SUMMARY OF MAJOR ACTION AND DISCUSSION ITEMS

eiNetwork Users Group Steering Committee Meeting

July 23, 2009

Members present: Kathy Firestone, Sandra Collins, Tina LaMark, Mary Monaghan, Kaarin VanAusdal, Debi Ryder for Marilyn Jenkins, Trina Brown for Mike Nangia, and Mary McIntyre for Rebecca Serey

Visitors: Mary Coyle, June Rayner, Dan Waksman, and Fei Yu

General Updates

Public PC Management Taskforce Update - Mr. Waksman reported that the PC Management taskforce group has attended product demonstrations from four potential vendors. The taskforce members will attend a more in-depth product demonstration from two of the vendors to ensure that the products contain the key functionality that are important to libraries. eiNetwork staff will set up a test environment for the PC Management software, complete reference checks and get more specific details about cost from the vendors. Mr. Waksman reported that a recommendation should be ready for the next Steering Committee Meeting.

ILS Updates

Catalog Front End – Ms. Rayner reported that Aqua Browser received the site specific information and sample data required to set up the proof-site (test site). The proof-site should be available at the end of the month. Index content enhancement, makes content searchable, will be added to the proof-site as a trial. The Index content enhancement is a feature that requires additional funding to implement. Staff communication and training is expected to begin in late August or early September and include a series of announcements, flyers, regional training sessions, and webinars.

Spine Label Template Update – Ms. Yu reported that spine only and spine and pocket labels are utilized by libraries. The pilot sites uncovered multiple issues with the spine and pocket labels. Currently, III does not support print templates that would include adding the publisher name on the spine & pocket labels. The pilot sites that utilized the spine only labels were happy with the pilot. This situation is that each library has their own requirement on how and what information needs to print on the spine only labels. The Steering Committee recommended that the eiNetwork staff contact the cataloging personnel at libraries and create templates for the most commonly used formats.

Shipping Labels – Ms. Rayner reported that a few items appear on paging lists that do not have a status of “available”. This then creates shipping labels that cannot be used. Ms. Rayner provided a report showing the cost savings to libraries for shipping labels if the macro used to print the shipping labels is updated to print only items with a status of available at the time the shipping labels are printed. The Steering Committee agreed that the shipping label macro should be changed to only print labels for items with a status of “available”.

AirPAC – Ms. Yu explained in late April early May that an upgrade was made to AirPac to allow patrons with I-Phone access to the OPAC. However, this is not yet available for use. The I-Phone requires each application to have its own ICON that also has its own logo. The same will be available for the Blackberry phones soon. A name for the ICON is needed and naming suggestions are welcome. Ms. Yu will send out a request soliciting suggestions on what to name the ICON.

My Account Move to PAC2 – Ms. Rayner explained that My Account will be moved to the PAC 2 Server. Currently, the link for catalog.einetwork.net goes to PAC2, but switches to PAC1 when a patron logs on to My Account. With the change, all OPAC functions will be available on PAC2. This is the recommended configuration, and will make future catalog enhancements easier to implement and maintain. There is no change to the look of the catalog for users, but it will reduce the need for users to log in to My Account again after switching between servers. The OPAC will continue to be available on PAC1 also. This change is currently being tested in the staging area and we expect to make the announcement within the month when the change will occur.

Ways for Libraries to Save Money – Ms. Rayner provided cost analysis per library if a library moved from spine and pocket to spine only labels. Ms. Rayner also provided cost analysis for patrons that currently receive print notices. By promoting email or phone notification rather than print notification, libraries could save on postage, paper and time required to send out the printed notices.

National Change of Address – Ms. Rayner explained that the cost would be $2,500 to send the names, addresses, and phone number of patrons to UMS to look for matches in the National Change of Address database. Matches would be sent back and then updated in the patron database. Typically 10% of the data brings back a match. A note would be placed on the patron account to verify the information the next time the patron is in the library. The borough codes would need to be manually updated for any patrons whose zip codes could belong to more than one borough. CLP and ACLA will check to see if funding is available.

Users Group Agenda

The Steering Committee canceled the August 5th Users’ Group Meeting.

Next Steering Committee Meeting – August 27th

Next Users’ Group Meeting – October 7th at Beth Park Public Library

Submitted by

Mary Coyle, eiNetwork

July 23, 2009