PCS Forum - October 2013

Location:  Del City Library
Date:  October 29, 2013
Time:  3:00pm – 6:00pm

Present – John Wood (IT), Matt Evans (BE), Stephen Boulden (CH), Reginald Walker (RE), Richard Maxwell (VI), Gatlin Sullivan (NW), Todd Podzemny (CT), Joshua Jordan (MC), Theresa Porter (WA), Daren Anderson (AL), Tonette Woody (DC), Keith Hammack (NW), Anthony Edwards (DN), Jacson Melvin (DN), Michael Molina (SO), James Gordon (CT), Gary Stotler (CT), Roni Anderson (BI), Randell Baze (ED), Stephanie Valencia (AL).

Guests – Kellie Delaney, Manager of Web Development; Tim Spindle, Virtual Librarian

Meeting was called to order at 3:00pm by Todd Podzemny.

Welcome

Todd welcomed attendees and each specialist identified themselves as well their library branch.

Virtual Library & Customer Assistance

Kellie and Tim provided information on their positions and their stance on helping internal and external customers regarding digital and web services.   They provided information on current resources available to all staff and how to locate the information on Metrolibrary.org and MyMetrolibrary.  This information can be used by the PCSes to help customers at their location or to help facilitate conversations with other library staff on where to go for assistance related to digital services. 

PLA maintains and updates these resources regularly and provide links for instructions, downloads, and other pertinent information to help customers (internal & external) use these services.  Any librarian or manager may assist these types of questions so it's important for those positions to know where the information is located.    They encouraged the PCSes to show the locations of these resources to their fellow coworkers so anyone can access the information if needed.  Kellie & Tim welcome any ideas from the group so they can better serve the needs of the internal customers on MyMetrolibrary.  If you need additional information or something needs to be updated, feel free to contact them at anytime.

Browser Based Games/Privacy Concerns

There are some games the customers are playing, such as minecraft and roblox, that leave information on the desktop. Usually, this will clear when the customer logs off and another customer logs on. Sometimes, a restart is necessary to remove the information left behind.

Some customers experience blocked sites. They need to complete the information McAfee request for the blocked site. The library does not choose which specific sites to block. McAfee sends a list of blocked sites to our filter servers.

Some customers with laptops experience sign-on problems with WIFI. The sign-on screen does not come up. There appears to be a problem with either the operating system (possibly Windows 8) or the network upgrade. John will check to verify it is not the network upgrade. Since the library does not have Windows 8 on any of its computers, the problem cannot be duplicated.

Public Computer Visitor Passes

The computer sign on system may change in the future. For now, each library should account for visitors passes as follows:

1. Use the “Visitor’s Request” form – one where the customer can sign
2. A sign-on log
3. Change the password daily

Some of the specialists use a computer spreadsheet which will be sent to all of the public computer specialists.

One on One and Class Room Style Training

Todd suggested that the specialists check for interest in specialty training classes. A series of training classes could be held at the 4 largest libraries. A list of the staff specialties would be listed and that person’s availability to teach. Some suggested training in e-media and etc…

Affordable Care Act

Specialists are allowed to help the customer fill out the form. However, the customer should fill-out the form. Specialist should avoid, when possible, inputting the customers personal information such as the SSN.

Open Discussion

John stated that on some sites JAVA may not work due to recent changes in the JAVA runtime environment, which causes previous versions to expire when new versions are released.  As testing is required before deploying new software, the IT Department may not have updated JAVA and some sites may not load or may show a warning message. The IT Department is working on a process whereby the computers (particularly the public use computers) can be updated more quickly with JAVA so that customers do not run into this issue as frequently.  There may be additional JAVA related issues that relate to specific websites, and we welcome calls about problems to 2210.

The forum ended at 6:00pm.