ILS Committee Minutes

April 6, 2022, 10 am

SCLS Headquarters or

Phone/video conference

Action Items:
The IC approved the recommendation that the Fast Bib Add form include a default Item Type of BKA28.
The IC approved creating a work group to investigate local holds only pilot project.

Present: Judy Taft, ACL (1), Debbie Bird, POR (2), Eddie Glade, PCPL (4), Lauren White (5), Eric Norton, MCM (6), Kate Hull, SUN (7), Phil Hansen, FCH (8), Nate Snortum, DCL (9, 10), Margie Navarre Saaf, Susan Lee, MAD (11 -13),
Absent: Molly Warren, MAD (11-13)
Excused: E. Foley, ACL (1), Suzann Holland, MRO (3)
Recorder: Michelle Karls (SCLS)
SCLS Staff Present: Vicki Teal Lovely, Amy Gannaway, Heidi Oliversen, Martha Van Pelt

1. Call to Order at 10:03 am

a. Introduction of guests/visitors

i. Judy Taft will be filling in for Erin Foley from ACL today as the Cluster 1 Representative.  Jill Porter from MFD is a guest today.

b. Changes/Additions to the Agenda

i. None.

c. Requests to address the Committee

i. None.

2. Approval of previous meeting minutes: February 2, 2022

a. Motion: L. White moved approval of the February meeting minutes.  N. Snortum seconded.

b. Discussion: none.

c. Vote: motion carried.  (No abstentions.) 

3. Action Items

a. CSS recommends that we request that the Fast Bib Add form include the default Item Type of BKA28.

i. Motion: This motion came from the Circulation Services Subcommittee.

ii. Discussion: M. Navarre Saaf mentioned that after the 7.0 upgrade the software produces an error if staff do not select a code for the Item Type field.  If staff does not manually enter an item type, the system will provide the default BKA28 in the form. 

iii. Vote: motion carried. 

b. Local holds only pilot proposal

i. Motion: L. White moved to form the work group for this pilot project.  E. Glade seconded. 

ii. Discussion: V. Teal Lovely reviewed the pilot proposal with suggested timeline (see document).  The work group assigned to review the proposal would meet between now and June.  We would vote on whether to approve the pilot project at the June IC meeting.  The start date for any interested libraries would be June 15 (MFD pilot project is currently underway).  The CSS and the work group would propose parameters.  V. Teal Lovely mentioned that holds are already being manipulated with RTH (Reduced Transportation Holds).  RTH can affect small libraries because their items can get stuck circulating outside of their library after filling local holds within the parameters.  There is division on the topic of local holds only.  Some libraries want to do this and some are very concerned.  The point of the work group is to help libraries come closer together on a decision.  P. Hansen reported that Cluster 8 is opposed to starting the work group and pilot projects.  E. Norton was wondering how the changes to RTH in the past few years (pandemic) would affect data.  Data from 2020 and 2021 is not normal data.  The work group should consider how to interpret that data.  S. Lee asked how long the RTH change went on for.  H. Oliversen will go back and check previous minutes to get these dates.  Here is what was found:

1. April 2020 - The date differential for Reduced Transportation Holds in LINKcat was changed from 60 days to 365 days.

2. December 2020 - The date differential for Reduced Transportation Holds in LINKcat was changed from 365 days to 120 days

3. October 2021 - The date differential for Reduced Transportation Holds in LINKcat was changed from 120 days to 60 days.

MFD started their pilot project in February.  E. Glade mentioned that not   every library does a “Lucky Day” collection and he sees this as the potential to be another version of this concept, but with the added benefit that libraries don’t have to put these items on generic records.  T. Drexler will be working with this group to decipher the data.  We will send out an email asking for volunteers for the work group later this week.         

iii. Vote: motion carried.

