YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
CIRCULATION SUPPORT GROUP

In Attendance: Marybeth Bean, Rick Bean, Susan Burdick, Patrick Butler, Ping Fu, John Gallagher, Victoria Gardner, Cindy Greenspun, Chris Killheffer, Beatrice Luh, Larry Martins, Lorine Murphy, Ken Raining, Anthony Riccio (recording)

Announcements

1. Claims returned situations for SML /CCL should be forwarded to Cindy Greenspun instead of Melissa Quinones, and all inquiries regarding the Unreturned Book Project should be sent to Jonas Baker. 
2. The problem with the bursar transfer of graduated student charges has been fixed.  The Bursar will now accept graduate/undergraduate charges until the end of August.   For credits or charges that need to be put through after that time, please contact Chris.
3. Susan Crockford-Peters’ date of return is October 15^th.
4. The summer course deactivation is complete; no exception report was created.

Addendum to withdrawal procedures

Victoria presented an addendum to the approved withdrawal procedures. The addendum calls for notifying Catalog Management when deleting the bib/holding record of the last copy of a withdrawn book. 

Marybeth suggested that the current OPAC message for withdrawn materials – “Unavailable” with a pop-up that advises readers to “Ask a Librarian” represents poor customer service in that it requires patrons to ask at service desks only to find out that something has been withdrawn.  Cataloging has not wanted to suppress withdrawn records in order to keep a public record that Yale once had the book.  The group agreed that it was important to raise public service concerns, both about this specific matter and about matters that affect front line service more generally, as an official CSG statement.  Chris will find out whether Lauren Brown included comments about the Withdrawn display in her presentation to PIC.  A subcommittee will be formed to draft a memo/statement to PIC or PSMC (Public Services Management Council) explaining CSG’s position on the Withdrawn display.  Chris agreed to bring CSG statements and recommendations to appropriate bodies.

Privileges expiration for Undergraduate seniors

Chris raised the idea of changing the Voyager expiration date for Undergraduate-seniors to the end of May.  Right now their privileges expire in August, and the Bursar stops accepting charges at the end of August. This leads to many unreturned book situations, where a book is due in August and not billed until October, long after the Bursar will accept charges.  Chris proposes changing the expiration date to the end of May – only for UG-seniors for now, and in the future perhaps also for graduate students finishing their programs. An email message would be sent in the spring to UG-seniors, explaining when their privileges as students expire and advising them that they are eligible for three months of free alumni privileges through the SML privileges office.  Susan pointed out that the expiration date should match stickers issued for ID’s in order to avoid confusion – Cindy and Chris will look into how to resolve that potential problem.

E-reserves update

Chris reported that the recommendations of DPIP and the idea for a soft roll-out of an e-reserves program are currently being considered by LMT.  Ken offered to assist any units who are facing working with e-reserves for the first time.

Library Notices problems

Cindy noted that Medical has not been receiving replies to their Library Notices, which are routed through the client maintained by Access Services.  She will be looking into this problem, and asked each unit to check to make sure that they are getting replies to Library Notices – these can be recognized by the subject line, which will read: “Re: Library Notice”. Units should report to Cindy whether they are getting these replies or not so that she knows the extent of the problem.

Updating library web sites

Patrick asked about how to make updates to library web sites. Chris said that many general circulation pages are maintained by Bonnie Turner, who will make updates when asked to do so by Chris. Updates to the front door itself need to go through PIC.  Larry Martins mentioned the need for rewording to define the difference between “access” and “borrowing privileges.”  Patrick advised staff at each unit to look at their own and general circulation web pages and send recommended changes to Chris.

Recall loan periods

Chris noted that for some time recall loan periods have been both inconsistent between the units and too long (up to 22 days). The group agreed that the recall loan period should be for 14 days for all units except the Arts library. Cindy and Chris will work with Systems to make this adjustment.