time they used the staff catalog. Therefore, no change will be made at this time. Be sure and use the pull down menu when placing reserves for customers.
10. A suggestion was sent in stating that despite frequent reminders and instructions posters near computers, books are still getting coded as back room and customers assume that books are available to check out.
    Judy will discuss this issue at the next Library Manager’s meeting. She will find out how many libraries actually code for BKR and leave it that way. Judy will e-mail results to Tech Support. Jim suggested someone look through the collection analysis reports and calculate the quantity of items coded for BKR. Jim also suggested identifying other problem codes which could possibly be deleted, i.e. ILL, SRS.
15. Action Items
• Scott will e-mail Kay a “top 20” listing of more inviting wording than “MLS Databases” before next Tech Support meeting.
• Judy and Jim will work on and send a memo alerting staff to the new “Display” codes.
• Lloyd will work with Lori Kane on issuing parking coupons for visitors to the RJN DN Library.
• Lloyd, Woodrow, and Traci will work on updating the parking map to reflect only those locations that visitors can park.
• Judy will send out an e-mail to staff regarding implementation of the change in the mlsHRPay screen.
• Scott will send Teresa guidelines/restrictions on using the MLS logo on the Internet/Intranet.
• Judy will discuss having a “book drop renew” button (ILS Issue # 2) at the next Library Manager’s meeting.
• Cataloging and Materials Selection will discuss cross-referencing and added entries.
• Judy will find out how many libraries actually code for BKR and leave it that way at the next Library Manager’s meeting. She will e-mail the results to Tech Support members.