Agendas and Meeting Notes (FWG)

Owned by Kara Young
Last updated: Oct 09, 2024 by Kara Young
105 min read

Alma Enhancements to Consider Word Doc (for commenting and asynchronous discussion)
Alma Enhancements to Consider Wiki Page (for record keeping of meeting discussion and decisions)

Oct 9, 2024

Agenda

  • Review of action items from last meeting
  • Alma hours for Spring to Summer 2025? (JP)
  • New fulfillment rules for equipment 
  • Updates in other areas

Notes

  • Kara and Spruill discussed setting up different rules for equipment loans, such as a 7-day loan period without renewal. The aim is to identify common needs while avoiding too many unique rules.

    • There is some interest in setting up different circ rules/terms for equipment. KY to draft some recommended policy.

  • Kara provided an update on the Leganto subgroup's work- including testing new LTI 1.3

  • Updates on effort to clean up items at status 88 in the system. This involves updating the status to different item policies

    • Julie will draft communication based on chart for review; update will go to alma-users

  • Reviewed the process for updating ALMA library hours, noting the importance of accurate hours for short-term loans. Agreed to continue the 6-month advance update cycle.

  • The new circulation UI in ALMA was discussed, with plans to promote testing and feedback through the Community of Practice group.

    • New UI to be released as individual opt-in in Alma quarterly November release: "The new UI for both the New Titles Search and the new Manage Patron Services will be a gradual rollout.  In the November release it will be turned off by default, but users will be able to turn it on if they wish to try it out."

Sept 4, 2024

Agenda

  • Discussion of item status 88 remediation
  • Other fulfillment topics:
    • "Sometimes with purchase books I wish there was an infinite due date in a sense, or some way to indicate that they CAN be renewed. But it is complicated because that is a definite exception to the hard rule of no renewals." - April
    • "HOLLIS allows requests for books in-transit, but sometimes creates issues for patrons requesting titles with few copies. These requests also don’t get pushed out to Resource Sharing once there are no copies left. Anything we can do about this?" - Julie

Notes

  • Finalize status 88 change plan with Corinna:

    • Follow up on large batches at specific libraries: Corinna will follow up with the University Archives, Baker Special Collections, and other units that have larger numbers of status 88 items. This outreach will happen over the next month.

    • Kara will meet with Corinna to finalize the details of the plan to address the status 88 items; will review the final counts of items affected by the status changes to ensure all scenarios have been accounted for.

    • Draft communication language for Julie: Kara will draft the communication language for Julie, the communication liaison, to share with the group. This will be provided in the next 1-2 weeks.

  • Welcome Caitlin (this week) and Mike (last week) to the group!

  • Meet to discuss Leganto enhancements and UI changes: Caitlin, Spruill, and Kara will meet to discuss potential Leganto enhancements and user interface changes. This meeting will be scheduled in the next few weeks.

  • April raised a concern about (Resource Sharing) purchased items for patron requests, where the no renewal policy can make it difficult to keep the item available for the original requestor. Asked her to follow-up by asking question owner to submit a ticket as this seems like a workflow/coding issue.
  • Julie raised a concern about items in transit being requestable; will explore options to prohibit requests on items that have been requested by patrons.
    • KY: submitted ticket to ExL to turn on  "not available" for requesting option for patron physical requests and work orders in HOLLIS QA/Alma Sandbox for testing.

August 13, 2024

Agenda

  • Update on summer items cleanup
  • Update on ILLiad login issues
  • Update on Leganto New UI
  • Fulfillment August feature release enhancements review (no action required)
  • Discussion of Fulfillment working group roles for upcoming year
    • April will retain enhancements in her role as co-chair
    • Cynthia will retain notetaker
    • Rob will continue to work on special projects (New circ UI)
    • Mike will take on community of practice liaison duties
    • Communications liaison: Julie
    • Leganto liaison: Caitlin
  • Question about Lost items reports (Rob): is there a way to add/or are lost HD/RD items being checked when stacks searches are done?
    • Mike reports that he is already doing this at Law
    • Rob to "pilot" communicating with some smaller libraries
    • The items are all missing or claims returned
    • Rob and Kara to talk with Jackson to gain more clarity around the practice in this area and ramifications for absent items workflow

June 13, 2024

Agenda

  • Communication draft: Summer cleanup
  • 1-day loan courtesy notices
  • Leganto updates: J/Spruill
  • New Circ UI update
  • No new enhancements this month.

May 9, 2024

Agenda

  • A light agenda during a very busy time for all of HL Access Services and LTS Fulfillment. 
  • Alma problem to report to the group:  Someone processed a bunch of holds under "scan in items" and activated them and printed the hold slips.  Meanwhile in the return items page, the toggle for "place directly on hold shelf" was accidentally put on "no." So, although the hold emails went out to the patrons, their accounts aren't showing any active holds on the shelves.  The item status is stuck at "hold shelf processing."  The issue was fixed by Returning the items.  For this problem, user should submit a ticket on this for investigation.

Notes:

April 4, 2024

Agenda

  • Alma offline Circ:, Julie would like feedback from all members who've tested.
  • 2024 Annual clean-up, in general, in good shape.  Some statuses require updates.  Jackson suggested a communication plan that will avoid a large number of "missing" items.  Kara plans to address this concern.  Let's follow the same timeline as in 2023.  Spruill forwarded a very helpful message that worked last year.  How about June 10th for a starting date?  Julie will draft a message to send out, please take a look before we next meet.  Please forward any thoughts about clean-up projects directly to Kara,
  • Analytics reporting group is looking for new members?  Any candidates?
  • Any updates on enhancements review.  Next month is next feature release.  We do not have any present enhancements to review.
  • Latest update for Leganto UI?  Kara will check and provide an update.  Jackson found new circulation UI to feel more like usage in a small public library.  J. Armstrong reports systematic testing and noting what works the same or what has changed.  Kara mentioned "roll-out" timing for Course Reserve (new UI will be turned on July 18).  A busy Summer!
  • Next FWG meeting is May 9th.

March 14, 2024

Agenda:

  • Update from prior meeting re: HART Dashboard.  Concerns appear to be a local issue.  Local staff should review and share concerns.  Leila has advised discussing it at a meeting where a wider audience is present.  Spruill took the charge of further conversation with Allison on this topic.  On vacation now, Spruill can update us later.
  • Update from prior meeting re: "offline Circ."  Kara is requesting notice from other libraries who have tested the facility fully.  How do we get more info.?  Kara has voiced a concern generated from the Emergency Preparedness workshops.  How about a small remote location such as I Tatti?  Reminder to all: this usage is only for true emergencies.
  • HKS is piloting making tech lending lost after 2 days (JP)
    • Kara shared that a prior notice goes out and is fine for standard term loans.  For shorter loans, it is not in general use.  Should courtesy notices be generated for short term loans?  We should ask libraries that have currently been using this mode.  Highest use of this loan period is Design.  Why?  We should send out an email to the libraries that are using this, question current use, future needs.
    • 1-day loans do not send Courtesy notices. Question of whether to change this functionality so that all 1-day loans send notices?
    • Discuss modifying the 2nd line of the Lost Items Bill notice – the concern is that people might not realize the replacement fines are removed once the item has returned.
      • Currently reads: Please contact us hl_access_services@harvard.edu with any questions about this notice or for assistance with returning materials.  
      • Suggested language: Please contact us hl_access_services@harvard.edu with any questions about this notice or for assistance with returning materials to have replacement fees removed from your account.
      • Some time ago, HKS decided that it did not want to implement fines for certain length of loans.  Returning rate remained strong.  Recently, people have stopped returning materials as frequently.  They've tried 48 hour reports to manually email users.  That didn't work.  They are now using replacement cost.  This only goes into effect after 48 hours.  Considered 24 hours.  This is only a pilot for HKS at this time.  Perhaps we should change language of the message to send a stronger tone?  Mention users "library account," in notice. 
  • Large numbers of items "out" at HD.  How do we deal with this?  Are we looking at bad data that carried over from Alma?  This might be a good time to clean it up.  Could we run a report to facilitate this?  Can they be requested from Alma?  We could use no response as evidence the item cannot be found, and manually change these items to "missing."  What if we look at HD, as an example, and set one year as a marker for "missing?"  How many items are we talking about?  Keep in mind, we would also be alerting HD at the same time.  Kara and Rob will look into this and draft a process to address it.
  • Recent Leganto enhancements only in resource sharing area, no need to turn it on, review feature release due in May. 
  • Next meeting: use to review clean-up of records, as we do each year.  Send info. to relevant staff so they can review.

Notes:


February  8, 2024

Agenda:

  • From Alison Powers: HART folks have enabled the ability to send reports via an email attachment. Do you think there are libraries where the HD & RECAP error report would be more actionable if it were delivered that way? Maybe using the dashboard is a barrier to some units? 
    • This question arose out of an ongoing dialogue between HD and Access Services. 
    • It questions the frequency of reports that are being used by Access Services, but Alison would like more information re: specificity. 
    • Which statuses should be continued and what might be changed over time to work better for the requesting unit (i.e. when missing is considered lost). 
    • Any ideas from us?  Kara is thinking of using LibAnswers to address this type of report.  Spruill wondered if there is something we need to react to as then the need is greater.  
    • Kara will talk with Alison again to ascertain the origin of this question and what generated it.  Are we talking about errors that are cropping up or a different need?
    • Perhaps attending a meeting of Access Services to review a demo of the dashboard would help?  Spruill will begin this dialogue by talking to Alison directly.
  • From HYL:

    • Items with policies 61 and 62 should be eligible to be requested to the owning library's Reading Room location by library guests.  The restriction that currently exist is due to the item's permanent location in Alma, and Alma sees HYL Reading Room as a completely separate entity from HYL Circ.

    • Many HYL items in HD are 61 and 62, and a library guest cannot request these items to the HYL Reading Room without staff mediation.  Additionally, staff cannot override the item policy restriction.  They must either temporarily change the item policy or submit a form request to HD in order to the request the item on behalf of the patron.

    • There is no other work around besides temporarily changing the item policy. Does LTS have any plans to address this in future Alma updates? They are unable to make 61 and 62 requestable. 

    • Original intention was not to limit use (63 is included in this group), but to limit resource sharing.  This conversation needs to begin with Access Services at HYL.
  • Resolved: Alma/Gmail email issues.  Thanks to Julie! Please let Kara know if any issues exist.
  • Plan for "Offline Circ." readiness: Note Alma Offline Circulation wiki page; we need to make sure the utility is installed at every Circ point. 
    • We require at least a basic level  of understanding so it could prove useful when necessary.  Similar to any emergency preparedness program. 
    • Kara and Jackson tried it out and can report local success.  We need to makes sure it works everywhere. 
    • Another opportunity to communicate and hear from each library.  Managers in each location are responsible for making sure staff are able to use it. 
  • Access staff meeting presentation next week: ideas? 
    • Kara will be at the next meeting.  Amy would like our input.  Any ideas from our group? 
    • Submitting tickets is always a popular topic.  If Emily Kelly can attend that would prove helpful, especially with Maureen's departure. 
    • Why are titles not requestable?  Some people are not aware of the chart describing these differences and when it is appropriate to  change them? 
    • Locations policies can be emphasized.  Kara mentioned that codes could be changed.  Not all permissions mapped over as well as others with the change from Aleph to Alma. 
    • Are there things we were not asked about but it could have been very helpful if we were brought in at the right time?  For example, batches of material sent off to HD or RECAP.  Should libraries speak up beforehand.  Should we be alerting those libraries that have pending moves?
  • Updates from other areas
    • Communication (Julie):
      • A message was sent out regarding the fix for Gmail/notice issues. Julie updated interested parties.

      • With Wolbach closing, should we remove the library from the "Fulfillment User Group – Curated Email List" on the Communications page?  Should we have someone to contact for future Wolbach concerns?  Spruill will reach out to Amy for an update.

    • Fulfillment wiki page updates (Jackson):
      • Alma offline circ:  Jackson reports it is good to go.  Managers may want to review it and update him.  Multiple windows are being tested out and will be rolled out for production.  Alma trial study has been shared with Jackso and he is able to share it with others.  From conversation, starting with patron at desk, the desire is for return and check-out functions.  Jackson is going to give that usage a review.  How useful would that be for Widener?  Should we apply it for smaller libraries? 
    • Enhancements review: February 2024 Feature Release - Harvard Highlights (Fulfillment Enhancement Review (FER) Area) (April) Adjust how items remain on hold shelves. Incredibly long holds are hanging on.  We had hoped it would be moved, but random lengthy due dates are showing up.  This problem relates to the vendor.
    • Liaison to access communities of practice (Andy):  No updates to report at this time.
    • Leganto (J):
      • Kara submitted two NERS requests regarding the library notes functionality. They will be reviewed soon by ExL Leganto working group. Notifcation of others when broken links occur.  Notification of user coming soon.
      • Kara set a meeting to discuss new functionality from NERS request, submitted last year (broken link notification emails) How library notes are retained and updated.
    • Ex Libris Fulfillment UI proposal (Jackson)
    • Alma in multiple tabs/windows testing (Jackson)
  • Question from the field: when using Scan In to change an item's permanent location, what happens to the holdings–both the ones created and the ones the item was previously on (especially if it was the only item on that holding)  Scan in is item by item, the prompting should be the same, but this needs to verified.  It needs to be updated for use at HD.  Needs review for a  stronger understanding of what is happening.  Could Spruill do this review with local users?  Ii is currently being done one at a time.
    •  KY Answer: if you're using Scan In and moving it to a location that already has a holding, then you lose the notes from the original holding. If you move to a location that does not yet have a holding, the holding is basically duplicated but the 852 shows the new loc.

December 14, 2023

Agenda:

  • SCSB de-accession process (HD items) (April)
  • Updates from other areas
    • Communication (Julie):
      • Sent out 2 messages regarding 7-day loan change and Gmail issues
    • Fulfillment wiki page updates (Jackson):
      • Almost complete
      • Will update language regarding billing notices (45-day lost)
        • KY: confirmed this job is running and letters are going out after 45 days; updated wiki page to reflect this; see Fullfillment Notices and Letters, FulOverdueAndLostLoanLetter.
    • Enhancements review (none this month)
    • Liaison to access communities of practice (Andy):
      • Nothing to report
    • Leganto (J):
      • Leganto new UI: Implement in Fall 2024 (summer 2024)
      • Will implement LTI 1.3 in conjunction with new UI
      • J is working on testing protocols and scripts
      • Tickets with ExLibris to ask about accessibility possibilities with IA Viewer (to work with screen reader)

November 17, 2023

Agenda:

  • Tour of wiki structure updates (Julie)
  • Communication plan/stakeholder groups for:
    • 7-day loan change
      • Stakeholders:
        • Access Services
        • Harvard Alma Users
        • Fulfillment User Group
      • Julie will draft message (renew once a day for up to a month, down from 12 months), share for feedback/approval, and send
    • Google is blocking Alma messages
      • Stakeholders:
        • Access Services
        • Fulfillment User Group
      • Julie will draft message (if you have a gmail account as your default email (not g.harvard) in Alma; google is sometimes blocking emails because of security settings–mis-match in domains–Kara is exploring fix; in the meantime, update to a non-gmail email in the self-service portal), share for feedback/approval, and send
  • Item Policy 88 (Suppressed) - Status? ("TBD" here: Item Policies) Example: 32044090878653 (April)
  • Updates from other areas
    • Fulfillment wiki page updates (Jackson)
    • Enhancements review (none that were relevant for November feature release)
    • Liaison to access communities of practice (Andy)
    • Leganto (J)

Notes:

October 24, 2023

Agenda:

  • Update on closing lost loans in the Absent items policy
  • Review scope of Alma Functional area documentation review
  • Updates from other areas

Notes:

  • Closing lost loans
    • Currently lost at 45 days, missing at 60 but the change is cost-consuming (manual) on our part and the distinction and time but does not sit well with users.  This response comes up at the end of every academic year.  What can we do for a smoother process for LTS and users?  Jackson will continue to review this process and bring updates to our next meeting.
  • Review scope of Alma Functional area documentation review
    • How to split this up as there is so much to do.  Kara will set up a projects pages, strategize with Jackson on the best way to do it.
    • Take a look at what we have and decide if we want to change scope and format altogether.
  • Updates from other areas
    • Google accounts are proving difficult to use for taking in incoming messages from Alma.  They are being assigned an email address but no email address exists
    • Solution identity management?  Use that record to pull information from? 


September 28, 2023

Agenda:

  • Assignments review and next steps

  • Absent items in relation to FWG: close-lost loans job, future reporting for replacement

  • Annual clean-up: expand contact list?

  • Follow up on 7-day loan change and communication (from 8/10/23)? 

Notes:

  • Asignments review and next steps
    • Leganto, waiting for Jay to provide an update after review of release notes.
    • Coming up with new monthly meeting time.
    • New UI review, start playing with it!
    • Time to update FWG documentation, goal: refresh, common set of best practices.
  • Absent items in relation to FWG
    • Forward for more discussion at next meeting.
  • Annual clean-up: expand contact list
    • Solicit more information from staff and users, how can we gain more information from analytics to inform what we do?  Are there other places we should be going to, to look for this?
  • Follow up on 7 day loan change and communication
    • Decision was made to change the maximum renewal from twelve months to one month.  Still under discussion, pending.

