Circulation Services Subcommittee Minutes
March 11, 2025 at 9:30 am
Zoom session
Action Items:
None
Present: Zach Ott (BAR), Jeff Kauffeld (MAD), Margie Navarre-Saaf (MAD), Emily Harkins (WAU), Kelly Heasty (MCF), Erica Kersten (PIN), Eddie Glade (STP), Autumn Baumann (POR), Robin Behringer (STO), Andrew Branstad (MTH), Jeff Pond (MRO), Claire Parrish (MCM)
Absent: Alyssa Diaz de Leon (REE), Alice Johnson (MOO), Steev Baker (SUN)
Excused: Jennifer Foster (FCH), Ronda Evenson (VER), Tanya Bolchen (MID)
Recorder: Michelle Karls (SCLS)
SCLS Staff Present: Heidi Oliversen
1. Call to Order at 9:31 am
a. Introduction of guests/visitors
i. None.
b. Changes/Additions to the Agenda
i. E. Kersten – questions at the end. E. general questions.
c. Requests to address the Committee
i. None.
2. Approval of previous meeting minutes: January 14, 2025
a. Motion: M. Navarre Saaf moved approval of the January meeting minutes. E. Harkins seconded.
b. Discussion: none.
c. Vote: motion carried.
3. Action Items
a. None
4. Discussion
a. Revision of SCLS Guidelines for Registering Patrons. The revised guidelines were presented and reviewed at the AC meeting 2/20/2025. There is no AC meeting in March, so it won't be voted on until the April AC meeting.
i. Discussion: The revisions were approved by the ILS Committee. This will go to the Administrative Council for final approval in April because these are SCLS guidelines.
b. Reporting damaged, parts missing and defect reported problems. Getting owning libraries to record acknowledged condition issues on circulating items.
i. Discussion: There was a report from a library with a concern that one of their items had been clearly damaged and there was no form with the item. There was post-it that said it was damaged but that this library was still going to circulate the item. There was no other information sent and there was no way for the owning library to charge the responsible patron. H. Oliversen sent out a reminder email about the current procedures for handling damaged items, items missing parts and items that have some kind of defect. After this she received reports from a number of library staff that they have been seeing an increase in the use of Post It notes reporting problems. There should be an emphasis on having your staff review the workflows. Post-it notes are not good way to report problems and libraries should be following the procedures. If we want to change this workflow, we would need a proposal for this group to review and it would need to be reviewed by all libraries for feedback and approval. Libraries should send the damaged item back to owning library to note the damage or call the library and ask if it’s OK to circulate the item and you will note the damage. POR and MRO have forms they use for this that they will share with the group by email. J. Pond is not necessarily advocating for using this form. C. Parrish suggested a list of conditions that could be allowed to circulate (if owning library had not noted the condition issue in the materials) and damages or issues that require the materials to be returned, with form, to the owning library. The group agreed that this could be a very useful tool, like a cheat sheet for staff. Anybody with thoughts on this, please send H. Oliversen an email with them. She will create a google doc with all the submissions and send to the group members for review. We will review these at the next meeting.
c. NR Non-Reciprocal patron category. This Patron Category was created to be used for patrons with a legal place of residence in Milwaukee County, which is the only county in Wisconsin that is not a reciprocal borrower or lender of materials. In recent years library staff have not been using this code – possibly because they don’t know to use it and possibly because the Category automatically charges the patron an annual fee of 40.00. In the past, most libraries using this code would write-off the 40.00 charge but some still charge their patrons and collect the money.
i. Discussion: H. Oliversen reviewed the history of why Milwaukee County residents are marked NR. J. Kauffeld also pointed out the section in the WI State Statutes referencing the information that Milwaukee County is a non-reciprocal county. H. Oliversen’s question is whether is should still be a requirement to automatically apply the annual $40.00 charge, included in the set-up of the Patron Category, for these patrons? H. Oliversen will talk to the libraries using this Patron Category and ask if they are using and collecting the auto-charge or just waiving it. H. Oliversen will report her findings to this group.
d. Patron records for part-time residents that own property in a SCLS County.
i. Discussion: The current practice is per library but many put the patron’s out-of-state (or out of SCLS) address in the main address fields and their local addresses in the Alternate Address fields. Proposal that libraries reverse this and place the local address in the main address fields. Causes less confusion when applying PSTATs and during PSTAT Verification processes. The group discussed this and is OK with this change. H. Oliversen will talk with some of the libraries not represented in the subcommittee and find out their preferences.
e. General questions
i. Discussion: E. Kersten mentioned she has encountered libraries where the staff aren’t clearing refunds from patron records. This continues to impact online payments as refunded amounts are included in the balance. M. Navarre Saaf asked E. Kersten to let her and H. Oliversen know so one of them can reach out to the director and/or staff. H. Oliversen recently sent out reminders to specific libraries about resolving refunds for items lost prior to September 2023. She will be running the report again later this month for more recent unresolved refunds. The ILS Lead Evaluation Workgroup will present their recommendation at the March All Directors meeting. Vote will be at May All Directors meeting.
5. Plan for Next meeting: May 13, 2025 at 9:30 am is out annual in-person at SCLS Headquarters. We will be serving bagels and homemade jam. Hybrid meeting equipment doesn’t work very well (and we can’t teleport bagels and jam) so, if possible, please attend in-person.
6. Adjournment at 11:11 am.
For more information about the Circulation Services Subcommittee, contact Heidi Oliversen.
SCLS staff are available to attend cluster meetings to share information and answer questions pertaining to this committee meeting and other departmental projects.
Circulation Services Subcommittee/Minutes/03-2025