PROSPECTOR CATALOG/REFERENCE COMMITTEE

Minutes of Meeting of May 18, 2000

 

 

Present:  Helen Reed (Chair), Bill Garrison, Vicki Nichols, Lois Jones, Judith Heck, George Machovec

 

1.  Minutes  Minutes of the April 20, 2000 meeting were revised to reflect the discussion with Ann Rakes (III) regarding encoding levels.  They will be posted to the web.

 

2.  Prospector Update 

 

Upgrade to Release 2000  The upgrade of Prospector to the Release 2000 version of the software went smoothly. Several bugs were found and subsequently fixed.  The record overlay seemed to be working properly.  There were no problems reported in working from a local site on Release 12 to Prospector on Release 2000.  Lois Jones was checking to see if the subject heading problem has been fixed.

 

CARL site load status  There are problems with the location translation tables.  The tables show codes rather than the exploded terms.  The location tables are updated every night.  CARL codes actually need to be padded with spaces to make them compatible to III.  III and the Alliance are working on this problem.

 

The entire Prospector database was loaded into the test file.  Many records were rejected due to a null character at the end of the 049.  The Alliance programmed this character out. 

 

In testing the database we will look at the CU titles that contains records that potentially contain “known duplicates” to look for overlay issues.  The DPL records, when loaded into the test database, will contain bibliographic, item and summary holdings information.

 

ISBN/Title overlay algorithm   During her visit Ann Rakes (III) reported that she had found a problem with the ISBN/title record overlay programming.  George will check with Ann for a status update on getting this fixed and the records corrected in Prospector.

 

3.  DPL Training

 

Catalog training  Prospector orientation and training for Denver Public Library Cataloging staff will take place on Tuesday, May 23 at the Alliance.

 

The session will include:

 

·         Overview of the project

                        Based on the PowerPoint used for III site orientation

Including the concept of record suppression, schedule, and Alliance programming to date (record extract, location tables, rejected records, etc) to facilitate the load of records

 

·         Demonstration of the Prospector PAC

                        Including character and web interfaces

 

·         Prospector Indexes

How they were developed based on most common practices; all index specifications are on the Prospector web page

 

·         CARL-web link to Prospector

The CARL web/Prospector link is not as seamless as from III systems to Prospector; when you go from CARL to Prospector the system does a broadcast search against 6 indexes

 

·         CARL record integration

Frequency of database updates, record suppression and record overlay

 

·         Testing/signoff process

DPL needs to do local testing of the programming to insure that their data is transferring as expected given the limitations of system interactions; problems should be reported immediately to George; at the training session a deadline for completion of testing should be agreed upon—hopefully around June 2

 

Testing should include:

            Record overlay

            Data integrity

            Indexing

Item/holding record transfer including call number and status

            Various physical formats

            Locations

            Serials holdings

 

Once testing is complete, DPL needs to “sign off” that they agree that the full database load can begin.            

 

Public Services training  Training for DPL Public Services personnel is scheduled for August 10 8:30-10:00 AM and August 14 from 8:30-10:00 AM both at the Main Library.  In total some 200-250 people need to be trained.  A third session will be offered later for those unable to attend either of these dates.   George will invite Janet Lee from Regis to attend one of these sessions in anticipation of our need to train Public Services personnel from Regis. 


 

4.  NetLibrary Record Load Update

 

CU-Boulder received the NetLibrary records from OCLC, however part of the URL was dropped from that field in the records.  A new file was just received and 10 records have been loaded for testing purposes.  III has not completed the CU suppression code mapped, which should be completed before the entire file is loaded.  When the initial load is completed there will be approximately 7,500 records.  CU will receive and load monthly updates.  The load should be completed in early June

 

5.   Other Record Loads

 

CU-Boulder has ordered and will be loading records for Early American Imprints—Evans file as well as for the Shaw-Shoemaker file.

 

6.  INN-Reach Enhancements

 

The INN-Reach Enhancement process is about to close.  The Committee discussed the proposals and INN-Reach list discussion regarding the enhancement requesting that the 856 be added to the item record.  Bill will respond to the INN-Reach list on behalf of Prospector regarding this proposal.

 

7.  Best practices for cataloging titles with multiple format pieces

 

Jim Farmer, Chair, Prospector Circulation Committee, forwarded an inquiry to us regarding problems Circulation staff are encountering with books that have accompanying items (e.g. CDs) when the owning library puts separate barcodes on the book and the accompanying item.  The Prospector patron identifies the book and places a request.  They do not know to place a separate request for the accompanying piece.  This causes requires special handling for both the lending and borrowing libraries including phone calls and placing special requests, all of which delays delivery of the item to the patron. 

 

The Committee discussed the problem.   The best solution is to house the items together, however, due to the varying shelving practices in libraries this is difficult to achieve.  Helen will contact Jim to get further information on the magnitude of the problem.  For the time being, there should probably be a Circulation “best practice”, however, the Catalog/Reference Committee will re-visit the issue with further information.

 

8.  Next Meeting

 

The next meeting will be June 15 at the Alliance. 


The following meeting was scheduled for July 20.