Tech Support Meeting Minutes for April 2011

Tech Support Meeting Minutes

Date: April 26, 2011

Attendance: Kay Bauman, Janet Brooks, Denyvetta Davis, Kellie Delaney, Anne Fischer, Teresa Goggins, Jack Kinzie, Josh Lewis, Karen Marriott,  Katrina Prince, Pauline Rodriguez- Atkins, Kim Terry, Jimmy Welch

Update on Action Items:

1. Marketing made a new graphic to replace the old information graphic on the database page.
2. IT added a button on the customer lookup area of the staff catalog reserve page that gives a  “last reserve placed” option for multiple requests from the same customer.
3. The managers talked about online registration for library events. While there were mixed feelings, everyone will talk about it with the  programmers at their location and report back at the next manager’s meeting.
4. The facebook “like” button has been added to CyberMARS. Customers and Staff can now “like” an item in our catalog and it will show up on  their Facebook page to market our materials.
5. Adding other filters to the advanced search in the catalog is being handled by Pauline.
6. Kellie and Kim have worked on using Facebook and the LMS for a CONNECT librarian database. They are adding more managers and librarians to the test group.
7. While Marketing has created a few versions of a graphic to alert customers to the notifications page on CyberMARS, they discovered that a  new graphic will not fit into the new design of CyberMARS.

Changes to the Internet / Intranet:

Internet

• E-Media Resources/Tutorials
• Summer Reading Pages

Intranet

• Summer Reading Pages
• New ShelfLife Page

Revisions Coming Soon:

• Policy and Procedures page update
• Forms page will be searchable and have filters available

ILS Issues:

1. A librarian had a couple of suggestions: 1) Have a chat function connecting reference desk computers with public computers so a customer could request assistance or ask questions without leaving their computer. Likewise, Librarians could communicate with customers to ask them to turn their music down without having to leave the reference desk. This could extend to the library’s website for a chat with a librarian function. 2) Add functionality to the online event calendar that would allow someone to narrow down categories for example, search for only  kids programs on a Saturday.
1. For in-library purposes, this would take away from the individualized personal aspect we want to provide our customers --we want to provide them with face-toface service. Customers have the ability to “park” their computer to ask for assistance. Extending this functionality to the library website is a separate element and will be considered in the future.
2. This would require some program changes in the MLS Events program. To work most efficiently, there would need to be some correlation between groupings between MLS Events and the Meeting Room program. This would require, programmers, Marketing, & others to determine what standard categories need to be defined. Everyone needs to agree that a standard will be accepted by all library locations before this can happen. Kim will look at categories that we already use in MLS Events, Room Manager, and INFO magazine and see if there’s already a natural grouping. If not, someone will need to make more categories and present them to the programmers. Kim Terry will create a matrix of current groupings.
2. A customer requested that we have a saved searches feature on CyberMARS. He would like to go to the items he’s recently searched for and pull up the information. This stems from him clearing his cache and the auto-complete feature not working. While he could use his cart feature to save some of this information, he would still like this as an additional feature.
1. Saving searches could be problematic because some  customers would not want their searches saved (the auto-complete CyberMARS uses now only pulls information anonymously from searches). It would also add a level of complexity to the system because a different database of searches for each customer would need to be created. Tech Support ultimately decided not to add this as a feature.
3. Kellie Delaney suggested creating staff created reading lists that are within CyberMARS and link directly to the titles on the reading lists.
1. Tech Support agreed that this would be beneficial to our customers. Jimmy will share information with Kellie on how to link to a record in  CyberMARS and Kellie will begin adding linked reading lists to the Summer Reading page.
4. Kellie Delaney requested that IT create aliases for bulk e-mail addresses so someone using webmail could send All Correspondence messages or messages to the Ad Team and so on.
1. IT is hoping to move to a new e-mail system soon. This new system will be webbased and will have options for lists and groups so everyone will have access to sending bulk e-mails. It won’t be happening for webmail but it will be coming in the future with the new system.
5. A customer inquired about having a shorter, 4-day lending period on digital titles instead of 7 or 14 days.
1. This question has been asked before, but Overdrive currently isn’t offering a shorter option. Kellie contacted them after the meeting and  received the following response:  “Per our publisher agreements, the lending options that we can make available are 7, 14, and 21 days. I will pass along your recommendation to allow for greater flexibility in regard to the lending options.” If Overdrive ever does get this kind of flexibility, we might be willing to offer it as well.
6. A circ clerk requested that the Date of Birth field on V-Circ be changed from 1 field to 3 fields so you can use the tab key to instead of using the mouse.
1. Right now, Tech Support thinks this should stay the way it is because it is a personal preference and others may not have a preference in the matter.
7. A circ clerk wanted to pass on a customer suggestion to make it possible to “freeze” a reserve. If someone isn’t quite ready for their reserve, they can freeze it so it goes to the next person, then they can unfreeze it when they are ready for the item.
1. Tech Support discussed this at length and determined while it’s a great idea in theory, there are too many logistical issues for it to be possible at this time.
8. An Ask a Librarian question was forwarded to Tech Support asking if a “reading log” could be attached to a library account.
1. While we can’t connect this type of resource to our catalog at this time, there are many online tools out there that would be a great option. A few resources other customers use are Goodreads, Library Thing, and Shelfari. Other customers simply create a spreadsheet with the fields that are important to them.

Action Items:

1. Managers will discuss online registration for Library events with their programmers then report back at a manager’s meeting.
2. Adding the other filters to the advanced search in the catalog is being handled by Pauline.
3. Kellie and Kim are adding more managers and librarians to the forums they have created and will see if one of them will work out.
4. Kim will look for natural categories in MLS Events, Room Manager, and INFO magazine and will create a matrix for the next Tech Support meeting that will show this information.
5. With Jimmy’s help, Kellie will work on linking reading lists to their entry in CyberMARS.