Circulation Committee Meeting Notes

From Wednesday May 22, 2002

Guilford Free Library

In Attendance: Christine Dowling Kelsey, WBR; Barbara Camgiano, BRB;

Val Graley, NLN; Ed Murray, LION; Joanne Nygard, OLY; Nancy Wardell, GUI; Mark Hewes, LION; Bev Radziwon, HAD; Cyndi Shershac, DUR; Heather Ciosek, MAD; Roxanne Moreau, MRD; Kathleen Campion, WAL

Otis library began using a collection agency called Unique Management Services, in March. Russell has also been using them for a while, and Wallingford will soon begin the 90 free trial period offered by this company. This company works exclusively with libraries in an effort to help collect billed material and fines balances without alienating library patrons. UMS works directly with our DYNIX software and parameters which are set by each client library. You can call 1-800-879-5453 for an informational brochure. Mark Hewes can also answer some of your questions about UMS and about another billing option available to your library through LION called Report Special Notices (RSN) for which there is no charge.

Your library is able to get change of address information from the Connecticut Dept. of Motor Vehicles, at no charge, because the library is a non-profit public agency. If you are trying to locate a patron who has moved and left no forwarding address with the Post Office, you can submit a form to DMV which will supply you with the patron’s new address. Of course this only applies if the patron has stayed in Connecticut, and has made an address change their license. Call 860-263-5154 for information.

Please do not stamp due dates or affix permanent date due stackers into another library’s item. Use your date due cards or a removable sticky note with the date due stamped on it.

It is possible to turn off the holds matrix for your library but it is a little difficult for LION to do. Mark can create a canned report for you to run to list any holds which will fall into a "hole" when the matrix is turned off. The report lists any patron on hold for any item at your library, alphabetically by item title. You can also get a patron list in order by age of the hold request.

To help lesson the load of CCAR now and during the transition period to whatever (whenever) new service we will be getting, the committee suggests that staff place specific copy holds on your items whenever possible, and that they suggest patron pickup at owner libraries whenever possible. Feel free to explain that the delivery service is presently failing and that if a patron goes to another library, they must have their non-expired library card with them. You might even suggest that the patron (or your library) call ahead and have the item held at the desk.

If you are filing your CCard statistics online, keep in mind that only one person at a time can do so. If your stats are not filing, try again a little later. The problem may be that someone else in the state is filing at the same time.

Not all libraries consider transit holds as ILL’s. Most LION libraries handle transit holds at the circulation desk. If they are marked ILL for CCar delivery, they end up sitting on the ILL shelf instead of getting checked. Please mark TRANSIT HOLD somewhere on the CCar delivery slip and each library can handle it in their own way.

Patron records which are created using another agency’s record can be filed without entering a PTYPE or PSTATS. Nothing can be checked out to a patron if their registration does not include a PTYPE. The system looks to the PTYPE for instructions on how to handle checkout for the patron. If it is not present a message will display that says "Patron priority is too low". Mark can run a report of patrons registered at your library with information missing from the patron record.

Individual password parameters can be set to avoid having to enter a password for certain tasks such as overrides. You can also password permissions. Check with your library’s System Administrator, or call Mark at LION for help.

Release 190 has been announced by DYNIX. Mark will send out information when the release becomes available.

Woodbridge has begun to allow their at home webpac patrons to reserve items that are on the shelf. Christine Kelsey reports no major problems have occurred although theoretically when their dialpac is activated to do this, patrons at the in library pac terminals could reserve items on shelf. WBR runs their RHA report twice daily, once in the morning before they open to the public. Christine noted that a reserve placed from home may not fill successfully if someone checks the book out before RHA is completed. In this case, a message that the item was on hold for someone else would display at checkout and you could deal with it according to your library policy. If the person with the book in hand is allowed to check it out, a message will post to the account of the patron who had it on reserve telling them that the item had become unavailable and that they have been put at the top of the hold que, if that is the option which you have chosen.

When you see the message "renewed GUI" on a patron block, remember that GUI means Graphical User Interface, not Guilford Free Library.

Ed Murray from LION office reported that Meriden’s bookmobile plans to be connected to LION and the internet by satellite. It is in effect LION’s first true "Cybermobile".

Discards saved to history can be traced by LION because LION keeps a discard holdings history file which is never purged. Contact Mark if you need to reference a previously discarded item.

Madison has a new library card format. They are a credit card format without the patron’s address or phone information. Only the patron’s name, as written by the patron, appears on the card along with the barcode.

The importance of getting information from these meetings to the staff members who can best use it was discussed. If your staff is unaware of changes, errors, or capabilities discussed at these meetings then the value of meeting is diminished. Please pass this information along back at your library.

The next meeting will probably be in October. Nancy Wardell will send out information as fall approaches. Have a wonderful summer.

Reported by Kathleen Campion, WAL