Phones in the AM

Reminder to all of us who work in circ.

• If we don't unforward the phones in the morning, the calls are forwarded to City Hall.
• People who have time sensitive questions won't get them answered
• People may think the library is closed.
• This effects all departments!

Therefore, ANYONE who is scheduled to work at the Main Circ Desk at opening time must remember to unforward the phone.  The directions for are right on the phone AND if you have any questions, please ask any of the regular circ staff!  We are happy to help!

Of course, we have to take the phones back in the morning, too.

I think it helps to send out this reminder every once in a while.

Let me know if you have any thoughts about how to get this "perfect!".

Thanks, circulators!

Boo! Circ breaks for Halloween, Wednesday 10-31

Want to help with snacks and/or supplies?  See Pat O

laptop mending slips---fill out completely

fill out everything.  Email Todd, CC Deb and Laura.  Include your initials and the date!

this is vague...I can't tell if Todd got the message

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please, when reporting a laptop problem: 

1. Fill out the entire slip.
2. Mark the laptop Mending
3. Include a description of the problem
4. Email Todd and cc Laura and Deb
5. Include your initials and the date

If Todd doesn't know about the problem, he can't fix it.
If the slip is not filled out properly, I have no way of knowing if he knows about this problem.  I can't tell who dealt with the problem, so if Todd has a question, he won't know who to ask.

Laptops are very high demand items.  Having them out of commission means that they are taking up space and not being used.  We have a computer class coming up and we want them to be in good working order.

Questions?  Comments?  Let me know!

French library books, improved labels still on back cover

new improved label is on the back cover

I want to remind every one that we are putting the labels with barcodes on the back cover of the French Library Books.   Marcia has helped us to create a much improved label.  It is smaller than the original and very attractive. 

Front cover has no label

power and laptops

One more word about laptops.  Several times we have heard a patron tell us that the laptop has no power.
Be sure that the library user is plugging the laptop in.  Many times that is the problem.  Batteries run low when laptops are unplugged!

Laptops---Be Sure They are Turned Off!

With newer laptops, open and be sure they are turned off

Remember the original group of laptops?  You can tell that they are on. You can see the power light even when they are closed.

The newer group, kind of like the one above, does not have a light showing on the outside.  It is important to open them up and be sure they are turned off.  Otherwise, batteries die.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

And, as always, thank you!

Institutional Cards

Hi there!  An astute staff member asked me about the procedure for issuing an "institutional card".  I am posting this information here on the blog AND in the circ notebooks under library cards.

Notice that we encourage the individual card for one person who is carrying the card.

Also, notice that institutional cards may NOT be used for getting materials from other libraries.

You can pull this policy up on the blog by typing institutional cards in the search box.  This policy is also available on the Minuteman Staff Page. Here's the link

Questions?  Comments?  Let me know!

Louise

Issue Institutional Cards

Procedures for issuing “Institutional” cards

As of July 1, 2012, per the Institutional card policy approved at Membership  May 16, 2012, the following procedures will apply when issuing an institutional card (PTYPE 200). The same rules apply when issuing new cards with PTYPEs 201 or 202.

Add a third Group patron PTYPE (200) as a network-wide patron type for Business/Other. It will use the same Loan Rule#493 as  Nursing Homes & School but will provide the ability to obtain detailed statistics.

The loan rule 493 for the following special patrons 200 (proposed), 201 & 202 are a borrowing period of 42 days, no renewals and no requests. In addition these accounts may be used at their issuing library only.  There are separate categories for the purposes of keeping statistics.

Moving forward, do not use the special  PTYPEs 201 or 202  if the card will be given to an individual to carry on his person. Instead encourage use of a personal card. Grandfather cards that have PTYPE 201 or 202 and are in the patron’s possession, but do not create any new ones.

