September 2002 Executive Committee Meeting

Dawson Library of the Chestatee Regional Library System
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002

The meeting was called to order by Chairperson, Diana Ray Tope, at 10:00 AM.

All Executive Committee members were present – Greg Heid, Alan Kaye, Diana Ray Tope, Charles Gee, Walter Murphy, Debbie Manget, Teresa Haymore, Susan Cooley, and Barbara Hutsell.

Teresa Haymore moved that the minutes of the May 30, 2002 PINES Executive Committee meeting be approved as presented. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

The Nominating Committee, Greg Heid, Alan Kaye and Diana Ray Tope, proposed the following slate of officers for the Executive Committee for 2002-2003: Greg Heid as Vice Chair/Chair Elect, and Debbie Manget as Secretary.  The slate was accepted and approved unanimously by the Executive Committee.

Chairperson Diana Ray Tope appointed a By-Laws Committee; the members are Teresa Haymore, Alan Kaye, and Debbie Manget.  David Singleton agreed to assist this Committee as well.  She announced that the committee will meet at the Watkinsville Library at 10 a.m. before the Directors’ Meeting on October 8, 2002.

David Singleton gave a report from the PINES staff

1.    Cataloging and Bibliographic Database Update

• David Singleton distributed the results of Cataloging Survey.  Results can be seen at http://batman.gsu.edu/pineshelp/PINESfiles/ExecutiveCommittee/catsurvey.... David pointed out that this should be viewed as a rough estimate as the results were not collected scientifically.
• Retrospective Conversion Project Update.   Electronic Scriptorium has completed the conversion of the genealogy collections at Middle Georgia Regional Library and Ohoopee Regional Library.   Over 25,000 bibliographic records have been added to the PINES database as a result of this project; these records are now available for other PINES libraries to attach local holdings.
• Bin Lin reported on the status of the application for OCLC Enhanced Status.  Our initial application was denied.  Bin explained that Enhanced Status is very difficult to achieve but that she expected PINES to receive this status with the next application.
• Authority Control.   PINES staff has been investigating authority control for the PINES database.  Bin Lin has gathered information from several vendors, and staff will be announcing a decision soon.

2.    Training

• Two serials training sessions have been completed.  There will be 2 additional sessions Sept 23-26. Acquisitions training will begin on October 14th.   Six sessions will be held during a three-week period.  The PINES Staff asked for volunteers to attend these training sessions who would work with us in implementing these modules in PINES and also to assist with training.  The input from discussion in the initial training sessions has been very helpful.  Additional PINES-specific training will be scheduled in November or December.  Details for those sessions are forthcoming.
• Bin and David reported that Cat1 authorization has been revoked for 2 systems, as they no longer have someone on staff with the appropriate training.  Bin Lin has been working with staff at both locations to assist them in regaining Cat1 authorization.
• Michael and Elizabeth have worked with the staff at Bartram Trail Regional Library and Northeast Georgia Regional Library to develop PINES-specific documentation and training for inventory scanners.  We hope to make that available to libraries very soon.
• The PINES Staff also hopes to make training for the Standalone and PINES HelpDesk software available to libraries soon.

3.    The move from the PINES to the GIL E10K and server upgrade went well.  The problems we experienced on Monday (September 16th) were configuration problems that the PINES Team, GSU Staff and SIRSI did not foresee.

4.    WorkFlows Password Changes –There will be a subcommittee recommendation available regarding this issue that will be discussed later in the meeting; Brad is working on an administrative web page interface that would allow libraries to change their own WorkFlows password.  Library Directors will have access to this administrative page.   WorkFlows only allows one level of system admin access, which is only available to PINES Staff. This web interface will allow for a secondary level of system administration.  Brad plans to provide access to overrides, closed dates and other local administrative items such as this.

5.    As a reminder to libraries, you must delete the e-mail address on the user record in order to prevent patrons from receiving e-mail notification.

6.    WorkFlows 2002 Testing-David Singleton announced that PINES would not move to 2002 until the issues with Demand Management are resolved; Once these issues are resolved, we will test again and install.

