Minutes

Prospector Document Delivery Committee

February 2, 2000

Present: Jim Farmer, Brice Austin, Carole Hirschfield, Ev Jamerino, Franca Rosen, Nancy Sensel, Enid Teeter, Chris Martinez, George Machovec, Kathy Zipp

Routine Business:

1. George welcomed everyone and we launched the first meeting of our new committee!

2. A Prospector project overview and update was provided. Jefferson County Public Library (Jeffco) item changes have caused back-ups in the Prospector transaction file but III has now rewritten the Inn-Reach code to skip unnecessary (to Prospector) transactions. This new code is not yet documented but in place. Prospector database statistics are run on a quarterly basis by III and are published in Datalink (http://www.coalliance.org/datalink) . An enhanced task force login for staff mode in Prospector is now available. Contact George Machovec (gmachove@coalliance.org) if you need this login.

3. Group reviewed the borrowing/lending statistics to date.

4. George updated us on the CARL integration. The summary holdings integer is still problematic. This will eventually be a “fix” in a new release for all III sites. Next step will be volume testing—loading 20,000-40,000 records. George now has the specifications for the circulation aspect of Prospector and a programmer will soon begin working on this piece. Late Spring or summer is still the target timeframe for bringing DPL live for patron requests. However, this is dependent on the success of the database loading as well as the development and testing of the circulation related portion of the project using specifications which were received from III in late January 2000.

5. Group shared recent experiences with Prospector.

A. Carole at UCHS was having trouble checking-in items (activating to hold shelf) from UNC.

B. Franca at JeffCo also reports broken holds (book arrives and is not on patron’s account). All sites should watch for trends. Right now it is difficult to diagnose some problems since some sites are on Release 2000 and some are not.

C. Chris Martinez would like all sites to have just one ½ sheet of paper for labels without our home library logo. This way, the ½ sheets can be re-used by any library.

D. Franca reports that all JeffCo returns will typically not have a PROSPECTOR RETURNS ½ sheet due to their processing procedures. JeffCo will use the ½ sheet for requests.

E. Group discussed impact of large bibliographic loads on circulation transactions. George explained the queuing of these transactions. He will forward concerns to the Catalog/Reference Committee.

6. Best practices. Group continued ongoing discussion of best practices. George will post on the website. Everyone is encouraged to review the list. No new items were added today.

New Business:

1. Group reviewed the new Prospector Document Delivery Committee charge.

2. Group nominated and selected Jim Farmer from CSU as Committee Chair for 2000.

3. Group determined a meeting schedule. We will meet Wednesdays as follows:

March 1, 10:00-Noon

April 5, 10:00-Noon

May 3, 10:00-Noon

June 7, 10:00-Noon

4. Jim recapped the initial list of “to-do” items forwarded from the Document Delivery Taskforce:

A. Consider adding renewals.

B. Consider additional loan rules for alternate media.

C. Monitor new releases of software.

D. Recommend enhancements.

E. Plan for end-of-year reconciliation.

F. Monitor load balancing.

G. Maintain a checklist of procedures for new sites.

H. Maintain the best practices guidelines.

I. Damaged books lost on courier.

J. Integration of non-III sites.

K. Consider reducing the 55 day central loan once everyone is on Release 2000.

5. Group reviewed INN-Reach enhancements. Using the Orbis document, we stepped through each of their listed enhancement requests and then added our own:

A. Permit email and paper notification to parallel local Innovative functionality.

B. If a request cannot be fulfilled in Inn-Reach, develop an uplink program to the OCLC ILL Subsystem or other document suppliers for automatic ILL processing. This should be built around appropriate national standards.

C. Permit local document delivery if Prospector identifies the patron’s local site as an owning site for the book being requested.

D. Hold queues: permit title level holds for branches with multiple copies so that the copy returned soonest is activated.

Next meeting’s agenda will include:

1. Complete discussion of enhancement list.

2. Prioritize our to-do list.

3. Begin working on the to-do list.

Meeting adjourned.

Submitted by Jim Farmer

February 9, 2000