Public Services Committee meeting minutes
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Location: Baruch College Library
ATTENDEES
BB
BM
BX
BC
CC
CL
GC
GJ
HO
HC
JJ
KB
LG
LE
ME
NC
NY
QC
QB
SI
YC
OLS
Stephen Francoeur
Barbara Linton
Jane Cramer
Amrita Dhawan
Kathy Williams
Michael Adams
Janice Dunham
Wendy Chu
Madeline Cohen
Cydney P. Johnson
Joan Grassano
James T. Mellone
Barbara Bonous-Smit
Rebecca Adler Schiff
Dean Bryan, Marsha Clark, Kevin Collins, Larry McCue, Allie Verbovetskaya
MINUTES
1) Library systems updates
In November, IT Steering voted (again) to fund Primo.
Procurement is underway.
No reply yet from Vice Chancellors to Chiefs’ letter.
[UPDATE: Chief's received written response dated 3/6/13 from Executive Vice Chancellors Logue and
Dobrin.]
Meanwhile, some campuses are investigating Summon to purchase on their own.
OLS: It will be more expensive to go alone, plus Summon not workable discovery tool for Aleph catalog.
Advise not purchasing/implementing Summon if Primo is happening.
- CUNYfirst discussion. Based on reports from libraries where CUNYfirst is already implemented,
recommend everyone (Circ, Acq, Chiefs, etc.) be involved in CUNYfirst implementation as early as
possible.
2) Indexing and new RDA fields
Marsha showed a more detailed form of the contents note (505 $$t) which can be indexed in the Title
Browse index. The Committee agreed that when the database is re-indexed this change should be
made.
It had been requested that a Genre Index be created. However, the genre field (655) had been used
inconsistently. In addition, there are many thesauri that can be used in this field so the same genre can
have different names (e.g., "Mystery fiction" or "Detective and mystery fiction"). Both of these factors
could contribute to incomplete searches. Since these terms are in the Subject Word index (wsu) the
committee agreed that a genre index is not going to be useful
(Example of CCL search: wsu=documentary and wsu=films and wyr=2012).
RDA (Resource Description and Access) are new cataloging rules which have necessitated new MARC
fields in bibliographic records. Some of them affect the display of information in the OPAC.
264 can be used in place of the 260. The 264 can be repeated and can be used to indicate different
things such as produced, published, distributed and manufactured, as well as placing the copyright
information in a separate field. Marsha showed how these fields might be labeled and asked if this was
desirable and the committee agreed to use the labels. This can be changed later if desired.
The 260 field is currently labeled 'Publisher' but the field contains place and date of publication also.
Marsha suggested changing the label to Published, but the committee was not in agreement.
RDA replaces the bracketed information in the title such as [videorecording] and [electronic resource]
with three new fields 336, 337 and 338 (content type, media type and carrier type respectively). The
Cataloging Committee recommended that the 337 not be displayed at this time since it is somewhat
redundant. The Public Services Committee agreed to just display the 336 and 338 at this time,
unlabeled, directly below the 300 field.
The 336-338 are not yet indexed and it is not clear in which index they properly belong, so will leave out
of keyword search for now.
For more information, go to http://cunycataloging.pbworks.com (or simply Google "CUNY Technical
Services Wiki").
3) Allie demonstrated enhancements to catalog.
a) Mobile OPAC
Mobile devices automatically redirect to mobile catalog (so there is no new URL to learn or advertise)
Currently no advanced search function available in mobile.
Mobile catalog is Beta version because it is temporary (Primo will have its own mobile interface) and
because enhancements may still be implemented depending upon feedback.
OLS has been instructing committees to report problems with the mobile OPAC to the CUNY Service
Desk. All other issues (such as feature requests and display suggestions) should be routed through this
committee.
The committee discussed the current version:
- Reserve search option requested (Jane).
- "Log in" button in the top-right corner should be changed to "My Account" because it is misleading,
causing users to think they have to log in to search.
- Is top of screen too crowded with redundant info? Suggestion made to either drop logo or drop name
of college, but most committee thought both were useful. Allie will experiment and refer to the
committee for a final decision.
- Catalog should select school automatically (Wendy). It already does, provided that the school's library
website explicitly links to the catalog with the Aleph local base name in the URL (for example:
http://apps.appl.cuny.edu:83/F?func=find-b-0&local_base=NYCITY).
Some libraries, including the Grad Center, prefer to link to "All CUNY Libraries" search and this, too, can
be accomplished via local base name in the URL (for example:
http://apps.appl.cuny.edu:83/F?func=find-b-0&local_base=U-CUN01).
- Can mobile users view/get to the catalog from your campus website? Think about your website
design, specifically where the link to the catalog is placed.
Libraries are encouraged to let their users know about the mobile OPAC. Since there is no new URL,
librarians can just let patrons know that they can now access the catalog on their mobile devices.
Librarians may also want to create handouts with the catalog URL.
Further issues with mobile:
- Stephen asked whether it was necessary to provide the physical description of an item in the mobile
OPAC. Committee said that only the number of pages page number is useful to students. Allie and
Kevin will investigate whether it's possible to include only 300$a on the item info page in the mobile
OPAC.
b) Text Item Info
Allie also demonstrated a new feature, currently on Stage (also known as Train) where users can send
title and call number info to their mobile phones. Committee members are welcome to visit the Stage
OPAC and experiment with the feature:
http://trainlms.cuny.edu:8991/F.
- Some concerns expressed that patrons may think they can reserve the book using this function. Allie
will work on language for the OPAC (e.g., "Informational service only"). Message must be kept brief.
- Will add "Do Not Reply to this Message" note to the text message received by the patron.
Allie asked the committee if it would be possible to move the title to the first line on the holdings page
so the script that sends the text messages can always find it. (If there is a 100 field in the record, the
title will appear on the second line. Otherwise, it appears on the first line. Currently, only items whose
titles end in a slash are found by the script.) However, committee said that that is not a simple change.
Allie explained that, without this change, some items will not have the “Text Item Info” feature.
Stephen asked which items (and how many) would be affected by this and Marsha explained that older
items (those cataloged before a certain date) would be affected but all of the newer items will be
available for the script to find. Stephen suggested that, if the script could notify users that the feature
was unavailable for those specific items, we could move forward with this feature. The committee
didn’t disagree.
4). Next PSC Meeting: Wednesday, October 9, 2013 (10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)
Stephen to check room reservation (reservation confirmed).
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