 Parameters for creating an Institutional card are as follows:

• Expiration Date:        One year from the account’s creation/update date
• Decade & Gender:     leave blank
• Patron Type:        200 (Business/other),  201 (Nursing Home),  or 202 (School)
• Birthdate:        leave blank
• Patron agency:        as appropriate based on the library's patron template
• Name:            One of the people to be an authorized user
  • (Insert Company Name later in the record.)
• Address:            That of the institution
• Telephone:        That of the institution
• INSERT Company Name
• INSERT Additional NAME fields for each authorized user
• Message:        INSTITUTIONAL CARD FOR BORROWING WLM ITEMS ONLY – EXPIRES ANNUALLY. WLM/df 1/13/2012
•  

Both the company name and the individual user’s names will be searchable.  When patrons visit a library to check out materials on an institution's card, they must present ID.  Millennium should be searched for the patron’s name. The patron may have his  own personal card, so care should be taken to find the institution’s address/account.

When the card expires or a new user is to be added, a new letter with an updated list of authorized users must be presented and the expiration date should be one year from the update.

Institutional cards are not recommended for group home or temporary living arrangements unless the institution is prepared to be financially responsible for any lost or damaged materials on behalf of its residents.

For reference, below are descriptions of other “special” PTYPES for which network-wide Loan Rules have been established.


Nursing home/home delivery – PTYPE 201
Use:    To accommodate multiple patrons associated with a nursing facility. OR to account for items checked out and delivered by library staff to a facility or home-delivery patron’s residence.

School  - PTYPE 202
Use:    To accommodate multiple patrons associated with a school. OR to account for items checked out and delivered by library staff to a school or day care facility.


Special - PTYPE 203
Use:    Internal use in library. e.g. Display case, director’s office, etc.
The loan rule 494 means a borrowing period of 120 days, no renewals and no requests.

ILL - PTYPE 204
Use:    When checking out an item sent by ILL to a library outside of Minuteman.
See: Barcode    24870000011922 for an example.

See: http://staff.minlib.net/content/create-patron-records-ill-libraries
The loan rule 495 means a borrowing period of 30 days, no renewals and no requests.

Virtual Catalog - PTYPE:     205
Use:    Internal use by the Massachusetts Virtual Catalog
    Used for items Shipped to a VirtCat participant.  See: Barcode    28888000000014 for an example.

OCLC ILL - PTYPE 206
Use:    When sending items to fill OCLC request
The loan rule 496 means a borrowing period of 45 days, no renewals and no requests.

---

Source URL: http://staff.minlib.net/content/issue-institutional-cards

Laptops--library card number and your initials/18+

Reminder about Laptop Agreements

---Check year of birth.  Be sure that the applicant is 18 years old or older.

---Include the library card number on the bottom of the agreement form.

---Include your initials in case Anne has any questions.

let's not go to the dogs with our laptop agreements!

In Transit books not getting into bins

Please pay attention when checking in materials.   Remember that old reminder:  look at the screen! If an item is going to another library, put it immediately on to the designated "in transit" truck OR directly into the grey bin.

One of our pages was helping Anne with the in transit report.  We found (too many)  items that had been sent "in transit" in February, March and April that were on our shelves.  

Also, some of our alert pages have been giving me items belonging to other libraries that have made their way onto the to be shelved trucks or on to the shelves.  Please set your neural pathway to:  always put items going in transit on to the designated truck OR directly into the grey bin!

Thank you one and all!

Alert page finding in transit items

Merging duplicate library patron records

Alert circulation staff have pointed out that we need the instructions for how to merge duplicate library patron records!
Link to the directions on staff home page
Please note that I have placed instructions for patron merging into the circulation notebooks under the section
How To.

Also, the instructions are in the files at the Main Circulation Desk under Merge Patron Records.

You can always send the information to me and I will merge the records for you if you have any doubts about how to proceed!

Inspecting before check in and check out

-----Original Message-----

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:35:35 -0400
Subject: Some Arlington CD's can't be opened

Hi,

Last week someone tried to check out a CD that came in on hold for them

from Arlington and we weren't able to get the case open; so we couldn't check

the CD out to the patron.

