Circulation Policies and Procedures, May 6, 2008
May 16th, 2008West Loop Library, 1:00 p.m.
Members present: Theresa Rivera, Marion Kennedy, Dennis Klappersack, Stephanie Emiseh, Yolanda Ramirez, Angela Secrest, and Cindy Belmar
1. Review of minutes
Many additional new and related issues discussed, please see under new business.
Suggested policy of placing holds on the fifteenth of the month. The committee continues to support this. Reminder one hold per one book in People Soft.
Action item: directions for placing holds in People Soft will be revised and rewritten. Theresa and Cindy will work on this. Reminder to circulation staff that this is not optional and must be done.
Releasing holds on overdue materials. Different libraries are handling this in different ways. Marion has reminders with the dates on all the circulation computers. Theresa tells evening people to place any overdue items on her desk for her to check in the morning. The bottom line is any item over two weeks overdue should be handled as though a hold has been placed. Remember holds in both People Soft and Millennium are released at the library where the item is returned.
2. Charges for overdue reserve materials. Trudy Cleveland has asked for a review of this issue and she says “Placing a spin hold on student records, emailing/calling professor is not always a deterrent to students walking out of the library with textbooks.”
Information from minutes when the issue was previously addressed:
Minutes November 30, 2006, Town and Country Library.
Circulation Policies and Procedures Committee Meeting.
Present: Theresa Rivera, Angela Secrest, Marion Kennedy, Stephanie Emesih, Brenda Bowser, Dennis Klappersack, and Cindy Belmar
a. Assessing fines on instructor reserve items—if the instructor so requests.
Action:
We recommend that this be left up to the individual college and chair. There are so many considerations and variables that individual colleges are in a better position determine what is best for them and their faculty member.
Also, per 2.108.5.3 of the Library Policies when a service indicator hold is placed in SPIN for an overdue reserve item that belongs to an instructor a note should be included that says what the student needs to do to resolve the problem be it an overdue or lost item. If it is an instructor owned item it is between the instructor and the student.
We still recommend this be left up to individual campuses and colleges. Marion said they reserve the right to charge a $10 processing fee for the time and paperwork involved in dealing with overdue reserves. This is after the instructor and student have been contacted. Spin holds are placed after these attempts; usually 2-3 days.
3. Create checklist for PEP process.
4. New Business and/or old issues revisited
a. Faculty overdues. We don’t put faculty on hold in People Soft, nor do we put a block in their Millennium record. The new wording is less harsh in the email overdue notifications for faculty. Blocks in Millennium are used by Angela for Texshare overdues.
b. Reminder People Soft overlays any changes in Millennium. If a student has a new address or phone number put the information in the NOTE field and remind the student to fill out an HCC change of address form.
c. Reserve Issues. Keeping our circulation statistics as high as possible is very important. The bottom line is it impacts on our job security. Not all libraries in the system are checking out in Millennium reserve items; instead an ID is held. Also reserve items should be pulled at the end of each semester. Angela suggests creating a list of reserve items, changing the end date to take off reserve, and then reactivating the item if the instructor wants the same item on reserve next semester. Theresa sends out emails and puts notes in instructor’s boxes reminding them that they have items on reserve. After one year with no response she will return the book to the department.
Action item: Angela will send out a reminder with directions on deactivating an item from reserve and then reactivating if needed. Is putting items on reserve part of PEP?
d. Stephanie suggests calling patrons with overdue items. This could be done in the evening by adjunct staff/librarians.
Action item: Angela will investigate possibility of Millennium generated calls.
e. May 12th the Catalog will have a new look.
f. Overdue notices will no longer be sent out –strictly by email. Students will need to check their HCC email. Angela is going to suggest to the web committee that a notice in red be on the library page linking to webmail. The members of CPP thought this was a good idea.
g. Librarians are encouraged in their orientations to include directions on how to log into your patron record.
h. Books checked out to a barcode. Angela reports at least once a week she has to deal with a book checked out to just a barcode with no additional information. Obviously this is not good, libraries need to make sure all circ staff, and work study students understand how to create a patron record or insert a barcode.
i. Picture IDs will no longer be issued. With active directory off campus students won’t need their barcode to log in to databases. We will at least for now issue gray cards for book checkouts.