Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for April 21, 2011

Materials Services Managers Meeting

April 21, 2011; Service Center

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

Agenda:

Review of Action Items - All

No action items were assigned at the February meeting.

New Business - All

DVD sets (multiple discs)

Managers will discuss with respective departments to look at the need to update the guidelines for cataloging multiple disc DVD sets. Original guidelines indicated that sets would be cataloged together. Pauline will send out a copy of guidelines to the other managers and Karen.

This will be an item on May’s agenda to discuss further and make a decision on. Pauline will ask Aaron to come to the meeting if necessary.

Place on the May or June agenda a discussion regarding NW books and transfers.

Cataloging/ILL Update - Pauline

Pauline returned from FmLA leave on April 21. She will work up to 6 hours per day until approximately May 16.

Both Cataloging and Interlibrary Loan staffs have performed extremely well during Pauline’s absence. They handled the majority of problems that they encountered with no outside assistance. Pauline stated that she is very proud of everyone.

Pauline thanked Heidi and Karen for their assistance with management tasks while she was out.

Meetings and training attended:

Brittany – OLA copyright workshop, February 23

Vickie – Staff Association, February 24, March 24

Aaron – OLA TSRT, February 25

Clyde – Library Forum, March 8, 22

Mary, Nicholas – Collection Management workshop, March 15, 22, 29

Brittany, Ursula, Websites on Native Americans, April 7

Nicholas Thompson has resigned his position as ILL Technician; his last work day was April 1. The position has been posted and closed, and Pauline is reviewing applications.

Jimmy has made some updates to the mlsCataloging application in preparation for the new cataloging rules. The changes are not obvious to catalog users, but are important for Cataloging staff.

ILL is currently not lending MLS materials to other libraries, due to the staffing shortage after Nicholas’s resignation.

OCLC has announced that prices for access to its cataloging and ILL services will not increase for the next fiscal year. Amigos has not announced pricing for its courier service yet, but Pauline expects it will increase. She was able to complete inputting of budget items before leaving for FmLA, as there were no significant new items requested.

A new version of Connexion, the OCLC cataloging product used by MLS, has been uploaded to all Catalogers’ computers.

Pauline came in briefly to teach the third session of the Introduction to Collection Management workshop on March 29.

 Aaron, Clyde, Mary, Ursula, Brittany, and Stormy all attended parts of the OLA Annual Conference.

Aaron has been elected Chair-Elect of the OLA Technical Services Roundtable. He will serve as chair for 2011-2012.

Aaron assisted with the SO move for part of one day.

As of the end of March, with 75% of the fiscal year elapsed, 17,521 titles have been cataloged. This represents a 13% increase over the previous fiscal year. 151,947 barcode labels have been printed; this is an all-time high for the same period. In March, Cataloging Technicians printed 20,353 barcode labels, the highest single month total ever recorded.

As of the end of March, ILL has submitted 6,480 requests to borrow materials for MLS customers; 5,276 of these have been filled, for a fill rate of 81%. 19,475 requests to borrow MLS materials have been received, and 3,697 have been filled, for a fill rate of 19%.

Technical Processing Update - Heidi

Statistics show the number of items processed on average per day in February was 805 for a total of 13,690 processed items. The number of items processed on average per day in March was 836 for a total of 19,239 processed items. The daily average so far in April is 894 items. The processors are current on processing all “rush” materials and are processing non-rush materials from April 11. After making some changes in TP to the quality checking process which gives the Processors more actual processing time, TP has not needed to call on any additional help from Cataloging staff during the last month.

During the month of February, TP received an average of 47 boxes a day for a total of 752 boxes of materials. During the month of March, TP received an average of 40 boxes a day for a total of 892 boxes. So far in April, TP received an average of 49 per day with a total of 680 boxes.

There were several occasions in March when books which had system reserve routing slips for customers attached to them were sorting into the owning branches’ sorter bins instead of into the bins for the libraries where customers wanted to pick them up. This was happening with several libraries’ materials. It turned out this was due to materials being set too close to the scanning plate at two of the libraries and so checked back in at those libraries. There were several other instances when old S.R. routing slips had not been taken off the books after customers returned the books. It appeared that books were going into the wrong bins, at least according to the SR routing slips, when they actually were in transit back to the owning libraries.

TP is currently getting the next group of bindery materials ready for pickup by the bindery truck on May 17. Vickie Dixon added some extra materials from DN’s collection; DC, MC, RE, SO, and VI are not sending any. There is a total of 109 books going to be sent, plus any magazines which do not show up on the bindery list as originally printed out and so are not yet included in this count.

Katie Trattner was selected to move from part-time TP Aide to full-time Technical Processor, starting April 4, 2011.

