Minutes, Fall Meeting, October 8, 2010
Stephanie Herfel (York College) called the meeting to order at approximately 1:15 p.m.
Stephanie introduced Alysha Russo (Lycoming College) as the new co-chair, replacing LonaSholly.
Stephanie presented several questions to the circ group.
Is anyone using discovery tools in place of the traditional online catalog?
Dickinson and one other college reported directing their users to WorldCat rather than their online catalog. Another college mentioned federated searchers.
Have students expressed a need for technology that you do not offer?
Meeting participants discussed what sorts of technology they loan to students, their loan policies and how it has worked out for them.
Stephanie mentioned loaning GPS units, laptops and camcorders. She elaborated to say that they do not have the editing software for their camcorders to allow students to edit and suggested that colleges, who considering loaning video equipment, factor editing software in to their decision.
One college mentioned that they loan VHS and cassette tape recorders as some patrons are stuck on older forms of technology. They also mentioned that students seem to want the hard drive on camcorders and do not want to deal with a cassette.
Krista Higham (Millersville University) reported that they have both laptops and smaller netbooks available to loan, and although some students prefer one over the other, they are both are heavily used. Millersville is also considering the purchase of portable DVD players since students do not seem to like to watch DVDs on a TV. Krista also reported that they allow their laptops to leave the library on a split 4-hour loan (students have 2 hours in the evening and then 2 hours in the morning plus the overnight period in between) and have had no problems with laptops leaving the library with the exception one laptop being damage. Krista highly recommends that libraries allow their students to take laptops out overnight with the requirement that that laptop must be returned by 8am or 9am the next morning.
Dickinson reported that they have dual boot MACs that can boot as a MAC or a PC.
Most other colleges reported that they do not allow laptops to leave the library and discussed their various fine policies. Several colleges also reported heavy laptop use by students.
Is anyone using Thin Clients?
(Thin clients was explained as software and programs located on a server rather than a CPU – the library houses the dummy monitors and keyboards, but not the operating system, etc.)
Millersville reported that they had tried this with their reference computers and have encountered many problems but were not sure if it was an implementation problem or a problem with the VMware itself. They reported having a hard time getting hooked up, problems with it being slow and problems with people forgetting to log off so that two seats are running even if only one person is actively using the terminal.
Feedback on conference presentation?
The feedback was positive – very good presentation, well-organized.
Should SIGs merge?
After a brief discussion about the possibility of merging the Reserve, Circ and ILL SIGs (and possibly Copyright), in which some colleges were in favor and some felt they were too new to comment, Stephanie asked if a vote was in order. Krista suggested that we talk with LLC first and see if there is interest from the other groups. Further discussion was tabled until we have more information.
Bus Trips
The group briefly discussed the possibility of reviving the bus trips that were taken in the past. The NY Public Library, Columbia University, and a return trip to the Library of Congress were three possibilities mentioned.
Spring Workshop
Stephanie asked about interest in and ideas for a spring workshop, likely to be held in March. Last year’s topic was Tech Tools and Service Rules for Library Staffers, presented by Stephanie and Krista. A show of hands indicated an interest in the workshop. Stephanie stated that she would create a survey to try to hone in on a topic idea. She also suggested that members be sure to add their names to the ACLCP Circ SIG listserv if they were not already on it.
PALCI Conference
Krista made an announcement reminding everyone about the PALCI meeting in Harrisburg at the Harrisburg Hilton on November 18 & 19. The meeting will provide information and training on the new RELAIS interface for E-Z Borrow. She mentioned that no registration available yet, but keep an eye out for it. There still is no formal date for rollover but it will need to be completed before the contract for the current system expires at the end of December. (UPDATE: Registration is now up on – click on “Meetings” and then “Upcoming”.)
Promoting ACLCP to Patrons
Dickinson College brought up the idea of collecting information on all the ACLCP libraries and creating some sort of brochure or packet of information that would promote the ACLCP group of libraries to library patrons. Dickinson reported that their students are often willing to drive to nearby participating libraries for resources and that having a brochure mentioning the libraries that are part of ACLCP and listing some of their information and resources could be very helpful. It was suggested that libraries might bring their information (maps, hours, resources, etc.) to the next meeting to get this started.
The meeting adjourned at 1:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Alysha Russo
Circ SIG Co-Chair