Circulation Services Group Minutes
September 16, 1997

Circulation Services Group Meeting, Tues., Sept.16, 1997

Present: J.Ford, M.Fleming, M.McDonald, N.Brailo, R.Vesterfeld,
P.Bertrang, N.Foster, J.Garay, F.VanBuren, E.Stephens, B.Shirman,
G.Sacco-Trujillo, F.Brown, N.Tran, C.Alderson, L.Villegas, L.Ng,
A.Bourgeois, D.Lindquist, M.Offenbacher, P Bertrang,

  Guest:  S.Rosenblatt

R Love (Chair)

Recorder: K. Fletcher

I. Announcements

G.Sacco-Trujillo asked the group for corrections, additions or deletions
to the 4-letter codes used for courses in the Autoreserve system. She
asked the group to report typos and other problems with the codes to her
by e-mail. 

G.Sacco-Trujillo also announced that she has made an updated list for
campus housing, arranged alphabetically by street which will be available
to units who do their own Gladis address updates. She also reminded the
group that she is available to train circulation staff to do these updates.

II. Systems Report

In May: Programs installed to bring Periodicals/Newspapers/Microforms Room
up on Autocirc.  Reset circcodes for PERI and MATH. Expanded location
field to accomodate NRLF's non-UC library locations. On 5/27/97 changed
default semester for Autoreserves from U97 to F97. 

In June: Added two new program routines, new record structures, new
versions of holdings edit and BRIEF display programs as part of support
for NRLF merge. Also added new Discharge request structure to allow books
to be discharged by NRLF barcode.  Modified CHARGE and RENEW and F PT
screens to display new patron information, including the new note field.
Added new patron affiliation: CSL (California State Library). On 6/30/97
new fiscal year stat file started. Display programs changed to allow
continued display of last fiscal year for the next two months.

In July: Phase 2 NRLF programming put into place. Provides for presence of
"n" level records in holdings edit, bib edit, and record creation. 
Changed security checking so ETHN can do autocirc and autoreserve and edit
holdings for AASL, NASL, and CHIC items. These changes in place in time
for the opening of the new Ethnic Studies Library. As requested by CSG,
modification of text of Recall, Recall of Overdue Item, and Hold Pickup
notices so due date not so likely to be obscured by U.S.Postal system
additions. First "n" level records loaded into GLADIS on 7/30/97. New
SHORT display with a generic note for "n" level records. 

In August: Switch to Oracle database (Telebears) for updating student
records. This allows records to be loaded daily, instead of weekly. First
upload included everyone eligible to register. Subsequent loads will
mainly be for records which have been updated since the previous load.
Problem with social security number digits discovered and corrected. Item
status report changed to include a reason code. This code will define the
source of a credit memo which will either be a cancellation of an invoice
(if it comes from the library system) or a transfer of the invoice from
CARS to CUBS (if it comes from CUBS). On 8/20/97 semester default for
reserves changed from U97 to F97. 

In September:  Fixed a holdings edit bug which caused the spurious
message: "Keyer not authorized for NRLF barcode edit." New version of
Inventory screen to indicate an item has been sent to collections, a
special search for something sent to collections, and an invoice has been
consolidated on CARS. A loophole that allowed editing of duplicate
barcodes and which therefore could have jeopardized CARS data, was
closed.New manual block code "CUBS" added. New block will be set
automatically when CARS invoices are transferred to CUBS. Used the new
block code to block all patrons previously transferred to cubs. 

Upcoming: Continue NRLF merge programming. Transfer unpaid library
invoices from CARS to CUBS. New notice text for 03 borrowers. 

III. Sundry Debtor Invoices and CARS

R.Love passed out photocopies of outstanding Sundry Debtor bills that need
to be entered by units into the CARS system. They have all been cancelled
by the Accounting Office, and that means they will need to be billed again
manually in CARS.  L Mansur has sent out procedures describing how these
invoices should be treated.  Borrowers with expired ID's can still be
billed manually in CARS, but invoices for borrowers no longer in the
system should be set aside. If there are several records for a borrower,
use the current one. Drop any invoice that is just for processing fees.
R.Love asked people to contact him about problems with manual billing in
Autocirc.  Since all of these invoices were recharged to library accounts
when cancelled (7/1/97), the library would lose approximately $328,000 if 
nothing was done to recover these. 

IV. Wording of Circ Notices to Faculty/Faculty *Claims Returned* Searches
(N Brailo)

N Brailo reported that there is a proposal that the library come up with
new wording for the claims returned search postcards sent out to faculty
and 03 borrowers. PSAG-PS has been working on this. There is also a
request from the Library Administration that MAIN automatically charge all
faculty claims returned items to MISSING. General consensus seemed to be
that this would result in many more claims, especially if proxy borrower
claims were treated in this way. R.Love suggested that an institutional
borrower could be created to keep an inventory of items that were charged
out to missing for this reason. 


V. Problems in Hiring Student Employees due to Pay Rate (R.Vesterfeld, N.Tran)

N.Tran and R. Vesterfeld described a range of difficulties libraries are
experiencing hiring and hanging onto student library employees. Students
are not applying for jobs, or are quitting as soon as they are offered
higher paying jobs outside of the library system. Students also seem
unwilling to work as many hours per week as in the past, and there just
generally seems to be higher turnover. These problems seem attributable to
our less competitive wages. Possible ways of increasing applicant pool
were suggested: posting signs with the advantages of working for the
library spelled out, asking friends of friends, advertizing in the Daily
Cal with a generic ad for all the libraries. 

VI. Survey on What Time Units Close Circ.Desk in Relation to Closing Library

J. Garay asked for an e-mail response to the following question: How many
minutes before the library closes do you close the Circ Desk? Please be
sure to send all responses to jgaray@library. If you misspell her name, it
goes to another person in the library.

VII. Sue Rosenblatt 

S.Rosenblatt dropped by to solicit ideas from the Circulation Services
Group. She is prepared to make investments in ideas that will allow us to
do a better job of providing access at a lower cost. Funds are under
consideration for reallocation, not based on the old attrition model 
we've been using up to now. She asked us to think about what parts of the 
library need to grow? What parts can be dropped? How can we make 
Circulation work better for the users? 

---

Copyright (C) 1997 by the Library, University of California,Berkeley. All rights reserved.
Document maintained on server: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ by rlove@library.berkeley.edu
Last update Wed Oct 8 8:12:35 1997 .
Server manager: webman@library.berkeley.edu