Database Standards Committee

June 12, 2002 Meeting

Members present: Cathy Marx - Chairperson, Karla Johnson, Deb DeJarnette,

Nancy Kruse, Tammy Schnell, Gisela Mozkus, Patsy Walters, Bev Hackney,

Karen Anderson and Shirley Ackerman. Terry Moreland from Rolling Prairie

Library system was also present.

Governing Board Update -

Cathy Marx said she is trying to get with the Training Task Force. The

Governing board has agreed for the Technology Committee to send out feelers

for a consultant to assist the group on software (should there be any

changes). Letters of inquiry will be sent to a number of people

cross-country.

Training ideas -

Cathy Marx indicated she would like to see a spreadsheet with all the

libraries listed (possibly by type) and where they are in the process of

becoming an active member of the database. Categories would include but

are not limited to the following: names of people certified in training

and indicate the level, whether or not the equipment is installed, number

of items entered into the database, etc.

In the event that the Sirsi User's group goes with new software, what are

the applications and qualities should the software have? This opened up

lots and lots of discussion. Karla Johnson's thoughts informally were that

there should be more on-site customization options available, searching

should be easier (ie: First Search format), a bibliography program (ie:

Prosite), pull down choices and menus, home library listed first, the pick

up point on the a product like Web 2 more easily identifiable. Any other

ideas should be forwarded to Cathy.

Tammy Schnell indicated that the Technology Committee is culling the

responses to the survey and across the board the concerns have been what

Karla Johnson addressed.

Cathy's ideas included an easy to use patron access program, the ability to

import OCLC and MARC records into the database with a program to recognize

duplicate records, overdue and fine control - much discussion ensued,

in-depth and continuation of training, the way a record is displayed in

order to place a request, AACRII compliance, cd and dvd format, and

internet resources capabilities. More discussion ensued by other people in

the group and included the following ideas: the ability to search by item

level call number, breakdown by Dewey numbers in circulation. Also, it is

important to keep in mind the integration of all the different capacities

of the systems. Look at the software as a total package as opposed to

shopping ala Carte for functions. The more integrated the software is the

more capacity and functionality the program will have for the future.

The Database Standards Committee and the Technology committee will be at a

future date to develop a time line for the software change.

Database Standards Committee meeting June 12, 2002 minutes Page 2.

Diane Kovac's training-

Life after Diane's training is possible. Nancy Kruse asked the question

why move to a different software? Terry Moreland's response was that

SIRSI's big push is their Unicorn product. SIRSI has indicated it will no

longer support DRA products once it becomes economically unfeasible.

Although no set date has been offered out, it is possible by the year 2003

the database software will not be supported. A consensus of the group

indicated that it is difficult to put training into place if we don't know

where the database is going. A sheet was passed around and contact people

were listed along with their specialty (ie. Netcat or Circle) in order to

mentor other libraries.

New Data Problems -

Cathy Marx indicated she has had tremendous slow down in Netcat. Everyone

indicated they have had problems too especially in the afternoons. Telnet

incident report forms were handed out.

A question was brought up about whether or not the URL's should be left in

the book records. After much discussion, it was agreed the URL's stay as

they are a valuable research tool.

Another question arose about the proper format of the 245 h field [i.e.:

video recording (DVD) and/or CD]. Therefore, the field is being turned

into a format statement. Although not technically correct, it was agreed

to leave as is for ease of format identification in the bibliographic record.

De-dup update-

Terry Moreland reported this is an ongoing process. To date 450,350

records have been searched. Four thousand six hundred and seventy five

duplicates have been deleted.

Next meeting -

Wednesday, July 24 at an undisclosed local restaurant at 10:00 a.m. Cathy

Marx will send out an email with the specifics, as the date gets closer.

The meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.

Respectfully submitted by,

Jennie L. Alexander

Mt. Zion District Library