Attendance: Pat LaRose (NPT), Lauri Burke (BPL), Diane Swindlehurst (EPL), Marian Kendricks (TIV), Alicia Waters (OLIS), Julie Holden (PAW), Lisa Davis (OSL), Beth Johnson (CRA), Mary Anne Quinn (WAR), Linda Caisse (NKI), Nina Wright (WES) Joan Gillespie (OSL)

Joan Gillespie announced that -Syndetics is giving us a one year free trial of some products if OSL agrees to beta test it. This has already been approved and will start tomorrow, showing up in the OPAC, includes enhancements such as summaries, links to reviews. Minuteman in MA has it.

- Relais-the new ILL system for loans within Rhode Island. There will be an overview and introduction on October 5th in Jamestown. Relais replaces ILL email for  libraries in the state and will go live after January 2010. Please sign up at the OLIS website.

- There's a new feature in the classic catalog-"save to my lists". Allows patrons to save records and keep lists that do not disappear when they log out. It could be helpful for homebound patrons as a tool to remember what they've already read, or for other patrons who want to create a list of what they've already read or want to read. The box above the request button is how you add items to a list.  "Save to my list" does not work yet in Encore. Do not use in Encore until problems are worked out.

- Lisa Davis made a list of the technology/services available in OSL libraries (who has wireless, a typewriter, a fax machine, etc.). It's available on the OSL message board, a few pages back. Please respond and add your library's data if you haven't yet and Lisa will update.

- A meeting on Encore was held recently. Showed how it works, little can be changed. Lisa believes that the next upgrade will show the number of holds on an item, which is not happening now. This is important feature for many patrons in deciding whether to place hold, wait, etc.
Points pro and con: it's all keyword searching; single word searches are difficult; Encore will search both articles and books; staff can tag things but patrons can't; patrons and staff can rate books; it's important to tell patrons to remember to log out when they're done, although a session will time out eventually; problem-there's no clear home button; you can't search all of the items in a library, you must search by collection (i.e. WES YA or WES audio or WES juvenile); discussed difference between "Location" and "Collection" facets for limiting. After searching, the left column will show, for example, Westerly (3). That doesn't mean that Westerly has three items, it means it has three distinct item records, such as for a book, an audiobook, and a DVD. Westerly could have six copies of the book but that column will show Westerly (1) if they're all under one record.  Shows available versus all copies at first.  Patrons looking for "call number", not marked well in Encore. Already looking toward to next upgrade for encore for improvements.  Mentioned HELIN search page and liked ability to search by title, author etc.  Libraries can have different search boxes on their website interface.

- holds are now held for 6 days instead of 10 days, this was decided at the annual meeting.
Mentioned this may be problematic for PAW and NPT that have bookmobile patrons

Disc. briefly problems in obtaining locally produced materials, either for local history or important small press items.  How handled at different libraries.

Mentioned counting of databases for OLIS annual report, see OSL message board. Final count of 29 for OSL libraries and Ask RI for all.   Also a note from Karen Mellor at OLIS about a trial of Footnote.com, which is probably already over.  Footnote.com for historic source documents?? See their webpage.

-Ann Robinson is the new director of Providence Community Library, Laura Marlane is the new assistant director.
Pat mentioned other meetings held recently and meetings coming up.

Next meeting is October 20th at 2:15 pm.

Submitted by Nina Wright (WES).