Circulation Forum Minutes for February 2010

Date: February 10, 2010

Location: Belle Isle Library

Present: Lee Mata (CH), Mary J. Sholly(DN), Sharon Thompson(DN), Shirley Henderson(MC), Crystal Suppes(MC), Linda Jameson(DC), Janet Bowen(BE), Jef Fredericks(ED), Laci Bowers(ED), Sally Phillips(SO), Julie Schofield(SO), Cheryl Mann(CC),Betty Scott(Bus), Tindle Arnold(CT), L. Marie Nichols(WR), Jo Nita White(HR), Denesa Bennett(WA), LaWana Morgan(RE), Shanelle Jackson(VI), Jennifer Adkisson(ED), Mary McElroy(BI), Carol Provine(BI), Jamar O Rahming(DC), Ann Aliotta(ED), Pat Whisenhunt (BI), Julie Ballou (DN), Lisa Myers (VI).

Guest: Pam Buchanan

Meeting called to order at 1:30 p.m. by Julie Ballou, Manager of Library Operations, DN.

1. Introductions - Julie Ballou
   Julie welcomed all, went over some ground rules and identified 4 goals for the Circulation forum:
• Improve system-wide consistency in carrying our circulation policies and procedures
• Improve communication across the system as Circulation Clerks from different locations have an opportunity to interact
• Provide a quarterly opportunity for sharing ideas related to customer service.
• Provide clerks with first hand news
2. Ice Breaker - Lisa Myers
   Lisa Myer had everyone up, moving and mixing.
3. Review of Issues from Last Forum – Julie Ballou
   Julie Ballou reviewed a final decision from Circulation Forum I’s discussion.

   The 6 week maximum check-out will stand. The policy stated in the AGOP 2113 “Intro to VCirc” reads:
   Books, other printed materials, audiocassettes and recordings may be checked out for two weeks. They may be renewed twice to a maximum loan period of 42 days if there is no System Reserves request for items during that period.

   The reasoning for this rule is that many customers come to the library to browse and never use our reserve system. These folks deserve an opportunity to see all of our books.

   Julie had taken the clerks concerns to the managers meeting and it was discussed in both the Nov. and Dec. meetings before a final decision was reached. Forum I’s discussion made it clear that clerks at various libraries were treating this rule in different ways. This is the first consensus resulting from clerks’ discussions at the Forum that all libraries will now treat in the same way.

4. Express Checkout - Pam Buchanan, Betty Scott
   Pam Buchanan and Betty Scott handed out excellent brochures and explained the working of Express Checkout stations’ machinery. Pam said the computers in the Express Checkout Stations will soon be replaced and the new ones which will automatically restart everyday. In the meantime, some libraries are manually restarting the express checkout everyday and that is helping prevent problems.
1. Discussion question - “Why must the Express Checkout stations money be handled first?” Betty Scott gave two reasons:
• Use of the self checkout stations will increase and so will the money.
• You may need to exchange coinage from your cash drawers and you want to do this when you have the most change available. Betty encourages clerks to buy back gold coins from customers.
2. Discussion question - “What do you do when machine is not properly exited and the next customer is charged with previous person’s books?” Cheryl Mann suggested putting temporary tracers on them. Other clerks suggested using preventive measures by training customers and saying, “If you don’t get a receipt printout, you are not done.”
3. Discussion idea - Library acronyms should not be used. People do not know what RFID means –it might work better to use terms like “hand held” and “desktop” on the Self-Checkout options screen.
5. Credit Card Payments - Cheryl Mann
• It cost the system $25 every time a customer calls his credit card company about a charge. So please refer customers to 606-3849 from 8-4:30 M-F for help with credit card questions.
• Jimmy has to balance the credit card payments every day (7 days a week)
• There are no partial payments with credit cards.
• Because of privacy issues there is no way to link whole families together. Cheryl will investigate if it is possible to link parents with their children.
• Cheryl handed out instructions on how to handle credit card renewals of annual fee cards. (Attached)
• Avoid using the prepaid account. We are not a bank. Bags, copies and new cards should not be charged to a customer’s pre-paid account. The system had to add a whole separate account to pay for these. The prepaid account was set up so people could deposit money for future costs and not so they could charge items.
6. Open Discussion #1 Reserve labels on the new audio format.
   How are libraries handling new format for audios? The reserve slips will not stick on some of the plastic surfaces and won’t come off of others. Several libraries are using 3 inch book tape. Jennifer Adkisson received an ovation for suggesting that searchers place the reserve slip (without peeling off the back) inside the plastic cover.
7. Open Discussion #2 When to return problem items to owning branch.
   After a discussion, the forum members came to the following consensus:

   Problem items from other libraries should not be checked in and should be sent back to the owning library within 2 days. A clerk might call a customer and say, “CD #8 was missing from the audio book you brought back today. I need to send this back to the owning library. If you can find and bring missing part back, I can hold it until tomorrow.” Signed and dated notes are very helpful for other libraries trying to track missing items from your customers.

8. Open Discussion #3 Cash problems
   Betty Scott is willing to come and do training with requesting libraries. Sharon Thompson wondered if it would be possible for the ILS system to add a reminder statement when fine payments do not match. Something like, “Amount entered does not match fine amount.” (Did you mean to put it $1.10 when the fine total was $1.30?) This would prevent accidentally keying in the wrong amount.
9. Open Discussion # 4. What is the policy on giving out 606 numbers?
   Please do not give out direct phone numbers for ILL or IT.
   Please give out the credit card processing number 606-3849 for credit card questions.
10. Open Discussion # 5
    A clerk asked if we should charge customers who constantly request many reserves and  then say, “I only want to check out 3 of those 12 reserves”. Most of the forum thought this was not feasible and would cause problems.

The survey handed out at the beginning of the meeting was collected. Julie encouraged all attendees to share Forum information with their home libraries.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 pm.