Tuesday nite Nancy W was mentioning that she had a couple of the same

situations with Arlington CD's.

I think if the case isn't deactivated there is a red dot on the side of the case

indicating it is locked.

I thought we are supposed to be opening items to check for content before

triggering holds or checking anything in?  If everyone does this we shouldn't

be having this problem because the locked case would be noticed before it

triggers the hold for the patron.

It's embarrassing when a patron makes the effort to come in to pick up a hold

and we can't give it to them.  This happened more than once last week.

Thanks,

PS.  I find checkout slips inside other AV items as well,  DVD's and books on CD,

it's possible the slips just aren't being removed but it may be an indication that we

aren't opening items to check for content 

PLA without having to take off your shoes (airport)

Hey, here is your chance to experience some of the handouts from the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia.  I will be looking at these myself.  There were many topics that interested me that I was not able to get to.

click on this link and have fun!

Click the link below for the PLA Blog.  Good reading!
http://plablog.org/

Delivery Survey Begins this Friday!

Hi there!  Our delivery survey will be starting this Friday, March 9th after "George" takes the bins away.  He usually comes some time between 11:30 and 12:30PM.  Once he has taken the items away, you will put a hash mark on the Waltham Public Library Delivery Survey sheet for each item that you put into the bin.

On Friday, you put the hash mark next to the Friday column.....The fun continues until George takes the bins away on Thursday, March 15th.

The surveys will be located:

• in the Circulation office above the grey bins
• at Rear Circ on the counter above the grey bins.
• in Classroom A.

We will also have a sheet at the Rear Circ desk where we will count how many bins go out and how many bins come in beginning on this Friday, March 9th and ending on Thursday, March 15th.

I will send an email out on Friday when it is time to get going.

Next week, I am away from the office.  Bela will be our coordinator and Anne will be her back up person in my absence.  And, no, I didn't plan it so that I would be out of the office when this happened.......or did I?????

Swiss Army Librarian

This is funny!

turning on that phone in the am

We are going to institute a new "reminder" to be sure that we turn the phones on at the Circ Desk in the morning.  As you may know, if we do not "take our phones back" in the morning, the calls are routed to city hall.  The new reminder is a sign that says "Unforward the phone".  The night staff will put this sign on the phone as part of the closing procedure.

Remember that when Gary comes by to open the door, that this is a cue to check:  Have I "unforwarded" that Circulation phone?

Thank you for helping to be sure that library calls get to the library and not to City Hall!

New! Important/Retaining Last Patron Information

Dear Everyone ,

We have a great new feature!  We will be able to see the last patron who had an item.

This can be useful if an item was damaged or incomplete and we did not "catch" the name of who had the material last.  It can also be useful if someone left something in the book and we noticed it after the item got checked in.

We can use this information discreetly but, of course, can not tell the "current" person who the last person was.

The F5 for withdrawing function key will be compromised until we get the macro reset.

Please read below and stay tuned for updates!

Louise

Retaining Last Patron Information

Submitted by ssaul on Tue, 02/14/2012 - 8:32am

At the January 18, 2012 Membership meeting directors voted to implement the retention of the Last Patron field in the item record. We will begin saving this data as of March 1, 2012. Central Site will purge the saved data on an Annual basis.

Reason for implementation
It is anticipated that access to the last patron information will be helpful to library staff when an item is checked in without all of its parts. This will also be helpful to libraries implementing an automated sort and checkin solution.

How it works
Innovative adds a fixed field to the Item record called LPATRON (Last Patron). When an item is checked in, the system updates the LPATRON fixed field with the patron’s Pnumber. The next time this item is checked in, the most recent patron’s Pnumber will replace the previous one.

Effect on Millennium Client macros (Function Keys)
Some macros in use will need to be edited due to the rearrangement of the item fixed fields. For example, if a library used a macro to withdraw an item by updating both the ICODE2 and the Item Status filed, the navigation between the ICODE2 field and the Item Status field will need to change due to the insertion of an extra fixed field.