Since Katie was promoted to full-time, there now is an opening for a part-time TP Aide. Lenard Ward is currently working 6 hours a day (instead of his usual 4 hours) until the position can be filled. Heidi has started to look at applications on Wednesday, 4-20-11, and is hoping to call in applicants for interviews either next week or the week after that.

Heidi participated in part 2 of the Materials Collection workshop on March 22 at DN.

Heidi attended Fran Harbert’s retirement party on April 13 at Del City. Fran was a Selector in MSL when Heidi first started in her job in TP.

Heidi has finished inputting TP’s budget requests. In addition to the usual processing supplies, she is also requesting some desk organizers for the receiving area, a scanner to use when dealing with vendors (instead of having to make copies and then faxing them), a digital camera to use for compiling new instruction manuals and creating a PowerPoint presentation about the new, improved work processes in the dept., plus two more book trucks to help move materials between TP and Cataloging.

TP is still waiting to get their last two batches of trays for Big Bin reinforced by the company that made them. According to Jack with Southwest Solutions they were behind in filling their new orders, so the fixes take lower priority. Heidi has contacted Jack again on 4-20-2011 to get a revised time table for completion of this project.

TP ran out of DVD cases for three days last week before more ordered cases were received. TP received so many DVDs that a fairly large supply on hand (11 boxes = 1100 cases) was used up in less than one week. The new order has come in and TP is fully operational again.

Heidi and MLS’s new purchasing officer, John Rahhal, are getting well acquainted working together on supply bids. There was a web conference with Brodart on April 8, and John has requested many different samples from various vendors like Gaylord, Vernon, etc. for TP to evaluate. This is in preparation for requesting and awarding supply bids for the new fiscal year.

The Business Office performed its annual inventory in the SC on March 30, 2011.

Due to various fundraisers like a “Soup and salad” luncheon and “Coin Jar Wars”, the Service Center has collected $500.00 to donate to the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk.

There was a well attended reception for retiring Processor Loretta Frantz on March 30. Loretta started with MLS 17 years ago in 1994 at SO and moved to TP in 1999. Her expertise and experience will be missed, along with her pleasant personality.

After receiving Candace’s e-mail about the Channel 4 Weather Alert app being installed on at least one computer at each location, Heidi was told that the Service Center’s computer location was in MTC, in Debra’s office. Since there are times when no one is in that office, Heidi requested to have the app installed in TP also. Candace said that it could be installed in multiple locations and to let her know where to put it in the SC in addition to the computer in MTC.

Heidi was asked to be a member of MLS’s safety committee for the next year. Candace is to schedule the next meeting for sometime in May.

Heidi is scheduled to be on AVL the week of May 9 to May 13, 2011.

Materials Selection Update - Janet

Library Visits

In March selectors made an annual visit to ED and a 6-month collection review of DC.

In April selectors are conducting an annual visit to MC and a 6-month collection to RE.

In May selectors are scheduled to do an annual visit SO and a 6-month collection review of VI.

Congratulations to Julia

Julia completed her comprehensive tests for library school and passed with flying colors! Congratulations!

Grants

In March, selectors worked on selections for the various Endowment distributions and finished several older grants.

All preliminary orders have gone out.

MSL Collection Workshop

Melissa, Ruby and Janet conducted MSL portions of the workshop in March. Janet presented the MSL introduction PowerPoint and conducted the final review.

5 participants enrolled in the workshop.

Janet updated the manual for the spring workshop and distributed replacement pages to managers for updating the manual. There are several sections updated since the workshop that Janet needs to insert in the manual and distribute to managers.

Southern Oaks

Susan worked with LO and Construction to determine when SO’s periodical subscriptions needed to start going to the temporary location.

She spent a lot of time and energy tying down the date and clarifying the address of the new site to ensure the transition went smoothly.

Janet volunteered to help with the move, but SO staff finished the move earlier than expected and she was not needed.

Budget

Janet finished working on the program budget for FY12 by the deadline.

Requests for MSL will be minimal.

Janet is requesting another part time MSL Tech position.

Selectors are doing statistical analysis and reviewing reports and spending patterns to prepare for FY12.

Workshops/Meetings/Activities

Melissa and Janet attended the YA services retreat on March 2nd.

Janet met with Stephanie/Library Tech student on March 4.

Janet attended a webinar on Floating Collections on March 17.

Melissa attended a webinar on New Juvenile Nonfiction series on March 22.

Janet assisted with the DC Manager’s assessment center on March 22 and 24.

Lisa attended the Staff Association meeting on March 24.

Julia and Janet attended OLA on March 31 and April 1. Julia presented a paper at the conference on March 31st.

Denise attended the Essential Communications workshop on April 5.

Melissa attended the Children’s Services meeting on April 6

Melissa attended the Wellness workshop on April 7.

Melissa attended the Teen Literature Update Webinar on April 12

Lisa attended the Time Management workshop on April 12.

Janet’s scheduled to attend the YA Services meeting on April 27.

