online quality homepage   |   network members homepage

Online Quality Committee
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 23, 2006, 11:15 a.m. -12:15 p.m.
Online Quality Committee

  1. Call to Order Done.
  2. Roll call: Brown, Rusk, Abernathy, Jordan, Hohl, Sarazin, Simpson, Hanscom, Thorpe, Saunders present. Guests were Brian Greene, Carey Hartmann, Diana Oedekoven, and Susan Stanton. Margaret Brenneman has retired, so was not present.
  3. Changes or additions to the agenda: The letter about merging archival records was withdrawn in favor of an expansion of the database guidelines.
  4. Approve minutes of the meeting of January 19, 2006 (posted on web site) The minutes were approved without changes.
  5. OLD BUSINESS:
    1. Review of Locations (see Des’s spread sheet attached to email of 1-25-06):

      "Consider reducing the number of “Ask librarian for assistance” at ADMIN, AV-EQUIP, CHECK-DESK, INFO-DESK, LOCK-CASE, MUSIC-LIB, REMOTE, SMBUSCNTR, STORAGE “: Diana Oedekoven explained that she thought these might be combined into one or two locations. Could use one ASKLIBRARIAN location, for example, rather than have these separate, since they all look the same in the OPAC? However, the locations do show differently in the Workflows client, and this information is sometimes used by staff to find out exactly where an item is that a patron wants. The committee felt that it was better to make no change at the moment since this internal staff use of the locations needs to be considered.

      -Other possible changes to locations: It was suggested that RESERVES might be a potential candidate for reduction. The committee had considered removing it earlier, but members couldn’t remember why. The item was tabled (see minutes of 9-29-05 meeting, Item VII. A. for a discussion of RESERVRM).

      No other changes to locations were presented.

    2. Graphic Novels: Susan provided the committee with the text of responses from librarians around the state onto the survey on graphic novels and a summary of the responses to clarify discussion. She listed items respondents agreed on:

      "Graphic novel series without separate titles should go on a serial record." Susan Stanton disagreed because the OPAC display, specifically cover art and such on the short view of search results, would be inadequate for teen users. Carey Hartmann added that the plot summaries would be missing too. The information from Syndectics that determines the OPAC display is based on the first ISBN on the record and can't be set up to include all ISBNs.

      Another question was the length the records would need to be in order to include individual volume data in the MARC record. Des said that the issue would not be bad in terms of load time, but that it could make the screen more cluttered, requiring more scrolling.

      "There should be standard abbreviations for volume in call numbers." TechNote 002 already lists them. Catalogers around the state need to be reminded.

      "Series entries should be consistent in terms of the form of the name of the series and the volume numbering." There is no "authority" established for these, so we will need to establish our own standards. Catalogers need to be reminded that when cataloging part of a series, they should look at how this is coded in previous entries in the catalog, and follow that precedent. Publishers are not consistent in how volumes in a series are named.

      "Short records should be deduped and merged as needed.” This is a general issue with all kinds of records in the database. Catalogers need reminding.

      Brian said that plans were underway for ongoing cataloging training/webinars for all regions which should freshen staff up on some of these cataloging issues.

      Karling moved and Sukey seconded cataloging all graphic novels and manga on a monographic record with no exceptions. Motion carried.The committee discussed creating a subcommittee for looking into the other consistency issues brought up under this topic, but took no action.

    3. Incorrect “|z’s stopping ILL’s in iBlink: Report from Trish Palluck: The committee took no action.

      Shortly after we moved to the new eLibrary pages, I did receive a couple of calls regarding not being able to place holds. Both records had a call number with an incorrect subfield z. The system seemed to hang instead of presenting the screen that allows the patron to select a library or libraries for the hold to be placed against. I have been unable to recreate this. Currently, eLibrary is working just like iLink and iBlink did. Libraries seem to be using subfield z correctly when adding new items to WYLD. There was an attempt to clean up older item records containing incorrect subfield Zs. Unfortunately there is no report that can determine rather a subfield Z is valid or not. We will just have to deal with the incorrect ones as we come across them. Many libraries did a good job cleaning up records that had incorrect subfield Zs created in the conversion from DRA to SIRSI. Serial Records with many, many, many item records attached continue to be a problem. However the work-arounds that we have in place are working. I will say they are not the ideal solution to this problem they are working.

      Please let me know if you or the committee has questions."

  6. NEW BUSINESS:
    1. Spam: Do we wish to password protect our web page to stop the committee from receiving spam? The committee was unanimous in not wishing to password-protect the form.
    2. Misleading language in WYLDCAT in the top of full display and hit list: “Copies available” refers to volumes of a multi-part set. Is vaguer language possible?

      For example:

      "Encyclopedia of law enforcement
      Sullivan, Larry E.
      http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip051/2004021803.html
      9 copies available at Casper College Library, Northwest College - Hinckley Library, and Sheridan College Griffith Mem Library"

      Karling moved and Donna seconded changing “copies” to “items.” Motion carried.

    3. Request from Carey Hartmann, Laramie County, regarding series numbering:

      "We would like there to be a consistent manner in which series numbers show in the catalog - so a consortium decision on correct practice. It will be much easier on our patrons if this is done consistently.

      Issue number (no./#) one :)

      Currently there is a mixture of stuff to signify titles numbers in a series - v. #, Vol #, volume #, book #, bk #, etc. One consideration might be to use a format that is generated by the system itself in other situations. In the serials module, v. is what is automatically generated. We understand that this might need a vote and definitely needs lots of discussion by all libraries.

      Search for series A Series of Unfortunate Events in iBistro, all libraries to see an example.

      Issue number two (2, 02):

      To get items to display in number order in Ibistro, you have to do 0's before single digits. There are very, very few series with more than 99 titles. So the other issue after the "volume" in series is that everyone should use two digits, i.e. V. 02 not v. 2.

      Search for series Ceres in iBistro and all libraries."

      This issue was discussed along with the discussion about the issues with graphic novels. The conclusion was that current standards from TechNote 002 should be followed for call numbers and there should be further work to create a standard for series entry and to make sure catalogers follow precedent for series.

    4. Report on authorizing plans: Bobbi reported on progress with authority control. The ongoing process will be established once the upgrade to GL 3.0 has been completed and our project can fit in LSSI’s schedule Brian added that the GL 3.0 and operating system updates must be made first. There are funds in the biennium budget.
  7. NEXT MEETING: The next meeting will be March 30, 1:15 p.m. Sukey can’t make it, but the other possible time also would have excluded a member, and the 30th was preferred so that we would have time to study item types for the next meeting.

Stephen Sarazin
Recorder