Cornell University Library Voyager Implementation Site    

Voyager Access Services Implementation Committee
January 7, 2000

Attending - Carmen Blankinship, Howard Raskin, Pat Schafer, Deb Lamb-Deans, Dianne Hillmann, Susan Currie, Joanne Leary, Sara Spoonhower, Joel Zumoff

1. Proposal to form CUL Circulation/Reserve Implementation Committee
Since we must first implement the basic functionality in Voyager, which is day to day circulation and course reserve, the committee approved a recommendation to form a CUL circulation/reserve task force with representatives from each library. Susan volunteered to contact unit heads ASAP(week of Jan 10th) to identify the person who will be the main circulation/reserve contact for each library. This group would be responsible for getting any "clean-up" work done (e.g. pseudo-patrons moved to item conditions, etc.). A meeting will be organized as soon as possible (probably the week of Jan 24th or 31st).

2. Review of proposed implementation schedule
Important dates for circulation in this proposed schedule-which will be posted on the website, include a minimal circulation configuration for the Feb test dates. The group discussed procedures for the times circulation and reserve services will be affected by the cutover to Voyager. Specifically the dates and resulting issues to resolve are outlined below:

June 6-11: NO patrons added to Notis-patron record creation ceases in NOTIS. Circulation in NOTIS continues. Patrons with existing records can check materials out in NOTIS. New patrons will have to have manual loans. Diane suggested that we use the Voyager test system to input any new patrons so we don't have to deal with so much paper. We would make printouts of new patron records--this will allow some experience with the new patron file and avoid having to make a special form. These would have to be put into Voyager starting June 12. Publicity will be very important for the change to Voyager. We will invite Ross Atkinson to a meeting with the committee to outline the publicity and documentation issues.

We discussed whether or not to leave the patron file "as is" until late July. Since summer session students are not loaded into the Registrar's file anyway (both grad and undergrad) and we will have to create new patron records, it may be better not to expire the existing records until we are completely up and running in Voyager. Also, there is a question about the future of PeopleSoft and the impact on the interface to the library patron file.

June 12-22: We can create new patron records in Voyager (will need to enter those from June 6-11) but new patrons will still have manual loans in NOTIS. Circulation for existing patron records in NOTIS continues.

June 22-28: NOTE: Lynne Personius will check these dates-the original implementation schedule gave only 2-3 days for circulation to be down.
June 22 is when Circulation in NOTIS ceases. Manual loans only until circulation data load is approved. Also-no discharging-need to check with Endeavor and other institutions to see what has been done for this situation. Susan suggested that we could try the hand held scanners like the Annex Library uses, to collect all of the barcodes of books to be discharged. We would then load them into Voyager to be discharged. She will send a question to our Voyager contact asking about this as well as contact colleagues at other institutions as to what procedures they followed for discharging during this time.
We also discussed recalls and holds. One suggestion was to cease placing recalls/holds for two weeks prior to cutover. This will be an agenda item for the implementation task force.

June 29: Live in Voyager circ. Enter all manual circulation using backdating.

3. Discussion of item condition and Pseudo-Patrons
The Item condition and pseudo-patron chart developed by Joanne was distributed. The chart outlines the item conditions in NOTIS and how they will migrate in Voyager. Diane suggested that this be put up on the implementation website (http://www.library.cornell.edu/voyager/home.html). We agreed that while we could decide how most of the item conditions would migrate in the last data migration, for exhibit (EXHI), new bookshelf (NWBK) and preservation project (PRDP), we may need a few new locations that would ONLY be used in the temporary location field. We would not want to create many of these and that we would not create the new locations until after we actually come up. Also, just before coming up in Voyager, we can instruct units to remove these item conditions or simply to log them so we can get the records after. We will also request a SAS report for the PRDP.

We also discussed requesting a SAS report for the active In-Transit records for the month of May only, due to the fact that in-transit remains as an item condition until the item is checked out again. We agreed not to migrate all the in-transit item conditions already set into Voyager.

As of 11/24/99, the numbers for pseudo-patrons (with the exception of ILL & Carr, which will be patron groups in Voyager) were:

Bindery 37
Dept 143
Lost 29
Miss 75
Proc 21
There is a lot of work to be done in the units to move records from bindery, lost and missing pseudo-patron cards to item conditions.

Because so many units are still using pseudo-patrons, some people do not know how to set item conditions, we will have to review/teach people how to do this. At the first CUL circ/res implementation meeting, we will give each unit representative a list of pseudo-patrons, the number of items charged to each bind, miss or lost pseudo-patron and instructions to move the items to the corresponding item condition.

Each unit will keep ONE active reserve pseudo-patron card so that recalls can be placed for reserve. We decided that it would be best to have each unit check these cards just before coming up live to ensure nothing is charged to the card but that we will have these migrate as patron records in the library card group so that we can track the charges. We will make sure the names are distinctive enough to be able to search them.

We'll have numerous pseudo-patron records (dept, proc) that have no equivalent in Voyager. We need to decide how to migrate these or if we want to migrate them in the first test run. It would be better to reduce the overall number of these.

Because of the large numbers of books charged to these we may have to log them and then get a SAS report to clean them up.

Many cards with a category of proc or dept are used for situations when library material needs some catalog maintenance. Usually, technical services staff use the card to place a hold if the book is checked out or to check the book out while it is in technical services. We could reduce the number of these cards by using a different procedure for materials sent for catalog management. For example, if the book is checked out, we can put an x in the catalog review field with a note to route the book to technical services upon return. If the book is in technical services more than 48 hours, then the status should be changed to 1i that displays as "in process". We will organize a meeting with technical services staff to talk about this proposed procedure.

There are other uses of these cards to track locations of materials-some overlap with item conditions as well. UM messages will migrate to Voyager. These could be used instead of pseudo-patron cards to tell where a book is located. Again, this will be an agenda item for the task force.

4. Patron File Migration:
The patron file load can be indexed on three different numbers, SSAN, Inst. Id, and Empl. Id. Joel asked if we should use the Empl. Id for students or continue using the Student Id #. We must determine if PeopleSoft will be used for students in the future. We also will need to determine what number the Registrar's office will be using as well as how we will transfer information to the Bursar.

- Library Management System Implementation Site - Cornell University Library - Ithaca NY -
last modified on: January 11, 2000