• Julie Walker reported that the Circulation subcommittee tested 2002 on Wednesday, August 14th.  There are still several issues with Demand Management (Holds) that have been reported to SIRSI for resolution.
• Bin Lin reported that the Cataloging Subcommittee tested 2002 on Thursday, August 15th.  Overall, this version of the software works fine.  There are some problems in transferring titles and reviewing records.   These issues have also been reported to SIRSI.

7.    Brad LaJeunesse has developed a new web page for uploading Standalone transactions, which is named PINESTRAW.  This interface is much less cumbersome to use than the old standalone utility.  It also prompts users when errors occur in uploading their file, so it safeguards against the loss of data. Feedback from the libraries has been very positive.

8.    Brad LaJeunesse is working on a new reports database interface.  Expect a beta release by the end of the year.  Brad will contact the reports subcommittee for input and testing of the new interface.

9.    The PINES Team is waiting for an update on the custom Debt Collection Report use with a collection agency. The custom report is supposed to be complete by SIRSI staff by the middle of September.  David distributed a report for overdue materials.  This can be viewed at http://batman.gsu.edu/pineshelp/PINESfiles/ExecutiveCommittee/overdues.h...

10.    The Batgirl server will be available by the end of September.  This server will be used for reports instead of the batman port 5200.  Reporting will be completely removed from the production server, so no resources will be shared.  The significance of this move is that batgirl will provide a complete mirror of everything on batman. The reports server did not provide (ghostly visage) such a complete replication of the PINES system.  Another benefit of the move is increased system performance for both the production and reports servers.  Brad will also use this server for developing some other applications for PINES.  We will send out instructions in advance before turning off port 5200 from batman.

11.    Michael Imsand demonstrated the new PINES HelpDesk software. This new system will allow users to track any calls that have been placed with the PINES HelpDesk.  It will allow the PINES Staff to escalate unanswered calls in a structured way, while building a systematic knowledge base (similar to our current FAQs) that will be fully searchable by everyone.

12.    David announced that Power Search (in WebCat) now includes library systems in the drop down list of libraries.  This was previously not available.

Discussion/Action Items

Susan Cooley moved to approve the nominations to the Circulation Subcommittee (attached). The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Susan Cooley moved to add a new Serials Subcommittee to be composed of PINES library staff. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Julie Walker reported that all committee members are notified through e-mail of all questions and issues and included in discussions pertaining to all committees.  Any member of any committee can contribute their thoughts and opinions on any PINES policy issue.

Walter Murphy moved to approve the Piedmont Regional Library PINES Membership Agreement. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Charles Gee moved to approve "PIED" as the PINES policy name for Piedmont Regional. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Greg Heid moved that member libraries would be required to change PINES passwords once a year. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Walter Murphy moved to accept the subcommittee’s recommendation not to create the new item type of CD-Audio. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Susie Stewart, director of Hall County Library System, reported that the outsourcing pilot project has gone well. Bin Lin agreed that the cataloging was very good from all 5 vendors.

Walter Murphy moved to approve the outsourcing cataloguing documents as revised (attached). The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Alan Kaye moved to accept the subcommittee's recommendation to leave the “address correction requested” on the notices.  Seven members voted in favor of the motion and Greg Heid voted against the motion.

Walter Murphy moved to accept the subcommittee’s recommendation to leave the patron's name on the check-out receipts. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Greg Heid moved to approve the statement of policies regarding the use of smart cards (attached). The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Susan Cooley moved to approve the subcommittee's recommendation that no notices be sent once an item has been set to “claims returned”. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

Debbie Manget moved to approve the PINES Serials Policy as presented (attached) and to request that SIRSI improve or develop the software to easily circulate magazines. Barbara Hutsell seconded the motion.  The motion passed with seven in favor of the motion and Walter Murphy abstaining.

Alan Kaye moved to accept and approve the subcommittee’s recommendation to not charge the overdue fines on lost items.  Susan Cooley seconded the motion. The motion passed with six members voting in favor of the motion and Walter Murphy and Charles Gee voting against the motion. 

Greg Heid moved to accept the PINES staff’s recommended policy (attached) to submit certain information to the PINES staff when considering library management software products. The motion was seconded and passed with a unanimous vote.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 PM.