Minerva Users Council Jun 6, 2014

Minutes

June 6, 2014 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Multiple Sites: Camden Public Library, Husson University, Northern Maine Community College, Norway Memorial Library, Thomas College, York Public Library

Call to Order – Shelly Davis called the meeting to order at 1:55 pm. (There were many technical difficulties getting all sites working and NMCC was not present.)

Welcome and Introduction – Shelly welcomed attendees. Each site was asked to circulate a sign in sheet for attendees. The sheets were to be emailed to Cindy White, secretary.

Review and approval of the minutes of the Fall 2013 Users’ Council meeting – The minutes of the October 4, 2013 Users’ Council meeting had been posted on the website. Nancy Crowell made a motion to accept the minutes as written and Judy Frost seconded. A vote was taken and the minutes were approved as written.

Old Business

Review of new and other pertinent policies – Shelly Davis went over the information pertaining to 2 new policies (Minerva policy on single-format, multi-disc sets and Minerva policy regarding the treatment of DVD/Blu-ray combo packs) as well as 1 established policy that needed to be re-emphasized to membership (Prompt billing for inter-Minerva items). The text of these policies as well as the Executive Board’s comments are appended to these minutes.

Welcoming Kennebunk Free Library into Minerva – Shelly Davis officially welcomed Kennebunk Free Library into Minerva. Lynn Uhlman from Maine InfoNet announced that she is going to do live training with KFL in the coming week and the following week they will go live in the system. In about 3 weeks they will begin requesting and borrowing.

New Business

Migration to Sierra – James Jackson Sanborn reported that work is underway for the migration to Sierra. Lynn Uhlman has created a Sierra Migration web page and recently sent out an email which included a link to the page and several other useful links. The web page is password-protected (password is sierra). There is a video from the CS Direct website which points out the differences between Sierra and Millenium. The timeline for the migration is Ursus first, then Minerva next, with a go-live date probably in late September. There will be 2 days of Millenium downtime in June, most likely June 24 and 25, for the hardware switch. James showed a demo of Sierra. Enhancements include unlimited SIP2, patron API, item status API, SMS/Text msg, AirPac, and improved indexing.

Minerva money management – Shelly Davis noted that the new III contract (Sierra) will no longer be a State contract; therefore, Minerva should be free to manage its money how it wants, not necessarily in the State Trust Fund/STACAP method currently used. This could take the form of having funds and invoices managed by the Maine InfoNet 501(c)3 non-profit, thus eliminating the STACAP fees. The Executive Board will be discussing this at its next meeting.


Reports

Minerva Executive Board (Shelly Davis) – Shelly reported on Board changes:

  • Leaving the Board after term fulfillment – Gail Roy (NMCC), Nikki Maounis (Camden). Shelly thanked them for their service.
  • Elected for another three year term – Cindy White (EMMC)
  • Joining the Board – Tim McFadden (Boothbay Harbor), Martha Ott (Kaplan University): appointed to fill the academic library seat Lisa McDaniels (SMCC) was elected to, but is unable to fill due to move to Colby.

Committee updates:

  • New Chair of Circulation Standards Committee – James Rathbun (Baxter Memorial Library)
    Thanks to Cyndi Burne (Topsham) for her service!
  • Pam Turner (Baxter Memorial Library) will continue as Membership Chair
  • Katherine Morgan (Norway Memorial Library) will continue as Chair of Cataloging Standards Committee

Current work:

There is some “housekeeping” work currently underway to ensure that all Minerva polices are documented on the website. In the bringing in of our new member, it was noted that some things that seem to be known as policy are not listed as so. Pam Turner, Chair of the Membership Committee and Kevin Davis, Vice-Chair of the Executive Board volunteered to comb through past Executive Board minutes to document anything the Board has approved as policy. This work is on-going. Once complete, the next logical step would seem to be to ask the Circulation and Cataloging Standards Committees to review the list and identify any additional policies missing. Related to this, the Board is also working on documenting the responsibilities of committees and developing a standard format for the submission of policy recommendations as well as developing definitions for terms such as policy, procedure, best practice, guideline, etc. so we can all be sure to be calling things what they are.


Maine InfoNet Director (James Jackson Sanborn) – James noted that the migration to Sierra had been covered already. The system for small libraries, MILLS, is in the planning stage with work currently underway by the Maine State Library’s district consultants. MILLS will eventually replace Solar. James introduced Lynn Uhlman, the new Systems Training and Support Librarian from Maine InfoNet.  Systems Support is about to roll out a new ticketing system called Fresh Desk. Maine InfoNet has an RFP out for a single search box for MARVEL and is now trialing Ebsco’s product. The Download Library now has 12,500 items in the collection and the Maine State Library has just donated $5,000 for the purchase of professional and Maine-related materials.

Maine InfoNet Representative (Judy Frost) – Judy stated that Ebsco is offering a discount to libraries who wish to purchase its single search box product. She reported that the Maine InfoNet constituency meetings around the state revealed that there is still a lot of confusion about Maine InfoNet, what it is, how it differs from the Maine State Library and the district consultants.

Minerva Technical (Alisia Revitt) – Alisia noted that James covered most of the technical items. Lynn Uhlman added that the training website that she has created has lots of links posted for Sierra training manuals, guides, etc. She also noted Alisia will be doing Minerva statistics soon.

