Circulation Services Committee Meeting, Wednesday, Dec

Circulation Services Committee Meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010

Robarts Library, 2nd Floor Conference Room

Present: Neil Allen (ENGI/CSCI), Terry Correia (Robarts), Dorota Swieton (UTM), Catherine Devion (UTSC), Margot Froud (Dentistry), Jan MacLean (Music), Renata Holder (Gerstein), Maryann Atrie (St. Augustine’s), Wenran Zhang (ITS), Mary Ann Verson (UTSC), Bev Branton (Vic Pratt), Jane Sauder (Sunnybrook), Lisa Andrews-Attwater (Rotman), Pamela Strachan (Rotman), Monique Flaccavento (OISE), Anna Golodnitsky (Knox), Joan Pries (Knox), Susan Bond (Trinity), Chris Crebolder (Vic Emmanuel) Mei Lin ( EAL), David Eden (Resource Sharing Robarts).

Regrets: Stephanie Abba (Regis), B. Horne (Gerstein), Mike Hamilton (Media Commons)

N.B. Mike Hamilton invited Committee members to visit the new Media Commons on the 3rd floor of Robarts, after the meeting.

1. Minutes of the previous meeting – October 21, 2010, accepted without changes.

2. Business Arising:

- There was some discussion about whether there would be any fines accruing as of Jan. 3. It was confirmed that holiday due dates begin Jan. 10, 2011. Campus libraries requested that a schedule of due dates be circulated, next year, so that due date slips can be prepared, in advance.

- Discussion continued from the e-mail conversation about the linking of a Gerstein book to a UTSC course in the reserves module. It was determined that this was an anomaly rather than an ongoing problem. It was noted that you can attach books from any library to a course and that one way to work around this is for campus libraries to identify their local courses with a unique prefix.

- Wenran Z. noted that Sirsi Symphony version 3.4 will be available as of the end of December. However, as this will be too late for a December upgrade, Wenran will probably wait until the May 24th, 2011 weekend.

- UTSC is still having problems with the Alt Circ Rule in the Reserves module. Music noted that it works in their library. Discussion included the information that it works at UTM.

- Lari L. noted that the description of Access fees in the October 21st minutes should focus on the changes from previously free services, e.g. weekly stack passes, annual stack passes

3. New Business:

- The e-mail address loading problem into the patron database has been resolved by Wenran.

- Dentistry, OISE, and Vic all noted “disappearing” fines problems. In the Dentistry Library, the loans were signed out to patron records that were not set up as Associate Members at the time of loaning (due to the “modify user” glitch in the Workflows software). At OISE, the incorrect circ rule had been assigned to the eligible borrowers of the Curriculum items (resolve by L. Langford in Jan. 2011). At Pratt, a staff member had signed out items to an “alumni” record with no borrowing privileges. Therefore, the circ rule associated with the loan was NONCIRC-Y and no fines were assessed when the material was returned.

- Catherine Devion raised the problem of patrons not receiving courtesy or overdue notices, when they have sympatico or other non-UTORmail addresses. There was some discussion of whether this problem can be validated or not.

- Lari L. updated the Committee on the University’s plans for a new e-mail service (Microsoft mail) for students, which will mean the end of UTORmail for students and alumni. Also, all new applicants for first-entry programs will be eligible for a UTORid. This will not be the UTORid which they will use, if they accept an offer of admission to U of T and, ultimately, register. However, it will be enabled, online, and will provide access to some services (excluding the licensed databases in the libraries).

- R. Holder initiated a discussion about the loading of e-mail and other address changes from UTORAble, rather than relying on patrons providing the information through the library web-site, or at service desks. With the upcoming changes to the mail service for students, Lari and Wenran will review how to change the data upload procedures.

- There are still problems with the “in transit” holds, when other campus libraries’ materials are returned as “in transit” items.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m. for a tour of the new self-serve book return/sortation system in Robarts Library.

The next meeting is scheduled for January 19, 2011.