September 6, 2023

Agenda:

  • Task Assignments

Notes:

  • Task Assignments
    • Enhancements review- April
    • Notetaker- Cynthia
    • Reviewing fulfillment area documentation for updates (2-3 people)- Jackson/Devin?/Rob/Andy
    • Liaison to access communities of practice- Andy
    • Communication liaison (planning communication streams/maintaining this info on the wiki)- Julie
    • Leganto liaison (coordinator of Leganto sub-committee)- J

August 10, 2023

Agenda:

  • New co-chair
  • Update on summer clean up (missing items)
  • 7-day loan items auto-renewing (update)
  • Plans for the group for the next year
    • Proposed tasks
    • Meeting frequency

Notes:

  • Thank you Julie and Jackson
  • Summer clean-up is complete; will roll items not found at HD/RD into other existing reclamation projects
  • See below for information on 7-day loan autorenewal problem 
    • We decided to change the max loan/autorenewal period to 1 month (down from 12 months)
    • Spruill to follow-up regarding date for change and communication
  • For the next year, group members will have one of the following tasks, to be discussed further in future meeting:
    • Enhancements review- April
    • Notetaker- Cynthia
    • Reviewing fulfillment area documentation for updates (2-3 people)- Jackson/Devin?/Rob/Andy
    • Liaison to access communities of practice- Andy
    • Communication liaison (planning communication streams/maintaining this info on the wiki)- Julie
    • Leganto liaison (coordinator of Leganto sub-committee)- J

June 28, 2023

Agenda:

  • Update from Kara on the summer clean-up project
  • 7-day loan (24) items auto-renewing (turn off) – questions about 7-day loans auto-renewing daily have come up recently and whether this is desirable (doesn't seem like it is)
    • There is not a way to have renewals on but turn off auto-renewals. The configuration on this is not great.
      The reason for this is that the parameters available for setting up auto-renewal are limited to user group, library, and location; there is no parameter for item policy. In other words, in order to allow auto-renewal on regular loans, we have to allow auto-renewal for any item which is eligible for renewals. This is why renewals are currently automatic on 7-day loans (these items are renewable per TOU config), as are regular loan/term loan items. This aligns up with what we had in the FWG notes from the last time this issue came up. We decided to leave it as-is and allow auto-renewals. If we don’t like the current behavior, we can remove renewal eligibility for these items, or make tweaks to the max renewal time (currently set to a year for these items).

Notes:

  • Non-offsite storage (stacks) locations are complete; working through ILL/Resource sharing and offsite storage locations now per schedule (Summer 2023 Annual Data Cleanup timelines).
  • Consensus of the group was that auto-renewals on 7-day loans are an artifact from when more DVDs were on this status. We now recommend that DVDs be assigned policy 01 (WID adheres to this policy). 
  • Kara will investigate how to turn off renewals on status 24 and Spruill will send an announcement of this change to alma-users.

May 31, 2023

Agenda:

Notes:

  • Should there be documentation on the wiki re: policy 01 items? Will get back to AEOD and encourage further communication with Jackson.
  • There is an Absent items doc on the DEAK page meant for audience beyond Access Services: /wiki/spaces/librarymeetings/pages/40240482
  • Will test Reading Room Circ Desk enhancement
    • Julie will set up page
    • Andy and Francesca/WIDRR staff to test
  • Summer data cleanup:

May 3, 2023

Agenda:

Notes:

  • We reviewed the HART dashboards
  • Talked about Summer data cleanup:
    • Target date: June 12 for marking items missing
    • initially ran lists, but since live data changes, decided to sent instructions for staff instead on how to pull this data from Alma for more dynamic review:

    • In Alma, go to Fulfillment > Monitor Requests & Item Processes, then use the Owner facet to filter by owning library.

      To filter further by process type, use the Workflow Step and Request/Process Type facets to filter for Transit Item, Move permanently, Move temporarily, Patron physical item request, and Restore item. Note that if one of the statuses mentioned doesn’t appear in the facets for your library, you do not have any items in this status.

      The list can be exported to excel by using the export icon in the upper right corner for ease of processing or to filter more precisely for process date (using Request Date column).

  • Question about OCLC publishing:
    • Items withdraw from Alma- what happens in OCLC? Answer: OCLC symbols for our holdings are deleted. Job to update OCLC runs once/month (mid-month) at the moment.

April 5, 2023

Agenda:

  • Summer clean-up projects follow-up: Review reports generated by Kara and discuss next steps
    • Items with unexpected barcodes- needs report and plan.
    • Need a page to track progress

March 7, 2023

Agenda:

Notes:

Present: J Armstrong, Julie Petzold, Kara Young, Cheryl Fraser, Spruill Harder, Amy Boucher, April Duclos, Jackson Childs, Andrew Wilson (scribe)

February Fulfillment Enhancements to Consider

  • Auto-renew rules customizable by desk location: would apply to everything in that location. -NO ACTION
  • User-defined statistical categories: could change loan/request rules by patron category. Need to investigate added statistical value fields. -NO ACTION
  • Request cancellation reasons: these had been taken away, but are now back. Can add new ones, turn off others. -NO ACTION

Summer Projects

Kara ran a report of anything in a process status for more than six months. A lot of the report is likely input errors. Should filter out ILL’s, missing items, work orders, and claimed returned. Work orders are trickier because HARt cannot distinguish between types of work orders (Alma Analytics can provide that data). It was discussed last time that items would be marked “missing” around the end of May, early June, and that a report would be sent to libraries in advance so they would not be concerned by the sudden increase in the number of missing items in their library.

In a search for lost items, they might be in other locations, so the question remains whether the search should be by owning library and/or last known location. A preliminary search of Hold shelves would be helpful. Items with In Transit status are too numerous to search, and should all be marked missing. Items with Work Orders should be pulled out for further analysis. Kara will run a report for items at HD, then clean up Requested items. Once that is done, Work Orders can be separated out. Then, materials can be marked missing as appropriate. Questions: do we still need to give libraries a heads-up before we change 45K items to missing? Amy can let collection management and access folks know. Can we opt out individual libraries from this process? Yes. A new report can be reviewed for signs of other process categories that should be pulled out.

TIMELINE: Kara will have a new report at the next meeting, as well as an accounting of Work Orders. Once a date for marking items missing is chosen, we can work backwards for the timing of communications.

NEXT STEPS: An e-mail will go out to all concerned staff, and then the items will be changed to missing. Following that, libraries can carry out an absent item search process. We will create a draft plan, led by Amy.

Next meeting: April 5, 2023   2:pm                               Respectfully submitted by Andrew Wilson

February 10, 2023

Agenda:

  • Confirm note taker
  • Summer cleanup project: items with "not on shelf status"
    • Request statuses (see Recommended practice or policy): Request Communicated to Storage, Pickup from Shelf, Patron Phys item, Transit Items, In Process, ILL workorders (reserve work orders?), Restore requests
    • Absent items: lost, missing, claims returned
  • New item policy for items that can circulate but not be requestable
    • Suggest policy 64? check on availability. Not available for Resource sharing/Scan del. No request-based fulfillment. 
      • Item policy 64 would work- (formerly 7-day loan). Does this need approval?
    • Will create rule on location temporarily; we will later convert to new item policy for this purpose. 
    • Will need to convert SEC location items to this policy.
  • Enhancement testing review: February 2023

Notes:

Present: Kara Young, Julie Petzold, April Duclos, Jackson Childs, Spruill Harder, Amy Boucher, Andrew Wilson (scribe).

Summer Clean-Up Projects: Amy agrees we might want to start thinking about this. Kara will run some reports, as there a lot of items in different process statuses that we need to find/resolve. Items that can’t be found would be marked “missing,” instigating whatever search process (or decision to replace) is used in the owning library. Question: do we need to include Reserves or items with work orders? Might want to prioritize “In Transit” items. Question: do we focus on Request clean-up or In Process clean-up? Some work order types have thousands of items associated with them. What kind of canned reports do we have, and do we need new reporting? Thinking about a 6 months cut-off date. Julie will look at HART, specifically the barcode look-up—in place, at HD or ReCAP. It might be useful to have Allison create a dashboard for us to use for this purpose, especially for In Transit items. Julie will speak with Allison to decide what fields should be searchable. Item of concern: if we add thousands of items to missing status, we might want to give collections librarians a heads-up, so they don’t freak out when a ton of items show up on their missing list. Jackson: missing reports don’t all have to be completed at once. They could be done over time. Question: what happens to items not found? Do they get withdrawn? Kara: we might want to consider sending out the lists to libraries now, to prepare for a summer project. Jackson notes that some libraries already routinely search for missing items. We should prepare to send the lists with some communication to the library heads. Kara: we will need to set a date as a cut-off for an annual search process. Spruill: reserve items should appear on the owning library’s list, not Denise’s. “Last known location” would be an effective searching tool. “In process” is mostly work-order stuff. When to send the reports? We should give libraries enough time to conduct their own searches before we mark all the items “missing.” Perhaps we could run one big report, post it in Teams, and let the local lilbraries filter out their own stuff. Julie and Kara can explore parameters for the report, which should be done by Spring Break, with an eye to starting the work the first week of June.

New Reading Room: The new EDIBA Reading Room is opening in the West Stacks Reading Room in Widener. Materials there should be allowed to circulate, but not be requestable for any reason. Since Status 61 doesn’t prevent all requesting, a new status should be created, and called 64. While the system is too large and complicated to have too many codes, there is a need for such a status. Resource Sharing will need to know about this so they don’t try to circ via ILL or BD. Kara will apply the new code to the new location, and roll it out later.

For next meeting: revisit Alma fulfillment enhancement review next time.

Next Meeting: March 7, 2023 3:pm

Respectfully submitted by Andrew Wilson

November 18, 2022

Agenda:

  • April: Request by Jason Clarke to suggest Fairbanks/Fung should consider changing the Item Policies to be more accurate per this: Item Policies (Currently, their 02 items do not circulate for ILL, HD can only deliver their items to JC for ILU)
  • Enhancement testing review:
    • "On hold shelf" reminder e-mail: Update from Spruill re: Amy's feedback regarding proposed changes
    • Next-generation Alma UI: The next-generation Alma UI design is now activated by default for the Borrowing Requests and the Lending Requests task lists. Individual users can opt-out to use the previous version of the layout during this quarter.  For more information about opting into using the new UI for features for which it is available, see Opting In or Out of a New Feature. Watch the New Resource Sharing Task List video (3:34 minutes).
    • Copyright Attributes, Copyright percentage: To assist librarians in evaluating copyright, the Edit > Copyright Attributes tab now includes a field for Copyright percentage. This field auto-populates when the Required Pages and Resource Total Pages contain values. The Copyright percentage field enables librarians to clearly determine the percentage of pages requested for a resource.

Notes:

  • April
  • Enhancement testing review:
  •  Intersession
    • Recalls? – currently turned off, so no action needed
    • Requests expiring? – remain active for 365 days waiting to be filled, so no action needed
    • Holds expiring? – currently set to 14 days, no action needed beyond making sure that library hours are acurate in Alma
    • Julie: make sure that folx responsible for updating Alma hours have accurate hours for the holiday

October 18, 2022

Agenda:

  • Allison: HART dashboard updates/questions
  • Confirm note taker
  • Enhancement testing review:
    • New On hold shelf reminder feedback from D2D
      • Subject Line: "On Hold Shelf Reminder"
        • "I wish the subject line was 'Library Item Available for Pick Up'"
        • Note: the subject line for the inital email is “Requested Item Available” 
        • Decision Needed: What do folx think of changing one or both of the subject lines to the suggested language?
      • Closing Line: "Note: Access to libraries may be limited by location, for details please see our Access to Harvard Libraries LibGuide. For library hours, please see our Locations and Hours page. For questions, please contact us at hl_access_services@harvard.edu."
        • "Simplify the note at the bottom, since the contact email is in the signature and the Libguide is about 2021. It could simply be:  View hours for library locations"
        • Decision Needed: Can we eliminate the first sentence from this and the initial "Requested Item Available" notice, or is access still limited in some spaces?

Notes:

Present: Kara Young, Cynthia Winters, Jackson Childs, April Duclos, Spruill Harder, Julie Petzold, Andrew Wilson (scribe), Allison Powers (guest).

Allison Powers: HART Update Recording

  • Not all in this group have claimed HART log-ins; highly recommended, as the tool provides real-time data.
  • Two dashboards now available–barcode lookup and HD statistics
  • Barcode lookup shows status at HD. Up to 9999 barcodes may be input at a time. Report shows ownership, locaiton, whether in place, and whether at HD or ReCAP. There are three tabs–Alma data, HD data, and ReCAP data. Does not return data for items it does not find.
  • Suggestions/comments: more prompts could be helpful. Especially sueful for determining whether an item is at HD or ReCAP. More filters might be useful, as users are looking for active items. Wiki page might be helpful to know where the headers are coming from; e.g. is "in place" HD in place or Alma in place? Allison will find out.
  • Allison asks: what other criteria would be helpful? Responses: temp-loc flag, "deaccessioned" filter, last retrieval date and last refile date. Allison will take these suggestions and work on it.

Enhancement testing review

  • New "On hold shelf" reminder e-mail, goes out seven days from hold if item has not been picked up. E-mail subject line preference: first message "Library item available for pick-up," second notice "Reminder: Library item available for pick-up." Change body text to "View hours for library location" and get rid of link to LibGuide currently there (Spruill will check with Amy Boucher to see if this is okay). Question: send notice of this change to Access e-mail list, or save for next all-Access staff meeting?
  • Pop-up messages in the Alma scan interface have been enabled.
    • NOTE: pop up for work orders creates an issue for TS; will need TSWG conversation to pursue
  • Customization of labels for Internet Archive Book Reader–a couple of changes were implemented early on, but no need to revisit this at this time.
  • Andy: submitted wiki documentation for "Set unavailable physical item process type" functionality to Kara for inclusion in "Work Groups" section of the wiki.

Next meeting: 11/15/2022

September 26, 2022

Agenda:

Notes:

  • New Work Order to Recall Materials (KY)
    • Kara created a new work order type, called "Recall Item."
    • The intended use is for staff to manually recall items for reasons other than the items are needed for reserve. 
    • The work order location name is "Recall Pickup Location (see note).
    • When creating the work order, staff would type the patron ID # and their preferred pickup location into the note field.
    • When the item is returned, the staff member receiving it would check what the preferred pickup location in the note field is. If the item is already at the correct location, a staff member would cancel the work order and place the item on hold for the patron. If the item is not at the correct location, staff would route the item to the correct location using the normal routing slip workflow.
    • Alma is configured to allow for only one recall letter template. There is another recall type (for reserves), and so, the language in the recall letter must fit both scenarios. Language was changed from, "...this item has been recalled because it is needed for reserves" to "...this item has been recalled because it is needed for reserves of for another unforeseen reason."
    • J will write up workflow instructions for staff and ask for feedback on clarity.
  • SCSB popup
    • Asked if we can change the language on the pop up that appears when a SCSB item is returned to reflect where that item needs to go next. (Offsite Storage.)
    • Cheryl to ask Leila her thoughts on how this change would impact workflow.
  • No new enhancements to review, as the release schedule was changed from monthly to quarterly.

July 19, 2022

Agenda:

  • BD Migration Updates (Kara, Julie, and April)
  • Updates on:
  • Questions from the field:
    • Is it possible to suppress "lost" items in HOLLIS? If so, would this be desirable?

      • Excluding Resources with Specific Process Types from Publishing

      • KY: Can't suppress on item level
        • Update: feedback from D2D: 

        • My preference would be for items to be removed based on collection development decisions, not the happenstance of being lost.

          "If I am remembering correctly, lost status makes the item eligible for Borrow Direct/ILL links – which means that leaving it in HOLLIS enhances discovery and access. (Users can discover that the item exists, and they can get to a pre-populated request form that makes it much easier to access a copy than if they had to fill out an ILL form from scratch.)

          Additionally, it is sometimes useful to know that the library once owned a copy of an item. Some researchers are interested in this kind of information. It may also prompt them to submit a Purchase Request to indicate that they wish for the library to prioritize searching for that title and/or to purchase a replacement. Or, for rarer items, the bib info itself could be valuable to a researcher as they try to piece together information about the item." 

        • Suggestion to enhance Ask A Librarian FAQ with further info regarding lost items.
    • Is it possible to have a different color schemes in Alma production to indicate a change in circ desk? (e.g. Carrels vs Circ in Widener.)
      • KY: No- to the system they are the same thing. Possible enhancement request?

