RSIG MINUTES

9/1/99

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

CATALOGING: Sylvia announced that Flo has asked for her and Zora to collaborate on a document that would explain to non-RS staff what kinds of cataloging we do in RS, e.g., why member copy is not always used when available. Why is so much time spent editing member copy instead of just accepting as is? It was agreed that this document might be useful to RS staff as well. It was suggested that the document be accompanied by examples of editing done on member and minimal level records. ACTION: Sylvia will write up the document with much input from Zora and other catalogers.

WOMEN'S CENTER: Zora and Sylvia reported on a meeting that they attended on Aug. 31 along with Flo, John Haar, Melinda Brown, Linda Manning (Director of Women's Center) and Barbara Clark (Women's Center librarian). The Women's Center would like to add their collection of approx. 2,400 books and 40 current periodical subscriptions to the Acorn database. They will provide labor for retrospective conversion as well as for maintenance. Discussion followed as to necessary equipment, costs of installation, RS involvment, and other available options (online circulation, centralized ordering). ACTION: Flo will work up approx. cost figures. Once these are approved, conversion will begin.

OVERDUES/RECALLS: Sylvia remarked that notices for overdues/recalls that she formerly received via e-mail stopped coming after implementation of Workflows. Upon notification to Nancy, e-mail reports were resumed, but in a totally different format than formerly. The new format was cumbersome and difficult to read. People at this meeting reported that they had not been receiving notice of overdues/recalls as they once did. Nancy explained that the address line in the user record for the pseudo-patron needs to be set to 3. ACTION: Staff should check to make sure pseudo patron record indicates a setting of 3 in the address line. Nancy will continue to experiment with these reports in Sirsi.

OCLC UPDATE PROBLEM: Peg reported that printouts for OCLC updates that are sent by OS to Maintenance were no longer showing the OCLC no. This was determined to be a Workflows problem. OS discovered a workaround to the problem, and proper information is once again being sent to Maintenance staff.

SHELF-READY UPDATE: Sylvia reported that the first shipment of shelf-ready books had been received. However, instead of being delivered o the Central and Science Libraries as requested, both cartons were delivered to the Baker mailroom. The shipment for the Science Library was correctly addressed; the one for Central was not. BNA has been asked to correct the mailing label for Central. Sue Davis and Janet Thomason, commenting on the physical processing, noted the most serious problems: the label protector could be more harmful than beneficial by its size, and the font of printing on the labels was too small. Sylvia has reported the concerns to BNA. Most can be easily remedied; it is not yet known whether or not the font for the labels can be changed. ACTION: Sylvia will check with the Science Library for their comments on the physical processing of their books.

SHELF-READY EVALUATION: Sue and Zora showed and explained some logscans that they had experimented with to see how practical they would be in tracing the speed at which a book moves through processing. Once a barcode is added to an Acorn record, the logscan shows each command executed. Each command is dated and timed, and the workstation is identified. Used in conjunction with the EDIT ITEM screen that shows the date cataloged, date created, and invoice and fund information, we should be able to reconstruct the course and speed of material moving through RS. Sue presented an Excel sheet that she had constructed for recording information necessary for evaluation. With 1 minor exception, the chart was acceptable and considered well done.