Cornell University Library Voyager Implementation Site    

Voyager Access Services Implementation Committee
Minutes, April 14, 2000

Present: Deb Lamb-Deans, Carmen Blankinship, Pat Schafer, Joanne Leary, Susan Currie, Lydia Pettis

While at VUGM, Lydia and Susan learned from Jana that about 2400 circulation transactions were loaded into the 100,000 training database. With the reported bug of e-mail circulation notices being generated when sys admin values are set to NO for e-mail, these 2400 charges in the training database could be problematic. Lydia attended to give us an update. She and Peter Hoyt have worked out a program to strip the e-mail addresses from the patron file I the training database and this particular patron file will not be updated (which would return the e-mail addresses to the records). However, we can add a few e-mail addresses for specific people so that training can be done.

Lydia also reminded us to discuss the question about expired patrons who do not have books checked out but may have an active fine bill attached. Patron records will migrate if they meet the following parameters-if they are active or if they are inactive but have books checked out. We discussed this at length and agreed that for many reasons we will not migrate expired patron records with bills attached. We will run a bill report so units have a copy for tracking these bills. Because Voyager does not have a patron file purge, it is best to eliminate as many unnecessary patron records as we can. The suggestion was made to run the entire set of regular NOTIS reports just before we come up-the monthly statistics, bill reports, etc. We were unsure exactly when to run the reports given that the bib extract will begin in May but the circ data won't be done until June.

Lydia reminded everyone that the batch jobs are being run daily. Trainers for Voyager Reporter will be accessing the circulation notices but will rename the reports back to the original owner. Michelle Paolillo is the trainer who will need to gather circulation notices for reporter training.

We talked about training plans. Deb is making a list of barcodes for training in the 100K database since not all locations are represented. The configuration of that database is limited to a few circulation policy groups and Pat has set up security profiles for training. Deb suggested that it might be better for our committee to wait until the next full database is configured to test rather than use the training database for testing since the trainers will be setting up examples. Also, we will create patron records for training sessions.

Lydia reported that CUL has an opportunity to stop using an older bursar interface program. She explained how the system works. We all agreed that using a more direct interface is positive and we should move forward. Also, we agreed that we would like to see book repair and miscellaneous charges go directly to the Bursar and have the bill display for these

We continued discussing various aspects of system administration setup. We are waiting for some answers from Endeavor on max fines before we can continue. We discussed callslip, calendars and how best to set these up.

Deb gave an overview of opac request forms. At first, we will have the basics: recall, hold and callslip which we are calling "closed stacks requests" She reviewed the Services page on the Gateway. The recall, hold and Booksout will have explanatory information on the Gateway and a link to the opac. The Annex Requests will remain on the Gateway until Voyager 2000, which is supposed to have an interface with the Annex. Pat explained that Interlibrary Loan will be a button in the Voyager opac and will also still be available in the Gateway. The "Change of Address" on the Gateway is out of date and needs to be updated.
We looked at the patron login screen-the instructions are to click on OK but there is not an OK button but a "log-in" button. Also, the "patron barcode" will be changed to "patron ID" We were told that the prefix and suffix of Cornell ID numbers must be entered in the ID field but these numbers do not appear on the CU ID card; they are encoded in the magnetic stripe and are in the patron record. We need to investigate to see if we can get these to pop into the patron login screens as default.

We should also consider the language we use in opac location displays for closed stacks. If we want patrons to use callslip to request items, we might need to have additional instructions for requests, especially since a pick up location does not appear in 99.1 (but does in 2000). A patron would have to intuitively know that because the location of the item, that circulation desk is where the item can be retrieved. We can also change the "not charged out" to "available" Deb will be working with Fred Muratori on opac requests and is also on the Documentation Committee.

We need to discuss reserve templates. Linda Miller has been working with both the Access Committee and the Technical Services Workflow Committee. Susan will invite Linda to attend our next meeting to review the reserve template work.

- Library Management System Implementation Site - Cornell University Library - Ithaca NY -
last modified on: Oct.6, 1999