RSIG Minutes, 6/7/00

PRESENT: Susan Bell, Nancy Boggess-Korekach, Zora Breeding, Sue Davis, Monica Sanchez, Mary Ellen Wilson, and Flo Wilson.

The group first discussed the status of OCLC access. Flo reported that the dedicated line access is still unavailable, but that staff can access OCLC via the internet connection and that our pricing has been switched over to the flat-rate.

Zora and Sue had agreed to look at the RS Staff web pages. They did this and made some changes in format. This resulted in the pages being more condensed with some additions, but more additions need to be made including documentation on speed cataloging and super-rush processing.

Action item: Zora and Sue will continue to monitor the web pages and make needed changes and additions.

Dale has been able to divide the files that we send off to OCLC for offline updating into those records brought in via Z39.50 vs. records brought in by other means. So, we will not be charged again for updating of records that were brought in via SmartPort.

Nancy explained the way that searching of numbers is done in Sirsi as far as numbers which are whole numbers vs. numbers as part of a word.

She explained that a browse title search on "Psalm 92" will take you to a different place in the browse index than searching "92nd Psalm". Unicorn reads the first search as a word and a number. It reads the second search as two words, the second of which contains digits, which are indexed separately instead of as a whole number. Her suggestion was that staff be educated to the implications of this search behavior and that they be encouraged to use the truncation symbol ($) or put the number in quotes when searching for words that contain numbers.

Action item :Zora will take this information to CAAG, Flo will discuss it at ISAG and each team leader will make sure that their team members are aware of this.

Zora, Susan and Flo had met with Mary Beth Blalock concerning the processing of curriculum materials. These processes were formerly handled by Jo Nell Owens, who will be leaving the library at the end of June. Procedures include:

Assigning classification numbers: Beginning July 1, Order Services will get orders with no call number assigned and Susan Bell will assign them at the point of cataloging. There was some discussion about reclassing these items to LC, but Mary Beth does not wish to consider this option at the present time.

IQ and other standardized tests need to be cataloged: Education will first weed the collection of these tests and create provisional records for the ones that they want cataloged. As they are ready to be cataloged, they will be sent to Susan Bell. Since these will be new materials to Acorn, Stacy Owens will be sending a request to Netfix for the creation of a new item type and holdings codes, as well as circulation maps for these.

Cox Grant orders will be continuing after July 1st, but will not be as high priority as the ones that were done this year. They will include literary and language arts titles.

Flo reported that we have not been getting TOC for the last year and the libraries are still interested in having them. It was decided that we would use Marcive for this purpose as opposed to using Blackwell since Marcive can supply the TOC's for .50 a record and Blackwell would charge $1.05 a record. Also, we can fairly easily add the TOC processes to the Marcive processes that we already have them do for us. The addition of the TOC from Marcive will begin on July 1.

Action item :Nancy will make sure that the 505 field is changed from a local to a non-local field on June 30th and will check with Jim Plaunt before that date to make sure that the 505 is handled correctly from the Marcive side.

AGENDA ITEM: Selection of records for Marcive authority processing.

Right now provisional records are being sent to Marcive for authority processing because we are currently using only the date created for extraction of the records. We need to figure out a way to keep the provisional records from being sent. Much discussion followed, but no decision was made on how to do this. It was decided that a smaller committee should be set up to discuss the issue in detail and try to find a solution.

Action ITEM :Nancy will set up a meeting with Zora, Mary Ellen and Dale to attempt to resolve this issue and report back to RSIG.

When we converted to Sirsi, existing NOTIS call numbers were converted with a space between the first alpha characters and the following numbers of the LC call numbers. In addition, some staff have continued to do this on Acorn as new records were created. The remake call number API tool needs to be run to correct these, since the inconsistent spacing causes problems with the indexing of the call numbers.

Action ITEM:LTT will be asked to run the remake call number API report and RSIG members will make sure that staff know not to add the spaces when creating new call numbers. Zora will discuss this in CAAG as well. LTT will be asked to let everyone know when the change has been made.

Flo had asked Nancy to compile a list of all of the various reports and scripts that are run to load cataloging records into ACORN or to send records off for processing. Nancy gave a copy of the list to each of the RSIG members and it was agreed that this document should be added to the RS web page.

Action ITEM:Zora and Sue will look into where this would best be placed in the staff web pages.

Flo had also asked that everyone let her know who had what copies of the processing profiles for such automated processing as the Marcive authority processing and the YBP and BNA order and approval records. Flo reported that she now had a list of who had what profiles and this list should be made available somewhere for future reference. It was suggested that they all be kept in a central location, perhaps with the new Coordinator for Resources Services, but until that position is filled, they will reside where they now are and a list of people keeping these profiles will be made available to staff.

AGENDA ITEM: Gift inventory list.

Mary Ellen produced a printout of the gift inventory list that had been found in Order Services. This is a list of gift items that were added to Acorn by various staff for gift books received at a time when Verification was not able to do the records for them. At one point the list was being searched on OCLC for full records and the provisional records were being overlayed. There was some discussion of whether or not this still needed to be done.

Action ITEM:Zora agreed to talk to John Haar about the list to find out what, if anything, needed to be done with it.

All agenda items addressed, the meeting adjourned at app. 3:30 p.m.

Next meeting will be held at 1:30 on June 21st at Baker.

Minutes submitted by Nancy Boggess-Korekach, 6/12/2000.