OWWLAC Outcomes February 22, 2006

Revision: r11 - 03 Jan 2013 - 09:51:46 - Main.lstratton

Agenda:

• OWWLAC meeting agenda February 22, 2006

Decisions:

Time will NOT be removed from due dates on the printed checkout slips.

Renewals on items with holds are not allowed.

Holds are not to be overridden when renewing items. If a borrower wants to renew a book that has a hold on it, it may be suggested that the borrower opt to keep the book a few more days in order to finish it, then return it and pay the fine (extended use fee). OWWLAC requested that PLS begin to run reports to find any violations of this policy.

Gender and Birth Year will be recorded on all registration cards.

OWWLAC and OWWLUG have requested a single standard registration form be implemented. See Adopting a Single Registration Card below for more information.

Patrons who live out of the system but pay taxes that support libraries within the PLS system will received a Blue/Green library card and in system profiles.

There are 2 types of borrower cards: Out of System (Yellow/Purple) and In System (Blue/Green). As cards come up for renewal, fees are attached to the Out of System cards due to the OOS and OOSP profiles. However, some of these patrons live in School Districts or Towns that, although they are physically located outside of out 4 county system, had a portion of their tax money go to support a member library. In these cases, the patrons should not be charged a membership fee.

OWWLAC recommends that, going forward, these patrons who do support PLS member libraries with their tax dollars receive a Blue/Green card and in system profiles (ADULT, YA, JUVENILE). This prevent them from being charged for their membership.

To determine which school districts or towns contribute tax money to PLS members, Betsy has updated the Town and School District Code listings:

• Tax Supporting Codes

New OWWLAC Meeting Dates:

• April 26th
• May 24th
• June 28th
• July 26th
• August 23rd
• September 27th
• October 25th
• December 6th

Discussion Topics Sent to PLSDAC and OWWLUG.

Standardizing address information in patron registrations.

OWWLAC suggested adopting a short list of standard abbreviations and anything not on this short list be spelled out. No periods are to be used. Below is the recommended short list for address abbreviations:

Word		Abbreviation
Apartment		APT
New York		NY
Boulevard		BLVD
Road		RD
Post Office		PO
Street		ST
North		N
South		S
East		E
West		W

Adopting a Single Registration Card

Both OWWLUG and OWWLAC have recommended adopting a single Registration Card system wide. PLS will work on various mock designs for review at OWWLUG, PLSDAC and OWWLAC.

Eliminating entering the Group ID when processing a registration.

The Group ID has traditionally been the patron's phone number, allowing an additional searchable term when locating a patron in the database. However, with the new version of WorkFlows, we can now search by the Phone Number and this makes the Group ID field unnecessary. OWWLAC recommends that the Group ID no longer be entered into the system when processing a registration.

Providing Agency Cards via a standard procedure.

OWWLAC recommends agency cards be given to certain agencies. Kim Iraci and Nancy Herzig have been meeting with various Outreach agencies, such as nursing homes, day care facilities, etc. These organizations are very interested in having an agency card for use at PLS member libraries. OWWLAC has recommended some standard procedures to issue these Agency cards:

Below is a list of acceptable organizations that could apply for an agency card:

• Nursing Homes
• Day Care Facilities
• Museums
• Historical Society
• Boys & Girls Club
• Churches

Kim Iraci has developed a standard form and letter to be used for this process.

• Agency Cover Letter
• Agency Card Application Letter

OWWLAC recommends that the Agency library card be required in order for materials to be borrowed. As such, the agency would be responsible for keeping the card in an area that designated staff can get to.

School Cards were not discussed at this meeting.

Handling patrons who beat the system.

OWWLUG asked for clarification and guidelines for handling patrons who try to beat the system. If we utilize the OWWL automation system properly, it should help us monitor patrons who abuse the system. It is important to make notes in a patron's record when an offense has occurred. Additionally, if there are notes on a patron's record, it is the responsibility of the library to read these notes before checking out new materials to the patron. Directors also need to be notified by library staff when they see abuses of the system. OWWLAC and OWWLUG also expressed a need for a written policy for baring patrons i.e. what constitutes a "bar-able" offense, who can bar a patron, etc. OWWLAC felt that if a patron has cleared their record by paying fines or returning materials, they should have a clean slate. However, they also felt that more research is needed and Roma will try to locate other library policies.

Creating bylaws for OWWLAC

It was recommended that OWWLAC officially adopt bylaws which adequately describe their role and responsibilities. Roma Matott and Betsy Morris will write the first draft of the bylaws for review at the next OWWLAC meeting.

-- RomaMatott - 01 Mar 2006