ACQUISITIONS / SERIALS FUNCTIONAL CONTACT MEETING # 5 Held at King's College April 27, 2004 MINUTES ATTENDEES: Linda Aiken, Karen Chandler, Bill Fancy, Peter Glenister, Paulette Lambert, Elaine MacLean, Lloyd Melanson, Verna Mingo, Bev Neable, Heather Saunders, Amanda Sparks, Florence Wardrope, Terri Winchcombe, Ella-Fay Zalezsak ; [Mary Dobson and Cathy Toomey via Conference call] Regrets: Kit Clarke, Nick Sobol 1. LIBRARY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 1.1 Revised Timelines Revisions to the timelines were indicated and the possibility of vendor demonstrations being held in Nova Scotia were discussed 1. 2 LMS System Documentation and RFP Changes to the initially distributed timelines were reviewed with a suggestion that these might shift yet again as the LMS Committee works on putting together the RFP. Composition of the LMS committee was mentioned. General information regarding the RFP process and the role of "musts" and "should haves" were shared. 2. PRIORITY SETTING OF OUTSTANDING CONCERNS WITH NOVANET 2.1 Linking of Pieces to Parts issue outstanding from Conversion Killam Library, through the help of Karen Chandler, had a document prepared for student staff on how to manually deal with the problem of linking "pieces to parts" after determining that an automated method seemed unlikely. Both Karen Chandler and Ella-Fay Zalezsak had reviewed the steps to see if there were some common features or aspects that could be programmed but concluded that this would not be possible due to inconsistencies. At the meeting, Karen described the document. It was agreed that it would be useful to have the document available to all through the Novanet Acquisitions/Serials website. In addition, Sexton's Amanda Sparks mentioned GUI Holdings as a method of handling such items. Amanda is willing to share this document but attendees were reminded that the GUI Holdings module had not been rolled out. Support for problems encountered are not in place, but the document could be made available on the web. Amanda was asked to forward the document to Ella-Fay Zalezsak so that it can be sent along with the other documents to be posted. Ella-Fay Zalezsak will request for libraries (MSVU, DALKIL, DALTEC, SMU, NSCC, AST and SFX) a report of their "Bound Pieces" so that they can begin their corrections. 2.2 "5000" Records Further examination and investigation has stopped on this problem. Novanet members, who were working on the problem records, observed that approximately 60% of the records were now looking accurate in the test database. Problems were still being noticed with items having supplement holdings. At conversion time, GEAC had advised to enter two blanks and a carriage return to suppress the holdings statement from a supplement holdings record. Now this method was creating a problem. The only way to eliminate the duplicate occurrence on the GeoWEB screen is to pound key (#) the holdings statement off of the supplement holdings and file the record. While this causes the TELNET to have holdings check in information to appear for the supplement holdings, it corrects the GeoWEB display. A report will be put together for the office summarizing the findings and all spreadsheets returned to Ella-Fay Zalezsak will be forwarded to the Novanet office and GEAC. 2.3 EDI With the test base now freeing up from the above "5000 Records" concern, efforts will be made to proceed with EDI testing. Volunteers were requested, as Elaine MacLean will be going on sabbatical in June 2004. Verna Mingo and Terri Winchcombe stepped forward as volunteers. Others may be asked to also participate should the need arise. 3. STRATEGY FOR THE NEXT 18 MONTHS FOR ACQUISITIONS / SERIALS 3.1 Working Group Recommendations Document Discussion Items from the document were discussed with the approval to post document to the web. 3.2 Priorities Discussion took place around migration issues with the task to start to identify what areas may cause some migration problems. Call Number suffix, copy numbers, vendor codes and other potentially obsolete codes were mentioned. 3.3 Training Discussion took place on the need for Holdings training and training to match whatever the new system would require. A need for limiting changes to records that could have some effect on other libraries' records was mentioned. It was suggested that establishing "best practices" and that the former Working Group be revived to develop guidelines. 4. NOVANET PLANNING DAY Date set for the planning day is May 14, 2004 at the Casino Halifax. Information on what was going to be at the planning day was shared including a summary from the functional areas as to their activities. 5. VENDOR LMS DEMONSTRATIONS A question was raised whether a sample database of Novanet records could be submitted to prospective short listed vendors to use in their demonstrations. Ella-Fay Zalezsak will pass the suggestion forward. Discussion took place regarding major functionalities for serials and acquisitions in a library management system. Linda Aiken commented that in the last review, there was a checklist that people had at the vendor demonstrations and that some documentation from that may still be around. It was agreed that such a checklist is definitely needed when reviewing the features of a "new" system. It was further recommended that if most functional contacts were attending the demonstration, it would be best to call a quick meeting on site. This way impressions and comments could be gathered while still fresh in everyone's minds. All agreed that the efforts should be made to make this feasible. 6. STATISTICAL COUNTS Deferred to next meeting 7. MARC HOLDINGS Deferred to next meeting 8. Other Business