FALCONS Meeting Minutes – May 2022

FALCONS Meeting Minutes – May 19, 2022

FLLS Staff Present: Rex Helwig, Eric Franks, Sarah Glogowski, Heidi Eckerson, Deborah Geier,  Jenny Shonk

Member Libraries Present: Fran Miller (BERK), Allen Tompkins (FAIR), Carla Jones (UNS), Diane Pamel (DRY), Gayle James (CATO), Tom Fredette (TCPL), Sandra Groth (AURO), Aimee Dorward (CORT), Erin Chapman (NEVA), Martha Nettleton (CIN), Heather Cobb (MCGR), Cathy Sorber (APAL), Brandi Rozelle (WAT), Theresa Mekeel (CORT), Lisa Carr (AUB), Lisa Semenza (POP), Mary Frank (MARA), Laura Mielenhausen (TRU), Samantha Black (WEED)

Minutes submitted by Jen Schlossberg – Tompkins County Public Library

Introductions & Announcements

  • New director in Nichols – Kaylee Rollison
  • Sarah’s Announcements:
    • Congratulations to all libraries who did budget votes – they were all successful
    • Dryden and Newark Valley won referendum funding
    • New director at Waverly library – Becky Kier is interim until they can find a permanent director
    • Meeting with Stephanie Cole Adams – she has almost finalized the materials challenge policy template and toolkit
    • More guidance for open meetings law coming from Stephanie

Approval of minutes                                                                                            

  • Approval of minutes from February 17   
  • Cathy from Apal makes motion, Diane seconds, none opposed

Polaris VEGA

  • Rex signed contract
    Require a purchase order and a five-year lock in on increases
  • System will cover 75% and libraries 25% – 7/1/2022 – FLLS will pay this year – no charges until next year

Polaris Text Messaging Notifications       

  • Polaris text messaging notification – transferred us over to a third-party gateway
  • ClickSend – 2 cents per text message
  • e-receipts should be set to email and not text because of cost.  Each item checked out generates a separate e-receipt text message

2022 Computer Bulk Buy                                                                         

  • 2022 computer bulk orders need to be submitted by noon May 20
  • Office replacement – Free Office 2021 – touchscreen compatible – looks very similar to MS Office
  • 2021 didn’t order any chrome boxes because of lifespan, but some ordered this year

New FLLS Datacenter       

  • old datacenter is 5 years old
  • 5 years of maintenance and support
  • Should receive in June or July
  • Will synch up with current datacenter – then he’ll cut over to them
  • He hopes to do it late at night for minimal disruption will let us know if he needs to do something during the day

Polaris version 7.2

  • FLLS will probably do the upgrade in June or early July
  • LEAP Bug fixes – when creating a quick bib would occasionally put in a blank line which caused problems with imports
  • LEAP wasn’t carrying over call number from template – now it’s fixed       
  • What’s new in 7.2 documentation – parity between LEAP and the Polaris client

Open Discussion

  • Eric will be on vacation so please call the department line and not Eric’s personal line or create a help desk ticket
  • Diane@Dryden – several complaints of patrons whose email is going to spam. Where is the problem? Every email host does something different to prevent spam. Patrons should make sure the from email address for the notices is in their approved list.
  • Everything has gone up in price – the prices doubled on barcodes
  • Diane had a question about using ARPA funds mentioned for obtaining equipment for hybrid meetings and wanted guidance on options for the same
  • No plan to block Overdrive users from outside the area.
  • Laura – wants to modify online registration. Just submit a help desk ticket
  • If you are interested in acquisitions, don’t need EDI – work with vendor to create the tag in the marc record for import – create on-order item records for you when it is released
  • Building cart – export to computer – import into Polaris – create record set – create a record set – assign an account – generate an order

Next meeting: August 18, 2022 – 2023 Budget Meeting

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