Susan and Janet plan to visit with the Gale reps on April 27

Heidi, Kim and Janet are scheduled to visit with the Ingram Rep, Jay Blint, on May 2 to discuss issues with shipments and billing.

Ruby’s scheduled to facilitate the Readers Advisory workshop on May 5 and 12. She was asked to do a mini Readers Advisory workshop at the June Librarian’s Forum.

Ruby’s scheduled to attend the Adult Services meeting on May 11

MSL staff are meeting with Stuart and Kay from Planning to discuss the mid-point results for the strategic plan.

Basement

On March 4th MSL Technicians had a work day in the basement area.

Volunteers

Two teen volunteers helped in MSL during March and April. They removed RFID tags from withdrawals going to the book sale, copied and assembled workshop manuals, unboxed and sorted review copies, assembled and routed promotional material to libraries.

MSL staff appreciates the help from these young people!

MSL GUI and B&T Problems

Janet reported the department has had major problems lately with the MSL GUI and B&T’s database. The problems have caused disruption in the workflow and lots of frustration among the staff. Jimmy has worked on the problem with the GUI and discovered that the major slow-down was caused by staff using the Shelf No. lookup in the catalog and limiting the search to certain levels. Staff will not use the filter until Jimmy has found a better solution. The B&T issues appear to be some sort of a server problem at B&T’s end.

Administration Update - Karen

Buildings

SO has moved to their temporary site and are scheduled to reopen for business on April 25th.

CH’s plans have hit a snag with the city. With personal changes at the city there have been questions about if we can build new or if we can only remodel the existing building. There also have been some changes to the architect’s plans since the estimates were over budget.

NW is still on schedule to open before Christmas.

DC is still facing issues with the remodeling of the community center. The library is scheduled to get new windows and ADA compliant restrooms. It’s hopeful that the city will pass a bond to build a new building in the future.

Talks with the city of Jones continue to get a building similar to the one in Luther.

Human Resources

Singer Group is meeting with AdTeam and the Project Review Committee on May 19th. Karen expects they will be reviewing results from the market survey Singer did.

DC manager’s position reopened.

Denyvetta has applications for the NW manager’s position. She hopes to have someone in place soon to help make decisions on a number of issues related to the opening.

DVS

Literary Voices was very successful, netting over $100,000.

The committee will meet in May to consider next year’s author.

P&P Committee

The AdTeam’s P&P committee is meeting about every 2 weeks to work on policies and procedures. They are presently working on policies and procedures centered on the appraisal process in light of dropping the calibration process.

Playaways

Karen reported that the Playaway representative will be at the May library managers’ meeting. Issues about space, batteries, and earplugs will be discussed.

Karen indicated only two library managers expressed an interest in handling this new format.

Commission

Glenda Choate, commissioner from Jones is resigning from the commission.

The April meeting will be the last meeting for David Greenwell, who was recently elected to Oklahoma City Council.

No replacements for either vacancy have been announced.

Budget

Karen is meeting with Lloyd and Donna shortly to discuss budget requests. Still unknown as to what the budget will look like for FY12.

The bill to lower the cap passed the legislature and will go to the public for a vote later in the year. This will have an impact on our budget. Lloyd is investigating what it will mean for the system.

Emedia

Karen reported that the circulations for the emedia are doing very, very well. There were over 16,000 circulations in March.

The Project Gutenberg access was launched recently and is also doing well. There were over 300 circulations in the first week.

Kindle is in talks with Overdrive. No timeline on when or if this format will be available through Overdrive.

Janet asked about the issue with HarperCollins limiting availability of their new titles to 26 circulations. Karen said she is not purchasing any HarperCollins titles at this time. She expects she will have to do some of the big best sellers.

Karen expressed concern with nonfiction that may become dated without our ability to weed the older information that remains available to customers. She’s discussed this issue with Overdrive.

Miscellaneous - All

Reschedule May Managers’ Meeting

Due to meetings with the Singer Group on May 19th, the May meeting is rescheduled for May 26 at 8:00 at the Service Center. Heidi will still chair.

Since the meeting, Pauline has confirmed the room at the Service Center for our meeting.

Warehouse Management Article

Heidi shared an article she found about Simon and Schuster's new warehouse management set up. The link to the article is:

http://www.mmh.com/article/simon_schuster_writes_book_on_distribution/

Review of Action Items - All

DVD sets (multiple discs)

Managers discuss with respective departments to look at the need to update the guidelines for cataloging multiple disc DVD sets.

Pauline will send out a copy of original guidelines to the other managers and Karen.

Heidi will include item on May’s agenda to discuss further and make a decision on.

Pauline will ask Aaron to come to the meeting if necessary.

Place on the May or June agenda a discussion regarding NW books and transfers.

Next Meeting Scheduled for May 26th at the Service Center. Heidi is chair.