Summit Borrowing Committee-Steering Team

Feb. 6, 2004

WSU-Vancouver

Members attending in person:

EWU: Gary Jeffries

Evergreen: Mindy Muzatko

George Fox: Louise Newswanger (Chair)

UO: Shirien Chappell

UW: Pam Mofjeld

Alliance: John Helmer, Travis Honea, Nancy Nathanson, Michelle Williams

Members attending by speaker phone:

COCC: Tina Hovekamp

Willamette: Maresa Kirk

Welcome and introductions (Louise). This meeting is noteworthy, because it is the first meeting of the Summit Borrowing Committee Steering Team under the new committee structure of the Orbis Cascade Alliance.  Michelle Williams, Orbis Cascade’s newest staff member, was introduced.  Michelle is working as Resource Sharing Assistant with the Summit union catalog, and Summit Borrowing

1.      Charge (John Helmer)

Since the committee structure has been revamped with the Orbis Cascade merger, John reminded  us to look at the Summit web pages to view the Committee Structure.   and to become familiar with how Summit does business. Summit currently has two committees, which are comprised of one representative from each institution, and then a smaller steering team comprised of seven people. There are three group structures:

o        Committees are the only recurring groups in the structure of the Alliance, and they must have topics of interest to all members of the consortium. Right now there are only two committees: Summit Borrowing and Electronic Resources. Committees have subgroups called

·         Steering Teams are charged with getting input from the rest of the committee. Steering team members do not represent their own institution only; but are charged to represent the good of the whole; to come up with the compromises and solutions that they feel will be to the greatest advantage to the entire group.

o        Interest Groups. Just formed a couple: one for Music and one for Science.

o        Task Forces: These are of short duration, small groups who band together to accomplish a task and then disband. Example: Collection Management Task Force.

Meetings: The Council has suggested the full committee have in-person meetings annually. The Steering Team can request more whole committee meetings, if necessary, but the Council does have concerns about the cost of these gatherings. The Steering Team can meet as frequently as it deems necessary, but is encouraged to do business electronically, as well. Most   meetings will likely be in the Portland-Vancouver area because of its central location.

In light of the charge and mode of operation presented by John from the Council, the Steering Team agreed to the following 

Summit Borrowing Committee members may attend SBC-ST meetings as observers.  Anyone from the SBC can request items for the agenda prior to the meeting date.  The Chair of the Steering Team (who is also the Chair of the Summit Borrowing Committee) can decide in advance whether a person who is not on the Steering Team can have a place on the agenda to address the group.

Committee members may send a substitute for a meeting of the whole committee.  Steering Team members may not send a proxy, but may arrange to meet with the group via conference phone call.  The SBC-ST will not meet unless all members can be available. 

·        The Steering Team should have wide communication with the rest of the Committee using e-mail listserv, annual meetings, phone conversations, and Zoomerang online polling option.

·        Agenda items will be solicited from committee members, as well as SBC-ST members and from appropriate Summit staff.  The chair will set the final agenda.

·        Currently there is not a separate e-mail list for the SBC-ST, so all Summit Committee members are informed of discussion and decisions.

·        SBC-ST will decide how often to meet and when to schedule the annual meeting for the Summit Borrowing Committee.

·        Decisions made by the committee are of two types.  Process decisions may be implemented in conjunction with Summit Staff.  Policy decisions can only be made as recommendations to the Council.

·        Communication is critical to explain decisions made by the SBC-ST to the entire committee.  Minutes will be made available to the Summit Circ listserv.  Minutes should reflect the discussion and rationale that led to the final decision.  It needs to be reiterated that the SBC-ST is representing the committee as a whole.

A SBC-ST member will be designated at each meeting to record minutes.  This person will send a draft of the recorded minutes to the Steering Team for corrections, etc. The   SBC-ST chair is responsible for final editing.  This copy will be distributed to the SBC-ST again for comments and approval.  Summit staff will mount the approved minutes on the web using a standard template and format.  Committee members will be notified via e-mail that minutes are available.

A question of clarification arose regarding reciprocal borrowing and Visiting Patron option.  Institutions who join Orbis Cascade are members as soon as they sign the Memorandum of Understanding.  However, reciprocal borrowing and visiting patron option are not available to the new member library until their holdings are available in the Summit catalog and their patron database is available for visiting patron use [i.e. when INN-Reach circ is turned on].  Individual libraries may choose to grant reciprocal borrowing privileges to the new members before they are included in the union catalog.

1.      Pickup Anywhere (PUA) (Nancy)

o        Profiling.  Coding will be submitted to III:

"Key Code". Each site will be assigned a three digit key code, to be used by the login administrators for each member site.

"Location Code". Not the same as an item level location code, nor the bibliographic record branch code, nor the institution code. Each site will be assigned a pickup location code for each pickup desk, probably following a standard scheme like the institution code, but beginning with a different number.

o        Transactions will appear the same as any “normal” Summit request, which doesn’t include the specific pickup desk.

o        Statistics specific to PUA will be available at the local sites.  Central statistics will continue to reflect Owning and Borrowing site (which disregards the work done by the third, or Pickup, site).

o        Flagging the PUA item before shipping.  The PUA site needs to process the item in a different module, so the items should be marked in such a way that when the items are unpacked from the bags staff would know to put them in a separate pile for a different kind of check in, check out, etc.

