Sage Library System User Council Meeting minutes
September 19, 2017 at 10am (PDT)
(via GoToMeeting)
Video Recording of meeting.
Present: Heidi Florenzen (Hermiston PL), Rachael Fox (Hood River Co. Lib. Dist.), Cheryl Hancock (Harney Co. Lib.), Robin Jeffrey* (Klamath Falls CC Lib.), Cecili Longhorn* (Stanfield PL), Beth Longwell (Sage), Erin McCusker (Umatilla Co. Special Lib. Dist.), Dea Nowell* – Vice-Chair (Umatilla Co. Special Lib. Dist.), Maggie Pando (The Dalles-Wasco Co. Lib. Dist.), Rose Peacock* (La Grande PL), Mary Reser (Gilliam Co. Lib.), Perry Stokes* (Baker Co. Lib. Dist.), Kathy Street* – Chair (Oregon Trail Lib. Dist.), Erin Wells* (Milton-Freewater PL), Ann Zuehlke* (Hood River Valley HS Lib.). * denotes User Council Rep.
The meeting was called to order by Chair Kathy Street shortly after 10am.
Minutes: May: Dea Nowell noted 2 corrections needing made. First under Old Business: Inactive Patrons – it appears that the 2nd paragraph is somewhat a repeat of the first paragraph, maybe trying to better clarify the intent. Kathy Street stated she would correct this. Dea Nowell noted the other correction was on page 2 New Business: Cat1 policy – it should read “The Cataloging Mentors” instead of “Dea” updated the policy…. June: Dea Nowell noted that the end of the paragraph seems to be missing at the top of page 2. Kathy Street noted the missing portion should read “review after a year.”
Cecili Longhorn moved to approve the minutes with the noted corrections. Erin Wells seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Discussion of Council term lengths and how many council members change out at a time: Kathy Street asked Dea Nowell to explain the idea behind this. Dea suggested that Council terms be 3 years in length instead of 2 years to give more consistency to the Council as only 4 positions would be rotating off and on each year rather than half of the Council Members. She looked at how this might be done and thinks it could be done fairly easily, though it would require some shifts in terms for a couple of years to get everything in sync. Erin Wells noted she thought it was a good idea as 2 years are short and it’s sometimes hard to get Council Members. Kathy asked Dea to write up what would be necessary to change the Bylaws for next meeting.
Discussion of Evergreen development opportunity – new feature which will help searching for bilingual materials in the catalog. The problem is that Evergreen assumes that each book is in one (and only one) language. Currently, for example, our library cannot use Evergreen to search for bilingual Spanish/English books, as Evergreen has declared each one to be either English-only or Spanish-only. Equinox’s proposal blows up this 1-language limit, so that patrons and staff can successfully find those materials. This new feature will be called Multilingual Search. Amount requested $500. We have $2,000 in the development funding budget. Beth Longwell explained that another Evergreen library in Oregon reached out to her regarding this. The other library had gotten a quote from Equinox to enhance the system for something like $2,000, Beth thinks. The other library is asked us if we could contribute $500 toward the development. Kathy Street asked Beth if this feature would be available to all Evergreen libraries or just those who contribute. Beth said all, though those who help fund development of a feature have access to it quicker than the general Evergreen community. Perry Stokes moved to contribute $500 toward the Equinox bi-lingual project. Erin Wells seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Committee Reports:
Cataloging Committee: Dea Nowell reported that the Cataloging Committee has met once since the last User Council meeting, at which the CAT1 policy and documents on the website were announced, etc. We also talked about preferences of title (245) entry in bibs and reminders about not making major changes in bibs (format changes, etc.) and regarding ISBN searching. The next Cataloging Committee meeting is the first Monday in October at 11am. These meetings are announced on the Sage-Cat list.
The Cataloging Mentors have met 3 times since the last User Council meeting and topics we’ve been discussing include: CAT1 policy updates & possible trainings available (we have one person currently in training and another expressed interest but no application has been received yet), duplicates, monitoring cataloging in Sage along with some major issues in the catalog, 245 field preferences, authorities, series, and encoding levels in bibs.
Kathy Street asked about training availability for CAT1. Dea noted that we don’t have any of our own training lined up, as we don’t have anyone who has availability to do that in Sage. The mentors are watching what’s available out there, though generally it is on a quarterly, or shorter, basis that they are announced.
Circulation Committee: Beth Longwell noted that the Circulation Committee has not met yet, though they are planning for an October meeting.
Personnel Committee: Beth Longwell stated that the Personnel Committee had met several times in the search for a new person. Three members of the Committee met to do interviews and the Committee discussed the interviews the following week. An offer was extended to Jon Georg, who began on Sept. 12. Beth is working with him on training right now – Evergreen and various aspects of Sage. His contact information will be circulated after he has some of this training under his belt.
Courier Committee: Beth Longwell noted that they are planning to meet the beginning of November. The Courier Committee recently lost their chair and everyone has been busy. Asked about a new chair, Beth responded that she thinks Carrie Bremer at Athena PL is assuming it, at least in the interim.
Strategic Planning Committee: Beth stated that the Strategic Planning Committee has also not been meeting due to schedules, though they need to meet as this is important.
Other:
Perry Stokes asked if there has any feedback on the new courier. Beth Longwell asked Perry for his feedback and he stated it seems very professional and things are moving well, though he is disappointed in use of open bins, though understands costs involved.
Erin Wells asked Beth Longwell if she knew when the Evergreen web client will be out of beta. Beth responded maybe October. Asked if we will be upgrading soon after, Beth noted we’d have to look at 2.12 as it may be helpful. It was noted that there are a lot of bugs in the current version of the web client.
Kathy Street asked Beth Longwell if there would ever be an app for the Sage catalog. Beth responded she wasn’t sure. Kathy stated that she shows people how to add a home screen for accessing the Sage catalog on the web, but it isn’t quite the same. Beth noted that she has not seen one, though she could look some more and/or also ask a question on the Evergreen list.
Meeting adjourned at 10:26am
The next User Council Meeting will be November 21, 2017 at 10am (PDT).
Submitted by Dea Nowell.