Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for April 16, 2009

Materials Services Managers Monthly Meeting

April 16, 2009 8:00 a.m.; Downtown Library; 3rd Floor Director’s Conference Room

Attendees: Janet Brooks-Chair, Heidi Johnson, Karen Marriott, Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins

Agenda:

Cataloging Update - Pauline

Meetings and training attended:

Jana – Staff Recognition dinner meeting, March 24

Aaron – Staff Association meeting, March 26

Ursula – Generational Diversity workshop, April 9

Cataloging’s March output of barcode labels printed was 14,350, with a daily average of 652. The total is almost identical to February, but the daily average is about 13% less. Overall, barcode labels printed for FY09 continue to run 6% ahead of FY08. 1,716 new titles were cataloged, for a daily average of 78. The number of titles cataloged remains 5% ahead of FY08; the overall number of titles handled is about 4% higher.

Aaron has been selected for Leadership MLS III, and attended his first meeting on April 8.

Pauline attended the Library Managers’ meeting at BE on March 25. She showed examples of proposed catalog records for downloadable audio titles. The new records have not been implemented yet. It appears that all problems have been resolved, but Pauline has not had time for a final test.

Pauline attended the Culture Survey Results meeting at BI on March 30.

Lisa and Kristin assisted in MSL the weeks of March 23 and 30.

Pauline taught a segment of the Collection Management workshop on April 8.

Cataloging held a staff meeting on April 14 to discuss the results of the Culture Survey. Staff proposed several good ideas for responding to the information.

Pauline has begun meeting individually with Cataloging staff to discuss ideas and plans for moving to the Service Center.

ILL Update - Pauline

Stormy Lee began work as the newest ILL Technician on March 23. She is learning fast and is already able to handle most tasks without assistance.

As of the end of March, ILL has received 6,359 requests to borrow materials from other libraries. 5,272, or 83%, of those requests were filled.

During the same period, ILL received 16,004 requests to borrow MLS materials via FirstSearch, and 4,186 via AGent, for a grand total of 20,190 loan requests. A total of 8,702 requests (6,250 FirstSearch and 2,452 AGent) were filled, for a fill rate of 43%. The fill rate for FirstSearch remains at about 39%; for AGent, it is about 59%. Although the fill rate for FirstSearch is decreasing, the rate for AGent has been increasing.

The Trans-Amigos Express courier service continues to have problems. Pauline is still working with Amigos to find a solution.

Pauline has ordered new colored labels for ILL, sooner than she anticipated, because the number of materials being borrowed and loaned has increased so much.

ILL held a staff meeting on April 15 to discuss the results of the Culture Survey.

Pauline has begun meeting individually with ILL staff to discuss ideas and plans for moving to the Service Center.

TP Update - Heidi

The average daily run in March was 641 items; so far in April, the average run has been 730 labels. In March, the dept. processed a total of 14,105 items. Technical Processing continues to be current on their processing. Through the end of March of this fiscal year, TP has received and processed 132,032 items, which is about 6% more materials than through March of last fiscal year (123,696).

So far in April, TP has received an average of 38 boxes of materials a day as compared to March’s total average of 37 boxes per day.

Heidi continues to work with B&T’s accounting dept., CFS, to keep MLS’s accounts current. MLS has been assigned a new credit rep., named Lacey Baldwin. So far, she has been very responsive to requests for information and very quick to apply credit memos to open invoices when requested to do so. She did mention that Daisy Coles, our previous credit rep., has instructed her very carefully regarding the special requirements for our accounts.

There had been a problem with TP not receiving copies of issued credit memos from Baker & Taylor. Cindy discovered that there was a problem with the sending out of mail at the new vendor handling this outsourced task for B&T. Cindy assured us that the problem has been fixed and TP should start receiving copies of any credit memos automatically once again.

All Ingram accounts continue to be current.

The bindery books have been picked up by the driver from the HF Group on April 14. The books should be back from the bindery in three weeks for quality checking and reprocessing in Technical Processing.

TP staff met on April 14 to discuss the MLS Culture Survey results.

Stacy from Planning conducted TP’s 2nd V2R session on March 23.

ED has requested another basic processing training session for their new pages. Melanie will conduct this training at ED on May13.

Alexis visited the Business Office on April 13 to observe their processes when performing the book invoice close-out.

Loretta attended the Generational Diversity workshop at MC on 4-9.

Heidi participated in the MSD workshop on 4-15-09.

Heidi is taking a week of vacation starting May 11.

Heidi attended the Library Managers’ meeting on March 25 at BE to talk about AV packaging and processing and the Culture Survey Results meeting for supervisors on Mar. 30 at BI. Heidi will attend parts of the OLA conference on April 21 and 22.

Loretta Frantz, Melanie Levick, and Heidi Johnson will all attend the Commission meeting at MC today to receive their MLS service certificates; Melanie for 5 years, Loretta for 15 years, and Heidi for 30 years.