Notes:

  • BD Migration Updates (Kara, Julie, and April)
    • Testing is going well.
    • Moving from version 1.7 to version 1.8.
    • 1.10 release is pending. This release is vital, given that most of what we need will be in this release. (No timeline yet.) Waiting for ILLiad Addon.
    • Relais DTD ends Sept. 30.
    • Looking like mid to end of August rollout.
  • Updates on:
    • Context: If you have multiple items from multiple libraries due on the same day, do patrons get one notice? Or multiple notices?
    • J’s testing in Sandbox is in progress.
    • In LibAnswers, Andy is seeing single courtesy notices with items due from multiple libraries. This is how we want it to work, so no further testing required.
    • Enhancement Testing: Library-level patron notifications – J and Andy, testing results
    • Enhancement Testing: Set Unavailable Physical Items Process Types – Andy, documentation progress
  • Questions from the field:
    • Context: Items checked out to patrons that come to have a “lost” status continue to display in HOLLIS as something that we own. This gives the false impression that the item is potentially available.
    • Kara: Suppressing at the item level isn’t possible in Alma. (Only at holdings and bib levels).
    • Julie: I remember the documentation saying something about being about to suppress based on process type (Will look into this possibility further.)
    • Good idea to get feedback from other groups. Perhaps suppressing should not be a universal decision?
    • Context: At every library with a “carrel” location, there is a problem with remembering to change back and forth from the “carrel” location to the “circulation” location. This is especially problematic at Widener because if something is accidentally checked out to a carrel location, it does not pass security checks at the gate, and the patron has to return to the circ desk. If there was some indicator in the interface that could signal (to students, especially) the need to change locations, this would be helpful.
    • Kara: A color change is not possible. Alma doesn’t see “circ” as different from “carrels” within a single location. i.e., Widener.
    • Other proposed solutions:
      • Doesn’t work for things needing an override. Patron would need to come to the desk in these cases. Possible that the would cause more frustration than if they already had to come to the desk (because with the self-checkout, they are expecting to be able to do it on their own.)
      • Tried this before, and people just changed the locations on the “carrel-only” computer when things got busy. So, effectively, all the computers were the same again.
      • These become background noise in time.
      • Self check-out just for carrels
      • Separate computers for carrel check-outs
      • Physical notes taped to the monitor to remind people to check location.
    • Potential solution:
      • Student logins can have permission to access particular locations, but not others. Perhaps create a separate student login with permission to access only the “carrel” location, and use this login on the “carrel-only” computer.
    • Is it possible to suppress "lost" items in HOLLIS? If so, would this be desirable?
    • Is it possible to have a different color schemes in Alma production to indicate a change in circ desk? (e.g. Carrels vs Circ in Widener.)

June 9, 2022

Agenda:

Notes:

  • Confirm no further feedback on New On hold shelf reminder language, send to D2D (5 minutes)
    • Send to D2D. Kara to send directly to Corinna.
    • Add to sandbox. Kara to add columns for barcode and call number.
    • Kara reports that our user community is requesting this.
    • Next steps:
  • Updates on (10 minutes):
    • This is an update to text included in notices going out to folks that cannot renew because it’s needed for something else.
    • Andy tested reserves work order language.
    • Enhancement functions as expected—provides patrons with an explanation for why their request is being cancelled.
    • Agreed that this is sufficient testing: all agree to implement.
    • Place and remove institutional-level work orders
    • Julie tested by placing and removing reserves work orders.
    • Enhancement works as expected.
    • Trial and error to ensure selecting correct parameters.
    • There are circumstances in which this would be useful.
      • First type creates request. Good for when item is in hand.
      • Second type is good for bulk removing work orders.
    • Next steps:
    • People who would like permission to run “change item” jobs should get in touch with LTS.
  • Items not on file at HD that have HD as a location in Alma
    • Spruill to discuss with Amy.
    • Ask Jim to run report to determine which items are associated with boxes.
      • Items associated with boxes that do not have (91/97) item policy need to have item policy assessed.
    • The ones not associated with a box would move into a search process.
    • Part of the search process will need to include conversation with collections representatives.
    • After an item has been in search process for x months, move to mark item missing.
    • ~700,000 items
    • Most have (91/97) item policy
    • Speculate that most of these items are in boxes, and the box was accessioned as a single item at HD.
    • Many items have an “in transit” status.
    • Idea: Focus our attention on items that do not have a (91/97) item policy. Could be these have an incorrect item policy and/or that these are physically at the home libraries (for any number of reasons).
    • Next steps:
  • Items on file at HD or RD, but don't have those locations in Alma (10 minutes)
    • HD report has been generated
    • RD report is in progress
    • Working to figure out the true owner and desired location of 311 items where the HD owner and the permanent library in Alma don't match
    • Once the above is complete, batch jobs will be run to reconcile HD and RD information with Alma
    • Not in the original scope of the project
    • Nearly 700,000 items on the report
    • Almost 2/3rds are item policy 91
  • Care and maintenance of hold requests (35 minutes)
    • Make recommendation to EOC
    • Requests in process that are not on the hold shelf and not in transit for reshelving: recommendation is to mark items as missing.  
    • Workflow to be completed no more than twice a year.
    • Additional recommendations documented in wiki linked above
    • Next steps:
    • Conversation to be continued at the next meeting

May 5, 2022

Agenda:

Notes:

Fulfillment working group notes 5.5.2022

  • Allison: HART updates
    • Allison showed an analysis example filtered for LAM GEN. Analysis filtered for things that start with PS call number. Filtered to: items with a circulating item policy. Listed items that have 0 patron loans, according to borrower status (from Aleph). Showed number of non-patron loans (pseudo patron loans). Showed total loans.
    • In HART, you are able to, for example, select call number range or choose the threshold for whatever criteria you want to apply; e.g., fewer than a certain number of loans, etc. This report would, for example, give you items that you want to see if they are eligible for weeding. Can generate a list of barcodes to put into alma analytics to check for more recent loans.
    • Suggestion: Could we use “pseudo patron loans” language instead of “non-patron loans?” “Non-patron loans” reads as “in-house circ.” Question: does “non-patron loans” cover a larger category of loans than “pseudo patron loans?”
    • Aleph item creation date available as a field.
    • Now we have the option of reporting off of Alma items broadly. Able to have a report of Alma items added post-migration as well as items migrated from Aleph. Items added post-migration would not have data. (Would have Aleph Migration Flag of “N”)
    • Loan counts by library location and fiscal year:
      • Example filtered for LAM between 2002-2018. Report number of loans by location (e.g., GEN, RES, FARNS, etc.)
    • Question: Is it possible to modify first report by date? Report example only shows overall numbers. But if it’s possible to filter for range of years, this would be useful. Rationale: The number of items that were in Aleph that never circulated is likely rather low. But if we could choose a range of years between 2002 and 2018, we could have more refined data to allow for better decision making.
    • Question: HART has historical data pre-Alma?
      • Answer: HART includes all current Alma metadata (updated every day). But not circulation data. Also HD and ReCAP data. Will say if currently on shelf at HD, for example. How many times an item has be retrieved/refiled. This is where you can report on HD inventory with the Alma item metadata. Same for ReCAP.
    • Next steps: should folks in this group request HART logins? Useful for testing. No limit to number of logins. Answer: Yes. Folks should get logins.
    • Question: what specifically do you want feedback on? Answer: anything that comes to mind as you’re working with the data. Especially interested to know: are you able to work with info from Aleph circ history dimension and alma items dimension in a way that gets you what you want? Are you able to generate statistics that are correct? Are you able to filter in a way that you want to? Would also like feedback on how we are currently distinguishing between patron and non-patron loan. Would like to know whether the information here is right: https://harvardwiki.atlassian.net/wiki/display/LibraryStaffDoc/Aleph+Circulation+History+-+Patron+Status+look-up+and+Non-Patron+Loan+Flag
    • Allison: we talked about the Aleph loan history data that we would make available in HART for reporting. Wanted to know how many times an item circulated and which items that migrated from Aleph never circulated. Made tweaks such that we can get a list of items for which loan counts total zero; i.e., if there are no records in Aleph loan history transaction table for item.
    • Demonstration
  • Quick Print updates (Spruill)
  • Review and update testing plans:
    • Need to look into this further so that testing can happen.
    • All on or off. Value in overriding temp move request, but don’t want people to override reserves work order so that an item can go on loan.
    • Test: an item with a work order on it can be overridden to check out to a patron.
      • Staff can override work orders
      • Students cannot
    • Kara to be in touch with us about this enhancement.
    • Straightforward. Cynthia to see what it looks like when two items are due on the same day.
    • Cynthia and Julie to test.
  • Next meeting, scheduled for Commencement? Good idea? Bad idea?
    • Busy day for folks onsite at public service points. A different day would be better.
    • Suggestion to just do one meeting in June.

April 27, 2022

Agenda:

  1. Enhancement testing updates (5 minutes)
    1. Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface: J and Cynthia
      1. Decision: turn on in Prod
    2. New On hold shelf reminder: April
      1. Example notice
      2. Refine notice language
      3. Send to D2D for accessibility/clarity feedback
        1. Decision: Turn on hold shelf reminders after 7 days
        2. Need language for notice: Julie will draft something and share with the group.
  2. Quickprint rollout
    1. Feedback on methodology for wider rollout
    2. Use comms list to send out message- to find out who can lead in each library
    3. Managers meetings
  3. Fulfillment enhancement review and discussion

Notes:

Enhancement testing updates

  • Pop-up Messages in the Scan in Interface: J and Cynthia
  • New On hold shelf reminder: April
    • Example notice
    • April: The feature functioned as it was supposed to
    • Since the hold shelf configured to have holds expire after 14 days, the reminder note will be sent after 7 days.
    • To do: Refine notice language. Julie to draft something up.
    • Plan is to send language to D2D for accessibility/clarity feedback

Quickprint rollout

  • Unsustainable for us to maintain printing through the Namtuk server.
  • We’re at a point where we’re supposed to upgrade Namtuck, but our attempts to do so didn’t work.
  • Seemed like a good point to stop using it.
  • We only started using it because when we first implemented Alma, our only option was to print to email.
  • Quickprint already in use at Widener, Gutman, HYL
  • Next steps are to roll this out to other libraries
    • To avoid the double printing issue, the idea is to take the printer out of Namtuk and only have Quickprint enabled.
    • Coordinate communication with contacts at each library:
    • Idea to do Lamont Library next
    • Julie: good to know when the deadline for the end of Namtuk would be
    • Change over to new system not a heavy burden for students, so timing of change not a huge issue

Fulfillment enhancement review and discussion

  • Leganto group
    • Leganto changing from the current LTI to a new one. With this change might come some differences in functionality.
    • LTI change would not change analytics and data reporting
    • Group expressed that, generally, more functionality in Leganto surrounding broken links is popular
    • J is working with Spruill to organize a separate group to discuss Leganto updates.
  • Courtesy notices about why renewals are not possible
    • This is something that is worth looking into, especially because of Resource Sharing items not being renewable.
  • Enhancement to allow the cancellation of request loan blocks based on block type
    • Relevant current “Library Philosophy” is that internal work takes a back seat to patron needs
    • This looks like something we ought to test.
  • ILLiad APIs
    • May explore in the context of future ILLiad auth changes
  • Proxy requesting
    • Way to allow proxies to place holds for their sponsor
    • Problem: can only have a 1:1 relationship, but proxy/sponsor relationship is 1: many or many: many
    • Had asked Amy for people to test it, but Amy expressed that it would not be useful in most use cases.
  • Customizable labels for Internet Archive Book Reader and Universal Viewer
    • To be put before D2D
  • Library-level patron notifications
    • Not certain what this would look like in practice
    • Good to reduce the number of emails sent to patrons
    • If one notice is sent for multiple items from multiple libraries due on the same day, then no further testing needed. IF multiple notices, consider testing enhancement
  • Configure fulfillment messages to pop up without the Confirm or OK button being automatically in focus 
    • Would help reduce errors in student work, but would add difficulty to staff workflows
  • Extend a loan due date at check-out time beyond the expiry date of a patron 
    • Would be good for patrons with rolling appointments, but not all staff have access to MIDAS to confirm renewed appointment
    • Kara: very low risk
    • Julie: will ask Steve and Francesca. If they’re not concerned, we can turn on the feature.
    • Anyone with an individual login would have this
  • Courtesy letters update
    • Should we turn on a feature to include the time a loan is due
    • This would be for things that are checked out for longer than 7 days
    • This does not seem like a feature that would be useful.

Action items

  • Julie: To ask Steve and Francesca about extending loan dates.
  • Kara: To pass the enhancement regarding customizable labels for Internet Archive Book Reader and Universal Viewer to D2d
  • 3 items to test
    • Courtesy letter: reason for non-renewal
      • Andy
    • Overriding of library requests
      • J
    • Aggregation of courtesy notices if multiple items are due
      • Cynthia
    • Set unavailable physical item process types
      • Julie
      • Cynthia
      • Kara

March 24, 2022

Agenda:

  1. Allison Powers and Jim Hodgson on HART data:
    1. HART overview
    2. Discussion: What reports on Aleph circ history are needed? It it will be possible to get circulation statistics going back to 2004 on Aleph. Circulation statistics for items that are still in the collection could include all of the Alma item, holdings and bib metadata. It’s also possible to get statistics on all of the historical loan information in Aleph
  2. Feedback on updated Fulfillment interface if needed (5 minutes)

Notes:

Fulfillment Working Group-3/24/2022

Not present: Amy Boucher, J Armstrong, Cynthia Winters, Cheryl Fraser

Guests: Allison Powers, LTS; Jim Hodgson, Access Services

Note-taker: Andy


HART Overview: Allison Powers, Jim Hodgson

  • Information about HART can be found on the LTS Staff Documentation Center wiki.
  • HART reporting tool used across Harvard, not just in the libraries. Began a couple of years ago, replacing COGNOS. Available to any Harvard department.
  • Uses the same reporting software as Alma, with similar tabs to Alma analytics.
  • Initially provided three datasets:
    • Alma metadata (bibs, holdings, items)
    • HD data (items, circ history)
    • ReCAP data (same as HD)
  • Implementing new dataset in April, 2022:
    • ALEPH circ history data, an in-depth view of legacy activity data
  • There is a HART sandbox to try things before moving to production.
  • Question: What kinds of information needs do we have regarding ALEPH data?
    • Jackson: Can we report on circ data (e.g. What hasn’t circ-ed in 5 years, 10 years?)
    • Is it possible to merge ALEPH and Alma reports? Answer: no, not merged, but data can be combined to paint the fullest picture of the data trends.
    • Can browses be accounted for? Answer: they show in circ events table, not history table.
  • Allison demonstrated reports.
    • Loan data prior to 2002 is not complete.
    • For 2018 data, ALEPH data must be combined with Alma data to get a better picture, but it may only be good for illuminating trends.
  • Submit a Footprint ticket to apply for a HART log-in.
  • E-mail Allison if any more data needs come to mind.


Quick review of new UX proposed by Ex Libris: Devin and Andy

  • Devin supplied screen shots with comments.
  • Andy gave a quick review of his concerns.


Pseudopatron Clean-up: Kara

  • Friday 3/25 is the last day for data clean-up.
  • Spruill: can carrels and faculty studies be excluded? Kara: not sure they are on the report. Jackson: can send the list to Kara.


New on Hold Shelf Reminder: Julie

  • D2D will review for language.

Respectfully submitted by Andrew Wilson

March 3, 2022

Agenda:

  1. Welcome new members and introductions
  2. Review of FWG charge and group priorities
  3. Volunteer for Alma circ desk workflows UX session between March 7 and March 10?
  4. Volunteer note-taker for the next 6 meetings?
  5. Review prioritized Alma enhancements and plan for testing
    1. Fulfillment: Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface
    2. Fulfillment: New On hold shelf reminder
    3. Leganto: Purge menu added to Reading List actions list
    4. Leganto: Generating Citations Based on Reference Files (Beta)
    5. Leganto: Personal Copies
    6. Leganto: Reading lists in the Recently Deleted lists group will now be automatically removed from the system once they have spent more than 30 consecutive days in the deleted lists group.
    7. Leganto: Guided Tours
    8. Leganto: Using tags to update citation status

Notes:

  • Introductions
  • Reviewed FWG charge
  • Note taking for the group
    • J has volunteered for the following meetings: 3/24, 4/14, 5/5, 5/26, 6/16, and 7/7
    • Andy has volunteered for the following meetings: 7/28 and the following 5, TBA meetings
  • UX session volunteers: Devin and Andy
  • Monthly Alma enhancements
    • Review process
      • Ex Libris puts out monthly enhancements
      • Kara reviews this list and curates the list that is then added to the Alma wiki
      • Julie then adds it to the Word Doc to enable comments and asynchronous review between meetings
      • FWG then discusses and adds decisions and action items to the wiki table
    • Testing volunteers for:
      • Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface: J and Cynthia
      • New On hold shelf reminder: April
    • Leganto enhancements will be reviewed by a to-be-formed ad hoc group
      • Kara, Julie, Spruill, and J coordinate to determine ad hoc group membership

February 10, 2022

Agenda:

  • Farewell and thank you to current FWG members who are cycling off the group
  • Updates on and plans for currently open items on the Project List

Notes:

  • Update on Alma printing issues
    • Devin working the Maureen to fix
    • Difficult to identify whether the issue is with Alma, the email, the network, etc.
    • Enabling Quick Print might be the solution – possible work for the group – places to test:
      • Widener?
      • Countway?
    • Quick Print requires each user by login desk to select it as an option (should stick between sessions for same user, same desk) – best practice is to always check
  • Restore Request – is this still useful?
  • Reviewed new members and roles
  • Discussed group goal of reviewing enhancements going forward; in the future, ExLibris will...
    • Monthly bug fixes
    • Quarterly enhancements
  • Leganto sandbox for instructors to use? Better utilize Guided Tours?

December 9, 2021

Agenda:

  • Future meetings scheduling
  • Update on BD/ILL Link availability: http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990079739780203941/catalog
    • BD/ILL links will display regardless of availability
  • Adding additional language to 'reserves sequester' location? Like contact circ desk? 
    • Based on FP ticket from Odile
    • "When I click through to the Widener holdings I see two copies showing as
















      available but no way to request them - are those two sequestered copies? If
















      yes, can we change this to make it clearer to the user what is going on?
















      In case it's helpful, here's how the student who contacted me about this book
















      interpreted the record: "It is apparent that Widener has it somewhere but "due
















      to COVID" is only making it available in an online scanned form."
    • Suppress location or change location description in HOLLIS?
  • Cutover date for new SEC lockers
    • What should pickup location be called in Alma
    • What date should the changeover happen
    • Need login forms, etc. 
    • Need to update BD, ILL, HTC (for SCSB items)
    • Need to map new pickup location to HKS (KSG) (KY)
    • Check outstanding requests for RS?
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services: Overdue fines, Notices, and Turn on Lost and Claims Returned jobs
    • Action: decide when to turn on the job that flips items that are more than 45 days overdue to item "lost" status
    • Action: decide when to turn on the Alma Fulfillment Overdue and Lost Loan Letter
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services: Recalls on or off?
  • Feedback on proxy enhancement?

