NSW PUBLIC LIBRARIES DOCUMENT DELIVERY WORKING GROUP MEETING MINUTES
Date: Monday 2nd May 2022
Venue: Online via Zoom
Time: 2.00pm – 5.00pm
Chairperson: Anne Laidlaw, City of Sydney
Secretary: Kristin Ovidi, Sutherland
Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
Revisit and appoint Chairperson and Secretary roles for 2022. Congratulations and welcome to Shelley Petchell from Cumberland! Shelley will be working with Anne to chair the remaining two meetings of 2022 with the view to take on the Chairperson role in 2023. The role of Secretary is still open.
2. Apologies
Fujing Zhao, Ku-ring-gai.
3. Confirmation of the minutes dated 7th February 2022
Minutes were confirmed by general consensus.
4. Actions arising from previous meeting
Two new surveys on Lending AV and LOTE Items on ILL
These surveys were sent to the ills and multicultural services elists in March 2022. The results were sent out to everyone on Thursday 28/4/22. If anyone missed out on completing the surveys, please let Anne know and she will send you the link. 15 responses were received for the AV survey and 13 for the LOTE survey with a couple received today which have yet to be added to these totals. The surveys are also posted on the wiki (both questions and results in Excel format) – just look under the Community Languages and Finding DVDs sections. If there is anything out of place or if your information hasn’t been included, please let Anne know. The issue was raised by Mayer (Canterbury Bankstown) that while looking at the AV results, she noticed that not many metropolitan libraries participated in the survey and questioned why. Anne responded that instead of sending the surveys to ill elist, they will be sent to individual libraries.
Action: In a couple of weeks Anne will send out the link to the survey forms directly to the public libraries on the Van Run who have not yet had the chance to fill them out.
Hard2find list error
RESOLVED. Check if any further issues have been recorded when posting to the hard2find elist. Fujing (Ku-ring-gai) was going to inform Abby if there were any more problems but no further issues were reported.
5. State Library of NSW report
ILLs guidelines/training
~ Anne checked with Abby (SLNSW) about the possibility of a training session on using the new catalogue as it has a new interface. Abby will follow this up with Maria Wiemers. The training may be run via MS Teams – more information to follow.
~ A staff member from Penrith reached out to SLNSW to enquire whether there were any updated procedures/guidelines in place for training new staff in ILLs. Anne mentioned that when the information from the old wiki was transferred to the new one, a help guide (created by Teresita in 2013) was included: Help Sheet for Library Staff.
Action: This is an area which is being looked at by the ALIA ILL Committee and, at present, there could already be some information available. Anne will reach out to Penrith and get some clarification on what information is required. Anne also mentioned that she is part of the ALIA Working Group and is working on an official training course so that there will be something staff can refer to such as new starter guidelines.
6. Multicultural Services report
New Telugu collection
The Multicultural Services’ new Telugu collection will be launched at Blacktown and Cumberland – 4th June for Blacktown and end of August for Cumberland. These libraries will receive a large chunk of the collection and will house them for an extended period of time. Telugu will be added to the online Multicultural Bulk Loan Request Form and libraries will be able to request books in this language. Abby reminded us that if there is a language not listed on form which we are interested in, to get in touch with her.
Lost items
Abby requested that before charging our borrowers for a lost bulk loan title, please check with the Multicultural Services Team first. There may be instances where the item does not need to be paid for e.g. older titles or, at times, items that have been returned are missed being checked in.
Bulk loan query
Ania (Campbelltown) was interested in knowing what extended loan periods are available for bulk loans – what is the maximum amount of time? Abby confirmed that the maximum number of items per box is 30 and length of time is 6 months. You can, however, have more than 1 request in for the same language to help stagger requests.
Bulk loans and RFID
Ania was wondering how other libraries process their bulk loans which are loaned via RFID machines (Campbelltown uses Spydus and their self-checkers read the SLNSW barcodes). If libraries could send through any tips, instructions or photos of their processes to Ania, she would appreciate it. Please email her at: ania.milczarczky@campbelltown.nsw.gov.au. Shelley mentioned that at Cumberland they place cardboard slips with a tag into the yellow pockets stuck inside the books. Ania mentioned that not all books have pockets – this was noted by Abby and asked us to let the Multicultural Services Team know about which titles don’t have them so that they can be replaced.
7. Van Run
No van issues reported.
8. The Wiki
No updates here.
9. Libraries Australia/LADD issues
Reversing LADD charges link
Shelley (Cumberland) raised a query regarding how to submit a request to reverse a charge on LADD. Mayer (Canterbury Bankstown) pointed out that this information is no longer searchable via Google.
Action: Anne has added a link to the wiki to the reversal of charges on LADD. You will find it under the Resources document delivery LADD section. You will also find it here: https://librariesaustraliaref.nla.gov.au/reft100.aspx?pmi=734021192780886281
Trove data harvesting
A discussion arose about the Trove Partners Harvesting Program which is currently being utilised by Canada Bay, Liverpool, Waverley and recently, City of Sydney. John (Canada Bay) has noticed an increase in interstate requests since joining the harvesting program last year but it is hard to tell whether this is a backlog from last year or a new trend. No-one else attending the meeting who uses LADD has noticed an increase in interstate requests. When using LADD, John has observed that a lot of libraries aren’t harvesting – so if he can’t find an item on LADD, he needs to search individual libraries’ catalogues. The question arose - How many libraries are part of the harvesting program?
John has also chatted with a Victorian Library who reported that since coming on board with LADD, they are now getting more requests and he also noticed an increase in some public libraries (e.g. in Victoria) beginning to charge other free libraries. John also chatted to a Queensland library and they were getting charged for borrowing items as well.
How does Trove data harvesting work?
