Falcons Meeting – February 17, 2022
The meeting was held on Zoom. Rex called it to order at 9:30 AM.
Minutes submitted by Jen Schlossberg – TCPL
FLLS Staff Present: Eric Franks, Deb Geier, Heidi Eckerson, Jenny Shonk, Rex Helwig, Sarah Glogowski
Member Libraries Present: Sara Knobel (GRO), Beth Bevars (LODI), Brandi Rozelle (WAT), Diane Pamel (DRY), Drew Urbanek (AUB), Gayle James (CATO), Heather Cobb (MCGR), Jen Schlossberg (TCPL), Jenny Burnett (SENF), Laura Mielenhausen (TRU), Lisa Carr (AUB), Lisa Semenza (POP), Marcia Enright (CAN), Mary Frank (MARA), Meredith Gallaro (OWE), Priscilla Berggren-Thomas (HOM), Samantha Black (WEED), Sandra Groth (AURO), Susie Gutenberger (LAN), Theresa Mekeel (CORT)
Introductions & Announcements:
- Election of Vice-Chair and Secretary
- Brandi Rozelle is vice-chair
- Jen Schlossberg is secretary
Approval of minutes
November 2021 Minutes accepted as written
New Business
- Technology Update (2022 Computer Bulk Buy & Techsoup/Microsoft Licenses) – Eric Expect an earlier order date and a delayed delivery – delivery from Dell could take a couple months from the order date.
- Tech soup will no longer be offering downloading installs for Microsoft Office so you should order before April 4/2022. Before April 4th it will be $36 per license up to 50 licenses, no software assurance included, but after April 4th it will be increasing to $118 per license. We recommend you conduct an inventory and determine the number of licenses your library will need via Tech Soup.
- Chrome box will continue to be used for PowerPAC’s.
- Polaris Upgrade v.7.1 will be Wednesday, February 23. This upgrade is LEAP-heavy and it will include spine label printing which Rex can help you with. The Training server upgraded on Friday 2/18/2022.
- Known problems not fixed:
- Issues with title searching – they encourage phrase searching
- Borrow by Mail issue in LEAP won’t be fixed until 7.3 – LEAP doesn’t allow staff to select the Borrow by Mail option when placing a hold. Patrons can do it is PowerPAC or staff can do it through the classic Polaris client or PowerPAC by using the override password with the Patron barcode.
- Known problems not fixed:
- Innovative Vega Demonstration (Beatrice Pitocco, Dennis Carter, Michael Monroy, Terry Morris)
Demonstration of the next generation Patron Web Catalog & Engagement Platform. Beatrice Pitocco and Michael Monroy from Innovative gave a demonstration which was recorded and will be available for staff.
The link to the demo is: https://youtu.be/UUj8Rh6QaL0
Vega Discover – Jen’s commentary: we’ve long needed a discovery layer for PowerPAC since we see patrons struggling to locate materials using it.
Some highlights:
- Roll ups of different formats
- Author cards are available from Syndetics Unbound which is included in the annual subscription
- If you want to include an image for an item in your “Library of Things” then you can add the URL for the image to the 856 field.
- Bookmarks – created by patrons – staff can convert to their own bookmarks to a “Showcase” and have that appear in the catalog.
- You can also save a live search and make it a showcase – facets (or limiters) can be saved in the showcase
Polaris – We’re in year 2 of 3 year contract with Polaris – Year 3 starts July 1, 2022
Increases cost can’t exceed 3.5% or the CPI-U, whichever is less.
- ARPA update: We are awaiting the deposit of the grant money before we order the new Cisco Meraki Routers and Access Points for the CIPA compliant libraries currently using the Cisco Meraki Equipment. We are moving from the Wireless Router hardware to a separate router and wireless access point(s) model since that provides for better Wi-Fi coverage within the library and more granular features.
Next meeting is Thursday May 19th, 2022