The group reviewed methods such as stickers and rubber stamps, and decided to use a bright but small sticker (which has the letters "PUA" printed on it) on the book band/label. After we circle the site code where it's going, there's room to put a sticker, and it’s alright to cover codes for other sites that aren’t the destination.

Concerns about stamp pads or self-inking stampers included: would the ink run dry and staff not refresh it in time because they're busy, and then it doesn't stand out? Would we get in a hurry and stamp it half on the book band/sticker, half on the book? Would the ink run through the book band/sticker and bleed onto the item?

o        Paging slips: We will know when we print paging slips that the item is needed for PUA by looking at the paging slip; it’s marked at the top.

o        Note to those folks who do not allow their own patrons to place requests on their own items if they are "available": remember that your students who want to pickup a Summit item at some place other than their own library will not be able to request your items to be sent to that other location. This works the same way as Visiting Patron Summit requests work: if your student is a Visiting Patron at another site, they cannot make any Summit requests from items from their own library. So even if you are the only site to own an item, and your student needs it when they're visiting somewhere else, they can't get it. Just a reminder.

Q: When shall we implement this? There was some discussion about getting this done fairly quickly, since so many patrons have been asking for it. Others talked about waiting for summer so institutions can get their staff trained, and so it can start out fairly slowly (under the premise that summers are slower so demand will be lighter). The majority of the Steering Team wanted the quicker start, and chose a target date of mid-April.

o        What kind of training do we need before we can come live? The handout and power point presentation already available on the Web should be sufficient.

To-do list:

Alliance Central does the profiling (codes, etc.) and distributes information to members.

Alliance Central to order and distribute small but vibrant stickers pre-printed with "PUA"

Pam to give Alliance her step-by-step instructions as a starting point for adding information to the web.

Alliance Central to work with Louise to prepare a memo and survey for member libraries about the proposed Start date.

2.      Annual Account Reconciliation, "Too Long" and other reports

The major direction of this discussion was, "Is there any way to make this process easier? Should we just not do it at all?".

o        Do we still need to do AAR? All Steering Team members felt the need to do an AAR, if only to get all item records and patron records cleaned up, and because so many items were found on shelves during past AAR projects. While former Cascade sites found very few items on shelves other than in the two libraries involved in the transaction, former Orbis libraries did find some items in third party libraries, attributed to the larger number of libraries.

o        Net-difference accounting: We discussed the net-difference payment vs. the "everybody pay for what they lost" process. Net-difference is when Institution A's patrons did not return four items which belong to Institution B, and Institution B's patrons did not return five items which belong to Institution A, the only payment will be from B to A for one item. A may send B a letter saying, "Our records indicate that your students did not return the following five items which belong to us (and then list titles, etc.) and that our students did not return the following four items which belong to you (and then list titles, etc.), so you owe us for one item."

Historical Note: Former Cascade libraries always did the "net-difference" procedure. Orbis libraries started out with the net-difference procedure, but then changed to the full process of paying each other for all the items lost in recognition of a few members’ audit or item-keeping needs.  Some of the former Orbis libraries never realized that change had formally been made and continued with the net-difference process.

o        Patrons reports item lost: OSU would like to handle patron reported lost items at the time with the owning institution rather than wait for the annual reconciliation. The ST feels an annual reconciliation is needed because everyone doesn't seem to do the quarterly reports that would uncover and handle non-returned items." and that billing and paying each other each time an item was lost is less efficient than the net-difference procedure happening just once per year.

o        “Too Long reports.”  The Policy shows the frequency for the various reports.  Former Cascade libraries actually did reports once per month; Alliance policy calls for doing some at least quarterly, and that any of us can do them more frequently, if we like. AAR would be much easier if everybody would just keep up on doing at least quarterly searches.

o        Check in all borrowed items after the search? Linfield suggested that we add a step after all the libraries have searched for missing items: Each institution should check-in all the borrowed items so the status of these missing items can be changed by the owning site's library to "Summit returned". (Shirien's note of caution: borrowing libraries should do whatever they do to their patron records so that a credit is not automatically generated when the item's site checks in the item) By doing this, after the August deadline the Owning Sites can feel free to check in the lost items and change the status to whatever they like. It has been a difficult task to call the right person to make sure we can check in the lost item." We all agreed that it is tough getting in touch with the other sites.  This suggestion hasn’t been adopted. 

o        Damaged, Reported Returned, Reported Lost Items, and regular "just not returned" items: Item Status codes, and clearing records.

·                     Simple not returned": The AAR process should have no impact on how and when an institution chooses to bill or block their own patron's access: it has only to do with when the item record gets checked in and the patron's record gets the virtual item record removed from it. Some libraries block the patron as soon as they're billed for one item, and they cannot borrow any more until the item is paid for. Libraries can still bill their own patrons immediately and still put the block on their patron's record, and then they can unblock the patrons when they've paid for the item. The item record will retain its "checked out to other institution" status until the AR happens, and when it's time for item and patron record work, the patron's site will need to do whatever their normal processes are for stopping a credit from going through when the item's site checks in the never-returned item.

