LINC Policy Council Meeting Minutes (not yet approved)

January 12, 2005

Members Present:  Mary Bissey, Alice Cisna, Scott Drone-Silvers, Rick Dulaney, Cynthia Helms, Jan Ison, Fred Schlipf, Lynn Schmit, Barb Turner, Glenna White

Members Absent:  Anne Newman

LTLS Staff Present: Donna Schaal, Pat Boze, Maria Nowak

Others Present: Marsha Grove, Phil Cohee, Nanette Wargo Donahue, Melissa Records 

Scott Drone-Silvers called the meeting to order at 1:40.  The minutes for December 1, 2004 meeting were approved

LINC Financial Update

Jan gave the financial update and noted that not much has changed. 

LINCPac Enhancements Committee

Melissa Records gave the committee presentation.  She began with an overview of the committeeπs approach and philosophy. Because a new look with HIP 4.0 is due out this year, the committee did not focus on appearance but instead focused on functionality, words and searching enhancements.  Following are some enhancements reflected in the committeeπs test profile:  basic, media, and numeric search now has boxes to search within instead of drop down boxes, wording was changed, menus have been rearranged by putting most used first (Basic, Media, Advanced, Numeric), search indexes have also been rearranged, format icons were added to results list, Horizon bib number search was added under numeric search.  A feedback function called ≥Got Questions?≤ sends people to ≥My Librarian.≤  Pre-defined limits now works.  There are still some issues with managing ≥My List.

The committee debated much of the words, including the use of the Media subtab—search terms are still a bit confusing.  There was also discussion of changing ≥Fines≤ to ≥Fees≤ and ≥Suspend≤ to ≥Postpone.≤  Debate arose about ≥My Librarian≤ and how it is used and how questions are handled.  It was decided that more words to the My Librarian home page should be added to encourage people already in a library to seek out an actual librarian before going into a virtual reference situation.  There was some discussion about writing a general PAC policy instead of something specific (as we have had in the past).  The committee agreed that the format icons should immediately be added to the production LINCPac.  An email and link to the test profile will be sent to all LINC Directors for comment. 

Itype Reduction Committee

Nanette Wargo Donahue gave the committee presentation.  Sheave background about how itypes work and why they should be reduced (all the rules have to be loaded each time someone tries to log on, make circulation rules consistent across LTLS, etc).

The committee recommends shared itypes because many variables can be locally configured.  Some itype setting will need to be globally set—minimum fine amount (leave blank), fixed maximum fine (all itypes should be marked yes), maximum fine amount (set to 50% of cost of item), keep circ history (keep for 7 days), and requests allowed and loans allowed (based on ≥generic≤ itype category, either yes or no). 

The committee also had recommendations about library-specific itype settings and provided an overview of options made available to libraries.  There will also be a need for individual library itypes for specific needs.  LTLS will be responsible for working with directors to implement shared itypes.

The committee members discussed the åShared Itype Policyπ and the åIndividual Itype Policyπ drafts.  Again, and email will be sent to all LINC library directors with the proposed policy information.  An additional presentation will also be given at the LINC Directors Group meeting in February. 

Local Holds

Scott indicated that there are several issues that need to be discussed on the local holds issue and a committee will be formed to discuss these issues.   Also, LTLS is looking at custom programming as another way to help manage transit issues.

Pat also said another committee needs to look at ways to reduce the number of call number tables. 

The next meeting of the LINC Policy Council is on March 16, 2005 at 1:30p.m. at LTLS.  The meeting was adjourned at 4:00.