Finance and Budget (Gail Roy) – Shelly stated that the approved 2015 budget has been posted to the Minerva website. The move to Sierra will mean that the III fees will be paid over the next 5 years. Also, we will be able to eliminate the Library Anywhere fee in the future since Sierra’s AirPac will replace Library Anywhere. Minerva Budget FY15

 

Committee Reports

Membership (Pam Turner) – Pam was unable to attend but sent a brief report to Shelly. The report was as follows:

The membership committee is pleased to welcome the Kennebunk Free Library as Minerva’s newest member.  They will likely go live this summer.

The membership committee will be meeting soon to further refine the application process.  We hope to recommend new libraries for membership soon after Minerva transitions to Sierra.

Members of the committee are also working on a project to document all Minerva policies for the benefit of new members as well as current members.

Circulation (James Rathbun) – James was unable to attend but sent a written report to Shelly who summarized it for the meeting. A copy is appended to the minutes.

Cataloging (Katherine Morgan) – Katherine had submitted a written report which was posted to the Minerva website. She reported that RDA went into effect as a standard on Jan. 1. There is a sub-group handling RDA questions.

 

Other – Shelly Davis reminded all attendees to please sign the attendance sheets at their respective sites. The sheets should be emailed to Cindy White at lwhite@emhs.org. (Copies are appended to these minutes.)

Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Lucinda (Cindy) White

 

Minerva User’s Council Meeting – Friday, June 6

Review of new and other pertinent policies

  • Recent new policies
    • Minerva policy on single-format, multi-disc sets (June)
      To avoid the need for volume fields (even “Complete Set”), a Library should create a single bibliographic record for the set and a single item record per library’s item.  For sets that are sold with multiple discs in one package, libraries will abide by the original packaging and not break these sets into multiple items.  For example, when a season of a TV series is sold as three discs in one package, libraries should catalog and circulate the set as one item with one barcode.

Exceptions may be made: a.) if the discs in a set are on completely different topics and will be assigned different call numbers, then individual bib records for each disc are permissible b.) if the individual discs have their own ISBNs (e.g., a multi-movie box set), then individual bib records for each disc are permissible.

This policy goes into effect on Friday, June 6.  This policy does not require retroactive conformance, but members are encouraged to adapt grandfathered items to this policy as staff time allows.

  • Minerva policy regarding the treatment of DVD/Blu-ray combo packs (March)

The practice has been that all combo packs (whether intact or split) share the same bib record.  If the discs have been spilt into two separate circulating items, the volume field is used to differentiate the DVD from the Blu-ray.

Effective immediately, the policy for the treatment of DVD/Blu-ray combo packs requires the establishment of separate bib records dependent on how the pack will circulate. If the pack is to remain intact, one bib record must be created for the intact combo pack. If the pack is to be separated, one bib record must be created for each circulating item; i.e. one bib record for the separated Blu-ray, another bib record for the separated DVD, another for the separated 3D Blu-ray, etc. Volume fields are not to be used in these records.

This policy does not require retroactive conformance but members are encouraged to adapt grandfathered items to the new policy as staff time allows.

 

 

  • An oldie but a goodie…
    • Prompt billing for inter-Minerva items

Libraries within the Minerva Consortium are obligated to inform a Minerva patron’s home library when an inter-library loaned item has reached the status of billed (20 days overdue). A copy of the patron’s bill must be sent to the patron’s home library at the same time as the patron bill is generated.  This advanced notice will allow the patron’s home library to help facilitate the return of the billed item.  If the item’s status remains “billed” for more than 45 days the owning library then bills the borrowing library directly.  The borrowing library is now responsible for payment of the item to the owning library.  Bills must be sent and payment must be made in a timely manner.  If the owning library does not bill within 1 year of the date on which the item attains billed status, no compensation is necessary.

The Executive Board has heard from one library that bills sent to another library have gone unpaid, even after repeated contact.   We ask any library not receiving payments in a timely fashion, to please let us know. While we would most prefer to operate by collegial adherence established standards, polices, and procedures, as noted in the Memorandum of Participation, sanctions may be imposed in instances of non-compliance.

 

 

TO:                 Minerva Users Council

FROM:           Minerva Circulation Standards Committee

DATE:             June 6, 2014

SUBJECT:       June 2014 Report

Over the last year, the sole topic of conversation within the Circulation Standards Committee has been how to handle the circulation and, in a related matter, cataloging of DVD/Blu-ray combo packs and single-format multi-disc DVD or Blu-ray sets.

 

At the last two meetings of the Executive Board, the Committee, with help and input from both the Cataloging Committee and member-library Directors, has been able to offer recommendations on policies for these items moving forward. The Board has now approved two policies that outline the appropriate treatment of these sets.

 

Speaking on behalf of the Circulation Standards Committee, I would like to thank the Executive Board for their patience during this seemingly interminable process and for their help in crafting the aforementioned policies.

 

After discussion at the June 4 Circulation Roundtable, the Committee is now prepared to present our final recommendation on this matter, which regards the associated loan rules, at the next meeting of the Executive Board.

Sincerely,

 

James Rathbun
Minerva Circulation Standards Committee Chair