FALCONS Meeting Minutes – February 2014
Date: February 20, 2014
Minutes: Motion to accept November minutes: Candor made a motion to accept the minutes, Trumansburg seconded and approved.
Present: Apalachin, Auburn, Aurora, Berkshire, Candor, Cato, Cortland, Dryden, FLLS, Groton, Homer, McGraw, Nichols, Ovid, Poplar Ridge, Seneca Falls, Spencer, TCPL, Trumansburg, Weedsport, Waterloo
Absent: Alternatives, Cincinnatus, Fair Haven, Interlaken, Lansing, Lodi, Marathon, Moravia, Newark Valley, Newfield, Owego, Port Byron, Union Springs, Waverly
Election of Vice Chair and Secretary for 2014:
Libbie Messina (CATO) was nominated for Vice Chair and Priscilla Berggren-Thomas (HOM) for Recording Secretary. Nominations were unanimously approved.
Old Business
Credit Card Distribution:
The monies collected through credit card payments are currently in savings awaiting distribution to member libraries. The distribution report provided by Polaris was written to reimburse the library that owned the item rather than the library where the item was checked out. Polaris is currently correcting the report and will not charge for the new report. The report should be available to Rex to be evaluated next week. If the report works properly, the monies will be distributed at that time. There have been no credit card donations to date.
Volume number field:
Mistakes are still occurring in the volume number field. A handout was given to remind member libraries on the proper use of the volume field. Audio books do not need to have anything placed in the volume field unless the book has been split up.
An ampersand (&) should never be used in the volume field. The proper designation for a case containing discs 3 and 4 of a DVD set should be d. 3-4, not d. 3&4. Please be sure there is one space between the . and the 1st character (i.e. d. 1-2).
To search for items to correct, use the Item Find Tool, Click on the SQL bullet and select “Search on incorrect VolumeNumber and click Search. The result will show any item record where there is an ampersand or there is no space between the period and the first number.
The volume field should not be used for books in a series.
Magazines do use the volume field with a four digit year-2 digit month-two digit day, i.e 2014-13-28
Currently if a Blu-Ray comes with a DVD and they are split up they both need to be attached to the same bib record. The Blu-Ray would be designated disc one (d. 1) and the DVD disc two (d. 2).
New Business
Introductions:
Andrea Heilig from FLLS was introduced along with Cady Fontana from Ovid and Jacie Spoon from Cortland.
New Loan Periods for Multi-Disc Sets:
It is now possible to create a new loan period category for multi-disc sets. Complete seasons of DVDs could be classified as a multi-disc set and have a longer loan period. Each library could decide on what the length of that loan period would be.
If a multi-disc set is loaned from one library to another, the check out loan period would be set by the loaning library, not the owning library.
Libraries within a county can get together to decide if the want similar loan periods and what that period would be.
Windows XP:
After April 8th there will no longer be any updates for Windows XP or Office 2003. All XP computers will need to be replaced. Member libraries should try to start a schedule of replacing 1/5th of their computers each year.
A temporary fix, until new computers can be ordered, is to use Google Chrome as the Internet browser rather than Internet Explorer.
Bulk Computer Purchases:
Order forms for new computers will be available at the May FALCONS meeting. If Windows 8.1 is available as part of the state contract that is what will be available to order. If not, libraries can purchase licenses for Windows 8.1 from Tech Soup and provide them to Eric when the computers are staged. Faronics Deep Freeze and Symantec Anti-virus will be available for new computers. The price is expected to be about the same as last year i.e Desk-tops at approximately $820 and laptops at approximately $750-800. Touch screens are not yet part of the aggregate buy list.
Comcast purchase of Time-Warner:
Comcast is purchasing Time Warner. Whether they will continue a free connection for member libraries is not known. Going forward, member libraries need to build in to their budgets the cost of internet. Currently the connections you have generally cost $80/month, or approximately $900/yr.
Polaris Demonstration:
Polaris Leap:
Polaris Leap is the next generation of the ILS and is a Web-based client. A demonstration was provided by Vince Messina from Polaris. Leap is touch screen friendly. It uses a web browser, not a locally installed client. It can be mobile. It won’t initially be used for cataloging, only for circulation functions. If we buy in now the cost will be $14,000 vs. $28,000 if we wait. Initially we will have to use both systems, Leap for circulation and Remote Desktop for cataloging. Cataloging should switch to Leap in a year to a year and a half.
If we buy in early the installation will happen around July. The general consensus of member libraries was positive. Rex will make a decision before the April 15th deadline for early buy in.
Polaris Community Profiles Module:
Community profiles allows the listing of community organizations and events within Pac. When a subject is searched, the left side of the screen brings up community organizations and events related to the subject. The search can also been done specifically on community partners.
Libraries will create the community record and name a patron as the organization representative. The representative is then responsible for adding content about the group, its meetings etc.
Libraries would need to develop policies about what groups could be community partners. Vince would be able to get examples from other libraries using the module.
The cost to FLLS for the module would be around $4750. And it could be added at any time. There would be annual maintenance fees which would be part of our Polaris fees. Rex will send out information about an upcoming webinar and the module will be discussed further through the FALCONS list serv.
Meeting adjourned: Motion to adjourn by Annette Birdsall, Trumansburg, seconded by Libbie Messina of Cato. Meeting adjourned at 11:32 am.
Next Meeting: Thursday, May 15, 2014.