Tech Support Meeting Minutes for October 2009

Tech Support Meeting Minutes

Date: October 27, 2009

Attendance: Kay Bauman, Kellie Bradford, Janet Brooks, Anne Fischer, Teresa Goggins, Jack Kinzie, Josh Lewis, Donna Morris, Katrina Prince, Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins, Jimmy Welch

Guest: Charla Aucone

Update on Action Items

1. The Hearing impaired resource bookmarks are in the final stages.
2. The shelf management lists are now in order by author.
3. Kellie and Teresa are still working on adding an advanced search feature to the internet.
4. The damage letter form is now available on the intranet.
5. Pauline has created a report on creating records for paperback books (full report attached). Since creating brief catalog records is not recommended, Pauline, Karen, and Jimmy will continue to explore other options for accessing purchased browse materials.  This will combine efforts from TP, MSL, and public service staff. Katrina suggested a way to type in a title when you put the barcode on the book just for inventory purposes.
6. A complete list of MLS recycling efforts has been added to the intranet
7. Kay is still in the process of finding a more effective way to save and search important memos.
8. Cataloging search tips will be added to Training Times next year.
9. Temporary program changes have been made so the number of reserve items is not showing Northwest materials.
10. New signage has been created for the CyberMARS computers.
11. Janet and Jimmy are still discussing automatic reserve placement.
12. Anne needs to talk to Kay one more time before the pilot program for selling headphones goes live.
13. The Library Thing for Libraries is now available on the staff catalog.
14. The “borrower tab” has been changed to the “my account” tab in CyberMARS. This has been available to staff since October 6th. It will go live to the public on November 2nd. An auto complete feature will also go live at this time.
15. “My Account” is also available on the library homepage.
16. The Reminders/Notifications page has been available to staff since October 6th. It will go live to the public on November 2nd. It allows  customers to edit USPS, e-mail and text, notifications.

New Business

1. The 2010 Tech support meeting dates will be as follows:
• January 26th
• April 27th
• July 27th
• October 26th
2. Teresa presented the list of changes to the internet/intranet
• Intranet - Teresa highlighted the new additions to the intranet including this year’s FOCUS! page, The United Way pages were revised for this year, as well as the OSA online submission. The nominee list is coming soon.
• Internet - the Metrolibrary YouTube page has been expanded with additional videos.
• The Big Read has been added which includes an online scavenger hunt. We are using Google Analytics to understand through statistics how people use our website. It will tell us where customers are coming from, where they are going, what browsers they are using, etc.

ILS Issues:

1. A suggestion was made to change the date of birth field in V-Circ into three separate fields so you can use the tab button to move between month, day, and year.
• If you use the arrow keys instead of the tab key, you can do the same thing with the current format. Also, there is a calendar function which would not be available if the date was put into three fields. The field will remain the same.
2. A circulation clerk sent in a suggestion to eliminate the 30-day overdue pop-up notice on paperback books since it looks like the 60-day freeze notice and can cause confusion.
• Normally, the 30-day notice is an audio alert, however, if the speak function is turned off, a pop-up will appear. Anne will talk to the Village for further information regarding this question.
3. A suggestion was made to delay the reserve ready e-mail notification to customers by an hour or two to give libraries enough time to process and shelve reserves.
• There would be better customer service if we delayed the notification by 15 minutes, but to delay it by an hour for one location would be too significant. Many locations put the books in order by customer before they check them in, which allows them to find the books if a customer comes in before their book is ready. Notifications will have a 15 minute delay starting on Monday, November 2nd.
4. A customer asked to have the Highway Gothic font installed on the public computers.
• Fonts are time consuming to add as each font has to be registered; it cannot just be copied to the computer. At this time, we do not feel that we can add fonts based on individual customer requests. If it is determined that a particular font is needed for staff or public use, IT will add that font to all library computers including public computers.
5. A customer asked if a group of computers could be set aside for students, which would require a student ID to use them.
• MLS philosophy of use is based on a valid card and first come first served. We do not intend on adding in other criteria for use. The customer has been contacted and provided with other options.
6. A customer asked to have email notices about due dates.
• This is now available through the “my account” option in CyberMARS.
7. A librarian asked if there would be a way to have a uniform font choice on the computers at the DN library.
• The computers that have more choices have publisher installed. The extra fonts come with publisher so they cannot be added to other computers without breaking the license.  However, a group of fonts can be added to the computers to give more choice for program flyers, etc. Charla and Kellie will work on a list of 50 or less free fonts to add to these computers.

Action Items

1. Kellie and Teresa will provide Jimmy with the scopes and mnemonics needed to make the advanced search feature available.
2. Pauline, Karen, and Jimmy will continue to explore other options for accessing purchased browse materials.
3. Kellie will search for a more effective way to save and search important memos.
4. Cataloging search tips will be added to Training Times next year.
5. Janet and Jimmy will continue discussing automatic reserve placement.
6. Anne will talk to Kay before starting the headphone sales.
7. Pauline and Dana will add cataloging search tips to the next Training Times.
8. Anne will talk to the Village about the 30-day pop-up notice
9. Email notifications will have a 15 minute delay starting November 2nd.
10. Kellie and Charla will create a font list for the librarian computers Downtown.