A-Team Meeting 

March 18, 2004 

Attendees:        Bobby Parker, Doug Kiker, Jason Fleming, Judy Rummel, Daniel Holt, Pamela Williams, John Seay, Jody Hewitt, Carol Whitmer, Michael Dietz, Jami Beserock, Justino Llanque-Chano, Paul Losch, Michele Wilbanks-Fox, Kendra Carter, Jan Hernberger

 The topic for today’s meeting was Aleph functional training classes.  Aleph 101 is being offered at this time.

 ALE201 is a class being worked on by tech services.  It will be an hour-long PowerPoint presentation over viewing the tech classes.  It will not be hands on but will give an idea of what functional classes will need to be taken.  Michelle Crump is organizing the classes and most of them will be in the Library East Conference Room.  The class will be presented to large groups since it is an informational class.  This class will also be a prerequisite for any of the other functional training classes.  There will be lots of screen shots included in the presentation.  It is being called IFT, Introduction to Functional Training.

 A description of the Aleph Functional Training courses is available at http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/aleph/aleph_classes.pdf.

 The Aleph Training Series color chart is available on-line.  The address for it is http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/rs/RSTech/Classes_files/Classes_frames.htm.  Be sure to check it regularly because it is changing, as things are learned/added.

 Jason Fleming and Doug Kiker will be giving the ACQS 101 and ACQS 102.  ACQS101 will cover check-in, claiming, and predictive pattern (determining if something is wrong with the pattern).  There will be an on-line problem form that can be sent to Acquisitions if you don’t know how or can’t fix a pattern.  ACQS102 will cover ordering and order records.

 Terminology in Aleph is somewhat different then what we are used to using.  “Arrive” is used in Aleph instead of “receipt”.

 Cathy discussed the binding classes and prerequisites.  Serials check-in can be very easy if everything is right.  A large stack can be checked-in in 5 minutes if everything is right.  Once again, the “R” statement in LUIS order records will not migrate to Aleph.  During the freeze, it is strongly suggested to make a print out of what you checked in and maybe even highlight the “R” statement you just input.  After STP, you can then pull out the file and transfer those “R” statements into Aleph.  Cathy suggested that maybe at our April A Team meeting we might want to bring some examples and practice checking items in as a group.

 Anticipating during May/June having weekly (maybe even twice a week) meetings of the A Team.  It is also planned to meet at the different branches so specific examples/problems can be discussed.

 WebLUIS will not be available to the patron beginning May 3.  Anything bound will show up in Aleph to the patron.  It’s only the current issues that are not going to migrate.

 The 899 fields in LUIS will convert to the 866 fields in Aleph.  The 866 fields in Aleph have some limitations.

 Cathy also discussed that we will be using the Z39.71 holdings standards.  These are a list of rules for holdings written by Martha Hruska.  We will all be using these standards to make the holdings consistent everywhere.  We will also be using foreign language in the hold to check-in pieces.  The foreign language change will also be made during binding on the spine.  This will all be covered in Holdings Functional Training classes.

 Cat101 is misleading.  It’s not really cataloging but covers bibliographic, item and holding records.

 Naomi Young and JaneAnne Carey will teach HOL101.  It will cover Z39.71 and Marc 21 format.  It will be a theory class.

 Naomi Young and JaneAnne Carey will also teach HOL102.  This is an important class.  The 863 fields in Aleph are pickier than the 899 fields in LUIS.  The 899 fields in LUIS will be converted automatically to 866 fields in Aleph, which then must be converted manually to 863 fields in Aleph.  Cathy assured everyone that this will be covered in the functional training class.  The form for reporting pattern problems to Acquisitions will be shown in this class and can be seen at http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/serials/ALEPH/patterns/PatternProblem-form.htm.

 Doug Kiker and Jason Fleming will teach HOL103.  This class is advanced and will not be attended by very many people.  It will involve learning how to fix the patterns so only people that will fix patterns will need to attend.  All serials people and Jody will be taking this class.

 It was remarked that holdings are fairly complicated in Aleph.  Everything, including monographs, will now have a holdings record.

 CAT101 class will cover theory and holdings.

 CAT102 class will be intermediate holdings, items and provisional records.  An item form is used in Aleph.  We think of the item form as an item record in LUIS.  This will be covered in this class.  Also, multi-volume monographs will be covered.

 Cathy also mentioned that functional trainers have been trying to decided whether to spiral-bound handout/materials or provide them already three hole punched.  The consensus of the group was to provide them with the three-hole punch.

We will still be using pseudo patrons.

 Lori Driscoll should be told about using charging and discharging in the description of the Circ101 class.  It should be loans and returns for Aleph.

 In the list of classes, the Binding Functional training prerequisites is incorrect.  Cathy has asked for it to be changed so should be done soon.  There are actually about 6 prerequisites for the Binding Functional training.  Cathy gave a description of what will be taught in the Binding Functional training class.

 Cathy also announced that anything currently in the ENUM/CHRON field of the item record will migrate to Aleph but will be squashed together in the same field.  The field will be on the item form in tab 4.  Line A will show ENUM/CHRON information and line “I” will show the midspine information from LUIS.

 The RS Aleph page has links to the Aleph OPAC and for downloading the client.  The address for this page is http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/rs/catpro/ALEPHsupport.html.

 We will meet again April 15.  The time will be sent out as soon as the room can be scheduled.