Notes:

  • Future meetings scheduling
    • Every 3 weeks or once a month?
    • Work outside of meetings?
    • Action: Kara will set the new meeting schedule starting in January, recurring every 3 weeks
  • Update on BD/ILL Link availability
    • If owned, didn't link out to ILL as a services
    • If owned, didn't link out to BD if our item is available
    • Many questions over the years about why there isn't a link out to services in certain scenarios–now turned on for everything, whether we have it or whether or not it is available
    • Questions: Are DRP links viewable to anyone in BD or just Harvard affiliates? Do we want the links there for even Harvard affiliate, assuming that they are in BD because they want a print version?
      • Answer: only viewable to Harvard users eligible for BD.
  • Adding additional language to 'reserves sequester' location? Like contact circ desk? 
    • Current text: Widener Library, Widener - Online Reserves, In-library use only
    • We could change the above text, might need D2D review
    • We could suppress the holding
      • If we did that, it make staff's ability to see the number of sequestered copies via HOLLIS impossible
      • In-library use only is a global display, can't change it without changing any other items with that label
    • Action: Kara will consult with Corinna on what the best course of action
  • New faux library for SEC Lockers
    • Language for the location – Science and Engineering Complex Book Locker - SEC Lockers Circ
    • Date for the change to go live – January 24, 2022
    • Alma login form updates – Julie Petzold, Spruill Harder, Tim Conant
    • Make sure this new faux library is communicated to RS (BD and ILL) and RD (LTS can map it for HD)
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services: Overdue fines, Notices, and Turn on Lost and Claims Returned jobs
    • Sent out batch notice, received some return on it, but not much (mid- to late-January)
    • Turn on lost billing notice from Alma? Wait a bit then turn on fines/fees feed (later in the semester, don't want people to have problem registering for classes)
    • Action: Amy to arrange small group meeting
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services: Recalls on or off?
    • Spruill tested the work orders and it worked as expected
    • Action: Amy will send a proposal to Suzanne to keep recalls off
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services: Requesting items with statuses, particularly In Transit (January 10, 2022)
    • Action: Amy will reach out to ITS to make sure they are ready for In Transit, On Order, or Aquisitions; originally requested we wait until Winter Break, is that still a reasonable timeline?

November 18, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

  • Alma pulse survey FWG review
    • Notes can be found on the Google Spreadsheet
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services, confirm action items and status of:
    • recalls
    • billing feed
    • overdue fines
      • a job can be run to remind people of overdue items, just need the Alma IDs
        • Job run based on list from Amy on December 1, 2021 (update/notify users job). Required configuring a custom letter (Notify users letter) and creating a new code in Alma for the letter in user notification type config.
      • do we want to notify people with expired accounts? will the job notify people with expired accounts? Kara Young  will investigate.
        • yes, it will notify people with expired accounts
    • overdue notices
      • overdue and lost loan letter can be turned on once billing is turned on
  • Timeline for Restarting Fulfillment Services: turn on Lost and Claims Returned jobs

October 21, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

September 30, 2021

Agenda:

  • LS: Reserve items/Item Policy #11 items are being flagged by Secure Exit at Widener as STOP and so guards are seizing the items even though students are allowed to leave the libraries with these items
  • Review open projects list
  • Any open issues

Notes:

  • Cynthia is joining FWG for ITS
  • Reserve items/Item Policy #11
    • Are any other libraries using Secure Exit? Possibly FAL. SH will check with AW. FAL would not want their RES to leave the library.
    • Should be made as a ticket; JP to ask LS to submit a ticket so KY can explore and test
  • Proxies placing holds on behalf of their sponsor LINK to doc
    • Currently: Proxies can only place holds for themselves, but then there is a complex series of events that need to take place to get the items checked out to the sponsor.
    • Future: Define a person as a "fulfillment proxy." Both the proxy and the sponosr get notifications. Current limitations:
      • You can not have more than 1 "fulfillment proxy" because that was too difficult code; a sponsor could have many proxies in this system, but a proxy could not be a proxy for multiple sponsors
      • To create relationship, it needs to be made on new user–we have hundreds, if not thousands in the system–need a way to retroactively apply that, which is currently in development
      • Not going to work for users that have a role other than proxy
    • KY would like feedback from people who work with proxies; will add instructions to wiki, please have A&B people look at the instructions and test in Sandbox and provide feedback to KY so she can communicate it to ExLibris
  • Review of project list:

July 22, 2021

Agenda:

  • Discuss library/circ desk reopening timeline(s) and Alma configuration/testing needs
  • Discuss meeting schedule and format for the fall semester (current meeting schedule ends today)
  • Continue Fulfillment Enhancement Review (FER) Area

Notes:

  • Introductions
    • ITS presence on FWG long term
  • Reopening timeline:
    • Claire: requestable items, impact on "in process" items
    • Kara: all library collections (01s or blank item policy) are currently requestable (except possibly Baker)–library reopening is turning on circulation desks for more pickup points, independent of each other–no requests on "in process" items (transit, on loan, work orders, acquisitions, etc.)
    • Julie: original decision based on lack of access to spaces and limitted staffing levels
    • Kara: can't do this on a library by library process
    • Amy: develop a timeline of what waking circulation back up is
      • Turn on circulation desks
      • Turning recalls on or off
      • Other not on shelf item requesting
      • 02s
      • Updates to notices–notes about access limitations
      • AR feed is turned off
      • Lost searching currently "off"
      • Transitioning the LAM pickup serivce to hold shelf
        • Impact on book mailing–moving it to a different library? Personal Delivery option?
        • Maintain a pickup service for folx who don't want to or can't enter the building
      • Building access limitations at all libraries
    • Kara: preference for making all 02s requestable at the same time
    • Amy: 02s on 8/30? Have to check with libraries first to make sure they are ready to handle in-library use materials
    • Special Borrower: turned on a few weeks ago, limited to people with current active account (proxies, alumni...)
    • Shawn: in process until Shawn finds it (currently initiated via email), makes it "done," then makes them requestable--pre-pandemic 8-28 requests a day for items that were received but not yet cataloged
    • Kara: write out a schedule for phases of turning on requesting pieces back on–first up is increasing pickup points
    • Claire: hearing "library is reopening," this sounds like all processes are restarting at the same item, can we be more transparent about exactly what is being turned on and when?
    • Amy: yes, let's get a timeline for getting each location up and running and then phase in the rest of the work
    • Harvard Direct: opened up this service to enable LAM and MED for current requesting, do we continue this?
    • Kara: create a wiki page to organize all of this
      • HKS 8/2
        • Turn on circ desk
        • Update the hold slip with Access information
      • SEC 8/9
        • Process of getting 800-1,000 items to the library
        • Kara needs info for self check machines
    • Ronnie: when are people returning to their original libraries
    • Spruill: onsite teams remain in place until 1 week before the original library's opening date
    • Next steps:
      • Schedule a follow up meeting
      • Bring wiki page together
      • Attendees: Kara, Julie, Amy, Spruill
      • ITS preference: don't turn on requesting for in process items until winter break
  • Meeting cadance: continue for now, revisit as things slow down
    • ITS will offer up a tribute for permanent FWG membership

June 10, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

May 20, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

April 22, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

April 8, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

March 18, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

  • Proposal for new location code for bound-with / analyzed titles: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDKJIn8FOvDQyMI0uIvrh1KbmoZquLa5Ec83RNomMw4/edit

    • Opt in by library

    • Provide feedback via document, directly to Corinna, or to Kara

  • Alma Enhancements to Consider

    • Citations Insights job – currently available to staff with appropriate permissions

    • Guided Tours –

      • Action: Kara will activate in Sandbox;

        • Add an item based on library resource

        • Add an item with a file

        • Create a sharable link

      • Action: Reserves folx will review and provide feedback
    • Guided Video –
      • Action: Kara will activate in Sandbox;

        • Adding your own resources to a list

        • Editing a resource list

      • Action: Reserves folx will review and provide feedback

    • Locate citation source config – there are options for tweaking this if we find that citations are not being located properly or if it becomes an issue
    • Duplicating course lists in Leganto – different behavior depending on how it is duplicated, training issue
    • Using tags to update citation status – are there any applications for this functionality? Spruill Harder will take this to March's reserves meeting. 
    • Edit multiple citations within 1 reading list –
    • Default section name – option to make certain default templates available when a new list is created, this could come in handy when the project to improve the reading list experience for students begins (based on URC study)
  • Julie Petzold mock up enhancement decision table where each enhancement is in a table with an anchored link to its location in the Word Doc where folx can use comments to discuss asynchronously

February 25, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:

Work Orders

  • Kara Young is happy to write out steps and who is responsible for each step, generally speaking:
    • Ticket to LTS
    • Kara works with requester to document and test
    • Train people to use the work order
      • SB
      • Production

Alma Enhancements to Consider

  • Pop-up Messages in the Scan In Interface
    • What is the feature used for?
      • Work Orders
      • Restoring Items
      • Updating Item Information (e.g. change to the permanent location)
    • Try turning some on (see list below) in SB and testing
      • Item has reqeusts, feeback message
      • Transit, feedback message
      • Work Order, popup message
  • New On Hold Shelf reminder
    • SB testing
      • Test with Lamont and Countway – needs to be configured to reflect "normal times" (i.e. 7 days on the hold shelf)
      • Add FWG folx to email table so they receive notices from SB
      • 3 days before hold expiration; 4 days after hold date
      • Should say, where it is held; link to make a reservation if they haven't already; when the hold expires
      • Test to see what happens if patron has 1 item at Lamont and 1 item at Countway where the hold expires on the same day

  • Display Override Return Date

    • Shared logins shouldn't be able to override due dates; if staff want some student workers to have more privileges then they can get an individual login
  • Generating Citations Based on Reference Files (Beta)
  • List owners can now receive an owner subscription letter after the completion of a rollover
    • If someone is rolling over a list that I [AS staff] have to deal with, then I [AS staff] would like to receive it
    • Owner of the list rolled over
  • Reading lists in the Recently Deleted lists group will now be automatically removed from the system once they have spent more than 30 consecutive days in the deleted lists group. After 30 days, they will be permanently purged from the system. In addition, for each reading list in the Recently Deleted lists group, an indicator now shows you how many days are left before the list is purged. 

Ongoing Enhancements Review

  • Kara will add enhancement to our existing doc where people can comment. This doc will also service as a record of what was implemented, when, and why. Or why it wasn't implemented.

February 4, 2021

Agenda:

Notes:


December 12, 2020

Notes:

  • Turning of S&D requests on 12/17, will resume on 1/4/21. Should we put any messaging up? Jason Clarke will put something up on the ILL page.
  • Hathi items already on loan are renewable.
  • Just received this month's Hathi lists. Temp loc job is in process, but might not go through before the break. 
  • DRP items that are both sequestered in the cage and have Hathi access should keep their Hathi temp loc
  • DRP digital objects for the Fall (uploaded prior to 12/1/20) will be toggled off via job run by Kara Young on 1/4/21; if the item is needed for the spring, Spruill Harder can turn them back on; Spruill Harder can also turn off Fall items that were uploaded after 12/1/20
  • Some sort of reserves documentation for LTS page? To have a place to point people to if they have questions for LTS about the process. Can be higher level. Spruill Harder 
  • Care and maintenance of hold requests – Review of Jackson's recommendations
    • Put copy fo Jackson's report onto the project page's wiki
    • Amy Boucher brings recommendations to ELT – particularly regular maintenance of "old" requests
    • Kara Young will draft some more action items
    • Jason Clarke , or surrogate, should look at some of these "in transit RS" requests to make sure NCIP is working as expected
  • Countway MED to reopen with hold desk (same as Lamont setup) on 1/11/21; there will now be two pickup locations for all materials

November 12, 2020

Agenda:

  • Make requester data available for cancelled "patron physical item requests" in Resource Request Monitoring queue for a limited amount of time (e.g. 30 days).
    • Use case: Requested items on a pick list can't be found. The best practice is to mark the item missing so that the request goes to the next library in the queue or the item becomes eligible for BD/ILL. The issue with this best practice is that some staff feel that patrons are better served by not marking the item missing immediately and continuing to search for the item–the thought being that if the item can be found onsite, the patron receives their request faster. If we turn this feature on, staff can mark the item missing, but also retrieve the patron information and reactivate the hold if they find the item later.
  • Item policy updates
  • Term due date: updated on 11/10/20 to move forward to 9/10/21. Extending max renewal period to 48 months. Updating items on loan to the new term due date of 9/10/21 (except for Resource sharing).
  • Checking items out at other circ desks (Jackson)
  • Using copy ID field for copy number- allows system title-level requesting to operate as intended vs. using item description field (Ronnie)
    • ITS has proposed not using copy numbers at all anymore
    • Feedback from the group on this?

Notes:

  • Kara updated group on her and Julie's attendance at the last EOC meeting where they shared updates of FWG projects.
  • DRP links– Kara Young will schedule a meeting
    • What will happen to the links? Will they come down in January?
    • How do we relink if the book is reused in a future semester?
    • What do we do with the physical copies of these books?
    • Overlap with Hathi items–if we take the item off, we need to restore the Hathi link.
  • Reviewed agenda item: Make requester data available for cancelled "patron physical item requests" in Resource Request Monitoring queue for a limited amount of time (e.g. 30 days).
    • Update EOC on this change and implications- KY/Spruill
    • Concern: There is some complexity between what is exposed in Analytics and what is exposed in Alma. We can't test this ahead of time because we don't have Analytics in Sandbox, so if we turn it on, we should review that later.

October 29, 2020

Agenda:

  • Making in-transit to remote storage requestable?
  • Restricting the ability to place requests on items in HOLLIS with existing patron physical requests
    • Update
  • Item policy changes:

Notes:

  • MIDAS user category added for remote patrons. Ready for LTS to test.
  • Carrel (in transit to remote storage) discussion:
    • Items are already checked out to user–do we even need to check it in and re-check it out? Can't we just send the already checked-out items directly to Lamont and let Lamont staff handle "your item is available" notifications? The only extra step would be a Hathi/DRP check on these items before routing to Lamont for pickup.
    • Another option: make items "in transit to remote storage" (not all "in transit" items, it is a specific status for items being sent to remote storage) requestable again. Enables tracking of items.
    • Decision:
      • Return from carrel–item is in transit to it's perm location
      • Regardless of item's perm location, packed in bin and routed to LAM with note: direct to Lamont manager, items need to be checked out to X user, user needs to be notified
      • HUMS picks up items and delivers to Lamont
      • Lamont manager receive items, check items out to user at Lamont Circ desk, notifies user via LA macro
  • Preventing request queues
    • Kara will continue to pursue
    • Amy will connect with Access's D2D rep to make sense that group is aware of these policy changes
  • Item policy
    • 88, needs special handling
    • 64, lots of items for Berenson, have we talked to them?
    • 13, not many left, will flip to 11

October 15, 2020

Agenda:

  • Restricting the ability to place requests on items in HOLLIS with existing patron physical requests
  • How to handle requests and recalls during intersession (JP)
  • Extending term due date to May?
  • Item policy changes- okay to implement at this time?

Notes:

  • Course Reserves:
    • Titles where we have DRP versions and Hathi versions. Decision: LTS will remove the Hathi links from HOLLIS.
    • When/how will we take down DRP links from HOLLIS? As long as the link is active, we need to keep the physical copies sequestered. Spruill Harder will ask about it at the reserves group meeting next week.
  • Requests and Recalls during intersession
    • Recalls currently turned off–no changes needed.
    • Requests currently configured to remain on the pick lists for 365 days and do not automatically move to lost. Should we make the collections "unrequestable."
    • Kara Young (Unlicensed) double check the "pick from shelf" parameter is 365 days and items do not automatically flip to missing.
  • Have emails about updating Alma hours gone out? Kara Young will follow up with LTS.
  • Extending the term due date to May?
  • Item policies:
    • Spruill will send out additional communications to ensure everyone knows this is happening.
    • LTS can start flipping items.

September 17, 2020

Agenda:

  • Update on selector purchases for patron-initiated purchase requests (JP)
  • WID DVDs can be flipped to 01 (JP)

Notes:

  • Update on selector purchases for patron-initiated purchase requests:
    • Access prefers this option:

      • Option 2: ITS handles rush ordering/processing; communicates patron hold info to Lamont Staff via paper

        There are several positive elements in this option: more steps could be automated for the patron, there would be more collections/locations the item could be processed for, and the turnaround time could be quicker. 

        The problem is that this option does not protect patron confidentiality as well, and it places additional work on Access Services staff in Lamont. 

