Minutes of the Circulation Services Committee Meeting, Wednesday December20, 20062:15pm in the Gerstein Science Information Centre, Computer Lab.

Present: Neil Allen (Engineering,Chair), Susan Bond(Trinity), Michael Hamilton (Media Commons), Lari Langford(Access, Robarts), Linda Oliver (Pratt), Joy Shanfield(Consortium, Toronto Rehab), Kamlesh Sharma (OISE), Anna Szot-Sacawa (Law), Kate VanDusen, (SMC), Lorna Young (Regis).

Regrets: Erin Anderson(Trinity), Lynda Hayes(Emmanuel), Renata Holder(Gerstein), Bonnie Horne(Gerstein)Lin Mei Chu(East Asian).

1.Previous Minutes:

Marc Lalonde and Joy Shanfield’s names were misspelled. With these spelling revisions the minutes of the October 18thmeeting were accepted as submitted.

2. Business Arising:

  • Neil presented the following:

>Lari Langford wrote:

>No, this is just to harvest the e-mails, with no explanation as to why. We discussed with >SIS that students' expectations are that, if they change their contact information, once, it >should change in all the university databases. So, we're striving to make this work that >way. I guess if they have a definite reason that they don't wish the library to have this >information, they will be able to opt out.
>Lari
>Neil Allen wrote:

>Will there be room for any kind of statement telling the student why they should tick the >box(eg they'll get reminder notices)?
>Lari Langford wrote:

>Further to our discussion at the last Circulation Services Committee meeting, I'm writing >to confirm that e-mail addresses, for new faculty and staff, are loaded into the patron >database in the regular uploads from the UTORAble database.
>We have been loading e-mail addresses for new students, for a few years now. However, >in the near future, I hope we will add another dimension to our ability to collect changes >to e-mail addresses, or to obtain e-mail addresses for students who did not record that >information in their original application to U of T. In discussions with the staff at >Student Information Systems, we have agreed that the student ROSI web-site, where >students update their address information for the ROSI database, will contain a box to >tick that this same information should be sent to the library. This will mean that students >will not need to login to the library web-site and enter the information a second time. It >will be e-mailed directly from the ROSI site, to the mailbox that >is used for address changes.
>Lari Langford

  • Lari advised that the box should be introduced by the fall
  • Lari advised that Holds fix has not happened as of yet, but it’s still being worked on.

3. Review of Fines and Fee Schedule for 2006/07:

  • As of January 2006 this committee did not change the schedule but agreed to retroactively increase pre-2002 lost book fines, and revisit this schedule in a year
  • The Provost must be told of intended increases by January 26th but may first have to be ratified by LAC
  • Fines were last increased in 2003
  • Prices have increased due to inflation since then according to the following schedule:

Book Cost / Processing Cost / Total
Real Price and Inflation Increases Expected / $100
2003/2004 / 8.00% / $108
2004/2005 / 7.28% / $116
2005/2006 / 4.90% / $122
2006/2007 / 8.79% / $132 / $51 / $183
Protected Price and Inflation Increase Given / $100
2003/2004 / 4.15% / $104
2004/2005 / 4.15% / $108
2005/2006 / 4.15% / $113
2006/2007 / 4.15% / $118 / $51 / $168
Processing Cost
Average Wage Increase Given / $45
2003/2004 / 3.00% / $46
2004/2005 / 3.00% / $48
2005/2006 / 3.00% / $49
2006/2007 / 3.00% / $51 / $51
  • It was suggested that the processing fee be increased to $50 (as it’s a rounder number than $51) and the book cost be increased to $175 as a rough average of the real price increase and protected budget increase.
  • It was noted that the standard policy is patrons have a choice of either paying the replacement fee, or replacing the book and paying the processing fee. In no circumstances should the patron need to pay more than the replacement fee.
  • It was agreed that the late fee ($0.50/day per item with a $25.00 threshold) is still a deterrent as it stands, and so need not be increased.
  • The revised fee Schedule would look something like this:

Fine and Loss Rates / Current / New
Regular Loan / .50¢ per day per item / Same
Short Term Loan / .50¢ per hour per item / Same
Recall Loan / $2.00 per day per item / Same
Lost Book Replacement Fee / $145 / $175
Lost Bound Journal Volume / $245 / $275
Lost Media Replacement Fee / $145 / $175
Lost Unbound Journal / $75 / $100
Damaged Book or Journal / $45 / $50
  • Lari will send a summary email of this discussion and alert the chair of the advisory committee that we will be putting through these changes
  • Card fees are not the responsibility of this committee, but we can make recommendations. It may be time to raise them – we can put it on the agenda for a spring meeting, but it need not be on the same timeline as the fees. It was noted that the senior price should not be raised too much

4. Binding Freeze (Central System Libraries):

  • The central library binding budget is frozen until April
  • Next year’s budget will probably be drastically reduced
  • Books are still being set aside, in different ways at different libraries. At Engineering they are in a “temporary stacks” location and are retrievable. At Robarts they are in “mending” which is a shadowed location and they are not retrievable.
  • There was an extensive discussion of the Missing Wizard (when an item is charged with the wizard, it’s status is changed to missing_utl, when discharged it’s sent back to wherever it belongs) and which locations are shadowed (missing, lost and paid are, missing_utl, lost_utl and paid_utl are not).
  • There was a discussion of the relationship between Workflows and OPAC codes
  • Things are not being sent to Downsview that need to be bound. Serials are just being kept on the shelf downtown.
  • The freeze is in effect until April 30th.

5. Other Business:

  • Linda Oliver advised of a new feature on the hours page in OPAC: you can search forward and back, and print the current month’s hours for individual libraries as a PDF
  • In the new year the Institute for Christian Studies will be joining Sirsi/OPAC. It is an affiliate member of TST and will not change the relationship of the patron group. Faculty and Graduate Studetns can borrow from ICS, and the students, faculty and staff of ICS have Research Reader cards.Isabelle Guthrie-McNaughton will join the Circ. Services meeting on their behalf.
  • Noel and Susan worked out the message for the holiday break for the Request Item service.
  • FAQs have been added to the webpage for Renewals, Fines and Holds as it was updated
  • Minutes of the Circ Services meetings are being added
  • Circ Services will invite Thomas Chan to join our committee as a representative from ITS

Next meeting Wednesday January 17th.