Heidi has been talking with Standard Printing, a local company who makes several other labels for Technical Processing, about also printing CD/DVD property labels for MLS. So far, they had been ordered from a company in Wisconsin and had to be

shipped to MLS, incurring a freight charge each time; the local printing company will deliver free of charge. The bid has come in at $2.40 per roll below what TP has been paying up to now. TP also expects greater consistency as far as type of font and paper, and overall uniformity of label set-up.

MSL Update - Janet

Staff

Susan is on FMLA leave until April 30th. Janet is monitoring Susan’s customer suggestions and system reserves. Techs are carting the media for her. Janet is checking media for titles that need to be ordered before Susan returns. Kim is watching out for hot titles.

The new MSD Tech, Julia McConnell began work in MSL on April 6th. Selection staff are assisting with her training.

Library Visits

During March, selectors conducted an annual visit to ED and a 6-month visit to DC.

During April, selectors are doing an annual visit to MC and a 6-month visit to VI.

During May, selectors are scheduled to do an annual visit to SO and a 6-month visit to RE.

Collection Workshop

The collection workshop was well attended with 9 participants.

Marilyn and Ruby facilitated the MSL portions of the workshop. Janet conducted the final review.

Customer Suggestions

MSL staff continued to evaluate the customer suggestion process.

Staff participated in a 2 week time study for the processes dealing with customer suggestions and system reserves. Janet feels like another two week study, scheduled for the 2nd and 3rd weeks of the month (instead of 1st and last weeks of the month) is needed to get a clearer picture of the amount of time spent on these activities.

Budget

Janet completed program budget requests for the department.

Selectors are reviewing stats and reports to see where materials budgets should be decreased or increased for FY10. They will conduct meetings in the next month or after bottom line figures are received from Karen.

Selectors are about 87% spent in their FY09 funds. Janet will look at the remaining amount in the SELFU and other funds at the beginning of May to see how much more needs to be spent.

Culture Survey

MSL staff have reviewed the system results of the culture survey. The division results will be reviewed at the April staff meeting.

Supervisory Skills Workshop

March’s workshop covered ethical standards and codes. April’s workshop covered employment law.

Janet shared information from the session with the managers.

Meetings/Workshops

Janet and Kim continue to attend the Supervisory Skills workshops.

Janet attended the Culture Survey meeting on March 30.

Melissa attended the Children’s services meeting for April.

On Saturday April 11th, Janet met with RE staff and various individuals from the community to discuss the BHC collection.

The OLA workshop Janet was to present at on April 15 was cancelled.

Melissa, Ruby and Janet are scheduled to attend OLA on April 21 and 22.

Janet’s scheduled to attend the Tech Support meeting on April 28.

Melissa’s scheduled to attend the YA programmers’ meeting in May.

Staff Recognition

MSL staff will be having their staff recognition lunch at LaLuna’s on May 8.

Administration Update - Karen

Culture Survey

Managers will discuss at the May Managers’ meeting.

Facilities

RE is on target with move in September.

Service Center is also on target with move in date set for October. Karen is working on job descriptions, sorting processes, issues with U.S. mail and couriers. She asked Heidi and Pauline to have their work station assignments done by the May meeting.

Staff are working on SO’s building expansion plans. Karen reported that not much space will be added for collection. Children’s will receive some more room. AV and LP may also receive more space, if there is room. Staff are integrating the reference collection in with the circulating.

Budget

Karen reported that the B&T freight charges will be added to the 401 budget. She has prorated the amount to the book funds.

Budget increases for FY10 will be made to NW, with a substantial increases made to several of the nonfiction areas and AV. There will also be small increases to some of the AV funds for the other libraries.

New Appraisal System

Human Resources and Planning are working on training for the new appraisal system. Current trainers will be used to train other staff.

Several policies have to be adjusted to accommodate the new appraisal system. Policy updates are going to the A&P Committee of the commission in May.

NW AV

Karen asked Heidi if fiction books on CD could be processed in the boxes instead of hanging bags now, since we will be switching over to the boxes in the new fiscal year.

Heidi indicated they would need a couple of weeks to obtain sufficient supplies, but could do the switch before the new fiscal year.

Miscellaneous - All

Pauline will teaching at a summer library institute in Missouri August 10-14.

Managers indicated upcoming time off they have scheduled.

Heidi showed a sample label that Pauline had sent from ILL: this label is attached to AV materials when they are sent out on loan and asks customers to make sure to return the bag and barcode card. There has been discussion using a similar label on all MLS AV materials. Heidi asked Pauline where ILL gets the labels; Pauline explained that ILL staff print them as needed. Heidi commented that before she attempts to have labels printed, or to figure out how to incorporate another label into the workflow, she would like to know how often materials are returned without bags and/or barcode cards. Pauline offered to have Cataloging staff keep a tally of the number of such materials sent in for replacement barcodes. After they get a rough count, Heidi and Pauline may discuss the issue further.