Technical Services Committee Meeting: October 5, 2015

Conference call

Members attending:

Melissa Burel (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Elizabeth Cribbs (Northern Illinois University), Keith Eiten (Wheaton College, co-chair), Ann Heinrichs (Catholic Theological Union, co-chair), Mary Konkel (College of DuPage), Mingyan Li (Oakton Community College), Joelen Pastva (University of Illinois Chicago), Sandy Roe (Illinois State University), Mary Tatro (Augustana College)

Members absent:  none

Staff attending: Jen Masciadrelli, Ted Schwitzner

Decisions:

• Minutes of the September 9, 2015 meeting were approved by consensus. 
• The meeting was adjourned at 3:24 p.m.

Announcements:

1. Committee member announcements:

• Elizabeth Cribbs will be leaving the committee as she begins her new position October 26th as lead cataloger at Kansas City Public Library. We thank her for her service and wish her well.
• Mary Konkel reported: The OCLC Americas Regional Council met for the first time in conjunction with a Members Forum, Friday, September 18, 2015 at DePaul University in Chicago.  Scott Walter, University Librarian at DePaul, gave a keynote speech titled: “Making Strategic Choices about User Engagement: Relocating the Library in the Life of the User”.  After Scott’ keynote, the 100 or so attendees moved into 3 breakout sessions, to further discuss the topic, using the guidance of these 3 questions:

1)    How are users driving change in your work? With how they use the library? With the services they use? Other ways?
2)    How have you adjusted to changing users’ needs and expectations? What “cool” new things/services are you offering?
3)    What challenges have you encountered in meeting your users’ changing needs and expectations?

ARC delegates, Mary Konkel and Christopher Cronin, and Jay Starratt (ARC President) led the discussions. Topics shared included” repurposing space, making special collections more accessible, digitization, hiring impartial project managers, more careful study of user behavior (surveys, focus groups), learning new skills (negotiation, analytics, assessment) 

An OCLC Update followed lunch and the final breakout session focused on “What do new ways of engaging with users require of OCLC? which later morphed into specific OCLC needs. Attendees wanted more information on new products and services like WorldCat Discovery and its various “cafeteria” choice options; targeted training (webinars) in ILL, Cataloging, Reserves; ways to connect with other users to share expertise not held in house (perhaps a community bulletin board); help with digitization, preservation, licensing; more opportunities to meet by library type, library role, and geographically.

• Ann will not be able to attend the November 2nd meeting due to rotator cuff surgery. We all wish her a speedy recovery

2.    CARLI Report:

• Susan Singleton announced her retirement as Executive Director of CARLI in July 2016.
• Annual Meeting is November 13 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign (across from CARLI Office). Registration will be coming out soon. All members are invited to attend.
• I-Share Next RFP is in the final editing stages. Next step will be to submit it to UIUC Purchasing for review. The lack of a State budget will be a factor in the process.  
• Check the CARLI Calendar http://www.carli.illinois.edu/calendar for upcoming Voyager trainings.

Discussion:

• Subcommittee working on feasibility for publishing the 2014-2015 annual project on shelf ready update:
  • panel participants have agreed to have their comments anonymized
  • those who might be an author/co-author are being asked to check with their respective institution’s review policy for publishing 
• Annual Project
  • Topic: MarcEdit within the context of database cleanup, which may address issues like routine maintenance, proxy issues, authority control, RDA updates. Intention is for a more distilled/spelled out use of MARCEdit (how to get started, what you can do with it)—a familiarization or review of the tools highlighting what’s best for the task at hand
  • Possible working titles were discussed.
  • Possible database maintenance projects (first 6 are from http://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/cat/Cat-maintpriority):
    • F2. Correct barcodes that do not contain the right number of digits, or add active barcodes to item records that lack them.
    • F7.  Evaluate bibliographic records without MFHDs.
    • OC1. Correct bib records that are unsuccessfully indexed by Voyager.
    • OC2. Evaluate suppressed bibliographic records with items attached.
    • OC4. Correct errors in bib record field tags for control numbers. (Involves 10 individual queries; too cumbersome?)
    • ON5. Correct ISBN numbers with fewer than 10 digits.
    • RDA mandate: change “ca.” to “approximately” in name headings
    • RDA mandate: change “violoncello” to “cello” 
    • Insert a desired field(s) into a group of records you have identified
    • Other suggestions?
    • Want to focus on just a few and those which will benefit most members
  • Possible deliverables:
    • A mini manual/Instructional document with screen shots for each step
    • Tutorial videos/Online tutorials 
  • Possible structure:
    • General introduction to MarcEdit
    • Database maintenance projects well suited for MarcEdit (include why MarcEdit is better for these projects than Strawn or I-Share Shared Macros)
    • Step-by-step procedure (explain):
      • Use Access reports to gather records
      • Request a file of those bib records from CARLI using a WRO
      • Import the file into MarcEdit and perform appropriate tasks
      • Transfer the file back to CARLI; ask CARLI to reload the records
    • Take selected database maintenance projects, one by one — provide detailed instructions & screen shots for Steps 3a & 3c (Steps 3a and 3c will be different for each project)
    • Conclusion:  
      • Other possible projects for MarcEdit? 
      • Projects better suited for Strawn or I-Share Shared Macros
• Tech Services Spring Forum 
  • Topic: Same as Annual Project: Using MarcEdit for database cleanup 
  • Possible structure:
    • Plenary: General introduction to MarcEdit (Ted Schwitzner?)
    • Other general session(s) – panel of experts? 
    • Breakout sessions on authority cleanup
    • “live” using test data or screen shot show and tell of actual projects
  • Schedule a hackathon after the Forum
  • Possible locations with an April 2016 date
    • Bloomington–Normal area
      • Illinois State University 
      • Illinois Wesleyan University
      • Heartland Community College
    • Springfield
    • Champaign

New issues:

• The list of “Suggested Priorities for Bibliographic, Holdings, and Item Record Maintenance” found here: http://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/cat/Cat-maintpriority
• This should be a welcome and timely topic given that members will be readying their local databases for the eventual transition to our NextGen system.

Tasks assigned:

• Keith Eiten will write up a statement for our Annual Project, submit to Jen Masciadrelli and Nicole Swanson and then submit to Committee for review via email. Needs to be officially submitted by November 2.
• Committee should canvas/forward names of colleagues that have some experience with MARCEdit and could potentially be presenters or advisors to our Project and Forum.
• Jen Masciadrelli will start checking with Bloomington-Normal area venues mentioned above for 3rd and 4th week of April on a Thursday or Friday for the Spring Forum.

Meeting Dates and Deadlines:

•    Next Meeting: Monday, November 2nd, 2-3:30 p.m., Conference Call