Circulation Services Subcommittee

Call to order: 9:34 am
Introduction of guests/visitors.None.
Changes/Additions to the Agenda.
Changes. None.
Additionsg. documenting refund policies.
Requests to address the Committee.None.

Approval of previous meeting minutes from May 10th.
Changes or corrections: There was one change. Under 4a the last line was amended from “Replacing a patron barcode) fixed.” To “Replacing a patron barcode) needs to be fixed.”
Approved by consensus. Approved.

Discussion/Action items (60 min.)
Patron registration forms: status of changes.
Discussion. The updated English versions are posted [link]. A Spanish version has been created. Once it is proof-read and approved we will get it to Deb for conversion and posting on the website. Teacher and organization forms revised to include the changes in order to be consistent with the other forms. Margie reported that a member of the ILS Committee requested CSC discussion for adding an area to write down the patron’s PINon the application instead of a checkbox. The Committee agreed that this was removed for security reasons and did not think that it should be re-placed on the form.
Motion. None.
Action items. Get the Spanish version proofread and posted.
Review clean-up procedure for Lost and Paid items.
Discussion. Instructions and a report were sent out in June as homework but the instructions have been updated since then and the report is out-of-date. The intent is to develop a common procedure for libraries to remove Lost and Paid for items from the patron’s Lost Items list after the library’s “No Refund allowed after this point time frame” and/or if the library only provides refunds for higher priced items. So far the libraries that do not provide refunds to patrons at all will continue to provide refunds to libraries that pay for items that have gone missing off of their hold shelves. SCLS will re-run the report and send it out to the committee with the updated instructions. If libraries don’t provide refunds for lost and paid items, please include that in your revisions to these instructions. We will review this at the next meeting.
Motion. None.
Action items. BAR and STP will share their No Refund policy/procedure with the rest of the Committee.
Single problem item form.
Discussion. Ronda updated the form, sent it out to the committee via email, and provided copies for the committee members (link). MID staff have looked at this and their staff are excited and appreciative about having only one form. Ronda will email Heidi the current version and send it to link-announce for feedback by our next meeting. Erica will review the current language in the manual for paying for items and will suggest new language and send it to Heidi. Barbara noted that staff handling parts missing need to make sure they note what’s happening and include the title and barcode in the patron record. Then remove the notes when the items are all back together. Ronda will send their directions to SUN.
Motion. None.
Action items. Heidi will send out to all library circ staff for review and comments. CSC will review at November meeting.
Using MailChimp to inform patrons (via email) when their patron record is going to expire. (SUN)
Discussion. Steev passed around a handout he wrote up regarding this. He will email it to Heidi and she will post it to the CSC web page. Koha will put a notice on the patrons account on the checkout screen and LINKcat. However, Overdrive patrons don’t see this notice. They are simply blocked from Overdrive with no explanation. Cindy has a report that she runs to extract information about patron cards that are going to expire. MailChimp is a free account you can use to send mass emails to your patrons (It’s free until you hit a certain threshold of 1000 emails in one month). Steev creates a list each month and sends out a notice to SUN patrons with email addresses. The service is on our wish list to be created in Koha. Heidi and Cindy will investigate as to whether Koha Academic has this and if it could be imported into our version of Koha. They will also talk to other Tech staff about this as and find out if an email solution could be created for all SCLS libraries. They will report back their findings at the next meeting. Cindy will investigate if this would be useful more as a Crystal report or a regular Monthly report.
Motion. None.
Action items. See above.
Digital library card and/or photo in patron record.
Discussion. Two years ago we submitted a spec to Envisionware to build a digital library card app. Some libraries have allowed patrons to use pictures of their library cards on their phones for checkout though scanners have trouble reading digital barcodes. It seems better suited to the self-check units, which also requires them to enter their PIN. If you allowed patrons to use digital cards, would you want to also require picture verification on the patron account? Heidi has tested this on patron accounts with pictures uploaded in the sandbox and hasn’t seen it slow down the speed of Koha. This was discussed as a possible way to use LSTA funds. Is this something that would be useful? What procedures would need to be implemented? After some discussion, the committee wanted to wait for the digital app made specifically for libraries that could include PIN security.
Motion. None.
Action items.Heidi will send the instructions to the committee on how to upload photos in the sandbox by the end of the month.
Review examples of old unallocated credits in patron records: discuss clean-up instructions.
Discussion. We are working on runninga report of unallocated credits. We are hoping these records be cleaned up prior to the code based fusion. Can all credits be cleared from as many records as possible prior to the Code based fusion migration? The decisions really need to be looked at individually by libraries. Libraries should be responsible for patrons on this report that list them as their Home library. Hopefully this clean-up becomes a regular occurrence (maybe 2 times/year) in the future.
Motion. None.
Action items.Heidi will re-run this report at the end of September and draft instructions. She will send it to Jo and Margie for review. Then it will be sent to the entire committee for further review.
Documentation of Refund Policies.
Discussion. A request came from the Dane County Library meeting to create a list of individual library refund policies. This has the potential to get out of date quickly and continuously. It would be more useful if libraries could be responsible for this and update their policies as they change. Would the circulation page be a good place to post this?
Motion. None.
Action items. We will start with putting a static list on the Circulation web page. Heidi will send out a request for information from libraries.

2016 CSC meeting dates (2nd Tuesday every other month):

Nov 8

2016 CIRC User Groups/Training (Topics to be confirmed) sessions

Nov 2 Circulation