1. Yes – Cluster 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9-10, 11-13

2. No – Cluster 8

3. Abstain – Cluster 3 (not in attendance)

4. Reports

a. ILS Report

i. V. Teal Lovely reviewed the February and March ILS Reports.  We are doing these monthly and trying to make them more detailed. 

b. Circulation Services Subcommittee

i. H. Oliversen reviewed the March meeting minutes.

c. Collection Maintenance Subcommittee

i. A. Gannaway reviewed the March meeting minutes.

d. Discovery Interface Subcommittee

i. A. Gannaway reviewed the March meeting minutes.

e. Multi-part DVDs Packaging Work Group—sunset or keep on hold for post-decision work?

i. V. Teal Lovely explained this group is officially finished with their charge.  Should we sunset the group now, or we could keep it and just transition it if the motion passes in May.  It may be too soon to ask this question.  We can revisit this at the June meeting (after the May All Directors vote).  If the motion passed, we will invite new people to join the work group and checkin with current members to see if they would like to remain in the group. 

f. Delivery Workflows Work Group – on hiatus

i. V. Teal Lovely reported this is on hiatus and we are unsure of when it will start up again. 

5. Items from clusters for initial discussion

a. None.

6. Discussion

a. Review 2023 Cataloging Contract draft

i. V. Teal Lovely and S. Lee consulted on this.  MAD is once again holding their fees steady.  2020 had a drop in cataloging, but it is climbing back up to normal.  Catalogers may have some minor wording clarifications that they will discuss soon.  S. Lee also realized she has not provided statistics in a while so she will get those to this group.  Please contact her or MPL catalogers for questions. 

b. Review service priorities for May All Directors – none were submitted

i. V. Teal Lovely discussed that we had a jambaord for new services, but none were submitted at the March All Directors meeting.  People may submit new ideas so that we can include them in the annual plan. This is something that libraries should be thinking about.

c. Preliminary 2023 ILS budget proposal (available on April 1, 2022)

i. V. Teal Lovely went through the vendor contracts and updated costs.  There are no major changes.  We will be integrating RIO and MFD fees into budget for the next few years (fees being stepped and at the end of two years they will be fully integrated).  We have standard increases with vendors.  Telephone notices have been stable.  Cataloging services are staying the same, but there was an increase with OCLC.  Authority control fluctuates.  We didn’t spend the full amount budgeted last year, so it was lowered.  We are spending less on BackStage than LTI.  Bibliotheca and Envisionware support is in flux.  We are working on this.  We will not bring in as much with Bibliotheca support this year.  Staffing and health insurance costs are still being worked on (and should still be highlighted).

d. Tracking response time problems

i. We do receive general comments that there is slowness in Bibliovation.  We know some of this can be attributed to PLACK service slowness and overall internet problems.  One Top 5 bug priority is for LibLime to work on the problem of bibs with a lot of item records that take a long time to load. In the past, we had libraries keep logs.  What we want to hear is if a certain action is always slow. Then we can drill down and get patron information. Staff should create help desk tickets for patterns of slowness (checkout slow with a patron with large amount of holds and items checkout).  We are looking for generalities.  Libraries can use the Bibliovation response time form to provide detailed incidents to support the general problems.    

e. Report on preliminary marketplace analysis

i. V. Teal Lovely and H. Oliversen attended PLA in Portland last month. SyrsiDynix was not there.  A. Gannaway and H. Oliversen worked up a list of criteria beforehand.  The main question was how far along are vendors on fully web-based software.  TLC/CARL does not have web-based software.  One library system in Wisconsin has gone with them recently.  V. Teal Lovely met with the III representative and they said Polaris has made advancements in their web-based software.  ByWater  Koha is obviously web -based, but they had no large installation when we looked at them last.  They now have a large site so we should review them again.  SCLS will schedule some internal meetings with them and do some vetting.  They will get together a work group before ALA and participants would be asked to attend web sessions.  The work group will set up meetings for ALA.  Self-check vendors have developed lockers with software, but they are much more expensive than SmartAccess.  The units are also very tall.             

7. Plan for Next meeting: June 1, 2022 at SCLS Headquarters or via phone/video conference

a. Action: Approve final 2023 ILS budget proposal

b. Action: Approve Cataloging Contract

8. Adjournment at 11:18 am.

For more information about the ILS Committee, contact Vicki Teal Lovely.

SCLS staff are available to attend cluster meetings to share information and answer questions pertaining to this committee meeting and other departmental projects.

ILS Committee/Minutes/04-2022