        • In this option, bibliographers can submit their usual patron requests for print materials to ITS.
        • The patron would be added as an “Interested User” in Alma, which protects their confidentiality within Alma, and will send them an automated email when the title is *Received* in ITS.
        • ITS staff would rush process the item and route it to Lamont.
          • Staff would write the ID number of the requesting patron on the pink Priority/Request flag.
            • Alma related notes:
              • I don’t think Access Services staff would have a way to view this data electronically since Interested User data lives within the Order, which is within Acquisitions permissions.  
              • The Interested User function is supposed to allow the option to create a physical item patron hold, but it does not function that way; no hold is created.
        • Staff in Lamont Access Services would receive the item.
          • They would scan in the item in so it appears as In Place.
          • They would add a hold for the patron, based on the information on the paper flag.  The paper flag would need to be shredded.
          • They would scan the item in again, so the hold could be activated, which would send the automated email to the patron about item being available for pickup.
          • The item would go on hold for patron pickup.
      • Concern about the step: "Staff in Lamont Access Services would receive the item: They would scan in the item in so it appears as In Place."
        • If item's perm loc is HD, onsite staff can't make it appear In Place for a request
        • Possible solution: check out to patron, manually send hold notification
      • Julie Petzold email Kara, Amy, and Jaime to close communications loop
  • WID DVDs can be flipped to 01
    • Need a list of all WID DVDs (material types, locations, etc.)
    • LTS can do the batch job or anyone with batch job permissions can flip the policies to 01
    • Amy Boucher will share this change with Scott
  • Customers that haven't gone to AR (or Student Billing) cleaned-up
  • Care and maintenance of hold requests
    • Jackson will continue to investigate, especially "undefined" requests
  • Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)
    • Spruill completed spreadsheet
    • Spruill will add contact info to the spreadsheet

September 3, 2020

Agenda:

  • When we shutdown, we intended to extend the hold shelf expiration date for items currently on hold. Whatever was done did not have the expected impact. i.e. All items that were on the hold shelf preshutdown ended up having expiration dates in mid-March. Can we explore what went wrong and how we might successfully batch extend hold shelf expiration dates in case we need to shutdown again? (JP)
  • Can we customize the cancellation notice? We might want to modify it as we batch cancel preshutdown requests that we aren't filling. (JP)
  • ITS wants to be able to put holds on things. (KY)

Notes:

  • Kara Young will investigate the "interested users" workflow for ITS. Turning on requests for items in an "acquisitions" or "in process" state is not ideal because it could create request queues and also allow patrons to put requests on items with Work Orders, which would impact reserves.
  • There are a few different places where you can extend the hold expiration dates–it didn't get done in 1 of the places
    • This would require scripting–modification of the script that was created to change the pickup location–to modify the expiration dates. Kara Young will get it on the list of projects for Tim.
  • Cancellation notices should be able to be customizable, send to Kara needed language
    • Only 1 letter
    • Might be able to say different things under different conditions
    • Can add additional cancellation reasons to the drop down list
    • There is a notes field that can be completed with batch cancellation jobs
  • Discussed LAM printing server issues and how we might need to increase server capacity as issues persist

August 6, 2020

Notes:

  • Law courses showing up under Spring 2021, even though the dates are for the Fall. Ryan Miniot will submit a ticket.
  • Pending Enrollment:
    • In the before times, Pending Enrollment folx would have active dates in the future, so they wouldn't load until that date occurred.
    • But now, the active dates are current, meaning folx with Pending Enrollment statuses in MIDAS are getting Alma accounts. Steven Beardsley is this a problem?
  • Considering to no renew borrowed items for BD and ILL and instead try to get those items returned to us.
    • Alma currently configured to support this.
    • However, if we want these due dates extended, we would have to run a special job.
  • Discussed Digital Reserves and Alma D, the spreadsheet, private views, temp policies for items digitized
  • Discussed process for tracking S&D requests sent to WID for scanning
    • Pseudopatron?
    • Work Order?
  • Discussed preshutdown BD and ILL requests and the returns of those items.

July 16, 2020

Notes:

June 25, 2020

Notes:

  • Reviewed Smart Restart testing so far
    • Only in place items requestable
    • Can't stop requests for queuing up FDP (Julie Petzold) what to do if you see a shortened due date (on pick list?); cancel second, etc. requests, if they are patron requests; get reserve requests to Reserves?
  • Config updates
    • Turned on requests to HD; all deliveries to LAM
    • Turn off Mic, Poetry, and Gov Doc collections (Steven Beardsley to confirm) at LAM; keep Frans (Julie Petzoldadd to FDP documentation), and GEN requestable
    • Turned on end of day job (HD puts a file of reshelved barcodes for LTS to be returned in Alma so they appear on shelf)
    • Item available notice and courtesy notices modified; activated loan receipt letter
  • Ronnie Broadfoot will push out due back dates for items still "on reserve" from the spring to August 22 so that they don't revert back to their owning libraries when they are still, in fact, at their temp reserve locations; will continue to push back as needed
  • HathiTrust: 89, do not use, item policy; temp loc
    • Temp Loc for RS > Temp Loc to HathiTrust
      • When returned, the Temp Loc will be removed and restoring the permanent location
      • Jason Clarke possible process: search item in HOLLIS to confirm Hathi before returning

June 11, 2020

Notes:

  • Remove a Leganto Course List template (Required Option)–it's gone.
  • Smart Restart updates from Kara
    • If we turn on the hold shelves, what impacts will it have? We've never turned off the hold shelves before.
    • Extend "time in reshelving" to 1 week
    • Re-configure hold shelf letter language
      • Can it have different language/links depending on the pickup location? Kara can try an if/then statement. Timeline for testing this?
      • Can we turn off hold notices for a particular location? Hold shelf processing can be configured by circulation desk.
    • No need for the requests report letter anymore
    • Plan for items currently on hold
      • Report of users with expired accounts and items on hold? Kara might have this data already.
      • Lamont
        • Clear holds for expired users.
        • Develop a plan/timing for re-notifying individuals.
          • What options are there for re-sending notification emails? Re-sending would send the hold email, not the new email with the link to make a reservation.
      • Widener?
        • Clear holds for expired users.
        • Batch change holds to Lamont. Will users get a notice? We don't believe so. We don't think this happened in previous batches.
        • Develop a plan/timing for re-notifying individuals.
          • What options are there for re-sending notification emails? Re-sending would send the hold email, not the new email with the link to make a reservation.
    • Checkout receipts for G&G?
      • Kara configured it in the Sandbox.
      • She needs feedback on how to configure this later.
      • Kara will set Julie up in Sandbox so she can learn about the feature.
    • Adding printers in Alma? There should be a wiki page with guidance on this.
    • Fines and Fees
      • Items will not go to lost after 45 days. They will still be overdue.
      • We have turned off the notice people receive the day items are due. People will still receive the 7 day courtesy notice.
      • AR reports, new reports for Resource Sharing that will start on Sunday. No other billing will be turned on.
    • S&D and ILL–no changes
    • Loans
      • 36 months auto renewal will remain for now. 3 years automatically, no recalls.
      • Term date will flip on August 10.
        • Items checked out before August 10 will have a Sept 10 due date until 7 days before Sept 10, when the auto-renewal will flip.
        • Items checked out after August 10 will have a Feb 10 due date.
    • HD requesting? When to turn on?
      • Moving server back on June 17.
      • Turn batch processes back on June 22 to allow refiles to come through to Alma. The requesting won't really be active until requesting is turned back on in Alma.
    • Notice for reopening other libraries? 1 week.

May 28, 2020

Notes:

Item Policy standardization and documentation

  • Good to Go: if people don't like the changes that were made, we have record of what was changed so it can always be changed again

Smart Restart

  • What are we turning back on for Requesting? What will the process be for making the request?
    • What collections are requestable? Will we have access to the collection? Can we retrieve it?
    • Can we restrict certain locations to certain groups of users?
    • Widener will be accessible to staff first.
      • Want Widener, Lamont, and HD collections requestable; collections probably means "circulating" collections, 01 (needs confirmation); no 02s, etc.
        • Widener GEN 01
        • Lamont GEN 01
        • HD, all circulating collections 01 (e.g. Gutman items at HD)–trying to provide the most access we can without fully reopening many spaces
      • HD will likely be available before RD
      • Pickup only at Lamont only for Harvard affiliates (active students, staff, faculty, proxy borrowers)
  • What is the plan for items currently on the hold shelf or in transit to the hold shelf?
    • Do we cancel all holds (What about items in these statuses from collections that will not be requestable in our Phase 1 reopening)? Do we retain holds for active users and remove holds for expiring accounts?
    • Can we renotice holds?
    • Stuff that has been requested at libraries that are not reopening but are in the "pick from shelf" process. Popular item with multiple item: multiple requests on multiple holdings (pending request is for a library that isn't open? we cancelled all recall requests, if we missed any we can route them to Lamont.)
  • Lamont pick ups aka G&G:
    • Turning off "item available notices"?
  • Do we need to revisit due date schedules and # of auto renewals?
    • Current plan: We will follow normal schedule (currently 36 months from 30 months)
  • We will need to revisit the Hold Shelf expiration (currently 365 days)
  • Job for Fines & Fees is turned off so fines aren't being sent to AR or Student Billing. Items are not currently flipping to lost.
  • Can have Requests without Recalls. Can we make it so "in transit" are not requestable? Julie Petzold get Kara the Alma slides.
  • We might want to/need to quarantine returns for a certain amount of time, how can we use Alma for that?

Customers that haven't gone to AR (or Student Billing) cleaned-up

  • Need to determine how far to grant fine amnesty > clean up XML file > turn on feed

Create a contact list for libraries not represented in FuWG or AS ELT

  • Nearly done. Just need to hear from Houghton and Theatre

Care and maintenance of hold requests

  • Kara will follow up with Allison

Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

  • Kara got email addresses associated with these accounts
  • Next steps?
    • Match account and emails with owning Library? Use Communications list for outreach?
    • Need to messaging and options/plans for resolution.

Items on file at HD or RD, but don't have those locations in Alma

  • No updates


May 14, 2020

Agenda:

  • Review and update Covid-19 table
  • Review and update Project List table?

  • Student billing/credits

    • Items have been returned and marked as missing

    • Should termbill be turned back on?

  • New template/process for Hours (review)

Notes:

Plan for managing returns, lost items, and billing?

  • Option 1: Push lost clock beyond 45 days?
    • What's the consequences of pushing this date out and then we revert these.
    • How do we send bills later? With a 90 day clock, bills will get sent out in August, but as non-students their won't be records in AR's system.
  • Option 2: Allow things to push to lost according to schedule, but interrupt student feed so they don't receive the bill (but continue RS billing)
    • When an item goes to lost, they get an Alma notice.
    • Could push out the 7 days before it goes to Term Bill. Gives a longer grace period before it goes to Term Bill.
  • Option 3: Combination of both?
  • Decision: Kara Young (Unlicensed) will think through and email group for continued conversation.

Customers that haven't gone to AR (or Student Billing) cleaned-up

  • Ran report on Monday, still quite a few on there (1,500 transactions, 500 patrons). The plan was to delete the transactions. Need to confirm that this should be deleted so that we can turn on AR and Term Bill.
    • 430 patrons have a duplicated address line (first address line in second address line); Steven Beardsley will share examples with Kara Young
    • 67 were address not found; just sent a batch of customer maintenance forms to AR
    • 79 were country code not found; just sent country code updates
  • Hoping the list will be reduced next , will review then.
  • Need to decide how far back we will bill for, even as we resolve the address issues. Amy Boucher and Steven Beardsley continue this conversation.
    • Eliminate 2018s.
  • Term Bill credits
    • ~12 pending credits, generated by returns (remote returns, items marked as missing.? manual term bill credits, not waiting for the feed?)
    • Kara Young (Unlicensed) will send list to Steven Beardsley so that we can prevent credits from going to Term Bill twice.

Create a contact list for libraries not represented in FuWG or AS ELT

  • Filling in the chart, just waiting for 5 responds

Care and maintenance of hold requests

  • Haven't heard from LTS about transit to off-site storage
  • Haven't heard from Jason about RS
  • Jackson Childs: Might be useful to discuss this (and pseudo-patrons) with Absent Items group to develop best practices going forward

Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

  • Jackson Childs: 
    • Might be useful to discuss this (and care and maintenance of hold requests) with Absent Items group to develop best practices going forward
    • Identified some email addresses associated with these accounts (didn't do carrels)

  • ILL PP cleanup: done

    • Closed lost loans job: closed loans, marked items as lost, PPs deleted

  • Work Order piece:

    • Intended to be transitory states for items; difficult to report on.

    • With that in mind, are Work Orders the best way to deal with this. Would creating a new location be a better way to deal with this.

    • Kara Young (Unlicensed) will work on refining a recommendation to the group.

Items on file at HD or RD, but don't have those locations in Alma

  • No updates

Messed up barcode (HVD-2, etc.) cleanup

  • No updates

Current, Active Patron Requests

  • On hold

Item Policy standardization and documentation

  • Spruill has begun communications; heard back from some people, still waiting for a few. Some groups are doing their own batch updating. Spruill will send others to Kara for updating.
  • Kara Young Will add Item 90 policy for shared ReCAP items

ELT's Absent Items

  • Next meeting is and this is on the agenda

Best Practices for Due Back Dates for Reserves

  • Communications: reminders sent closer to the fall (or the next semester that we have on-campus, print reserves)

SEC and Countway locker configuration

  • SEC:
    • Testing on Sundays
    • Get Emily and Mike involved in duplicating testing
  • Countway:
    • No new collections, just a service location (similar to Lamont bookstop)
  • NOTE: Special Borrowers can only request items to the owning-library. This means,
    • Special Borrowers will not be able to request any items to the SEC lockers (because SEC collections are not requestable).
    • Special Borrowers will probably not be able to request Countway items to the Countway locker because the locker will have to be setup to be its own library.

Alma Hours

  • LTS creating a recommendation for the fall
  • Kara Young will send out hours template draft to FWG for feedback

Patron-facing notice inventory

April 30, 2020

Agenda:

  • Review and update Covid-19 table
  • Review and update Project List table?
    • Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

    • ILL PP cleanup: discuss what to do with the (presumably lost) items that are charged to the “yyDO NOT USE – Resource Sharing” pseudopatrons. Since most of them will likely have to be suppressed or withdrawn (and thus will require Collections input from multiple libraries)

    • How to proceed with other pp loans and who needs to be informed

Notes:

Overdue fine clean up that result from recalls

  • Steve, it's all done!

Customers that haven't gone to AR (or Student Billing) cleaned-up

  • Have customer lists
  • How should Steve send some of these back to Kara?
    • Some can be deleted
    • Some look like they are Term Bill charges (this happens when the charge is sent and they don't have an active student role, so the fines get sent to AR). Should these be separate from the "no don't send to Oracle" list.
  • Steven Beardsley steps going forward:
    1. Any fines we want to keep, make sure they are customers in AR
    2. If there are charges that should go to Term Bill, this will have to be done manually
    3. Then the XML file will be deleted, and we will start fresh
    4. AR gets turned back on; Kara Young (Unlicensed) develop a process for a regular, automatic review going forward ( ) based on new file, which if monitored will help us identify issues
  • Jason and his team reviewed RS charges; they have been processed

Updating Due Dates

  • Complete!
  • Manually renewing loans by 3 notes for people active notes

Create a contact list for libraries not represented in FuWG or AS EL

Care and maintenance of hold requests

  • Jackson set some lists to LTS, made updates to the page, emailed a list to Jason for items in transit to RS
  • "Undefined requests" with 3,000 requests
    • Some are to pseudopatrons, some aren't
    • Most are on loan
    • Some of these items were lost in Aleph, but the status was different, and then they were no longer lost in Alma
    • Not much ExLibris documentation on these types of request, hoping to learn more
  • Option for resolution: if they are really old requests, we could probably delete them; apply the Absent Items workflow to these items
  • In Transit from Tech Services
    • Many have temporary barcodes
    • Suspect that the request status was being used in "not the best way" given that these requests haven't been cleared
    • From Jaime: The transit to reshelving charges would need to be reviewed, but many are probably on red trucks in Widener waiting to be checked in, in bins/pallets of bins at HD waiting to be accessioned, and/or in boxes at ReCAP from DTD workflows waiting to be scanned in.
  • Priorities for now:
    • End Goal: How often do these queues need to be reviewed for cleanup? What is the process for future cleanup?
    • Old patron requests
    • Waiting for Remote Storage

Reserve List Errors

  • Best practices updated; now complete!

Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

  • Needs Volunteer: Messaging:
    • Anything that is still being actively worked on, create work order
      • This may inspire requests for new work orders, which can be developed
    • Anything that is no longer being worked on and is on the shelf, return in Alma
    • Anything that is missing, return and mark missing
    • Process for RS: Same process for ILL lists?
      • Do collections need to be involved?
      • Can they be put through the Absent Items workflow?
    • Jason Clarke will have team return items and mark missing for items out to RS pseudopatrons
    • Offer assistance in interpreting data
    • A timeline will be determined at a later point
  • Needs Volunteer: Who do we contact?
    • Primary: the contact in the pseudopatron account
    • Secondary: ELT, Communications list, departmental email
  • No response: return and mark missing

Items on file at HD or RD, but don't have those locations in Alma

  • No updates

Messed up barcode (HVD-2, etc.) cleanup

  • No updates

Item Policy standardization and documentation

  • Spruill contacted owners; gave until May 8 to request a difference it item policy
  • LTS can help with batch flipping, even exceptions to the recommendations (collection owner > Spruill > Kara > Emily)

ELT's Absent Items

  • Amy will bring to CCDSC in an upcoming meeting
  • Do we want "claims returned" items to be "requestable"?

