RSIG Minutes, 8/16/00

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

Flo distributed new 2000/2001 VU Guide to Libraries fliers. Several will be posted in each area for staff to use.

The new Library web page is expected to be introduced next week. There will be a new look to the electronic resources. The current research databases have been harvested into DB Textworks database software. The new electronic resources page will have three components: e-journals, research databases, and subject guides. Earlier this year, the Web Task Force worked with John Haar and the bibliographers to select descriptors and material types that were to be used to describe the electronic resources. The intent was to extract the records for the database from the Marc record in Acorn. Special tags were to be set up to store this information in the Marc record. The bibliographers have taken a first stab at assigning descriptors, but found that revision is still needed before implementation. For now, the new web page will be database driven, but the database does not harvest information from the Acorn record. The page will have alphabetical and keyword search access, but the descriptors are yet to be assigned and inserted into the Marc records.

Action item: For now, Ann Ercelawn, as the RS representative on the Web Task Force, will keep us abreast of developments and let us know when it is time to edit the records.

At the Technology Coordinators meeting yesterday, it was decided that September 15 will be the cut-off date for the Infoview client. At that time all staff will be expected to use Workflows 100% of the time and the Infoview client will be deleted from our NAL windows. There will be a very few exceptions for staff who perform functions that cannot be duplicated on Workflows. For example: the global edit report on Workflows currently does not respect punctuation, although this is a known bug that is expected to be fixed in Unicorn 2000.

Action item: Team leaders will let their staff know of the Sept. 15 deadline.

Zora had asked some time back whether there was some OCLC documentation that used to be delivered automatically that has stopped coming for some reason. Flo thinks that OCLC is trying to put more of their documentation on the web and may be stopping delivery of updates if they are available on the web. She is not opposed to getting any paper documentation that we feel we need and wants us to determine what people need and order the material and set up appropriate orders, including deposit accounts where necessary. Updates to the bibliographic formats and standards are one set of documentation that Zora suspects may have stopped arriving automatically.

Action item: Paper documentation needs are to be identified and orders placed.

Some time back, when Central changed their binding policy, it was decided that a new flag was needed to denote material paid for or in scope for 0300 Arts. A new mint green 3 inch flag has been identified and is in the process of being ordered. Pat wanted to know if anything needed to be printed on the flag. We were reminded that this flag is to identify material needing special Arts binding to the Binding/Marking team. We were also reminded that in order to to be consistent, these flags would be inserted into every book that falls within scope for the flag, regardless of whether it is hard cover or paperback. A white flag with the word "Arts" written on it will still be inserted in all material that is also supposed to be shelved in Arts. Most material with the green flag will also have the white Arts flag, but not necessarily all. One flag is for binding treatment and one is for shelving.

Action item: Mary Ellen or Monica will ask Pat to have 0300 printed on the green flag.

Mary Ellen and Monica reported that Pat cannot find grey paper stock from any vendor in order to create more Speedcat flags. We are running very low on these flags and we cannot figure out where they are disappearing to. This brought up the question of why we need these flags. Apart from helping to identify where problem materials might have originated, no one could figure out what purpose these flags currently serve. Since there seems to be no functional need for the flags, it was proposed that OS discontinue using grey flags for speedcataloged material. This material would be processed without any flag.

Action item: OS will discontinue using grey flags to designate speedcataloged books immediately.

The group decided that we need to have a web page which has and explanation of the various flags. Since Zora and Sue were the one-time designated RSIG web editors, they were asked to take this on.

Action item: Zora and Sue will attempt to figure out how to create a color coded flag document for the web.

Flo asked that the group review the current web pages and think of ways they might be redesigned and restructured. She gave us some of the justification and thought behind the current Staff Homepage structure. No documentation specific to any one division should go on the top page. That is why it now takes so many clicks to get to the RS documentation. However, since there is information on the RS documentation page that is often sought by non-RS staff and even non-VU staff, we should think of ways to restructure our pages for ease of use by both internal and external users. There was much discussion. Nothing was resolved.

Action item: People are asked to think about possible web page restructuring. Comments are welcome.

Aside to no particular agenda item: Roberta was here a week or so ago and bought a house, rented an appartment (in the interim), bought a car and registered her son for school. She will be moving here at the end of this week. She may be able to start work by mid Sept.

In June, several RSIG members met with additional LTT staff to discuss finding an alternative method of sending records to Marcive for authorities processing and also TOC enhancement. That group (Nancy, Mary Ellen, Zora, Marshall and Dale) proposed a solution, which had several outstanding questions. Flo met with Dale and Nancy yesterday to see where we were in the process. Flo thinks that we can implement at least the portion of the proposal that deals with regular authority work by Sept. 1. The toc profile is yet to be filled out, but she expects that this may also be ready very soon. Flo read to the group a summary of the proposed processing which she will be posting to the web. Basically, we will be extracting records using date created field and the existence of a 994 field with codes E0 (OCLC passposrt) or Z0 (OCLC smartport) to send. In addition, we will also send all promptcat files (those that come for approvals and those for firm orders). Zora will start receiving the error reports that are generated by Marcive which show what records did not load. This report will help us to identify any problem areas. Because of the short turn-around time from Marcive, records should have ample time to overlay before being cataloged. The only major exception is our SSO processing, which we will have to change in order to utilize the toc enhancement fully. After implementation, the 505 field will no longer be a local field, meaning it will no longer be protected from overlay. This will relieve the speedcatalogers from having to delete the extra 505 field on records that already had one before they were sent off for toc enhancement, but will necessitate that catalogers take extra precautions when overlaying a record that has been enhanced with toc. The cataloging staff will need to protect the existing 505 field by either copying and pasting it into the oclc record before overlay, or by changing the tag to a 9xx tag before overlay and then back to a 505 tag after.

Action item: CATs need to discuss an alternative routine for SSO processing. CATs also need to be cautioned about the change in 505 field status from being a local field, protected from overlay, and discuss ways to manually protect this field.

Next meeting will be August 30.

Minutes submitted by Zora Breeding, 8/16/2000