Barton Advisory Group


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Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 14:19:30 -0400
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From: Erja Kajosalo <kajosalo@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Barton Advisory Group minutes, April 10, 2003
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Barton Advisory Group meeting 4/10/2003

Present: Follett, Hartman, Kajosalo (minutes), Wenger, Maxwell, Moulen (chair), Siers

Membership change:
Welcomed Rich Wenger, the new STS programmer. Rich will attend the BAG meetings at least for six months. Erja's term in BAG is ending. Tracy Gabridge will replace her starting June 6th meeting. We'll have a small celebration for this transition during this meeting.

Version 15 -- do or not to do, is the question?
Discussed if we should install Aleph version 15 this summer or skip it and go to version 16 next summer. Christine reviewed the documentation and does not see too many things we really need to have quickly. Each of us will review the documentation related to our own areas. Discussion continues in the next meeting.
Harvard is a beta-site for the version 16; upgrading is in progress now.

Patch 5 update etc.
Ex Libris has a solution for the adjacency and loader problems. There will be a hot fix for both. Austin and Tracy are working on a work-around for Your Account security problem - this will need adjacency. Possible dates for patch 5 are between June 9-20 depending when Ex Libris will be able to schedule us.
Version 14, patch 6&7 are coming out soon. We will review the documentation for the next meeting for a discussion if we should install these patches this summer after patch 5.

New collection proposal for Atlases
The Science Library has maps in three different locations: in the map room, with oversized books (located now in the basement), and in atlas cases on the first floor. It was approved to have a new collection called "Atlas Case". The code is "ATLCS". Stephanie will bring this up in Processing Committee so other units can use it if they have a need for it.

Rotch flood
Rotch needs a new item process status for the items damaged in flood and are now withdrawn (~800 items). This item status will show in OPAC as an advisory, and is not meant to be a permanent status. Stephanie will find out more information from Rotch for the next meeting.

NAAUG items
Decided that we cannot host a NAAUG for next year, but would like to do it in few years with a longer time than a year to prepare for it.
Tracy is chairing the OPAC Enhancements group next year. We would like to nominate Nina for the NAAUG Steering Committee and she has agreed to run. Christine will submit the nomination.

Bad bar code scans
Beth reported that there are ~150 bad bar codes (< 14 digits) in Aleph at any time. Aleph does not check these properly . Beth proposed to make "fake" records for the most common bad bar codes. The record would indicate that it is anon-circulating item, and staff will notified to try to scan the bar code again. Beth will include a note in these suppressed records why these are added in OPAC.
Ex Libris is not keen on fixing this problem because so many different bar code standards are used in the libraries. Rich mentioned this is a perfect case for "user exit" code which involves in-house programming within Aleph code. Beth will notify processing and circulation committees about these records.

Next meeting: April 24

Questions? Contact us at barton-lib@mit.edu.