Best Practices for Due Back Dates for Reserves

  • Ronnie has begun best practice documentation and solicited feedback
  • Ronnie will finalize and distribute documentation, including posting it on the wiki
  • We should remind

SEC and Countway locker configuration

  • Sandbox gets reset in August, Sandbox config can probably put into production before then

Requests

  • Items currently on the hold shelf have had their time on the shelf extended from 7 days to 60 days, but we are approaching 60 days and should extend it again
  • Proposal: change it to 365 days
  • When we return, we can change this setting, but we have to remember this is a global setting and we need to think through the ramifications for certain requests if not all libraries reopen at the same time

Tech Lending Working Group

  • Recommendations have been sent to RTL
  • One recommendation included the creation of an implementation group
    • This group could work on creating clean metadata that the web group could use going forward

MeScan Pilot

  • It's working


April 16, 2020

Agenda:

Notes:

Overdue fine clean up that result from recalls

  • Steve received updated report; anything pre-July 2018 can be stripped out of Alma
  • Laura Morse and Kara Young will explore batch updates, if not it will have to be done manually

Customers that haven't gone to AR cleaned-up

  • Kara sent the file to Steve, will work with him on clean-up
    • Review happening in RS and Privileges
    • Working through customers that have been rejected
    • Working through transactions to see if the issue is with the user or the charge
  • Kara Young needs to investigate the credits
  • When did the last feed to AR run? 3/18/20. The 16th was the last time transactions would have gone. But the transactions need to be older than a certain amount of time to send in the first place.
  • Action: Should discuss when to turn feedback on.
    • Action: Laura Morse will send 1 final, fresh report, to catch issues before turning the feed back on

Updating Due Dates

  • Monthly rolling basis
  • Updating expiring accounts for alumni: sending them emails, they can extend their loans themselves or wait for an auto renewals

Create a contact list for libraries not represented in FuWG or AS ELT

  • In progress

Care and maintenance of hold requests

  • 18,000 items in transit to off-site storage
  • 12,000 items in transit to RD
  • Collection management workflows from the last 6 months
    • Is this stuff sitting somewhere that hasn’t been sent and/or processed
  • What is the end product of this work?
    • Recommendation of how each category should be reviewed.
  • ReCAP data is now in Cognos
  • Send the list as a ticket and cross-compare to Cognos data
  • Is there stuff at Iron Mountain? Believe everything has been sent. But Amy can confirmed.
  • ReCAP is not staffed, so they aren’t accessioning
  • Patron physical item hold requests that were really old. Do they need review? Jackson: doesn’t seem to be a large number.  
  • 20,000 transit to reshelving seems to be originating from Tech Services. Is this part of their workflow? They could be on the shelves… are there outstanding work orders.

Reserve List Errors

  • Nearly complete. Best practices documentation needs review.

Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE)

  • Resource sharing accounts
    • AR issues have been straightened out?
    • RS sent maintenance form Friday or Monday.
  • Pseudopatrons
    • Transit patrons
    • Lost, missing
    • Libraries
    • Carrels
  • Who reviews the pseudopatrons? Can’t tell who created or used them.
  • Kara Young Report of pseudopatrons with the number of items checked out

Items on file at HD or RD, but don't have those locations in Alma

  • Julie Petzold : submit a ticket with the example rows with the Gutman mis-match so that Alison can do an owner-code data integrity check; ask Alison if she can add titles to this report

Messed up barcode (HVD-2, etc.) cleanup

  • No updates

Item Policy standardization and documentation

  • Next steps: Spruill Harder will work with Access Services Librarians to ensure they understand the change; other circulating libraries
  • Laura Morse offered to run a report of counts of items with item policy by library
  • Laura Morse has asked Emily to start flipping the 28s

ELT's Absent Items

  • Jackson has some testing to finish up
  • Julie Petzold Share documentation with FWG
  • Next steps is for it to go to CCDSC

Best Practices for Due Back Dates for Reserves

April 2, 2020

Agenda:

Notes:

  • Reserve Stats: A list of the overlap between reserve titles and HaithiTrust titles to be shared with Reserves Coordinators would be helpful.
  • Alma Enhancement Voting: Alma enhancement voting has been delayed by at least a month and half. Once the ballot is available we will add it to an agenda. There could be delays in the rollout of the enhancements.
  • Release Notes: Release notes on pause for at least April. There might be "essential" fixes for May.
  • Covid table review
    • HD RD: nothing new to report
    • Customers in AR: most are new customers; amnesty for some; will update AR so that IDs match for those without amnesty; confirm with LTS so they can delete the XML file
      • Resource Sharing customers were created directly in Alma. Find a way to create them better so that they aren't rejected in Alma.
        • Going into Alma and fixing address and country code
        • Updating some sort of form to get the the data into AR
      • Slow process could take 2 weeks, but we have time
    • Jackson as begun looking at Request Monitoring
      • About half In Process–seem to be cataloging
      • About half In Transit–a large portion originated in Technical Services
      • Jackson Childs send examples to Laura Morse for investigation
      • For HD/RD, get on-shelf reports, if on shelf, remove transit for items. Jackson Childs submit ticket to LTS, list of barcodes in transit to HD/RD.
    • Due Dates:
      • Laura's part is done
      • Extend Special Borrower for a few months upon request; might not be able to do this for Consortia; can't do this for graduating students; programs and centers, update MIDAS expiration dates; can renew alumni remotely
      • Majority of errors will be people we probably can't clean up
      • Proactively renew alumni? Have a report of active alumni borrowers, can renew them for another year. Renew their items as we renew accounts.
      • Project is as complete as it can be?
    • Fines: the ones that remain outstanding are replacement fees (keep if they still have the items) and short term loans (tech and reserves). Preference to cancel the overdue fees for short term loans during this period. Laura Morse can send Steven Beardsley and Jason Clarkea fresh report.
      • Some BD fines appeared today, but not sure how...
      • Staff have been adding invoices, but they won't feed to AR at this time. Is this okay? Yes, but cancel any fees that you don't want to charge people. Jason Clarke will review with his team next week.
      • Francesca's team will be canceling fees from March.
    • Barcodes: no updates
    • Reserve list: work in process.
      • Any patterns that could be avoided in the future with refresher training? It might just be better to improve best practice documentation for the summer.
      • Laura Morse has to follow-up with Collin regarding bad course data we are receiving.
    • Contact list: no updates
  • Project List
    • Item policy clean-up: can LTS being batch flipping, or do we need to wait for communications to go out first?

March 19, 2020

Agenda:

  • How's everyone doing?
  • Possible cleanup projects?
  • Review newly created Project List?

Notes:

  • Laura Morse will make sure Steve gets access to FWG wiki
  • Julie Petzold Get projects listed below organized into project pages
  • Possible cleanup projects
    • Items on file at HD or RD, but don't have those locations in Alma
      • Laura Morsecan take the lead on getting the reports
      • Reports go to Julie Petzoldand Spruill Harderfor distribution
        • Some items are HD, but may have been sent there by accident, do we need them back?
        • What HD location should these items be assigned?
    • Customers that haven't gone to AR cleaned-up (fines closed in Alma, attempted to send to AR, but customers aren't being accepted by AR's system)
    • Care and maintenance of hold requests (older requests, ones that converted over? expired holds?)
      • Review all workflow steps and determine whether they need review and, if they do, if the can/should be reviewed now or if they can be reviewed later (after a regular process has been developed)

      • Email Alma list to see if other Alma users have documentation for periodic review of these lists?
    • Push out due dates:
      • From 3/9/20 through 9/9/20 to 9/10/20
      • Does not include account expiration
      • Cleanup? 
      • Reports needed from LTS Laura Morse and Bill
    • Overdue fine clean up that result from recalls Laura Morse
      • Feeds to term bill and AR have been stopped
      • 1 time export from ExLibris to get the info we need for this?
      • Analytics has fines and fees data, but is anonymized and may not lead back to the patron
    • Messed up barcode (HVD-2, etc.) cleanup
    • Reserve lists (extra ones that are made)
    • Manual item review and cleanup after batch item flipping is complete
    • Superseded patron categories (e.g. zzDONOTUSE); would need a report (need Kara's help)
      • Review for recent activity
      • Review for charged items
  • Alma testing and documentation:
    • Title level requesting: documentation exists, does the documentation reflect the reality?
    • Access to different circulation desks in Sandbox, submit a ticket?
  • Put a banner message in Alma stating that no HD or RD requests are being processed; email AS
  • Next meeting:
    • Alma hours updates: before Bill runs jobs to push out due dates for a specific library, check to make sure the library has Alma hours

March 5, 2020

Agenda:

  • Follow-up to February 13 meeting:
    • Ronnie investigated and reported (via email) the batch updates for reserve temp loc end dates.
    • Create a plan for communicating this “best practice” and why it matters?
    • Update from Spruill on updating the contact list
    • Update from Jaime on the hours-data-gathering form for LTS
    • Update from Laura on Sandbox configuration
    • Update from Jackson testing
    • Update on communications
    • What else needs to be done to complete this work?
      • Necessary reports? Update?
      • Sandbox testing? What, exactly, needs to be tested? 
        • One thing to test would be what happens if you had an order template that featured an item policy that's no longer in use - Jaime will do this and report back on what happens
        • JMG also check what happens when Scan in as Yes to Done something with now unused Item Policy
        • DONE: JMG make wiki new project template page for FUMG - Project descrip, Info gathering, Analysis of Options, testing, recommended practice/policy, communication plan
    • Reserves Best Practices (requests over winter break):
    • Alma hours:
    • Absent items:
    • Item policy:
  • “New” Business
    • Revisit the Printouts Queue
    • "Shortened Due Date" letter: approve and make changes in Alma

Request Queue

Dear [library user],

The due date for your borrowed item [title] was shortened because it has been recalled for use by another library user.

The due date is [date].

Please note, the item(s) listed here are subject to overdue fees if they are needed by another library user and have been recalled. Additional information about items that have been recalled and alternative borrowing options are available on the Harvard Library website.

Alternatively, the due date for the item listed above may have changed because your borrowing privileges are set to expire. If your role with the university is ending, please return the book(s) by the due date.

Sincerely,

Harvard Library Access Services

Expiring Accounts

Dear [library user],

The due date for your borrowed item [title] was shortened because your borrowing privileges will expire before the item’s original due date.

The new due date is [date].

Please note, the item(s) listed here are may be subject to overdue fees if they are needed by another library user and have been recalled. Additional information about items that have been recalled and alternative borrowing options are available on the Harvard Library website.

Alternatively, the due date for the item listed above may have changed because your borrowing privileges are set to expire. If your role with the university is ending, please return the book(s) by the due date.

Please respond to this email if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Harvard Library Access Services

    • Subject: Due Date Change for Item(s)



      Dear Kara Young,

      The due date for the following item was shortened because it has been recalled for use by another person:

      Title

      Description

      Author

      Old Due Date

      New Due Date

      The hunting accident : a true story of crime and poetry / David L. Carlson, Landis Blair.


      Carlson, David L.

      02/10/2020 23:59:00 EST

      11/22/2019 22:00:00 EST


      Item barcode: 32044143847713
      Call Number: PN6727.C3827 H88 2017

      Please note, the item(s) listed here are subject to overdue fees because they are needed by another library user and have been recalled.

      Additional information about items that have been recalled and alternative borrowing options are available on the Harvard Library website.

      Please respond to this email if you have any questions.

    • Revisions to Courtesy Notice?

Dear Julie Petzold,

We would like to remind you that the following items are due shortly:

Loans

Title

Description

Author

Due Date

Library

Casio graphing calculator [calculator)



02/24/2020 19:35:12 EST

Harvard Kennedy School

Sincerely

Harvard Library Access Services

    • Request from ELT: currently, shared logins can override the following 2 scenarios, and we are wondering if the ability can be turned off...
      • Item is on hold shelf for Julie, but shared login can override and check it out to Jackson
      • Spruill's Alma account is expired, but shared login can override it and check items out to her
    • Tech lending update
      • Julie explains TLWG and what has been done so far (see Laura Scherriff's flagged email)
      • Laura provides additional information/insight
        • JMG: is this the same thing as the ipad checkout MeScan being piloted at Cab/Toz/Med? (I wanted to ask for an update on MeScan)
    • SEAS and Countway lockers for library holds
    • Discuss recall period configuration
    • “Move temporarily”
      • Discuss what it would mean to prioritize "move temporarily" requests over all other requests to prioritize reserve requests.
        • Would it be an option to make “move temporarily” the highest priority request, and have all other requests be lower (but equal) priority?
        • What implications would this have based on other use cases for “move temporarily” and our decision that all requests are treated equally and that priority is given on a first-come-first served basis?

Notes:

Reserves Best Practices

  • Ronnie, develop best practices for reserve end dates
    • Include the “why”
    • The consequences (temp locations expiring, items getting marked missing)
    • At the end, mention that batch updates can be requested via ticket in order to fix courses that could be updated this semester
    • Laura, Maureen, and Emily can help review the batch documentation so that they can be prepared to help with these tickets
    • Best practices get posted to wiki
    • Spruill emails the reserves coordinators directly

Alma Hours

  • Spruill has updated the contact list
  • Jaime: google form > google spreadsheet
    • JMG: We can create a google form to collect this information, where responses will populate a google spreadsheet that LTS staff can use to make updates and keep notes.  
    • We can make the email address of the submitter required so that we have that info for cross-checking against the contact list.
      • It would be helpful to know what would be the most useful data formating/order for LTS staff, and we can build the form questions from there.  
        • Who could provide this – DONE: JMG emailed Emily and Maureen
        • And are these the same people who would get view & edit access to the responses spreadsheet? Yes
      • We can also set it up so the submitter receives a copy of what they submitted.  
        • If they reply to that email, what should be the reply to address - to Spruill directly? Yes
        • Develop draft; do beta testing with Julie

Absent Items

  • Laura did the Sandbox configuration, but needed to “hit the batch job Sandbox” so items went to lost
  • Jackson:
    • There doesn’t seem to be anything “lost” and “requested”
    • More testing details are possible
    • Claims Returned to “not requestable.” Is this possible, Jackson couldn’t find documentation on this? Laura will look.
    • When Jackson manually changed an item to “lost” the open request(s) wasn’t automatically cancelled
  • Question: how do other circulation libraries (AJB, Dumbarton, Berenson, Fung, Wolbach, Center for Hel, Arboretum, Radcliff) that aren’t represented by FWG or ELT get input on policy changes
    • Spruill will ask Alma hours contact and ask who would be the best contact for Alma Fulfillment config changes
    • Laura will ask Bill to get a complete list of circulating libraries for FWG to aid in future communications

Item policy:

  • Spruill is going to
    • Getting reports from Alma for live data
    • Reach out to local Access contacts to remind them this is coming
    • Reach out to library directors and cc Access
    • Give units until mid-April to review their collections
    • Post-director contact will send out general communication to remind people about the new policies and to update their internal documentation
  • Jaime wants to test order templates
    • Create an order with a no-longer being used policy and see what happens
    • Laura needs to go into Sandbox to shut down the superseded policies before Jaime can test
      • Will find out if we can delete a policy while items still have the policy
    • Find out what happens if an item had a superseded policy assigned before they went away, but physically arrived after this action has happened
    • Item currently on reserve, coded with superseded code, what happens when we flip it?
  • Working document to capture test scenarios—create wiki page—item policy test plan; absent item policy test plan
    • Laura will find TOU testing documentation as examples
    • Test plan becomes a section for initiatives
      • Information gathering (identifying stakeholder, checking in with them)
      • Analysis of options
      • Testing
      • Recommendations
      • Communications

Email notice revisions (Due Date Change, Shortened Due Date, Courtesy)—Julie create project page

MeScan pilot

  • Successfully running at Cabot
  • Some trouble at Tozzer with the desensitizer
    • Supported through wifi, needs to be secure wifi, how do we get it to be secure without using someone’s HarvardKey
    • HUIT, can you register the device with the secure network via MAC address
    • Countway is coming
    • MeScan app available in the app store (look for Harvard Library checkout)
    • Will send email to hlcomms to announce the app

Shared logins—Julie submits tickets

February 13, 2020

Agenda:

  • Update on Patron Physical Item Requests set to not expire over winter break.
  • Review whether the Restore Item Requests job can be configured so that these requests do not expire over winter break and automatically mark items missing (similar to the intended Patron Physical Items Requests change over winter break). 
    • Follow-up with Lynn Ansaldo (and add Caitlin Elwood to the response) because it was their question (Julie: see "FW: [alma-fulfillment-wq] Expired hold requests over break -    missing status is Alma" email).
  • Discuss Alma calendar liaisons and update procedure. Library Hours in Alma
  • Come up with a test plan to allow the ELT Absent Items group to answer their questions about what is possible. Questions, from the Absent Items group:
    • Is possible to change the configuration of the loan policy “lost” so that when items become lost they are no longer requestable, and also so that the manual or automatic change of loan policy for a given item will move or cancel any existing requests on it.
    • Would be possible to turn off the automatic billing of lost items (set for $100) and manually bill patrons through Alma later?
  • Discuss how to document reserves best practices and organize communications with reserves staff.

