2025-02 Patron Services Minutes

Voting Members Present:

• Kathy Bowen, Thorntown Public Library
• Cassie Jones, Morgan County Public Library
• Jess McAlister, Jefferson County Public Library
• Robert Neuenschwander, Warren Public Library
• Nick Philip, Plainfield-Guilford Twp PUblic Library
• Trista Rue, Melton Public Library
• Misty Morse, Clinton Public Library
• Vickie Fleischauer, South Whitley Community Public Library
• Kim Riley, Sheridan Public Library

Non-voting Members Present:

• Courtney Brown, Indiana State Library
• Britta Dorsey, Indiana State Library

Guests Present:

• Jennifer Crusenberry, Hamilton North Public Library
• Anita Brown, Kendallville Public Library
• Amanda Knol, Lowell Public Library
• Inge Kokidko, Porter County Public Library
• Christina Hime, Jackson County Public Library

1. Call Meeting to Order – Meeting called to order at 2:00PM(ET) by Jess McAlister, Chair
2. Approval of Agenda – Motion: Nick Philip, Second: Vickie Fleischauer, Motion passed.
3. Approval of the Minutes from December 17, 2024 – Motion, Trista Rue, Second: Vickie Fleischauer, Motion passed.
4. Indiana State Library Report

A.  Membership/Migrations/Recruitment – Courtney reported there are a total of eight applications for membership at this time.  Updates to the timeline for migrations of each library were given.  At this time we are booked for two years.  Any new applications will be looking at 2027 for migration.

B.  Aspen Committee – There is now an Aspen subcommittee.  The first meeting for this committee is on February 20.

C.  evergreenindiana.org website – Courtney and Britta will be working on updating the website this year.

D.  Committee nominations/Annual Council Meeting – Committee nomination forms are still out and more applicants are needed.  The Patron Services committee needs 3 class A representatives and 2 class B representatives.  Nominations are open until March 31.  The slate will be presented at the annual council meeting on April 9.

E.  Conference – The Annual Conference will be held on August 15, 2025.  Proposals for sessions are being accepted until February 28.

F.  Strategic plan update – We are still moving forward on the Strategic Plan.  There should be a plan in place by mid-year.

5. Training Report – Britta shared that several webinars have been held and many have been scheduled through March – mainly Circulation.  Documentation continues to be updated.  Britta reminded us that when cover art is uploaded in the classic catalog it also must be uploaded into Aspen.  Cat 1 and LocalAdmin renewals are progressing nicely.  Cataloging Parties for Edinburgh will be scheduled for April.  Evergreen Community Development Initiative (ECDI) – this is a group of Evergreen consortiums across the country where we pool our resources and funds to help pay for fixes, new features, etc.  We are testing for alerts and item notes in the Item Templates project.  This will likely create some changes in cataloging.  The main reason is for accessibility.

VI.  Unfinished Business

1.  Policy Update-drivers license number – After discussion and noting that if there is a data breach, each home library could be held liable, it was decided to cease using the whole drivers license number in the patron account.  New wording suggested for the procedure is Recording Identification in a Patron Record:  If a member library chooses to retain a Driver’s License number in a patron account, enter the abbreviation of the state that issued the ID and the last four (4) characters of the ID number.  Example:  IN1234, OH1234 (no spaces).  Motion: Nick Philip, Second: Cassie Jones.  Motion passed.
2. Local circulation limit sets – Britta is still testing the maximum checkout by shelving location.
3. Hold limits – Britta has tested having items be holdable but not transitable even between branches.  It is based on circ modifiers and was able to limit the ability to transit from the owning branch when a hold is placed (items must be picked up at the owning branch).  It would not stop patrons from returning the item to another branch.  Transits between branches is a local decision.  Making age protection permanent was a suggestion.  Britta will think about it a little more and will get back with the committee.

VII.  New Business

1.  Circulation Matrix – Modifying duration for transiting videodiscs – After discussion it was suggested to increase renewals from 1 to 2 for transiting videodiscs and transiting videodiscs r-rated.  Motion: Nick Philip, Second: Kim Riley.  Motion passed.
2. Evergreen Policy Amendment Requests – Inge Kokidko, Porter County Public Library, had some questions and suggestions for policy re-wording.  All questions were in regards to confidentiality issues, especially regarding sponsor/child and parent/child.  Suggested edits to wording in the confidentiality policy were provided.  After discussion, this issue was tabled until next meeting when the committee will look at the full confidentiality policy.

  VIII. Public Comment – None

  IX.  Announcements

         Next meeting: April 8, 2025 via Zoom, 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET

  XI.  Adjournment – Meeting was adjourned by Jess McAlister at 3:23 ET/2:23 CT