2020.09.08 - Agenda and notes

Corning City Library
Meeting switched to Zoom only
No recording of this meeting was made

  1. Announcements, news, brief items, etc.
  • Introductions
  • Additions to the agenda
  • Brief item: PHWAC courier problem
  • I’m starting to work on training for Koha 20.05 upgrade
  1. 2020 participation agreement (draft)
  1. 2020 Privacy and confidentiality statement
  1. Realm Study
  • Link to most recent press release
  • The most recent stage of the REALM study is suggesting that, if at all possible, libraries should not stack materials that are in quarantine. Doing so lengthens the time needed for COVID-19 to die.
  1. Item checkout limits
  • Background
  • A family of 5 checked out 1315 items from BASEHOR, BONNERSPGS, LANSING, and LINWOOD in less than a week. Many of the items have been returned, many were damaged, some have not yet been returned and all five family members now have blocked accounts with $3826.95 in accumulated late, damaged, and lost fees.
  • Almost every library limits the maximum number of checkouts on some item types - most commonly libraries limit patrons to a limited number of checkouts for videos and audiobooks.
  • Only 8 libraries currently set maximum checkout limits for their libraries (HIGH_CC = 500; TONGANOXIE = 50; LANSING = 25; PAOLA = 20; OSAWATOMIE = 10; OSKALOOSA = 10; MCLOUTH = 7; POMONA = 5)
  • Proposal - NEKLS will set a default limit of 100 items on January 1, 2021. Any library can ask that their limit be set higher or lower, but we must know what number your library wants to set before December 15, 2020. This is something each library should discuss with their board of trustees soon.
  1. Item type change plan
  • Item types can now be limited by library - i.e. if your library doesn’t use the “NEW AUDIOBOOK” or “Die cut equipment” item type, we can disable those item types at your library - i.e. “NEW AUDIOBOOK” and “Die cut equipment” won’t appear in the dropdown list of item types when you’re cataloging.
  • Item type codes are slowly being re-written to make reports more flexible. The final list of new codes is at this link.
  1. (Since we’re still on item types) Item type change - Add “TV” or something similar
  • Lots of pros and cons and other things to consider
  • Circulation rules are defined by item types, so this would require a new set of rules
  • Libraries that don’t use the new item type for their TV shows mean that their items will circulate as videos at other libraries
  • Item types can now be set on a library-by-library basis - but there are potential drawbacks to this as well
  • It would make the previous table look like this link
  1. 942$c, 942$e, 942$h
  • Will become mandatory fields when creating saving and editing bibliographic records (942$e already is)
  • This will make searching easier in Elasticsearch
  • This is one of the reasons that cleaning up item types is important
  1. 2021 Meetings
  • Should we even bother to plan in-person meetings - or should we plan on Zoom only for 2021?
  • NEKLS will send a survey about dates
  1. Next meeting
  • November 5, 10:00 a.m.
  • Leavenworth Public Library
    Meeting switched to Zoom only
  • Zoom link