Technical Services Committee Meeting: December 6, 2017

Conference Call

Members attending: 

Jessica Grzegorski (Newberry Library); Mary Konkel (College of DuPage); Joelen Pastva (Northwestern University); Gayle Porter (Chicago State University); Nicole Ream-Sotomayor (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Sandy Roe (Illinois State University); Cynthia Romanowski (chair; Governors State University)

Members absent:

Adrienne Radzvickas (Lincoln College); Chris Schmit (National-Louis University)

CARLI staff attending:

Jen Masciadrelli

Announcements:

Committee member announcements:

• Cynthia announced that two catalogers at Governors State University have retired and that I-Share Liaison Eric Nicholson passed away yesterday. The committee offers its condolences.
• Cynthia will present at ALA Midwinter for the ACRL Technical Services Interest Group on Saturday, February 10, 2018, at 4:30 pm.
• Sandy announced that the search for the Head of the Cataloging & Acquisitions Department at Illinois State University that had previously been frozen will now be opened. An announcement is forthcoming.

CARLI reports:

• The Annual Meeting on November 17 was attended by more than 150 people and went very well.

• VuFind 4.1 will replace VuFind 3 this month. Jen forward the official announcement from Jessica Gibson to TSC members. The test server (https://i-share-test.carli.illinois.edu) will be replaced on December 8. The production server (https://i-share.carli.illinois.edu) will be replaced on December 12. New versions of VuFind will no longer be numbered and will be referred to as “New VuFind.” VuFind will “reclaim” the https://i-share.carli.illinois.edu URL, while WebVoyage will have the URL stem https://webvoyage.carli.illinois.edu. New VuFind will be indexed so that results will be more similar to those in VuFind 0.6.
• The CARLI Office will be renovated beginning in January. No changes in service are expected.

Discussions:

Annual Project: webinar series

• Comparison between VuFind 0.6 and VuFind 3/New VuFind:

An outline is mostly written in Box. Cynthia noticed an indexing issue in the 505 field that she is investigating.

• Optimizing data in VuFind for non-book materials:

Mary noted that one purpose of this webinar is to walk users through finding less-common or non-print formats, such as anatomical models, toys, globes, etc. through search limits, filters, and facets. Sandy discussed complaints from users at ISU regarding the use of multiple format icons and shared a spreadsheet on Box with examples of “problem” items with multiple formats. Jen noted that New VuFind will include a new custom format definition for CD-ROMs.

• LC Genre/Form Terms and facets:

VuFind 3 has more facets than VuFind 0.6. We could include screenshots comparing facets in the two versions. Sandy discussed her project at ISU to add the LCGFT for picture books. She will go through the process step-by-step in a webinar. She also talked about a more complicated project for play books that involved editing legacy MARC records. Sandy suggested that she might briefly mention in the webinar her recommendation to change GSAFD genre terms to LCGFT. Jessica suggested putting together a mini-webinar (10-15 minutes) that covers facets in VuFind more generally.

• Additional suggestions and webinar ideas:

TSC members discussed using a standardized template for slides and creating a uniform introduction for each webinar so that the series will be more cohesive and polished. A good example of this uniform look is CARLI’s Introduction to Voyager Access Reporting webinar series. We should clearly indicate VuFind version numbers so that viewers are aware of the currency of the webinars. Nicole asked for feedback regarding her idea for a webinar on the new browsing features in New VuFind. Although she expressed concern that this topic may be out of scope because it is public services-oriented, many TSC members thought it would be relevant and useful for technical services staff.

Decisions:

• Minutes of the November 1, 2017, meeting were approved.

• The webinars will be created using a CARLI PowerPoint template.

• Screen shots and other intensive development of webinars is on hold until after New VuFind is deployed on December 12.

• The next meeting, originally scheduled for January 3, was rescheduled for January 10.

Tasks assigned:

• All members will continue to add content and comments to webinar drafts in Box.

• Jen will upload CARLI PowerPoint template to Box.

• Jen will forward announcement when New VuFind is ready.

Meeting dates and deadlines:

• Next meeting: Wednesday, January 10, 2018, 10:00-11:30 am, via conference call

Respectfully submitted,

Jessica Grzegorski