Friday, February 17th, 2017
Minerva Circulation Round Table
The meeting was convened at 10:00 am.
1. Technical
Lynn Uhlman suggested that each library have at least one person on each listserv so that news and updates are available to every library.
The 2.4 update done in January seems to have stressed the system instead of alleviating some of the problems we faced in Sierra. The hold shelf problems were not addressed in this upgrade, but will be addressed in 3.0 or 3.1. Some of our problems are with the program; others are self-induced. One of the legitimate problems with Sierra is that sometimes we are given incorrect pick-up dates. Verify on each item that the pick-up date is correct. If there is a wrong pick-up date, it can only be changed if no one else has a hold on the item. Cancel the hold and put another hold on the item; that should fix the pick-up date problem. If there are other holds on the item, still hold it until the correct pick-up date. But in that time period, do not clear the hold shelf.
One of the reasons for moving to the 3.0 upgrade is to fix a problem with requesting items for local patrons from their local library. These items are not paging. This happens when items are requested through SDA, not the OPAC. If you place a hold on OPAC it will page correctly. This is just another reason why best practices says to request through OPAC.
The 2.4 upgrade has also slowed down running notices and created an issue with patrons not receiving e-mail notices. The reason is that the return addresses on the e-mail notices look like SPAM and e-mails are being put into patrons’ SPAM folders. We will know if we are affected if we start getting a lot of bounced e-mails. There are two ways to deal with the problem: 1) Educate our patrons to set up filters on their e-mail accounts (adding the Minerva e-mail address to their address book), or 2) Setting up a “No Reply To” e-mail, which would mean that patrons cannot answer their overdue and billing notices. That is done by submitting a ticket.
Lynn reported that some libraries are marking items as “Missing,” but not cancelling the holds. If the item requested is only owned by one library and it is missing, the owning library must not only mark it missing, but also cancel the hold. By cancelling the hold, a message will be in the patron’s record so they will know the hold has been cancelled. If we don’t do this, it results in a stuck hold. If the item is available in other libraries, it is enough to mark it missing. In 72 hours the hold will transfer to another library. When you cancel INN-Reach holds, the patron will receive a message.
Print templates are being modified so that a longer receipt will print. If libraries want to use the modified receipts, they need to submit a ticket.
Lynn reported that she is seeking volunteers who are interested in redesigning slips/receipts. James Rathbun reported that the Minerva Circulation Standards Committee is working on updating the “Best Practices” manual. The manual is available online. The committee is open to questions and suggestions. One question has been raised by one library: Can we eliminate the practice that staff must call another library to renew ILLs a second time. There was discussion about this question at the round table meeting and a straw poll taken. Everyone at the meeting agreed that it was a bad idea to give libraries unlimited renewals and to reaffirm the current procedure.
2. Rental Collections
Some libraries have parts of their collections that are not available for ILL requesting. These are identified by various names, including “Rental Collections” and “Blue Box.” This has resulted in a lack of clarity in the catalogue about what is available and what can be requested as ILLs. Lynn reported that the Collection Development Committee [headed by Cyndi Burne] was charged with bringing proposals to the executive committee, but is not at that stage. An emergency fix was made by marking these items “Local Use Only.” This is not working because it has blocked patrons at the owning libraries from putting holds on these items.
Lynn did not have an answer to the problem and opened the floor for suggestions. Josh Tiffany suggested cataloguing the Rental Collections and Blue Box collections differently. Josh is sending a detailed e-mail to James Rathbun outlining his proposal and James will send it to the cataloging committee.
3. General Topics
Someone suggested that we remove the text messaging option of renewing by text message when one receives an overdue notice. The option does not work anyway.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:35 am.
Nancy Brown
February 20, 2017