Until a library’s macros have been changed, staff can directly edit the 2 fields in the example cited above.

If a macro simply enters a string of characters it will not be affected by this implementation. Only macros which navigate from field to field of the item record will be affected.

Information about constructing macros in Millennium Clients can be found at:
http://staff.minlib.net/content/writing-macros-and-setting-function-keys

Also see:
Acquisition and Cataloging Function Keys: http://staff.minlib.net/node/1805
Circulation Function Keys: http://staff.minlib.net/node/1806
Writing Macros: http://staff.minlib.net/content/writing-macros

An example of a populated Lpatron field  can be found on the Test server for item: 33016002869623



For more details see; http://staff.minlib.net/membership-committee/2012-01-18/retaining-last-p... (using Method 1 only)
Q. Is the data accessible from a patron record?
A. No, only from a given item record.

Q. Do I need to use supervisory initials to see this data in Millennium

More on Franklin and other non-certifed libraries

Here's the "skinny" on what will happen with the Franklin requests and library users who live in Franklin.

1)  The paging list will not include items that are being requested for pick up at Franklin.  We will not be supplying our materials to Franklin until they regain their certification.  If you check in an item and it wants to route to Franklin to fill a request, do not send the item.  Use check in and do not fulfill hold.

2)  If someone has the PTYPE of Franklin (meaning they live in Franklin) and they try to check out an item, we will get the following message:
      Loan rule says "non circulating" and we will get a choice to Override or Do Not override.

DO NOT OVERRIDE IN THIS CASE!  Explain to the user that they are welcome to use our library.  We love having them!  We would urge that they contact their local town officials and lobby for the recertification of their library.

This will probably not come up very often.  The numbers show that there were only 136 checkouts to Franklin residents at Waltham in FY11.

Questions?  Let me know!

Let's hope Franklin gets their certification soon!

Decertified Libraries--no cards for Franklin residents

Grants & Related Programs > State Aid to Public Libraries > Awards and Certification

Non-Certified Municipalities & Libraries

The municipalities below are not certified for State Aid to Public Libraries. There are 3 reasons why a municipality & its library may not be certified for State Aid to Public Libraries: its library may not have applied, its library may have been inegligible to apply, or its library did not receive a waiver of the Municipal Appropriation Requirement. Any municipality that does not have library service is automatically ineligible to apply for certification.
Municipalities that did not apply, or were ineligible, were not certified as of January 1, 2012. Municipalities that are denied a MAR Waiver will be not certified as of February 6, 2012.

1. Alford - did not apply - last applied FY1988
2. Bridgewater - did not apply - last applied FY2008
3. Fitchburg - did not apply - last applied FY2008
4. Franklin - denied a waiver of the FY2012 MAR
5. Hancock - did not apply - last applied FY1975
6. Millville - denied a waiver of the FY2012 MAR
7. Monroe - did not apply - has never applied
8. New Ashford - ineligible - no library service
9. Norton - did not apply - last applied FY2010
10. Savoy - did not apply - has never applied
11. Tyringham - did not apply - last applied 1961

An article about poor Franklin


 If someone comes to the desk with a Franklin address, we will not be issuing him or her a card.  We also will not lend out to library users who live in Franklin. 
Here is the scoop:  We do not issue cards to residents of the non-certified library towns.  We encourage them to speak with their city officials and urge that the library be recertified. This list will also be in the Circulation Update Notebooks 

And, if you have a lot of time on your hands, please read the following:  

 me » Circulation Reference Documents

Procedures for service to patrons of non-certified libraries

Submitted by ssaul on Tue, 02/14/2012 - 12:17pm

It is up to the individual library’s policy (as voted by the Board of Trustees of the public libraries) whether an individual library chooses to provide service to libraries that have lost their certification.  (Louise's note:  Waltham does not provide service to libraries that have lost their certification).

This service can be either direct loans to residents of the decertified town, or Network Transfers to the library in the decertified towns.

