OSL Minutes: Reference Working Group, October 20, 2009

1. Notes from our last meeting - Pat had sent the meeting notes to Rick for posting, but they were not on the OSL minutes page. She will check with Rick again.

2. Encore - Cranston tutorial - on any OPACs yet? Websites? See NPT, others - We viewed the "fun powerpoint" that Lisa Z. from Cranston put together. NPT is thinking of tweaking it and maybe having it on their OPACs for patrons to view. We agreed it was funny. Of libraries in attendance, only NPT has Encore link on their website. Others waiting for holds to show, so good news from Lisa Davis was that it's coming very very soon with 3.3 upgrade. Maybe within the next week or so. She will have Peter announce it as soon as it is ready. Another feature coming soon is the ability in Millenium to limit items for check-out. Limits criteria will be based on location and item type, so libraries wishing to limit patrons to borrowing say, 4 holiday books, will be able to do that. Again coming soon.

3. Relais update for ILL - anyone trying Z39 catalog? Overview held Oct.5 first Training Dec. 15 NPT -Pat updated the URL for Z39 catalog, use this : search.Relaislori.com instead of numerical URL.
Pat offered to give RWG a trial run of the training at the next meeting. Since first training date is scheduled for Dec. 15 at NPT, she would like to use RWG as testers for training.

4. OSL message board buzz - password protection for patron accounts again - revisited this issue - good points made on both sides of this - we shouldn't make a decision based on what is easiest for us - some people are still not good with technology and pins - keychain cards are most vulnerable for patrons because if keys are lost then a thief can access the info for the patrons home, etc. - problem with if patrons forget PIN staff cannot simply tell them what it is, the problem becomes the patron's problem, Lisa indicated millenium can generate a temporary PIN and send it via an email - again this requires a tech savvy user - are we trying to fix something that is only rarely a problem?-how does self-check handle a requirement for patrons to enter PINs?

5. Reference Roundtable in Spring?? - suggestions for topics - this item tabled once again

6. Ruth Barefoot and customer centric library planning in November - what are libraries doing - much discussion about this approach to revamping library services - WAR will be working with Ruth Barefoot - EPL and PAW have already used her, NPT too - Marian worked at EPL when they started implementing some changes - roving reference discussed - changing ref and service desks and staffing of desks - downsizing of ref collections - emphasis on browsing materials - marketing - greeters - this was a wide-ranging discussion and a good chance to air our perspectives

7. Other - discussed DVDs and fines and charges - PAW allows one free DVD checkout but charges $1 after the first free one -- revenue used to fund DVD collection -- Other other: suggestion made to have meetings in other locations so we might see some other libraries and what they are changing, etc. may also get different RWG attendance that way-could also change day sometimes

8. Next Meeting - other meetings -- Steering changed to Dec. 10 --RWG try for Nov.24

| Return to Minutes Home Page |

Ocean State Libraries
The Summit South, Suite 103
300 Centerville Road
Warwick, RI 02886-0226
401-738-2200