Tech Support Meeting Minutes for April 2010

Tech Support Meeting Minutes
Date: April 27, 2010

Attendance: Kay Bauman, Kellie Bradford, Janet Brooks, Denyvetta Davis, Teresa Goggins, Jack Kinzie, Josh Lewis, Karen Marriott, Donna Morris, Katrina Prince, Kim Terry, Jimmy Welch Visitors: Betty Scott, LaVetta Dent and Julie Ballou.

Update on Action Items:

1. Kellie and Teresa are reviewing the results from the intranet survey and will be working with IT while adding additional searching features to the intranet and internet.
2. The topic of exploring other options for accessing uncataloged paperbacks is still an ongoing process of discussion and investigation.
3. Janet and Jimmy have streamlined the process of customer suggestions into a database. They are still working with the database before they make it live. Once it is live, when orders are placed for materials, reserves will automatically be placed for those that have submitted the title as a purchase suggestion.
4. The damaged item process was discussed at the manager’s meeting and the locations determined that damaged materials should be held at locations for 6 months.

New Business:

• The cash deposit committee presented some changes that have been made to v-circ.
• The charge of the cash deposit committee was to help staff reduce errors regarding the cash deposit process. The committee recently reconvened to make some changes regarding some of the ideas the group had, but did not have time to implement at the time of the original charge.
• During the current meetings, the team has worked with Jimmy to make some changes to v-circ that they anticipate will reduce some errors. Jimmy has added some changes to the financial/payment tabs. VCirc will not immediately return to the main screen as the clerk must
  input how much money was given and click “apply,” then a receipt will be printed and the screen will tell how much change to give back. The “pay other” tab will be separated into two tabs; “pay other –cash” and “pay other – credit card.”
• These changes will be piloted at DN. Staff at other locations will be trained before continuing with the implementation.

Changes to the Internet / Intranet:

• Kellie and Teresa both attended the Computers in Libraries conference and found that Metro is far ahead of many of the tools represented at the conference. IT has been able to provide us with many of the things vendors were selling to enhance the library web experience.
• They also received more information about content management systems.
• Intranet – Kellie and Teresa are brainstorming about how to update the intranet with the
• Intranet Survey results.
• Internet – Many new pages have been added including summer volunteer pages and teen pages and new headers on pages with pictures of libraries and staff, etc. Kellie is also working with Todd on adding a live feed from the NW Library construction site to the website once IT gets the line installed for the feed and the camera working that will be supplying the feed.

ILS Issues:

1. A question was asked about what to do when an item is mistakenly checked out to the wrong customer using the new self-reserve system.
• This should not happen, but in the event that it does staff should use the VCirc lookup function immediately to find the customer and place them back on reserve.
2. A circ clerk asked for a tool to lock an account when there are 60 day problems that would not unlock until payment were received. This is a problem because the RFID area may check books out to a customer even if they have a hold on their account.
• Tech Support does not recommend placing a lock on accounts. This has always been the judgment of the circulation staff and adds a personal customer service aspect to the situation. If books are accidentally checked out because of the RFID area, the clerk always has the option of discussing the issue and checking the books back in. Also, this can be prevented by clearing the pad before scanning the customer’s card, or placing a small barrier in front of the pad to deter customers from laying books on top of it. Julie will discuss this at the circ forum to see what  the locations are doing to prevent this from happening.
3. A tech assistant asked about providing transient customers with virtual cards (like the Pioneer Library System has) that can only be used for computer use to cut down on problems resulting from guest passes.
• The virtual card used at PioneerLlibrary System is only for people who can’t physically get in the library to use databases, etc. You must be a part of their system to obtain a card. This only entitles them to virtual service; it is not a pass to use computers in the library. A virtual card may limit the availability of physical materials. It would create concerns regarding the usage of services such as databases and emedia, which are not services we want to offer for free to those not in our service area.
4. A librarian asked if there could be a new search option added to the staff catalog or cyberMARS that would allow browse-able results for biographies, tween, DVD, or Spanish materials when searching by Shelf Number.
• Tech Support discussed this at length and agrees that it would be a good option to have, however, adding extra searching functions could slow down cyberMARS with the current interface of the CyberMARS search. Jimmy will add it to the staff catalog first and will include searching by Juvenile, Tween, DVD, Biography, Video Disc and Compact Disc.(don’t know how you want to change this but in the Cataloging marc record, DVDs are labeled as video discs so these aren’t two separate categories.)
5. A circ clerk asked if it would be possible to force all of the 60 day fines in a customer’s account on the Partial Pay transaction screen to the top.
• The screen is arranged by date and time checked out so the FN 60 items should be near the top unless there are DVDs. Everyone has a different order that they want this list in so changing the order to anything else could cause problems somewhere else. This was referred to the Circ Forum for further discussion. Tech Support would like to have some examples.
6. A customer asked if he could update his information (phone and address) online since his information was out of date and since he can update his e-mail in cyberMARS would like to update other information as well.
• Tech Support has many concerns with this. E-mail addresses aren’t connected to eligibility and the e-mail is only part of cyberMARS. If customers are allowed to update more personal information online there may be people who have moved out of our customer service area. If we only allow them to update their phone number online, that might mean that they have moved as well. This could mean that we would need to start validating cards every year.
• Katrina will ask the following questions at the manger’s meeting: How important is it for us to be able to offer customers to update their own information online and is this something we should attempt to implement?
7. Tech Support was asked why e-mails notifications aren’t sent for fines under $3.00, since it would not cost the library to send those out.
• We have tried this in the past, but smaller fines were seen as annoying to customers who had provided their e-mail address. Since customers can now choose to have reminders sent out before materials are overdue, Tech Support hopes this will prevent smaller fines.

Action Items:

1. Kellie and Teresa will continue to brainstorm over intranet survey results.
2. Janet and Jimmy will roll out the new MSL database for customer suggested titles and reserve placement.
3. Julie will discuss RFID pads at the Circ Forum to see what the locations are doing to prevent items from automatically being checked out.
4. Jimmy will add the new search parameters to the search by shelf number page of the staff catalog.
5. Julie will discuss question #5 at the Circ Forum.
6. Katrina will ask the following questions at the manger’s meeting regarding question #6: How important is it for us to be able to offer customers to update their own information online and is this something we should attempt to implement?