Tech Support Meeting Minutes for October 2007

Tech Support Meeting Minutes

Date: October 23, 2007

Minutes Complied by: Deb Willis

1. Update on Action Items
1. Kim Terry will review the FAQ questions and answer them with the assistance of a Tech Use group member and report back at the next committee meeting.
   Kim distributed a draft of the Multiuse Computer FAQ. The FAQ will be available on the MetroLibrary website and in hardcopy at libraries (Appendix 2).
2. The simple search screen subcommittee will meet and discuss their findings at the next Tech Group meeting.
1. On behalf of the subcommittee, Kim Terry presented 3 proposals for a new simple search screen for CyberMARS. After discussion, the group recommended changing the screen to the proposed one that looks similar to the one below with the addition of the Shelf Number radio button. The planned implementation date of January 1st:
3. Buddy Johnson will work on a write up to add to the Donate Now page for donating photographs or diaries.
   
1. Buddy distributed an “unapproved” draft of text for the “Donate Now” page (soliciting donations of photographs, books, and audio recordings for the Oklahoma Collection).  The group discussed possible MetroLibrary website pages on which to place a link to the “Donate Now” page (e.g. Oklahoma Images). Karen Marriott asked a question about cataloging diaries, journals, etc., that are donated. There was discussion regarding release waivers for donated material; Buddy asked that, if libraries other than DN receive donations specifically for the Oklahoma Collection, that the donor’s contact information accompany the donation so that he can attempt to obtain release waivers. The group accepted Jim Welch’s recommendation to present a website presentation mockup at the January 22 meeting (Appendix 3).
4. Deb Willis will conduct research to see what other libraries are doing over RSS feeds announcing new materials or updated lists.
   
1. Deb distributed a report on RSS Feeds from Public Libraries. The group felt that prioritizing what feeds to add would be beneficial and requested that Deb contact the libraries she reviewed for feedback on which RSS feed(s) are most popular with their customers, how they determine that (statistics), how long it took to develop the feeds, how much maintenance is required, etc. Deb will report back at the January 22 meeting (Appendix 4).
5. IT will update this function to allow exporting of Expenditures to excel spreadsheet
   
1. On August 1, Jim Welch announced, via email, that the “mlsBudget application has been enhanced to export the expenditure report to Excel.” Several members of the group expressed appreciation for this change.
6. Teresa Goggins stated she would send an email to all programmers informing them of the process of getting a new .jpeg or .gif.
   
1. On July 26th, Planning Services sent an email to the programmers about the process.
2. New Business
1. Mystery Demo – Jimmy Welch
2. Jimmy Welch presented a version of CyberMARS which included a cover image, summary, table of contents (nonfiction) or title profile (fiction). This data will be contracted through Syndetic Solutions. Jimmy stated that not all titles will have the same features and information. To view this version of CyberMARS change first part of URL from cybermarsx to staffkat (url will read staffkat.mls.lib.ok.us/marsiis/cybermars.asp. The new CyberMARS is planned to be implemented on January 1st , 2008.
3. Standing Topics
1. Internet/Intranet Teresa Goggins presented a report on changes to the MLS intranet and MetroLibrary.org (Appendix 5).
4. ILS Issues Below are excerpts from Tech Suggestions submitted by staff along with responses from the Tech Support group (Appendix 1).
1. A customer claimed that she could not get her password management software or her browser on her home computer to remember her login information for the library's online services.
   
1. Our system does not do this because of privacy issues related to the confidentiality of a library customer’s borrowing information.
2. The customer would like a feature not unlike the way we do children's cards where she could designate family members to have access to her account and to be allowed to pick up her reserves and check her fines, etc. She says that she often tries to manage her husband's account and vice versa to save time and trips, but she is frustrated by circ employees not allowing her to transact anything for him. She's not angry, just frustrated she says, because she says she "knows" we can do it because we do it for children and parents.
   
1. We will look into this. It raises the need for the review of current policies especially in light of moving toward self service reserve pickup.
3. The old reserve list printed the fiction items alphabetical by author, which is how the items are shelved. The new list is doing fiction alphabetical by title which causes much more work for the pages having to go back and forth in the stacks.  Can fiction be made alpha by author, in all media, for the new reserve list system?
   
1. The new system has always printed the fiction titles alphabetically by author, since the labels come out backwards from the printer it appear to be in some other order. This request was sent on the first day so we hope that staffs have discovered the true sequence by now. However, a group member will check with the staff person making the suggestion to ensure that the issue is resolved.
4. A customer request that involved the placement of barcode labels on our music CDs. The customer noted that the present placement (which is on the uppermost side of the case) covers the written information on the CD guide and that it would be better to have the barcode placed lengthwise as opposed to having it going across the width of the CD.
   
1. No action at this time: Cataloging feels that the present location is the best for ease of shelving and checking out/in. The present solution is to suggest that the customer remove the guide to review it and then replace it in the case.
5. Our pages who process reserves have noticed that the dates on the new adhesive labels reflect the date items were last checked out. It would be more helpful for labels to show the dates items were shipped or sent to the receiving branches. That “shipped” dates used to be listed on the old labels. That information was helpful for staff. We could go through the items on reserve and catch easily any items which had not been received correctly, just by looking at the shelves. Items that haven’t been received properly do not show up on each morning’s “pull” list, so they may sit on the reserve shelves awhile. Without that “shipped” date, we depend upon customers to notice and indicate that they have waited an unusually long time for reserves. That situation doesn’t happen very often, but listing the “shipped” date instead of the “lastcheckedin” date on the labels would be a handy preventative step.
   
1. Changes previously made to the new reserve list system likely fixed this; however, a group member will check with the staff person making the suggestion to ensure that the issue is resolved.
6. We are wondering what the criteria is for removing a card due to nonuse? For example, if the person does not checkout material within a specified period of time, is the card removed? Does logging on to use a public access computer, but not checking out any material, within the specified period of time keep a card from being removed? How about logging on to the catalog via the website?
1. Beginning August 21 of this year if a card is used remotely (e.g. logging onto CyberMARS from home) or used to logon to a library computer then the last visit date in the customer’s record is updated to reflect this. When the last visit date reaches a five year mark the customer’s card is  dropped from the system.
7. A customer requested a way to stop receiving paper notifications for reserves.
1. No action at this time: the group believes that followup with paper notices when the email is not confirmed in a timely manner remains the best solution to ensure that we make every effort to notify the customer.
8. Could IT possibly make the "confirm reserve" say "reserve already confirmed" IF you zap it a second time?
1. No action at this time: to change this would require extensive programming, including the development of and implementation of a rules set that would eliminate reasons for zapping it a second time, and revision to the preassignment system that was implemented to minimize betweenlocations shipping time. If in doubt about whether an item remains as a reserve item, perform an item inquiry – “shipped” status indicates that the item is still confirmed.
5. Action Items
1. Teresa Goggins will work on adding the additional text to the Donate Now webpage for a presentation at the next Tech Group Meeting.
2. Deb Willis will report back on the findings from contacting the particular libraries on their use of RSS Feeds.
6. See Attached document for Appendix