Directors' Meeting Oct. 19, 2006

TOPIC: All libraries use a standard check procedure. No need to set Min – Max amount for checks system wide. Libraries should contact their local police departments for guidelines on issuing complaints for bad checks or check with their city/local governing bodies the Min amount for police to get involved & who to contact. Required Info written on every check accepted: 1. Phone (of person issuing the check) 2. Drivers license (of person issuing the check) 3. User ID

ACTION: Libraries urged to follow suggestions

TOPIC: Refunds for lost items that have been paid but then the item appears will be considered when the patron comes in with a receipt and at: 1). Director’s discretion 2) Item has not already been replaced 3) Within 3 months of paying bill. The processing fee is not refundable

DISCUSSION: All patrons requesting a refund should be directed back to the owning library of the item. Kent county only offers refunds within 30 days

ACTIONS: Write up policy and post to web

TOPIC: Long overdue items Step 1 The Lost-assumed report will run every night? for the whole system. Mark items over 3 months overdue as Lost-Assume, Bill patron for item, and Generate a forth and final notice of Bills Owed for the patron. These will be run daily by the library staff along with the overdue notices. Step 2 Items that have been marked Lost-Assumed will then be further modified by the Longoverdue report. Items over 6 months overdue marked as Discard. Lost assumed bill cleared from patron and replaced by new bill. Item will stay in Discard until the Convert Discard & Remove Discard Items reports run every 6 months for the 6 months prior to the date the report runs. For example running the report in June will delete from the catalog all items marked as discard from July to December of the previous year. Testing these reports on test server plan to have running by next month

DISCUSSION: Longoverdue Report does not retain the title information in the bill so it is not helpful to the libraries. Need to keep a record of items lost by patrons. Need to maintain patron privacy.

ACTION: Lost Assumed report will begin running on Monday Nov 6^th. All other reports/actions are on hold until we can gauge effect on system

TOPIC: To further lock down the dedicated OPAC PCs the following changes will be made to the profile for the OPACs (these only affect PCs logged in as OPAC. Google search is turned off. Hot Sites turned off. Links to the Databases will be turned off unless a patron logs in.

ACTION: Remove “Hot Sites” link on OPACS. Remove databases from OPACS

TOPIC: New Castle ILL items clarification. Items loaned from Kent & Sussex libraries go to DDL for checkout to New Castle libraries. Items borrowed from New Castle get shipped directly back from your library to the New Castle Libraries.

ACTION: For clarification items from New Castle/Wilm libraries go directly to and from libraries. Items in DE Library Catalog go to DDL for check out and check in

TOPIC: Charge Receipt template. We’ve had a request from patrons that we standardize what is printed on our receipts. Many of the libraries have changed their printouts and it has caused some confusion for the patrons who try to read their receipts. When populating the receipt fields list the Date Charged should always come first followed by the Date Due. After that you can have any combination of fields.

DISCUSSION: Patrons are just getting used to new receipts.

ACTION: No change to receipts.

TOPIC: Delivery Survey. Weeklong: Oct 23-28 (includes Sat) or other date?? Count number of packages (not individual items) going both IN and OUT of your library. Continue packing multiple items in a single package/bag. Statistics forms will be e-mailed out

ACTION: Delivery survey set for week of Oct 23^rd. Count the number of packages only. This includes the number of canvas bags used by Kent co. courier.

TOPIC: Delivery Issues. Do we need padded bags for all media?

ACTION: Padded bags will be looked at the next meeting and a decision as to what to use will be made at a future meeting.

TOPIC: Other Business. Archives Announcement Hometown Delaware.

ACTION: Contact Lori Hatch at the DE Public Archives about the Hometown Delaware project.