The Trove Partners Harvesting Project allows libraries to engage in daily data harvesting so that results displayed in Trove searches are up-to-date. Jody (Woollahra) gave a helpful explanation of how this works, and that libraries which do not make use of the harvesting program may only update their holdings in Libraries Australia once per year. This means that items showing on Libraries Australia have often been discarded from the system and the only way to know his would be to search individual catalogues. Waverley has been involved with data harvesting for a while whereas Woollahra has only being do this for a short time. Liverpool has had data harvesting since October 2020 but have had some problems with it since January 2022 where not all their deleted items had been removed. This issue was fixed in early May.
10. Suggested topics for discussion
ILL Benchmarking Project
The NSWPLA Sydney South Zone Managers (represented by Waverley, City of Canada Bay and Sutherland Libraries) decided in 2021 to undertake a review of ILL procedures/functions/technology across public libraries via the ILL Benchmarking Project. These Managers meet three times each year and it was decided that a snapshot of how libraries manage their ILLs services would provide valuable information on best practice. Debbie Best (Sutherland, since retired) put together a briefing document to share with managers across the network. Lisa (Canada Bay) and Thomas (Sutherland) are now compiling the data that they have been collecting. It was stressed that the Project is a way of looking at best practice only and is in no way a plan of cutting back on ILL services. It’s a way of assessing what is working well and what may be improved in the future.
Guest speakers today were Jody (Woollahra now, but formerly at Waverley) and Thomas (Sutherland). Thomas has been working on a snapshot Sutherland’s statistics gathered over the past five years, he has been liaising with Lisa (Canada Bay) and they aim to have the results out over the next few weeks – results will be posted on the wiki. A survey will also be circulated to the ILL elist in the coming weeks, with the questions made as easy as possible for libraries to answer with the aim of providing a snapshot of how different libraries work. The hope is that the ILL Benchmarking Project may lead to improvements that will benefit all. Any questions on the upcoming survey should be directed to Thomas at tmacrae@ssc.nsw.gov.au
A recording of today’s discussion on the Project can be found: https://sl-nsw-gov-au.zoom.us/rec/share/RRRjWJj_cLb1ANEiV29XvGTY7sUttqIu8kWeyhLVG6toRK2J9xL3zIGTOqn_lVJJ.Ed1mL6hDcaIJTMTw
ILL replacement charges
How does your library keep track of replacement charges? Fujing previously raised the question regarding how libraries keep track of replacement charges for books their borrowers have lost belonging to other libraries? Is it a case-by-case basis or do you have to raise purchase orders? Anne mentioned that City of Sydney had lost an item in the past, but as it was old she was told no need to pay a replacement fee so each case is different. This topic will be raised at the August meeting where we will check-in with Fujing again.
ILL charges increasing in July 2022
The new financial year in July will see an increase in charges in line with the annual CPI. The increase was noted in the ALIA weekly newsletter dated 13/4/22 and is currently being approved by ALIA/NLA. New charges should be released soon (May/June 2022) and will be circulated via the ill elist by Anne.
11. General business
SLNSW Catalogue training
Maria Wiemers mentioned at the previous February meeting that there may be an opportunity for training in how to use the new SLNWS’s catalogue. The new interface means searching is different so training would be appreciated to ensure the ILL community uses it effectively.
Action: Abby to follow-up with Maria if a date for training has been arranged.
Elists Reply-all
This is a reminder not to ‘reply-all’ when responding to emails from the ill and hard2find elists. A question was raised whether it is necessary to respond to an elist request if your library does not have the item. It was agreed to only respond if you are able to supply. This information will be added to the Elist Etiquette section on the wiki.
Action: A reminder was sent out by Abby on Tuesday 3/5/22 with the following information regarding replying to elists:
A reminder that when you reply to an email received through any of the e-lists you will Reply All to the whole list.
To avoid this, please click Reply All, and then remove the e-list address from the 'To' field. The email of the person you are replying to will be in the 'CC' field.
If you are replying to a request from a library for a specific title, please reply directly the person requesting the title.
If you do not hold a copy of the book that has been requested, you do not need to reply.
This was discussed and agreed at the ILL Working Group Meeting yesterday.
Stocktaking of library collections
The question was asked about how libraries manage taking an inventory of their collections and what do you do if an item is missing from your inventory list? How do you acknowledge this on your catalogue to distinguish it from other general missing items? John reported that they do regular weeding – items are given a status of ‘missing’ on the catalogue but a different status is allocated if item not found during an inventory. Helen (Wingecarribee) mentioned that items are placed to ‘missing inventory’ versus the general ‘trace’ items. Sutherland also distinguishes between ‘missing’ and ‘missing inventory’.
12. Next meetings
Monday 1st August 2022 - via Zoom
Monday 5th December 2022 – SLNSW (TBC)
December meeting. As the December meeting will most likely be held at the SLNSW, it was suggested that we might move the meeting to a Wednesday (not the usual Monday) and end the meeting with a visit to The Library Bar in the Mitchell building.
13. Attendees:
- Abby Dawson, SLNSW
- Alice Wong Riley, Woollahra
- Ania Milczarczyk, Campbelltown
- Anne Laidlaw, City of Sydney
- Deanne Kennedy, Central Coast
- Deborah Malcolm, Stanton
- Dianne Jenkins, Newcastle
- Helen Cowen, Wingecarribee
- John Hogan, Canada Bay
- Jody Rodas, Woollahra
- Kalyani, Ku-ring-gai
- Kristin Ovidi, Sutherland
- Mark Ross, Ryde
- Mayer Wu, Canterbury Bankstown
- Shona Tait, Mosman
- Sharon Downie, Liverpool
- Shelley Petchell, Cumberland
- Teresita Quinones, Waverley
- Thomas MacRae, Sutherland
- Tonia Bartolozzi, Ku-ring-gai