Notes:

  • Patron requests over winter break: review number of days for expiration next year, including other requests besides patron requests. think through impact for HD as well as last minute library closure before the holiday. Reminder to reserves to input expiration date for reserves, otherwise, they default to end of course. Best practice: use 1/15 for fall semester and 6/15 for spring semester. 
    • action: review best practices with reserves staff
    • Ronnie will investigate batch change for reserves due date
  • Alma Calendar: update contact for library hours in Alma; supply hours every 6 months for at least a year out. otherwise incorrect due dates in future
    • action: Spruill will update contact list for Alma hours and contact to submit hours April and October, etc.
    • action: Jaime will create google form to gather data for LTS support
  • ELT Absence Items Group: coordinate sandbox configuration requests through Fulfillment working group; LTS would like to have more context when requests are made to test in sandbox; reminder to consider impact on the non-HL libraries and include them in communication plan
    • action: fulfillment group to review the ongoing to do list and prioritize at next meeting
    • action: Laura will configure in sandbox and Jackson will test
  • Communication plan for Item Policy: Spruill updated group on plan
    • action: Amy and Spruill to provide Laura with data for flipping items to reflect new policy
    • action: Laura will update sandbox to reflect new Alma policy for testing by all 
  • Reserves communication: Spruill mentioned that there will soon be an Access Services interest group which will enable stronger communication with access staff in all libraries (not just HL), include date/times that work for Berenson
  • Fulfillment will meet every other Thursday
    • action: Laura will send invite

November 14, 2019

Agenda:

  • Alma EOC liaisons- please share updates at meetings.
  • Update on Leganto proposed name change: decision was not at this time, but that perhaps in future Amy Deschanes team could be brought in to review it, but after the fair use policy was in place.
  • Update on Loan anonymization:
    • Fines/fees are not anonymized. This is consistent behavior with aleph and not a change. 
  • Known issues fix schedule available in Alma for working group members (and anyone else who requests this).
  • Update on Item Policy review: proposal accepted by EOC. Item policies not in use will be removed. Item policy conversions for affected libraries/items TBD pending conversations with affected units.
  • Update on location-based fulfillment policy:
    • The initial scope of the project has changed (pared down) from using a true location-based policy to allowing items with blank policy to circulate like 01 (regular/semester/term loan items). Corinna believes this will save a great deal of processing time as the majority of items at HVD are coded as 01. 
    • We confirmed with Relais (Borrow Direct) that it is possible to code items with null item policy in Alma the same as "01" and lendable in Borrow Direct. There do not appear to be any further potential implications (Resource sharing or otherwise) for allowing null item policy items to circulate the same as items with 01 policy.
    • We do know that some libraries haven't been following best practices and have purposefully been leaving item policy blank (a current request and loan rule the Alma TOU config blocks these items from request/loan; this will be removed). Libraries who do this will have to clean up their items.
    • Overall, Corinna would like to move this project to the open meeting phase at this point and does not feel that a one-library pilot is necessary (given the much more limited scope). Our feeling is that this process change is fairly simple to correct if it doesn't ultimately result in more efficiency (a job to update items with blank policy to be 01 can be run), and that this is a relatively low-risk project. We'd like to set the meeting for early November.
  • Access Services Extended Leadership Team (ELT) update (for documentation):
    • J-Term Recalls: decided to not to change any of Alma’s recall configurations for J-Term. Instead, ELT has decided to be more proactive in communicating recall polices to patrons, document and distribute best practices for finding patrons alternatives, and document parameters for when Access Services will manually extend recall dates or forgive recall fines if no workable alternatives are found. A taskforce from ELT will move this work forward.
    • Julie shared the Primo Reserve testing link with ELT for testing by reserves staff.
    • Shared the Expired Requests During Winter Break solution (see below), and people were in full support.
    • Shared the scrubbing of 60+ day returns history in Alma and people understand it is a return to normal (pre-Alma practice).
  • Primo/Reserves scope updates following review by D2D (live on HOLLISQA):

    • D2D would like to make the following changes to the Reserves scope. Corinna has gone ahead and made the changes on QA. Let her know if the group has any objections and she'll bring it back to D2D. 

      • Collapse Course ID facet by default (you can expand it manually)
      • Change Course Dept facet / adv search label to School
      • Change scope name to: Reserves (Books & Media)
      • Result Facets reordered
      • Instructor name display updated
    • Discussion of other changes proposed by the group
  • Alma November release:
    • New Hold notice email delay option. It was highlighted in Laura's message, but could probably benefit from some further broadcasting.
  • Item is on hold shelf for another patron: block is currently override-able by shared logins (setting is "override by all"). Should that be changed? https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Alma/Product_Documentation/010Alma_Online_Help_(English)/030Fulfillment/080Configuring_Fulfillment/050Physical_Fulfillment

Notes:

Leganto Name Change Discussion

  • Action: Amy is going to follow-up with Carol. This group does not need to do anything else until we hear more from Amy.
  • EOC discussed what the process would be to determine whether or not to change the name.
  • EOC public agendas and minutes for transparency? Action: Laura will bring this request to EOC.

Item Policy

  • Proposal approved by EOC.
  • Next step: communication plan led by Amy and Spruill. Goal to have a ticket in by the time Kara returns.
  • While we wait on communications, people can still prospectively apply superseded item policies. Kara has updated the wiki, but people may not know this is available to them.
    • Laura added this to the next EOC agenda so that it can be communicated with ITS.

Loan Anonymization

  • Retrospective run by Kara
  • Going forward, the job will run every night
  • The job will not anonymize loans with associate fines

Alma Known Issues Fix Schedule

  • Now available to working group members. Alma ? Help menu (upper-right corner) > Alma Known Issues Fix Schedule
  • Availability is on an individual account basis.
  • LTS wants to know if this is useful for a larger roll out.

Update on location-based on fulfillment policy

  • If the item policy is blank, it will function as an 01, even thought it is not coded this way
  • Some libraries are cataloging serials with blank item policy and they are retroactively adding 02
  • Open meeting next Tuesday at 10:30AM in 021 at 90 Mt. Auburn

Hold Request (Pick List) Expiration

  • Agreed upon dates are on Laura’s calendar

What would happen if Resource Sharing is “closed”? (so RS items don’t become due between Christmas and New Year’s)

  • Action: Jason, submit a ticket of when RS should be closed so we can make sure that it is working the way we would expect
  • We’ve missed the window for this winter break, but we would be able to launch this for next winter break

Recall email (Due Date Change for Item(s)) changes finalized:

Dear Kara Young,

 The due date for the following item was shortened because it has been recalled for use by another person:

Title

Description

Author

Old Due Date

New Due Date

Confessions of a shopaholic / Sophie Kinsella.


Kinsella, Sophie

02/10/2020 23:59:00 EST

11/05/2019 23:59:00 EST


Item barcode: 32044055215453 
Call Number: PR6073.I246 C66 2001x 

Please note, the item(s) listed here are subject to overdue fees because they are needed by another library user and have been recalled.

Additional information about items that have been recalled and alternative borrowing options are available on the Harvard Library website.

Please respond to this email if you have any questions. 

Sincerely,

Harvard Library Access Services


Shortened Due Date Letter (sent when a loaned item has a request queue or when a patron's account is set to expire):

  • We don’t want to turn this off because it will be their only chance to know that the item has been requested and that recall fines will apply
  • Action: Julie will start revising this, run by ELT, bring back to FWG for finalization

Primo Reserve Update

  • Only outstanding change is to split apart the instructor names
  • Course data from Canvas gets loaded to Alma daily
  • Will turn on for J-term

Alma November Release—Delay Hold notice

  • Action: Julie bring to ELT (share language with Laura)—we are going to turn it on for 30 minutes unless we here otherwise (opt-out)
  • Action: Laura will communicate with other libraries not represented at ELT
    • Wolbach
    • Berenson
    • Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library?
    • Ctr Hellen Studies
    • Dumbarton Oaks
    • Houghton Library
    • Schlesinger Library
  • If people opt in to the delay, we can simplify the hold notice to remove the time-sensitive language

Alma Release Notes

  • Action: Julie will take over drafting monthly update notes for Fulfillment, RS, and Course Reserves
  • Action: On 11/18/19, Julie will check Alma release notes (Fulfillment, Resource Sharing, and Course Reserves) > play with in the Sandbox > type up notes and share with Laura > blue star things that could go out in announcement emails > everything go to the wiki
  • hlcomms announcement 1 week before production

Item is on hold shelf for another patron

  • Proxies can only request under their name, would require to “override” to check out to sponsor
  • Currently shared logins can do this override, but problems arise (Jackson), should we turn this off? Action: Julie bring to ELT and report back

October 10, 2019

Agenda:

  • Primo/Reserves scope (currently configured on HOLLIS QA/Alma Sandbox for testing): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nNHN1Vz46Cpd4F0e8i6Sw5snQfrkEjW1JonnZpms1iE
  • Time to reshelve update?
  • What to do about J-term recalls?
  • KY currently testing loan return anonymization. Target rollout date: 11/5 (pending ExLibris clarification on some aspects of the job that don't seem to be working on Sandbox). What communication needs to go out about this?
  • Modify recall email notification language: Can we updated it to include a links to additional information?
    • Remember that the "Change due date" notice goes out for many different reasons...links would have to make sense for all notice occasions.
  • JP: Just learned (in the Tech Lending Working Group) that Cabot is using 3-day for VR sets.

Notes:

Future Meetings

  • Cancel December and January
  • Have Laura M. sit in for February and March
  • Action: Alma enhancements? Fulfillment and Course Reserves
    • Julie can draft in wiki page and send note to Laura Morse for review: Alma Release Notes. New month's page is typically created around the time of the sandbox release (2 weeks prior to Production release). 
    • Kara will resume updates when she returns.

Course Reserves in HOLLIS

  • Advanced search Course Reserves sandbox
  • Action: Course reserves people test in the sandbox before next meeting
  • In production, you would only see the current semester’s courses

Time in Reshelving Alma Enhancement

  • Making no updates at this time
  • Action: Amy is confirming that Widener is all set, via Steve

Recalls During J-Term

  • Action: Discuss at Extended Leadership Team (Access Services)
    • What do you want your library’s Alma hours to be on 12/23 and 12/24?
    • Recall Option 1: Close libraries during January
      • This would mean that recall dates would fall at the start of the spring semester
      • Pros:
        • Patrons won’t be asked to return items during j-term
      • Cons:
        • Would prevent j-term reserve processing – could be mitigated if staff manually change the due date after recalling the item
        • Could delay reserves processing for the spring;
        • Special borrowers won’t have access to borrowed items over January
        • Libraries with short term loans (3-hour loans) would need to override each loan in order to set a due date and time; only certain staff can override; do overdue fines get calculated if the library is “closed”?
    • Recall Option 2: Temporarily extend recall due dates
      • Instead of items being due 7 days after recall, they could be due 7+ days
      • Pros:
        • Patrons have more time to return recalled items
      • Cons:
        • Would prevent j-term reserve processing – could be mitigated if staff manually change the due date after recalling the item
        • Could delay reserves processing for the spring;
        • Special borrowers won’t have access to borrowed items over January
    • Recall Option 3: Temporarily turn off recall overdue fines
      • Identify a time frame in which patrons are not charged overdue-recall fines
        • Requires a lot of testing for feasibility (Julie and Kara)
        • Would require an internal communication plan so all service point staff know what is happening (Wollbach)
      • Pros:
        • Keep existing recall processes in place, including 7-day due dates, but eliminate fines from patrons (no negative impacts on reserve processing or special borrower access)
        • Eliminates the need to apply credits to patron accounts (makes AR happy)
      • Cons:
        • Why have fines if we aren’t going to enforce them?
        • Unclear what happens when fines are turned back on. Do historical overdue-recalls get fines applied retroactively?
    • Recall Option 4: Keep everything the same, but increase communication efforts
      • Communication options:
        • Signs at desk? (not everyone comes into the library)
        • Emails? (would need approval; not everyone reads emails)
        • Website/HOLLIS? (would need approval, would people find it?)
        • Library twitter pages? (would need coordination with people in charge of twitter feeds; limited reach)
    • Recall emails:
      • Yes to changing language (can include links), but this notice goes out for all due date changes (e.g. patron’s account expired, [see notices page])
    • Action: Julie will share ELT decisions with Kara by 10/18/19

      • Resolution: The Access Services ELT (Extended Leadership Team) decided to not to change any of Alma’s recall configurations for J-Term. Instead, ELT has decided to be more proactive in communicating recall polices to patrons, document and distribute best practices for finding patrons alternatives, and document parameters for when Access Services will manually extend recall dates or forgive recall fines if no workable alternatives are found. A taskforce from ELT will move this work forward.

Expired Requests During Winter Break

  • Request > item not filled in 7 days > item marked missing and request cancelled
    • Removed the “7 day” parameter during the break on 12/20/19 – unfilled items will remain on lists
    • Reapply the “7 day” parameter = 1/10/20 – items that have been unfilled for 7+ days will be marked missing and the requests will be cancelled; items that have been unfilled for less than 7 days will remain active until they reach the 7 day cutout. Delaying until 1/10/20 gives libraries 7 days (at minimum) to catch up on the request queue that generated between 12/24/19 and 1/1/20.

Loan History in Alma

  • Kara is trying to get a daily job that erases circ history that is 61 days old to work
  • Once it does:
    • Launch by November 5
    • Communication plan. Who needs to know?
      • Library staff? Alma users? Fulfillment?

September 12, 2019

Agenda:

  • Corinna will attend for discussion of location-based fulfillment policy (joint TSWG-FWG project)
  • Temp employees and the Alma training portal (Julie)
  • Quick print: discuss if time

Notes:

Corinna—discuss switching from item policy to collection policy

  • Item policy—acquisitions and cataloging workflows are onerous—there are no default item policies and some items can be cataloged without a policy
  • Barcode and item policy in different screens = delays in processing time
  • Item policy can be exceptions to collection policies
  • Wouldn’t affect title level holds
  • Collection Developers would need to be consulted
  • Mixed material type and item policy collections
    • Widener
    • Gutman
    • This collection policy is actually a matrix of collection and material type to determine policy
  • Action Items:
    • Corinna is going to run reports to see how collections are broken down
      • Material types within a collection
      • Policies within materials types within a collection
    • Corinna is checking hold slips (Widener needs policy info for routing)
      • Item policy will be null on slip- but staff could be trained to interpret null value same as 01. 
    • Corinna and Kara will check BorrowDirect implications:
      • What comes through in BD z39.50 search in "AvailableThru" field (where item policy is mapped)?
      • If item policy is blank, no AvailableThru field is sent for the item at all (normal behavior is to send item policy code in this field, i.e. AvailableThru: 01").
      • Checking with BD/Relais support to see if this is okay- can we treat blanks in AvailableThru field as "01" policy items. 
        • KY: yes this is possible and configured in Sandbox/BD test. However, due to an apparent Relais limitation, only the AvailableThru value on the first item on a holding is read for availability. So if the first item has policy 02 and the second is blank, the item will appear as unavailable in BD. Needs further work with Relais support, but is ultimately unrelated to the issue of sending blank item policy.
    • Amy will talk to Ardys and Spruill will discuss with Jessica to discuss pilot at Tozzer
    • Gutman possible pilot? Julie talk to LST.
    • Corinna: Open exploratory meeting to discuss this idea? Laura Morse thinks an open meeting would be helpful.
      • How will it be announced? HLComms—Amy will discuss with Suzanne.

Alma Training:

  • Temps can access
  • Do we want to promote it more?

Quick Printing:

  • In production, some people might be using it
  • The error message in sandbox is probably because the patron isn’t receiving a notice
  • The print queue is not currently available to non-administrators, will be rolled out later—when this happens, we will revisit this
  • If Kara receives questions, she’ll bring it back to this group

Auto-renewals

  • Can’t turn of auto-renewals without turning off renewals
  • 7 days loans are not recallable
  • Get all Widener DVDs flipped to 01?

Cleanup 88 items?