For more information from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, see:
•    When a Public Library is Not Certified
    http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/state_aid/faqs/sa_denial_of_cert.php
•    When Neighboring Municipalities Are Not Certified for State Aid to Public Libraries
    http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/state_aid/faqs/sa_neighboring_municipalit...

To assist libraries in carrying out their own policies toward decertified libraries, Minuteman will do the following as soon as possible after notification of decertification:

Patron Records

Patron variable field message : Franklin resident      Done 2/3/2012
For residents of Franklin (as determined by the PTYPE in the patron record), we will insert a Message “Franklin patron” that will pop up in a dialog box when a Franklin patron record is called up. Staff will need to respond to the OK in order to continue. This message is simply to inform staff that this is a Franklin patron. The library’s individual policy should then be followed regarding service to this patron.

Coding for statistics of circulation to decertified patrons      Done 2/3/2012
For the purpose of reporting in the ARIS report, we will code the patron records of residents of Franklin with a “d – decertified” in the Decade field of the patron record.

Franklin Patron Template        Done 2/3/2012
The new patron template for the Franklin library will be updated to reflect the above 2 fields.

The following steps will be taken as we are notified of the policy of individual libraries.

Network Transfer

Paging of items for Network Transfer

• MLN will adjust the Priority Paging tables to prevent paging of items with a Franklin  pickup location from libraries that have decided not to serve decertified libraries
• MLN will adjust the Priority Paging tables to prevent paging of items from Franklin when the pickup location is a library that has voted not to serve the decertified library.

Network Transfers at Check In
At Check In, when prompted to fill a Hold, staff must pay close attention to the indication of where the Hold is being sent. If the message says “to be picked up at Franklin”, then staff should respond: “Check in, do not fulfill hold” if their library has voted not to serve Franklin.

 

In the case of an incorrect response (Fulfill hold) to this prompt, the item will have been set In Transit to Franklin and the Hold will now be an item-level hold. The In Transit status can be cleared by checking in the item a second time, and responding “Check in, do not fulfill hold”. Then, notify Franklin that the Hold will not be filled so that they can cancel it and re-place if appropriate.

Time line

Changes to the Patron records will be made as soon as possible after decertification of a library.

However, due to the many requests already in the system, and the necessity to inform patron of the new restrictions, the month of February will be considered a transition. Libraries may continue to fill Network Transfers and to check out materials to Franklin patrons on a one-time exception, until the patrons have become aware of the new restrictions.

Changes to the Priority Paging tables will be made once the votes are known for all of the Minuteman libraries regarding service to decertified libraries, or as we are notified of individual library policies.

Note: If Franklin patrons request material for pickup at a library that has voted not to serve them, the system will not block the request. The first time this occurs, staff should go ahead and check out the material to the patrons, but explain that for the future, the Franklin patrons must place their holds for pick up at Franklin (or any other library that is continuing to provide service to a decertified library).

Express Lane transactions
Libraries that are not providing service to Franklin patrons, and that wish to have Franklin patron transactions blocked so that they cannot use the Express Lane stations should so notify Central Site. A Loan Rule determiner entry will be made to cause the system to use the NonCirc Loan Rule for Franklin patrons at the given library.

NOTE: We do not recommend overriding for checkouts to Franklin patrons once this configuration change has been made. If you do so, the system will use Loanrule #1 which says:
Loan Period: 1 day
Time to pickup: 8 days
Renewals: 0
Daily fine rate: $2
Maximum fine: $20

---

The following statement was approved by the Minuteman Executive Committee to describe the role of the network with regard to decertified libraries:

Any changes in borrowing rules to decertified libraries implemented
by the Minuteman Library Network are a result of votes taken by the
individual governing boards (library trustees) of member libraries.
Questions or comments on these decisions should be directed to the
specific library, or to the Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners.

