BTECH minutes - 9/2/98

[Library Web Manager <webman@library.berkeley.edu>]

BERKELEY TECHNICAL SERVICES DISCUSSION GROUP
MEETING MINUTES

September 2, 1998 
Recorder: Ingrid de la Jara 
Guest: Penny Abell, Kate Fletcher 

Announcements 
  
Pam Daniels 

Pam Daniels is still out. Her surgery is scheduled for this month. 
We wish her all the best.


Agenda 

Staff Concerns/Comments for UL - Penny Abell 

The Concerns and issues that were brought up for Penny Abell during the
meeting were the following: 

Miscellaneous Problems dealing with the Systems Office Support. Win 95
Upgrades have created problems in which they have been slow in solving. It was
suggested that it would help if they documented the problem solving on the
Web for easy access to others. Also, upgrades are being conducted unevenly
within the branches without training staff beforehand. The staff would
also like to see PC Expert program revamped.  There is also the need for
the following:

Leadership from within library groups to see projects through to their
end; Improve communications within library units and staff groups;
Ongoing training on new technology; Adequate staffing. 
       
Comments by Penny Abell 
       
Her role is to think broadly about our concerns. She can only help by
creating a strong organizational structure that facilitates problem
solving and supports training. She is seeking ideas for managing our
situation better and recognizes the need to invest in areas such as
training, planning, communication and staff. She believes that the
questions we need to be asking are where should we invest 
our resources and energies to best serve our needs and those of our
patrons?  What kind of staffing patterns should be implemented? Do we invest 
time and  energy on student assistants or would some positions be better
filled with  permanent staff? How can we be more flexible in our positions
while still  maintaining equity within the classification system?  She
emphasized the importance of training and agrees that the work
organization should support  it. Such as providing release time for
training.  She does not have the solution 
to all our problems, but she is optimistic that this can be a more
effective and satisfying place to work.  All of us should try to not let
cynicism rule our thought and move towards a more creative, productive way
of thinking that tries  to include the most people in our team. She
encourages us to act as individuals to improve communication problems. One
specific step that we could take as a group is to invite guests from other
units into our meetings and to prepare in  advance a list of priorities to
clearly communicate to them. She recommended us to take advantage of the
stable situation we are in (there is no more downsizing) to deal with
systemic problems. 
       
Technical Services Web Page - Kate Fletcher 

Kate would like to get some input on where the Technical Services Web site
should  be located within the UC Library Web site. The Technical Services
site will be  separate but linked to the BPM.  Grace Abiko suggests
publishing ideas for the location on the Web in order to get feedback on
them by the rest of the staff.  J. Weeks recommends no graphics on the
website in order to facilitate downloading of the site as well as to make
it easier to see the text on the page that currently files at the bottom.
Kate encourages all staff to contact her for any  ideas or suggestions for
the Web site. 
       
Open Discussion 

Pathfinder Problems:  It was reported that corrections that are made on
V/Cs in Gladis do not load fast enough on Pathfinder. Also hyphens are
not displaying on records. For example v.1-2 is shown in pathfinder as
v.12. For solutions to these types of problems Lorelie Mansur should be
contacted by email. 
       
CARS Problems with Replacements and Mends  Several staff members reported
the  different ways in which they were dealing with the V/C problems
created by  outstanding CARS charges attached to barcodes.  Replacement
procedures cannot be followed when the old V/C cannot be deleted.  Also
recased volumes from CONS cannot have new barcodes added to the V/C. Everyone
agreed to bring  examples of procedures that they used to circumvent the
problems to the next meeting. We will look at what is being done and pass
this information along to PSAG-TS to establish a single standard for
dealing with this issue. Again,  please bring examples for the next
meeting for discussion. 
       
Check-in Problems: It was reported by people from several units that many
RLOC=S serials they receive from PERI have not been properly checked in.
J. Weeks advises us to send problems to Wanda Rybak, Head of Periodicals
Check-in Division. At some point in the future if problems still exist
beyond normal human error, we can ask Wanda to come to a meeting to hear
our concerns. 
       
Systems Office:  Ralph Moon, Head of the Systems Office, will be invited
as a  guest to attend our next meeting. The group suggests the following
questions to discuss with him: 

Uniformity of Windows 95 upgrades. 

PC Expert revamping/Implementation. 
           
The meeting was adjourned. 

Next meeting scheduled for October 7th.