Attendance
Allison Atkins, Kennebunk Free Library; Dave Billings, Falmouth Memorial Library; Nancy Brown, Norway Memorial Library; Cyndi Burne, Topsham Public Library; Kevin Davis, South Portland Public Library; Frank Dehler, York Public Library; Darcel DeVou, Gray Public Library; Katie Lyons, Rice Public Library; Jackie McCann, McArthur Library; Judi Moreno, Central Maine Community College Library; Lynne Morgan, Topsham Public Library; Charles Prinn, Wellehan Library- Saint Joseph’s College of Maine; Courtney Sparks, Lithgow Public Library; Susan Brooke, Rumford Public Library; Joanna Breen, Boothbay Harbor Library; Heather Dawn Driscoll, MECA; Susan Samberg and Marie Plouffe, South Portland Public Library; Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library; Joyce Wiebe, Orono Public Library; Cynthia Young, EMCC; Mary Anne Mead, Southwest Harbor Public Library; Ann Roman, Witherle Memorial; Bethany Wulleman, Lewiston Public Library
A. Reports
• Maine InfoNet / Technical-Upgrade of the Sierra system will occur in the next month. Sierra’s hold shelf architecture will change in the late fall. InfoNet has run the clear hold shelf function for all libraries and is already seeing a positive effect on system performance.
• Minerva Circ Standards-Discussion of policies regarding mandatory attendance for circulation round table meetings, similar to catalog roundtable requirements, and patron record retention are under discussion. Updating of the best practices manual was also mentioned. Sending changes to the circulation list serve for greater input before presentation to the Executive board was also mentioned
B. Standards, Procedures, Reminders and Announcements
• Reminder to sign up on the list serves for up to date information on system events. Also either follow Maine InfoNet on twitter or view their twitter feed on the front page of the InfoNet website for current information.
• Recap routine system tasks-clear hold shelf function should be run at least once a week.
• Auto notice schedule-Auto notices run system wide three times a day at 7am, 11am, and 3pm. Hold cancellation notices run system wide every Wednesday at 7am, 11am, and 3pm which helps the system to run smoothly. To set up system notices search “auto-notices” on the Maine InfoNet homepage. Lynn walked through the process which can be seen by viewing the recording of the meeting.
• Mandatory attendance-James Rathbun submitted a draft circulation roundtable attendance policy based on the catalog committee’s policy. The standards committee will review the document directly after the roundtable meeting.
• Rental collections and other non-circulating collections-It was generally agreed upon that the appearance of high demand items that appear “available” in the OPAC when they are only available to local patrons leads to patron frustration and confusion. Rental collection items availability also leads to incorrect overrides for renewal. Discussion of the best way to address this issue followed. Consensus of the status of “Local use only” was agreed upon as a temporary solution to this problem until the issue of rental collections in Minerva could be properly investigated.
• Overview of Loan Rule Determiners and Loan Rules Tables-Lynn demonstrated how libraries can do their own inquires to discover why some items do not appear to check out for the correct loan period. Please view the recording for details.
C. Questions
• Frank Dehler from York Public Library asked for an update regarding the freeze hold function which allows a patron to freeze a hold for 255 days or until they choose to unfreeze it. This feature is supposed to hold the patron’s place in an item’s holds queue instead of moving them to the bottom if they cancelled and reset their hold at a later date. This feature appears to work only sporadically, some holds remain frozen while others fulfill as requested. The InfoNet staff believes this feature should be turned off because of its unreliability. The round table attendees unanimously agreed.
• Another question asked was if it was okay to use MaineCat for requesting when Minerva is down, the answer is yes. Most MaineCat requests convert to a Minerva request if a Minerva copy is available, but not always.
D. Next Meeting
June 2016
