Kay Bauman discussed the original purpose of the Tech Support committee as a way to address staff and customer suggestions on our integrated library system (ILS). The committee was comprised to gain different perspectives of users at all levels. With upcoming changes to our technology philosophy and the process of moving to a new ILS, the committee will evolve. One impact is that no more modifications to the ILS System will be made since we will be moving to a different one.
As the ILS Task Force researches other integrated library system vendors, the Tech Support committee members will play some part in testing new ILS software and systems and provide perspectives on their use. There is no timeframe of involvement at this time.
The scheduled April 24, 2012 meeting was cancelled as there are so many activities going on with opening NW. In the absence of the meeting, Tech Support is happy to announce the following new rotating position members:
Manager - LaVetta Dent, VI
Librarian - Todd Podzemny, ED
Circ Clerk - Kevin Sendall, CT
Cataloging - Mary Parker, CAT
The next scheduled meeting will be July 24 at 9:15 in the Lee B. Brawner Conference Room.
Kim, Kellie, and Jimmy have not met yet of the MLS Events ad-hoc committee.
The Circulation Forum Met on November 2nd and discussed the need for offering temporary cards during the summer. ” The group agreed that it would be best to continue to work with our existing policies to accommodate such students”.
The staff catalog now sets the location for reserves based on the computer being used.
IT is still working on adding the .ogg extension to customer computers.
The wording “pickup by” has been removed from the customer account area of CyberMARS
A “Need Assistance” area has been added to the new Intranet for staff use and the wording has been changed for the IT help line on the Who’s Who page.
The Online Librarian forums will be covered with the new Intranet.
Kim presented her findings to Tech Support regarding the categories in MLS Events, Room Manager, and Info Magazine (appendix a). She compared room manager to the Info Calendar to see how many programmers used common age ranges in their entries. She also compared what other libraries were doing on their websites. Most libraries have 4 or 5 set categories then in the description, they put more specific age information. Kim recommends multi-selection of categories and a description that shares more information about the appropriate age range. Tech Support agreed that this seems like the best option for optimal calendar searching. Tech Support believes a planning committee needs to be formed to really address these changes to our events. Kim, Kellie, Jimmy, will be the ad hoc committee to create a prototype then they will share their plan with the programmers and managers for review.
The managers discussed online registration for library events at the May 2011 managers meeting. They agreed that some of the events aren’t big enough to need online registration, but special events may need it.
Pauline is still working on adding other filters to the advanced search in the catalog.
Online Librarian forums – Kellie has been testing the LMS social commenting features with a group of managers and librarians. If we change to these features, they will be global throughout the LMS which may not be desired. The database of skills can possibly be made into a page like the forms page with filters by skill, but there are still concerns with making this kind of information available. It may require a disclaimer explaining the process for calling on someone’s skills.
Marketing made a new graphic to replace the old information graphic on the database page.
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.
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.
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.
1. The netbooks with wireless access for issuing library cards were shared with the library managers. All library managers were in favor of the new system and a committee will be formed in the future.
2. IT asked for feedback on possible Word 2007 defaults from the libraries and have added print and print preview to the quick-launch menu and changed the default on Word to have 0 lines of spacing before and after lines of text.
3. Marketing will continue to work on a new graphic to replace the information graphic on the database page and will provide graphic to IT for incorporation on the databases page.
4. IT has added a flag to the staff catalog to alert staff to remind customers about setting up notifications.
The browse by shelf number functionality in the staff catalog will be shared with others to obtain feedback.
Kay received feedback from the library managers and feelings were neutral towards the shelf number brows-ability and from this reaction, this function will not be added to the Staff Catalog. Since the customer number look up feature was bundled with this feature, customer look up will be added at a later date.
Jimmy demonstrated a portable/wireless library card application entry system to have when a library employee is away from a library location having people fill out library card applications at school visits or other events. With this system, you can search by name to see if someone already has a card, if not, you ill in the information and have a scanner with the device to scan a new card and add it to the system. This could be useful during summer reading to use in house when circulation lines get long and gives the possibility to use it at other events away from the library.
Kellie and Teresa are still reviewing the results from the intranet survey and have been investigating searching options. They will be meeting with IT soon for testing.
Materials Selection has been using the new customer suggestion database for 3 weeks and it has improved their workflow and has saved a lot of time.
Customers are getting served quickly and efficiently because the system automatically places the reserves when the orders are placed.
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.
The topic of exploring other options for accessing uncataloged paperbacks is still an ongoing process of discussion and investigation.
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.
