Minutes for 08/09/2016

ASC Meeting: 9 August 2016

Brandon: Regarding Notices

• Brandon presented his “How Notices are Constructed” PowerPoint.
  
  • This was originally presented to a meeting of Academics in Durango last week. The discussion on Sierra notices was focused on how to cause less confusion for patrons.
• Notices are for fines, available holds, overdue items, billed items – can use default print templates or fully customized with Print Templates. Comprised of:
  
  • Header – from branch address table, pulls lending library info, typically causes most patron confusion
    • The patron sees header of the item’s owning library not his/her home library.
  • Notice text – from text of circ notices table, pulls patron library text, assigned in loan rule
    • This is where more library specific info should go.
  • Notice body – (patron  name, items, fines associated, etc.) from Sierra Database, some calculated fields for date & fine totals
• Shared Notices: same header for all libraries or no header at all – the rest (notice text) could be customizable on a per library basis as usual
  
  • Originally discussed with Academics
  • Set header could look like “Your Home Library.” No way to customize this.
  • With no header, there would be no info about owning library; the notice would go straight to patron information.
  • Question from Bud Werner: Could it be added “Please return items promptly to home library?” Could be added to notice text, which is fully customizable.
  • Possible Problems:
    • Notices still run by lending library- staff still need to send notices for non-local patrons
      • Academics brainstormed that for patrons sans email addresses (would typically get print notices), the home library’s email address could be added to the account. Then the “print” notices would be sent to patrons’ home library email. Home library could print and send, instead of the lending library having to do this.
    • If not all libraries adopt this, problems will still exist.
    • No clear return address if mailed without header. (If it is the double window envelope.)
• Question: Are there a lot of problems reported with where notices are coming from? Mostly gets reported in these meetings. There are still issues with patron confusion from header, or libraries not even sending out notices.
  
  • i.e. The item is from Pitkin, but the patron needs to return it to Mesa.
  • CCU sees this problem probably about once a month. Feels like giving patron the run around when they cannot actually help the patron renew the book. CMU agrees with frequency.
• Question: Would this require a vote? Academics were unanimous about this decision (header modification), and ASC responded favorably as well. Marmot can just start implementing this across the board, after making sure everyone is in the know.  Brandon will need to set up all the print templates, which will take a little time.
  
  • Brandon will work on this about five at a time. He’ll contact us individually.
  • We’ll want to add in the library email address in patrons’ sans emails accounts. Most likely this can be done with some easy Create Lists on patron accounts and Global Updates to add in correct (home library) email address.
• Question: Set header or no header? Probably no header. Simplify for clarity. Corroborated by Austin (MCPL), Diane (EVLD), Liz (Vail), Nina (Bud Werner), and Brandon.

Brandon: Update on iType process

• In their last meeting, the iType subcommittee looked at the iType survey (rundown of currently used iTypes and potential consolidation). It gave good ideas of what kinds we’ll be using with the renovation.
• At recent Academics meeting, they decided  to look at split iTypes: set of iTypes (35-40ish) for Publics and a separate of 30-40 for Academics
  
  • This will allow the academics to have longer checkout periods for their own items but will not let public items check out as long.
    • i.e. The “book” iType for Publics will check out differently than “book” for Academics at the same site.
    • This gives more flexibility in assigning loan rules for the different kinds of sites.
• Brandon will be taking the survey and begin building these iTypes lists. He will try to tether the ones requested. He may contact libraries individually concerning consolidation, because we’re limited on how many we can use.
  
  • The sites will be converted one-by-one, probably beginning in October. The “easiest” sites – those with the simplest and least iTypes required – will be dealt with first so that kinks can be worked out before going on the more difficult sites.