Circulation Committee
Public Library of New London
Tuesday, Wednesday, April 10, 2019
1 – 3 PM
Minutes
- Best Practices: Phase II
- Board of Trustees met and want Best Practices put into practice
- Except fines
- Short term goal
- What are the obstacles to reach goals?
- Branford
- Made changes have not had many complaints
- Email Andy when your library wants to change to Best Practice – Give him time!
- The Board endorsed it already
- Joe will bring it back to the board to remind them about it
- Can we have a check list to help us transition
- It will help us know what need to be done
- Suggestion was made that LION makes a the final decision and we follow through
- Auto renewal
- New update gives option of auto renewal
- We can do one or two auto renewal
- it happens when the curtesy notice goes out
- Can it be done from due date instead?
- a note will let them know
- unless there are hold on the item
- Most of us agree to one auto renewal
- Fines are very different from library to library. However, it is more complicated and will not be discuss at the moment.
- Borrowing Policies: List obstacles to uniform loan periods for each material type. How did libraries determine existing rules and loan periods? Example: DVD fines range from $.10 to $1.00 per day.
- Replacement copy policy: What are the current practices?
- Many do but only from their own patrons.
- If a copy is damaged at a borrowing library, they must pay amount.
- Concern was brought up about library over charging for materials
- Not much can be done
- Processing fee can be lowered, email Andy
- Gender https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/03/01/ditching-library-card-gender-data/?fbclid=IwAR0CdY_I4N0ZD7F173Q1JN2J37JPXS69rCpyxpHR-bT4BbAHW0t4W9h-IUM
- Some libraries are already doing it.
- We do not use gender for anything.
- The committee agrees that we no longer need to ask for it
- Preferred name – you can add a note to add it
- Notes can be placed before the name
- Andy, can you send a how to for those who want to do it this way?
- We need to be more welcoming places
- Notes can be placed before the name
- Barcodes – do you delete them when getting a new card?
- Some do but many don’t since digital collections need the original barcode
- You can send the new and old barcode to Joe to change it on Overdrive
- You can keep the old barcode and add xx at the end
- Expired cards: 20,000 with no fines, extending back from a start date of 3/1/09.
- We all agreed that they should be deleted.
- Expired cards with no fines or replacement
- Policy for extending expired cards at non-home library: should it be one month?
- Best practice says one month although most libraries prefer not to change a record from another library.
- We need to add to B.P how long should they be expired for
- Billed items –
- Patrons are being allowed to check out items even though they have billed items on their record.
- Decision must be made by libraries.
- Staff can see that there are overdue/billed items on the record because it turns red
- Linked accounts
- Please do not unlinked account before talking to the library who linked them.
- Report for removing items from the hold shelf should be run every day.
- New button on the cancel holds to help you place a hold on a cancelled item easier
- Andy send an email with all the new changes in Sierra that we should know about
- Some issues in Sierra
- Issues when 2 different computers open with the same record
- Having trouble printing notices
- On the holds sheet we see request for the same book from different libraries
- How do libraries get people to pick up items on holds? Currently, there are 7-day rules (and maybe a little longer depending on # of pickups per week), email, and Shoutbomb, and calling those who request it. Are there other approaches to get people to pick up their items?
- We all do this suggestions but we still have patrons who do not pick up their materials
- Online registration
- Email Joe if you want to set up online registration for your library
- Email Andy when you are ready to make changes but remember it will take time
- Patrons are being allowed to check out items even though they have billed items on their record.
- We all agreed that they should be deleted.
- Some do but many don’t since digital collections need the original barcode
- Board of Trustees met and want Best Practices put into practice