  • Timeline to clean up: 6 months after item policies are finalized
  • Batch job to switch 88 to 92
  • 88 does not suppress items—only way to suppress is on Holding or Bib level

August 22, 2019

Agenda:

  • Reading room holdshelf for VR/LG is currently 10 days. Should it be 7 days instead?
    • Will check with LAW and will need to send communication
  • Direct-to-printer circ desk printing options (September release now on Sandbox): testing needed
  • Time to reshelve config: from August release
  • Item policy inquiries and next steps
    • CAB policy 63 items: okay to flip to 01 (done)
    • WID Slavic- probably can flip to something else from 93- Kara will follow up with Lidia (update: 9/11/19, KY met with Lidia and she gave the okay to move these items to status 62).
    • TOZ items in 04 can be 02 (done)
    • LAW items in 04 can be 02 (per Ryan- done)
    • DDO: items in policy 63 (Can they be at 92 instead; Yes-done)
    • WID Roosevelt: asked Johnny if they can just be 01. 81 an 82 were previously used for a smart barcoding project. (KY update: was given the okay to flip these to 62 and Roosevelt is done). 
    • Current documentation is here: Item Policies

Notes:

Phillips Reading Room Hold Shelf

  • Change holds to 10 days?
  • Action: Kara will ask Brian about this for Law.
    • KY: Law needs this as they don't use true RR functionality (don't actually lend items using it). I relayed to WID PRR that other libraries need the 10-day holdshelf. PRR was under the impression that the extended hold shelf for VR and LG was a mistake, but this is probably because the documentation mentions a 7-day hold shelf. Issue seems resolved; updated doc to reflect true 10-day hold shelf for these populations.
    • Resolution: none taken at this time

Enhancements

  • Printing enhancement: will allow you to print directly to printers
    • Action: Jason, Jackson, Julie will conduct some testing before our next meeting (September 12).
    • Assuming that testing goes well, how should we role this out? Do we start with a pilot?
    • Action: Kara will check on Admin print queue permissions, how long notices stay in the queue.
    • Action: Kara will turn off email printing in the sandbox for us testing Quick Print: KY: done 
    • What happens if a student worker processes a bin (without Quick Print on) using their general login and then needs to get a supervisor with queue privileges to bulk print.
  • Time to Reshelve

Item Policy

  • Jaime sent many emails (thank you!) and got some answers from folks; Kara made the changes when possible
  • Action: Ronnie will bring the question of what policy Widener DVDs should have to the Metadata standards working group
  • Action: Kara will consolidate info, summarize where we are, and a list of what still needs to be flipped by September 9
  • Action: Amy will take the recommendations to the EOC
  • FWG will need next steps from EOC
    • Communication plan


August 7, 2019

Agenda:

  • Proxy patrons making requests for the person they are a proxy for? (JP)
  • Turning on Instructor rollover from Canvas Course entry page (August Leganto enhancement) Needs documentation update on Reserves Libguide

Notes:

Item Policy Consolidation, part 2

  • (62) for historical and local procedure purposes this code isn’t available for S&D.
  • Are the Roosevelt’s circulating? Check with Johnny.
  • Ask Wolbach what their (04)s are?
  • Jaime will ask Isabel what Tozzer’s (04)s are and if they can be (02)s.
  • Kara will ask Dumbarton what their (63)s are and if they can be (02)s.
  • Jaime will ask Cabot about their (63)s are and if they can be (02)s.
  • Jaime will ask Jane about (82)s and if they can be (62)s.
  • Julie, ask Brian: What are Law’s (94)s.
  • (92)s are for “special collections” that are not requestable and shouldn’t be in Aeon
  • (93)s to (92)s Jaime will ask Lidia.
  • Ask Judaica to move their 1 (95) item to another item policy- moved to 92 and added note to policy 95

Proxy patrons

  • It's been documented and ExLibris knows, but there is no current update

July 25, 2019

Agenda:

  • Follow-up on last meeting's action items
  • Item policy consolidation action item
  • Reserves options to turn on

Notes:

Item Policy Consolidation

Action Items:

  • Jaime will check Work Order training documentation to make sure it is up-to-date

  • Kara is going to continue testing the Overdue notices with Jaime

  • Jackson looking into 1-day loans with fines

July 11, 2019

Agenda:

  • Follow-up on last meeting's action items
  • Item policy consolidation action item
  • Question about Reserves processing: Cancelled citation move requests
  • July Alma Release notes

Notes:

Follow-up on Action Items

  • Legacy Item Policy spreadsheet was created and shared
  • Carol will write a follow-up to her OneList idea. She was asked: Why she thinks the rebranding is important and what benefits she anticipates as a result of the rebranding (and particularly why the name needs to be changed to realize those benefits).
  • HeyCarrel has been added to the production list—Alma liaisons need to help prioritize it
    • Kara still needs to test how the request queue could be affected by returning an item from one location with the intention of checking it out to another
    • Claims Returned: brought to Access Services middle mangers, task group formed.
      • Action Item (Kara): Can we push the automatic switch from Claims Returned to Lost from 45 to 365 days? This way patrons aren’t receiving bills while the task group works out what our workflows will be (note: AS also needs to work out the Lost workflows, which have not been re-established post-Alma)
      • NERS votes submitted
      • Kara: No additional reserves testing done yet

Questions about Reserves Processing

  • If a “Move temporarily” request is cancelled, the requester does not receive a notification—this is a problem
  • Reading List à Select All à Place Request à items appear on library pick lists (which have the options to skip location, etc.) à sometimes the library that gets the item on the pick list is weird (e.g. Lamont reserve skips poetry room and directs request to Schlesinger)
    • Widener’s pick lists do not include “temporary move request” so staff have been going through reading lists and avoiding adding Widener holdings in the bulk Place Request feature
    • Local workflows could be reviewed to solve some issues that are coming up
    • Do people know how to use Work Orders? Placing Work Orders is straightforward, but processing Work Orders can be complicated.
      • Clicking “cancel” does not actually clear the Work Order
      • Action Item: Jaime will check Work Order training documentation to make sure it is up-to-date
      • Best practice: include notes when placing the Work Orders
      • If someone places a Work Order to have an item delivered to Widener, for example, they do not get a notice when the item arrives to Widener. You also do not get notifications if a Work Order is cancelled.
      • We have Guest accounts, add them to Alma and then use the Reading Room feature (so they can request items from HD)

Action Item: Kara is going to continue testing the Overdue notices with Jaime

July Release Notes

  • There are a lot of reserves updates
  • Fulfillment
    • User notes can be configured to be a pop-up note
    • Selecting request locations:
      • Transit time rules: can be configured to force Alma to pick a library that is geographically closer to the requesting library à FWG does not see the value in configuring this at this time
      • Course Reserves/Leganto
        • Review next time
        • Ronnie: wrote workflow for how to respond to “broken link” reports, willing to share it with the group
          • Alma does not report to the patron that the “broken link” had been fixed, so this needs to be done manually
          • Would there be any way to inform the entire class that the link had been updated, that way people who had the problem but did not report it would have a chance of receiving the update

Item Policy Standardization, Next Steps:

  1. Kara fact-checks the Alma Item Polices worksheet and emails group when complete
  2. Group then reviews the worksheet and decides whether
    1. These options are enough to move forward with recommendations
    2. We need (62) or (61)
    3. At July 25 meeting we decide what our next, next steps are

Action Items:

  • Kara: Can we push the automatic switch from Claims Returned to Lost from 45 to 365 days? This way patrons aren’t receiving bills while the task group works out what our workflows will be (note: AS also needs to work out the Lost workflows, which have not been re-established post-Alma)
  • Jaime will check Work Order training documentation to make sure it is up-to-date

  • Kara is going to continue testing the Overdue notices with Jaime

  • Item Policy Standardization:
    • Kara fact-checks the Alma Item Polices worksheet and emails group when complete
    • Group then reviews the worksheet and comes to the July 25 meeting prepared to discuss whether...
      • These options are enough to move forward with recommendations
      • We still need (62) or (61)?
    • At July 25 meeting we "finalize" the item policy options are decide what our next, next steps are

June 27, 2019

Agenda:

  • Follow-up on last meeting's action items? (JP)
  • Leganto LTI config: Proposal to replace "Library Reserves" in Canvas Course Navigation with "OneList" (GSE only)
  • Questions from Access Middle-Managers June 12, 2019 meeting:
    • Update on the "Hey Carrel" API
    • What happens when BD and ILL items are checked to carrels (e.g. at Widener)? Is it consistent to what happens when these items are checked out to a person? For instance, are the loan periods consistent?
      • KY: Don't all items checked out at Carrel desks retain their original item policies (ie.- term loans for 01, 20 weeks for Resource Sharing)?
        • If not, can someone provide an example where this did not happen?
        • If an item is accidentally loaned to a carrel: return the item and reloan at regular circ desk. No override necessary/no block (at present). We have discussed blocking subsequent loans of RS materials to prevent patron abuse, however. The only time an override is necessary under current config is if the item has a work order on it (queued up on item and waiting for item return to be activated).
        • Check what happens if there is a request queue on such an item.
        • We can add it back in to the post-Alma cutover projects list.
        • Could we do an analytics report of items requested that were loaned at carrel desk? Logistics aren't clear on how carrel recall pulls are managed.
  • Claimed returned status options
    • Alma claimed returned status doesn't protect the patron from fines (makes the item unavailable for request). Fines still accrue as usual during this period.
    • I think we can set items that are claimed returned to not go to lost for a longer period of time. Cannot prevent fines from accruing if item has been recalled- these would need to be manually waived.
  • Reading Room functionality: check in/check out
  • NERS enhancement voting- final thoughts?
  • Reserves processing workflow- restore requests

Notes:

Action Item Follow-up:

  • Jaime completed testing, she sent a summary email to the group
  • Kara ran a report of items by Item Policy, Library, and Location

Leganto LTI configuration:

  • Leganto link appears as “Library Reserves” in Canvas, GSE wants to know if it can be rebranded, suggests OneList
  • We discussed it, but we feel we need more information; the group is largely concerned about a consistent user experience for cross-registered students
  • Action Item: Kara ask Carol to write up some clarification of her goals and perceived advantages

HeyCarrel

  • Carrels are managed by a separate tool, done outside of Alma
  • Carrels are associated with users; each carrel has a unique item record and are checked out to people for [some number of days that Julie didn’t catch; 120?)
  • To check out items to the carrel, have to change to the Carrel Circ Desk, then check out to the patron; then change back to the original circulation desk, otherwise problems occur
    • Items checked-out at the Carrel location are ineligible to leave the building (for libraries that use Secure Exit), meaning security (at Widener at least) will stop people from leaving the building with the item
    • Items can be checked in and then checked back out at the appropriate desk, but concerns arise if there is a request queue (no way to get it to the original patron without messing with the queue)
    • Can we change the color/branding between desks/locations? Could give another visual queue…[Not currently]
    • If things need to be pulled from carrels because they have been requested, is that working okay?
      • Collection Management is still getting notifications for items still checked out to pseudopatrons
      • Action Item: Kara will put HeyCarrel onto the project prioritization timeline

Claimed Returns

  • Only thing that currently happens when you mark something “claim returned” is that it isn’t requestable
  • Fines still accrue (if the item was requested before the “claim returned” status is applied), item still gets marked lost in 45 days—can be configured to a longer timeframe
  • Action Item: Amy will bring to Spruill to add to a Manager’s group agenda
    • Do we charge patrons for “claimed returned” items? If no, we need to figure out a search process, now long we need to process this, get the item off the person’s account before it gets marked to Lost and the replacement fine are applied

Reading Room Functionality:

  • Reading rooms have not been configured to loan 02 to “normal patrons”
  • There may be a way to loan items at Reading Room Desks for different loan periods than the default loan configuration; Kara has a ticket open to look into it

NERS Enhancement Voting:

  • Action Item: Kare will pass on that FWG supports the pop up notice and the item set recommendation

Reserves Processing Workflow

  • See “[alma-fulfillment-wq] Course reserves Restore function” email chain
  • Action Item: Kara is still working through it; Alma restore/return functions might not be the broken piece here, it might have been an error in the HD returns/reshelving process and the nightly scripts that need to be run to update item location/availability in Alma

Item Policy Standardization Documentation

  • TOUs are currently working, but legacy polices are confusing
  • Goal, consolidate and remove old polices so that people aren’t confused by legacy options in the system
  • Action Items:
    • Julie creates a spreadsheet that combines the chart on the wiki with the report that Kara ran (which is also on the wiki)
    • Group reviews the report to identify which legacy policies can be reassigned/decommissioned and makes comments in spreadsheet before July 11 meeting
    • Some questions:
      • Does the current behavior make sense?
      • Is there a reporting need being filled by these policy types we are unaware of?
      • What other considerations are there when thinking of officially decommissioning policy types?

Action Items:

  • JP to start a new Google doc for Item policy consolidation discussion. 
    • For next meeting (July 11) all review and make notes/recommendations
  • Regarding Leganto LTI config: KY to update Gutman that more information is needed to recommend any changes at this time.
  • There is still a need for the Carrel API. KY confirm that it's still on the Alma post-cutover prioritization list: Yes. Link here. Work still TBD. Recommend that FWG AEOC liaisons prioritize in next meeting.
    • Could we do an analytics report of items requested that were loaned at carrel desk (KY)
    • What happens if there is a request queue on an item accidentally loaned at a carrel (KY)
  • Claim returned changes: policy needs review by Access Services to determine next best action
  • NERS voting: FWG recommends putting votes toward the Pop-up notices at Scan-in items enhancement if there are votes remaining. Low priority. KY noted on Harvard internal doc.
  • Reserves processing: KY needs to do further testing to confirm proper handling/restoring of reserves items (when they are at the point of reshelving).

Kickoff meeting, June 4, 2019 at 3pm

Agenda:

  • Review of Charge
  • Proposed meeting structure:
    • Every other Thursday, starting June 27th, through August 25, 2019 from 2:30-4 (is this enough time?)
    • Then 2nd Thursday of the month, starting September 12th from 2:30-4 (ongoing)
  • Review of zzArchived -- FWG Implementation Issues in progress
  • Items for consideration from TSWG:
    • Catalogers need more guidance on what item policies should be for the different libraries/locations and material types. ITS maintains some information but it's limited to whether something is Regular Loan etc., but not whether it's 01 vs. 61, for example. Sometimes they pick something and are told later it has to be changed because it's the wrong one.
    • Allowing blank item policies:
      • We're also interested in learning more about Alma's capabilities for setting defaults by location. For example, if it were possible to have circulating collections default to Regular Loan, that could be a big time saving for staff. TSWG would like to know more about the options here, like whether these defaults could account for material type, so that Books could be Regular Loan and Issues could be in-library use, for example.

Notes:

  • We are “productionizing”
  • Introductions
  • Tell us your needs and pain points so that they are met
  • Review of the charge
  • Most meetings will have an agenda and issues to work through
  • We have monthly Alma releases
    • Kara fills in things that are relevant to Fulfillment, Leganto, Reserves
    • If things need configuration because of Alma releases, we will do that
    • Do we need to review the monthly release notes at the meetings? Or do we want to just come with questions? Sometimes feels like it is hard to keep up with them.
      • Releases are mostly fixes, so they are good to review to see if an old problem of yours has been resolved.
  • Scheduling of meetings—open to discussion and revision
  • Different people were selected for different reasons, different strengths—if kept in mind it could help us focus our attentions
    • Jackson: Large library, circulation
    • Ryan: Reserves work
    • Ronnie: Liaison to small libraries
    • Jason: Resource Sharing
    • Jamie: work with LTS, circulation at 625
  • Despite representation, there are a lot of libraries not in this room—where does the authority lie to make decisions? In the group? In the EOC?
    • Looking at a problem
    • Figuring out a solution
    • Making a communication plan—we really need to remember this—this is how it will affect different libraries
  • Julie will take notes for now—can revisit if necessary and make it rotating
  • Issues in Process—What is a priority? Some things are more complicated that others…
    • Item Policy Standardization and documentation
      • When we moved to Alma we attempted to standardize some item policies
      • There were different versions of what would happen floating around
      • Some changes were made via Alma TOU (terms of use)
        • Everything is configured in Fulfillment Units that have TOUs applied
        • Can think of CIRC buckets; locations = collections in Alma
        • Everything that was a 1, 2, or 3 hour reserve loan, are now 3 hour loans via the TOU
        • Rules are based on item policy OR user group; we don’t currently do location-based rules, but this is something we might want to discuss
          • When you create an item, the default is no item policy, so it is easy for catalogers to leave it blank—interest from that group to not rely on item policy as much; also because catalogers don’t necessarily know what the appropriate item policy is
          • Things without rules will do a semester loan
      • Made a good attempt to test each policy, but did fix things as issues arose
      • Do people know that 09 (1 hour loans) now circulate as 11 (3 hour loans); what happens on the ground when people notice the discrepancy?
        • Options for solution
          • Convert legacy policies to new policies (instead of using the TOU to manage this)
          • Keep the TOUs and create a table of how the legacy policies map to the how they now behave
          • Should we look at the type of materials that use a particular code? Is it actually a decision from Collections that we need input on?
          • Work backwards to figure out what Item Polices do we need
          • Kara can document want the choices are for loan periods and work within that framework to review
          • Make a meeting to review the list: Short term goal is clean-up; long term goal might be thinking of moving to Collection policy over Item policy
      • Ultimately, this is a high priority for the FWG to sort through
    • Documentation
      • Item Policies
      • Auto-renewals? Kara is asked many “How do renewals work?” questions
      • Difference between scan-in items and return items
      • Billing for reserves/short term loans; Kara gets a lot of questions about this
      • Should this group review existing documentation in the “Functional area documentation” and identify gaps?
    • Limits in Access to reserves materials?
      • Concern that items are available to the students who need them
      • If you have items that are short-term loans that are not reserves then they wouldn’t be affected
      • Amy will get more information on this and see if we can get sign-off on it from LLT
    • Billing for overdue reserves/short term loans
      • Why isn’t it charging by the minute any more?
        • We used to bill during closing, we don’t want to do that, and don’t do that any more
        • There is no setting by the minute, so to compensate they have a built in grace period of 1 hour
        • This is what it is, but how do we document it and communicate it out?
      • Reserve loans billed $3/hr fines
      • Short-term loans, only 3-hour loans, billed $3/hr fines; other short-term loans do not have overdue fines
    • Overdue notice config
      • Action: Change the 7 day courtesy notice to 5 day courtesy notice; develop an action plan
      • Jaime: test whether an overdue notice goes out at 15 days overdue
      • Q: What are our replacement policies?
      • Q: For how long can you return the item and have the lost item replacement fee waived?
      • Q: How do credits get applied?
    • Patron facing notices inventory
      • Needs a communication plan
    • Patron loan history limit to 60 days in Alma (already only 60 days in HOLLIS)
      • Still needs testing
      • Once complete, needs documentation and communication plan
      • Once requests are cancelled, that information is gone—problematic if the request is accidentally cancelled and we can’t reapply it
      • Why does Alma save loan history, not request history?
    • How to handle requests and recalls during intersession
      • If the library is closed, you can’t check-out short term loans without an override, which limits the number of staff who can do this work
      • 7-day recall, is it 7 open days? Or 7 calendar days?
      • Turn off the ability to recall during the break? Not great for those doing reserves.
      • Have all recalls over break have a fixed due date (beginning of term)? Also not great for those doing reserves.
    • All patron-facing notices to have barcode and call number of item
      • Kara: Needs configuring
      • Updating item: deletes original and creates updated copy
    • 02 items lending period
  • Item Policy Standardization and documentation is our priority for the next meeting; Kara will run reports to see what and how many items are assigned to the legacy Item Policy

Action Items:

Jaime: test whether an overdue notice goes out at 15 days overdue

Kara: run reports to see what and how many items are assigned to each legacy Item Policy

Future discussion needed:

  • Change the 7 day courtesy notice to 5 day courtesy notice; develop a communication plan
  • Config of requests and recalls during intersession