·                     Damaged items: same thing. Policy reminder: if the item is so badly damaged that the Owning site says it must be replaced, then the patron's site pays for it as though it was just never returned. If the Owning site says they can repair it, then the Borrowing (patron's) site pays nothing. The patron's site can still bill their patron for the replacement cost and block their record, but the Owning site will retain the "checked out to other institution" status until AAR rolls around.

·                     Reported Lost: same thing. Institutions can bill and block their patron's record until the patron pays up, but the item's site will still have the "checked out to other institution" status until AAR.

·                     Claims Returned: Nobody should use III Claims Returned feature or status code for an item borrowed through Summit.. The item should remain on the item's site Institutional Overdue report, so the Borrowing site still owes the Owning site for the item, The patron's site can still do whatever they want (either hold or not hold the patron responsible) and the Off Campus status code "checked out to another institution" stays in the item record until the AAR is finished.

o        Schedule:

·                     The complicated part (doing the problem-solving between involved libraries) should happen during the summer when it may be less busy, so the near-ending date should be in early August. The ST pondered how to entice and excite all libraries to honor their commitment to search, report to Central, etc. so others can get on with their work.  Other than promising some valuable prize which nobody can afford, decided to rely on the integrity and good faith of each participating library.   The scheduled will be revised, compressed and a little shorter than the one currently posted.

Action items:

·        Lost and Damaged items, final accounting: Notify Summit Borrowing Committee that the AAR process will use the "net-difference" procedure of payment, and that damaged items will be included with lost items in the final accounting so they can fit into the net difference equation. This does not preclude exceptions; two willing members can "take care" of an item sometime during the year as long as they assure that it does not then show up on AAR.

·        Claims Returned: send a reminder that III Claims Returned feature should not be used for items borrowed through Summit.

·        Schedule: Shirien will look at former Orbis and  Cascade AAR time schedules and combine the two, with the goal of shortening the overall time. She will submit that to the Steering Team for their approval.

·        Patron reports item lost or damaged: add information to How-To pages, for example, What do I do if a patron says s/he lost a Summit item, already returned it, or her monkey ate a Summit book item  (Alliance central)

3.      Courier

Reviewed recent courier problems, and talked about how many of these courier issues belong also to the courier listserv, which includes far more than just Alliance libraries. We were reminded that some of the holiday fiascos were due to snow, to some courier company realignments, etc. Discussed some of the damaged materials some libraries are seeing, and Nancy will send a reminder about proper packaging.  It is not improper packaging, said one library; it's the courier crushing things.

4.      Photo IDs

What do we do when a student from another site appears without ID and wants to check out via Visiting Patron (VP)? Some libraries check for some other Photo ID and if the student knows their Univ ID and PIN, go ahead and do the checkout. Other sites make it the responsibility of the patron and their own institution library. Same with problems with the patron record: some libraries call the patron's library and see if they can fix the record, other sites tell the patron to contact their library and get their record fixed, and others did both, depending on how busy it was. ST agreed that the advice is not to get in the middle of the issue, and tell the patron that they need to straighten it out with the home library, since there may be more to it such as unpaid fines.  Still, it is up to the individual libraries to decide how this situation will be handled at their site.

What about those sites that use magnetic stripes instead of barcodes, somebody asked. We agreed that if a site moves from barcodes to magnetic stripes they should change their patron identifiers from barcode to University ID field (requires coordination with Central and III).

5.      Labels and Book bands

Agreed that it is working just fine to allow sites the option of using labels or book bands or both.

6.      Recalls

Maresa asked the status of the recall feature/option III was working on, discussed when Orbis previously met.  Historical info: members thought we didn't need recalls when the "check for local hold" feature appeared. If there's a local hold the renewal won't be allowed, so there's less reason for recalls. Maresa will look into past meeting minutes to discover what some of us talked about in the past. This item will be included on a future agenda after Maresa reports her findings.

7.      Direct Delivery, or Mailing requested items to distance patrons from Owning site.

We should get PUA working before we talk about this request. It's a big issue, since the additional work or cost would be on other members and not the patron’s home library.  This will be an agenda item for discussion at a later meeting.

A question was asked about whether we should agree that a distance ed library should or could override the due date on a Summit item they're sending to their patron, and the consensus was that patrons can renew (unless there's a hold) and that some libraries which have hefty distance ed programs have not experienced any problems with the current 21 day loan period, so overrides of due dates should not be done.

8.      Best practices -- INN Reach “Too Long” reports not discussed separately, but addressed in part during AAR discussion.

Future meetings: We agreed to maybe have another Summit Borrowing Day in late July. Anybody who processes Summit items or even thinks about Summit would be welcome to come. We'd share info, get to know our colleagues, etc. The Steering Team would meet with the rest of the Summit Borrowing Committee (perhaps a working lunch) and then would debrief at the end of the Summit Borrowing general meeting.

Based on Meeting notes prepared by Shirien Stevens.

Approved: Feb. 19, 2004