15 minute spaces applies to handicapped plates too

We had a gentleman today who wanted to know if the 15 minute spaces would be limited to 15 minutes if:
      There was no other space available
      He had handicapped plates

I told him that my feeling was, yes, that even with handicapped plates, the 15 minute space would be monitored and that if one stayed for more than 15 minutes, there would be the risk of getting a ticket.  Luckily, the person's van driver moved the vehicle to another space that had become available.  The person was worried that he would have trouble getting into the van from the angle of this alternate space.  The driver, however, was able to move the van to an area that worked for his passenger.

I called the parking clerk who confirmed that, indeed, the 15 minute space time limit applies to everyone.

Barcodes on the front....check carefully

Reminder from Anne:  Barcodes are on the front now and it is still important to check the books....she has found books that are damaged getting checked in.  Of course, don't get me started about checking the pockets and removing the cards.  Look at this:

This Clint Eastwood title was checked in with ugly, moldy looking stuff on the edges and falling apart.  Clint said, "Go ahead.  Make my day."  And that did not do it!!!!

Craig turns 60

Gary Smith bought this lovely cake!

Nice necklace!

The gang's all here!

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.
Lucille ball

 The spiritual eyesight improves as the physical eyesight declines.
Plato

 Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Groucho Marx

 A diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
Chinese Proverb

 

Hi there, Everyone.

  Sort-to-light delivery has been underway for a while now and one thing is for sure: mutli-piece items are checked for completeness and correctness less than before. If an item is opened at check-out some staff have looked very silly on several recent occasions when there’s nothing inside.

Please don’t assume that the contents were checked previously. Always check again. Don’t just note that there’s a disc inside, but the correct disc(s).

Just take a peek at, say, the last 2 digits of the barcode and flip thru the discs verifying that those 2 digits are on each disc.

Check at check in.

Check at check out.

Check when items come in delivery.

Check when processing holds.

Even if the item came from another library and we can’t call the last patron to fix it, the problem needs to be discovered so that it doesn’t get passed on to another patron who may get blamed for it.

Even if it seems that very few mistakes are discovered, check anyway. Mistakes do happen here and in other libraries sending items here. It takes a lot of staff time to sort out missing discs or swapped discs and it takes mere seconds to verify the contents. Please, at every opportunity: check, check, check, check.

Stay Vigilant, My Friends!

Deb

reminders/GOOD PRACTICES IN CIRC

1)  Materials that are going to other libraries:
        Good practice:  check in and place on the designated truck  OR
                                 check in and place in the grey bin

Barcode not on the front left?
                                   print that slip!


DO NOT ASSUME THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER TO PUT THE ITEM IN THE GREY BIN.  DO NOT LEAVE THE ITEM ON THE COUNTER OR PILE IT UP WITH OTHER IN HOUSE MATERIALS.  I PROMISE YOU THAT THIS WILL LEAD TO ERRORS.


2)  Checking in materials from anywhere

            Good practice:  look at the item.  If it has, say, grape juice stains on its edges and looks like this book above, we should not check the book in.  This happens to be a rental book and it was checked in yesterday at 3:51PM looking like this.

DO NOT CHECK IN ITEMS THAT ARE STAINED.  GIVE THEM TO ME SO THAT I CAN CONTACT THE LIBRARY USER. 

When you trigger a hold that needs to be called:

            Telephone holds.  Good practice:  CALL THE LIBRARY USER.

DO NOT PLACE THE ITEM ON THE HOLD SHELF IF THERE IS NO INDICATION THAT THE HOLD HAS BEEN CALLED!!!!

      
 

French Library Books

 Many of you have asked me about the French Library Books.  Why, you ask, have we not put the Waltham Public Library labels on the front of the book?

The answer is:  it looks terrible.   It is much nicer for our readers  to see the pretty cover of the book.  Therefore, when Marcia processes these for us, I have instructed her to put the label on the back cover. 



These books are fine for checking out!  Simply go to the back cover and you will see our barcode.  Scan the patron card, scan the barcode and voila!  You have a check out.

Once they are checked in, they get shelved in the French collection.  These books can be placed on the displayer stands with their attractive covers face out.  Questions?  Concerns?  See Louise (s'il vous plait).