Weekly Update – January 24, 2012
2012 EG International Conference
Program schedule is available. Evergreen Indiana Membership Meeting on Friday afternoon.
Also, Early Bird Registration ends on January 31, 2012!
Evergreen Indiana Executive Committee by-laws updated (link)
III. COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS
a) The Evergreen Indiana Council shall meet at least once a year in Spring with the time and location to be determined by the Executive Committee. Other membership meetings may be called by the Executive Committee. Members will be notified at least thirty (30) days in advance of the annual meeting.
Cataloging Committee updates
Cataloging Committee minutes from September 13, 2011 were approved at the Cataloging Committee meeting on December 6, 2011.
Cataloging Committee Policy and Procedures have also been updated.
Cataloging Policy changes include Beginning June 30, 2012 the permissions for Cat-2 catalogers will change. Cat-2 catalogers will no longer be able to create new MARC records, batchload new records or edit MARC records. Only Cat-1 catalogers will be able to create new MARC records, add records by batchloading and edit MARC records.
Since you may have Cat-2 catalogers on your staff that have been performing these functions, they will need training to obtain their Cat-1 certification. The Cataloging Committee wants to schedule training to accommodate these needs, so we would like to know how many people on your staff will need this training in the coming months.
Cataloging Procedure changes were distributed in draft form to the consortium in October 2011. A summary of the changes is available here.
Food for Fines Clarification
Several libraries have contacted ISL with questions regarding a local Food for Fines holiday program and the previous statement on this blog about the library contacting their city/town attorney for a legal opinion. The correct statement is that the library should contact their library legal consultant.
After consulting with the Indiana State Library Legal Consultant and the State Board of Accounts to find out the requirements if a library wants to engage in such as program, we have learned that there is no prohibition for the practice of waiving fines in the State Library Code, however the decision on whether or not to implement a Food for Fines program comes down to a legal question that needs to be addressed locally by the library board and their attorney.
NOTE: If a library wants to engage in a Food for Fines program, they must have a written local policy adopted by the Library Board along with a written opinion from their attorney. (If your library does not have access to an attorney, contact Karen Ainslie or Edythe Huffman at the Indiana State Library for more information on how to locate one). Both of these documents are required by SBoA to implement Food for Fines program without receiving an audit exception.
Once this policy is in place, you may use either the Forgive or Goods Billing option to forgive fines and fees in a patron’s account.
Remember, you may only forgive those fines and fees to which your library is owed. Overdue fines are owed to the circulating library. Lost and damaged fines are owed to the owning library.