Access Services Minutes - December 18, 2018

Outcomes:  To discuss topics/tasks related to Access staff to ensure that staff and members have a consistent experience across the system

Welcome:  Risa called the meeting to order and welcomed the group.

FYI: 

            Last Meeting Summary – Risa

• New account naming for system library accounts
• TLC updates are going well.
• Damaged status will no longer be used. Just use “withdrawn”.
• The new inventory schedule starts next year (2019).
• There is no troubleshooting with text messages to customers through CARL.X, so printed mail is always sent in addition to text messages if email is not setup.

TLC Product & Ticket Updates - Risa

5 Favorites to get TLC to work on updates

1. Remove the “Place Hold” button if no copy is available to hold.

2. Suggest a Title doesn’t work with non-word characters (/, &, etc.).

3. Place a hold if there is a circulating copy at another location, yet your copy is a reference copy

4. If a customer adds or edits email from the catalog, that would update “send e-mail” in CARL.X

5. Renewing items when two computers are on the same account and some items have already been checked in.

Access manuals have been updated to include features that already existed but had not been documented. You can waive fines and see fine history in CARL.Connect if you go to My Account. It does not support partial fine waivers by waiver amount – waivers are by item only. You can also place holds in CARL.Connect by using MyAccount. The next upgrade to CARL.X and CARL.Connect will probably happen in January. CARL.Connect will look different on several pages. Holds will appear immediately on the Fill List if there is a copy on shelf. A new feature on the Fill List will be “Fill with,” which allows staff to fill with a different item number, if there is one on hand. The Fill List will also list the pickup location for each hold.

                Hiring Updates – Several openings were discussed as to where the hiring process is at this time to fill vacant positions. The interview team is not required to have an AMIII if the library manager is on your interview team. Hiring documents are available on SharePoint and called “Process for hiring Access Specialist.”

                Shelving Order – Kylie – We discussed movies shelved by call number, instead of numerals before the alphabetical titles. Numbers are spelled out on the spine for the movies. The discussion on how to shelve fiction titles with numbers was inconclusive. We will get staff feedback for the next meeting.

                Missing Pieces Letter Contact Info – Risa

ACTION ITEM: Please update your Missing Pieces documents to use the following contact information: Janeal Walker, phone #606-3805

                Vox Books and BOB Books – Sarah – The new BOB books will have several books combined into one. They will still be small, but they will be thicker and easier to find on the shelf. Vox books are Easy and Reader audiobooks that will be arriving in the new year.  Replacement cost and cataloging for Vox items are not known at this time. (Update: replacement costs range between $42 and $50; Cataloging is working on setting up the spine label information.) They were highly recommended by other libraries that use them. The books have rechargeable batteries. A charge should last about 8 months, so we will not circulate the chargers for them. When the battery on the book is low, a blue light will blink. Then we charge the battery.

DISCUSSION TOPICS:     

E-mail Address Collection – Kiley – We discussed how the process of requesting email addresses for library accounts is going. Some best practices were offered:

• We can ask/collect e-mail addresses by asking library members “What’s a good e-mail address for you?” when they open a new library account.
• Explain the benefits and reassure them that we do not sell their e-mail address.  
• They could get e-mail receipts and get notes quicker than with snail mail.

ACTION ITEM: Please remind staff of this information at 1-on-1 meetings, staff meetings, and new staff training, in-person, or by E-mail.

Juvenile Nonfiction Report and Recommendation – Sarah – Libraries are getting excellent circulation results and customer comments after putting JNF in the children’s area instead of with the ANF. Almonte is preparing to move their JNF to its own area.

ACTION ITEM: Melissa Weathers has an increased budget for replacement or gaps in the JNF area. Feel free to invite Melissa to come browse your JNF area to review for collection needs.

Launchpad Report and Recommendation – Sarah – We have about 2200 Launchpads now. We are waiting until the collection falls naturally to about 500 Lauchpads to repurpose them and take them out of the circulating collection. Replacement cost for a customer is $60 if they damage and return a Launchpad.

ACTION ITEMS:

• Make sure all Launchpads are working when they are returned. Village will share a checklist on the AM OneDrive.
• E-mail Janeal Walker, if you would like a larger tablet collection or a smaller tablet collection. She can transfer them to another location.

Damaged Items as Manual Fine - Meghan - We are currently holding on to damaged items for 6 months. We discussed shelf space and the number of customers who don’t pick up their damaged items after they pay for them. The number of customers who want to keep their damaged items after paying for them has been extremely low.

ACTION ITEM: As a group, we decided to hold damaged items for 3 months before sending them to Friends of the Library.  This needs to be implemented by February 1, 2019. Make sure the information is shared with customers and staff.

Handling Non-MLS Materials Returned to Libraries – Risa – After discussion about the cost and benefits, we decided to continue with the current process of sending foreign items to ILL. If you can contact the school or church before sending items to ILL, you may do it locally by establishing or building on an existing relationship, but it is not a required step.

ACTION ITEM: The process for handling non-MLS materials that have been returned to the library will not substantially change. If you can contact the owning church or school library for arrangements to return it, that could help save MLS time and money, but it is not required.

After reviewing action items, the meeting was adjourned.

Next Meeting: January 22, 2019 at Midwest City Library

Next Notetaker: Community Libraries