Summit Borrowing Committee Steering Team

Dec. 15, 2005

Lewis & Clark College, Portland

Members attending in person:

Tina Hovekamp (COCC), Louise Newswanger (GFU), Jeremy McWilliams (L&C), Cindy Cunningham (OHSU), Katherine Stevens (PCC), Mindy Muzatko (TESC), Pam Mofjeld (UW), Nancy Nathanson (Orbis Cascade Alliance), Michelle Williams (Orbis Cascade Alliance)

1. Delivery of Materials / Drop Site Status

Nancy described the Council's assignment to discuss Courier Dropsite status for members, and the current example of materials delivery situation at Walla Walla College. While they were accepted as a member of the Alliance, they requested that they not be a drop site, and would pick up and delivery materials on a daily basis from Whitman College. SBST members voiced concerns regarding a potential decline in timeliness of service based upon this situation. At the suggestion of Nancy, a Team member (Pam) would write a paragraph outlining SBST concerns with members not having at least one dropsite, and submit the paragraph to SBC for review and proposed recommendation to Council.

 

On a related issue Nancy suggested an alteration to the format of paging slips. Currently, the lower-left portion of the paging slip includes a line for institution, followed by a line indicating the courier stop. Nancy suggested the removal of the line for institution, as it could cause confusion in cases involving Walla Walla College and Pickup Anywhere. Nancy will check with III to see if this alteration is possible. If so, the SBC will be polled to determine whether to remove the institution line.

2. Timely Return of Materials / Booking Module

Nancy began the discussion by highlighting recent survey results, in which 80% of members had concerns about materials being returned in a timely manner. These statistics highlighted concerns many members had about lending in general, and possibly extended to the issue of institutions lending more materials.  Some on the SBST argued that a renewal period for short loan materials could reduce patron delinquency, while others maintained that an extended loan via renewal could discourage institutions from opening more of their respective collections to Summit borrowing. SBST members suggested that greater staff attention to hold shelf clearing and completion of periodic reports could improve the timely return of materials where patron delinquency is not a factor. Nancy agreed to provide such a reminder, and also agreed to create a short survey for the SBC regarding short loans and renewals.

 

The discussion also drifted to the subject of holds and how they interact with the Booking Module. The two main issues are that INN-Reach holds do not consult the Booking Module, and the Booking Module does not incorporate a ‘cushion’ for lending among branch campuses. Nancy suggested that each SBC member submit an enhancement request to III to address these two issues.

3. OCLC Policies Directory

Nancy had received a suggestion from a former Summit Borrowing Representative to investigate making an entry for Summit in the OCLC directory. After a brief discussion, the SBST concluded that this would serve no current purpose, as Summit is not directly involved in traditional OCLC interlibrary loan.

4. Renewals

The SBST briefly discussed renewals, specifically with regard to how the additional loan period is applied (added at date of renewal vs. original due date). Though a specific problem existed related to this difference, no one could remember the exact issue. Nancy will inquire with Bahram from Linfield, who has described this problem in the past. Once clarified, the issue will somehow be incorporated into a Summit Borrowing Day session.

5. Fulfillment Rates

The SBST looked at three-year rate of fulfillment trends by institution. Nearly every institution was within the ideal range (the average is 94%)). Nancy described how the three year trends were important to be aware of, as they could be indicative of local practices at member institutions. The Team concluded that this data should be shared or highlighted as part of Summit Borrowing Day

6. Days Closed Table

The SBST briefly discussed the Days Closed Table in III, and how that affects Summit borrowing. Nancy agreed to post some instructions on how to accurately add entries in the Days Closed Table so Summit is included (i.e. the inclusion of entries for 9* and 7* locations). This topic will also be included at Summit Borrowing Day.

7. Holidays & Closures

Nancy described the situation of Clark College’s holiday schedule, in which their library will be closed for several weeks. While they will be closed, they will still fulfill regular Summit requests by arranging with patrons when to perform transactions. Clark had asked not to be included in Pickup Anywhere Summit borrowing, as they didn't have contact information to call other institutions’ patrons to schedule pickup at the library. Alliance Staff asked Clark to consult the patron's home institution for patron contact information so they could honor Pickup Anywhere requests during this time, so as not to provide further disruption in service.

 

In order to alert patrons of the potential increase in delivery time due to holiday closures, Nancy will post ‘warnings’ on both the main Summit page and at the point of request. The SBST concluded that these warnings would be a better alternative than continually updating the priority table based holiday closures.

8. Other

  • Louise proposed a discussion of the Summit Borrowing Day survey at the next meeting.
  • Nancy reported that some duplicate requests have arisen.
  • Nancy also expressed her interest in receiving more contributions from members on ‘How To’ for various aspects of Summit processing. Her intent was to potentially include these submissions on the web site.
  • Nancy will create a blog for the SBC to discuss topics. The blog will serve as an experimental alternative to email.

Minutes prepared by:  Jeremy McWilliams (L&C), incl. review and amendments by Louise Newswanger and Nancy Nathanson

Approved: Dec. 20, 2005

Agenda