Donna was not able to stay for the meeting, but stopped in to greet the managers.
Interlibrary Loan Update - Pamela Kosted
Pamela reported the interlibrary loan activities are up 30% over last year. Lending is up 24% and Borrowing is up 6%.
Pamela will forward to Pauline concerns she has about the new OCLC FirstSearch Resource Sharing software. Pauline will contact Amigos and/or OCLC to get information and perhaps assistance.
Crystal has announced her resignation from the library system; her last day atwork will be June 30. Party plans are in the works.
The Cataloger position was posted on June 13, with a deadline of June 24. Pauline hopes to look over applications around June 30; if not, after July 6. Her goal is to have someone in the position by July 18.
The new box of labels with perforations arrived on May 31. The labels seem to have more problems than the original batch, but are a vast improvement over the unperforated ones. The other four boxes have not been returned as yet.
Heidi sent a nice note to Pauline, complimenting Laqueta and Margaret on their good work in helping with processing. She commented that Tech Processing would not have been able to meet its output goals without them.
Margaret and Laqueta have also been instrumental in allowing the Cataloging Technicians to get training recently. On June 15, all three Cataloging Technicians attended the Lunch ‘n Learn “How to Speak Up without Putting Others Down”, and on June 16, they attended an all-day workshop on using the OCLC Connexion browser. The MSD Technicians have done a great job of taking over ordering and printing barcodes, to allow all the Cataloging Technicians to be out at the same time.
Along with several other library staff, Pauline visited the Dallas County Community College District technical services department on June 9. She did not learn as much as she had hoped to, but did come away with some ideas about office layout and workflow.
The runs have been on average 687 labels per day. Receipt of materials has remained steady since the last MSD meeting at an average of 41 boxes ofmaterials a day.
Heidi is back from vacation and trying to catch up on mail, e-mails, and two appraisals due shortly. Staff in TP carried on very well in her absence and is to be commended. Thanks also to Pauline, Janet, and Karen for helping out as needed, as well as to staff in Cataloging and Materials Selection for giving a helping hand.
Heidi has received notification from B&T’s accounting dept. that some of the problem credits still listed on MLS’s accounts have now been properly applied and should no longer be listed on next month’s (June’s) statements. Heidi is hopeful about the situation, but reserves jubilation until these statements have actually been received.
Jim Welch has installed a trial version of the new GUI receiving system in Technical Processing. Some minor problems are currently being worked out, but overall it will be a very helpful update to the receiving process. All orders placed on a purchase order can be accessed at once, without separate order numbers having to be entered. This will speed up the receiving of materials enormously, and the entering of invoices takes almost care of itself, making the whole process more efficient. Also, partial receipt of an order will be much easier, since receiving and backordering/canceling of orders is now possible on the same screen, not on two separate screens as before, again speeding up the process. Thank you, Jimmy!
Meetings/workshops attended:
Crystal – CPR workshop, April 7
Pauline, Jill – OLA regional meeting, Mustang, April 19
Several staff attended all or part of OLA March 31 and April 1: Pauline, Jana, Crystal, Ursula, and Jill. Jill attended the OLA Gold preconference on March 30. Jana, Crystal, and Clyde presented a program on cataloging locally published materials; it was well attended and interesting. Ursula attended the GODORT membership meeting; she has been elected chair-elect of GODORT. Pauline presented as a member of a panel discussing management issues in different library environments. Pauline also attended the session at which Heidi presented on AV packaging. Heidi’s presentation was informative was the “hit” of the program!
Beth visited Tech on March 28 and April 11. She was able to experience processing and receiving during her visits. She visited IT on April 4.
Pauline attended the Commission’s Long Range Planning Committee meeting on April 4. The Ad Team recommended construction of a new building near the current maintenance center, to house Cataloging and Tech. Cataloging staff are excited about the plans.
At the request of Jeanie Johnson, on April 9 Pauline served as a guest speaker for a cataloging class as part of OSU’s graduate program in education. There were approximately 20 people in the class, and they were interested and appreciative.
Library Visits
Selectors conducted annual visits to DN and SO during February. Janet and Karen had a follow up meeting with Debra/DN the first week of March.
Selectors are conducting a 6-month visit to MC and an annual visit to BC and Books-by-Mail during March.
Selectors are scheduled to do a 6-month collection review of BE and annual visits to BI and the Extensions during April.
Spotlight On
Selectors are updating the Asian American Spotlight On.
The updates will be sent to Teresa/PLA the first of April
MSD Tech in TP
Christina worked in TP on Wednesday, March 16.
OU Intern/UCO Student
OU Intern, Beth Jones spent the day, Feb. 28 with selection staff. She spent time with technicians and selectors to see how the department operates. She also sat in on a vendor visit with Janet.
Julie and Janet met with a UCO Media student on March 17.
Meetings/workshops attended:
Pauline, Beth – OLA Career Recruitment and Retention Committee, January 24
Pauline – Catalog Searching workshop, January 27
Pauline – OLA Administration Roundtable, January 28
Paula, Ursula – Basic Communication workshop, February 9
Jill, Excel workshop, February 11 and 25
Pauline, OLA Regional Meeting, February 15
Jana, CPR workshop, February 17
Jill, OLA SSRT, February 17.
Margaret Angeles returned from her maternity leave on January 17; Laqueta Lewis began working reduced hours due to the beginning of the school semester on January 10; and Beth Jones, OU SLIS student, began her internship in Cataloging on January 3.
Pauline met with Karen and Jim Welch on December 28 to discuss the idea of creating genre location codes for music CDs. Jim sent her a copy of BE’s CD inventory, so that she can get an idea of how many CDs might need to be relabeled. Pauline met with the Cataloging Technicians on January 11 to get their input. The project is ongoing.
Pauline, Crystal, Clyde, and Beth attended an OLA TSRT meeting on January 10.
Pauline met with Jana, Crystal, and Clyde on January 14 to discuss the OLA program that the three are presenting. Their topic will be problems encountered when cataloging locally published and/or produced materials.
Pauline recorded a book talk for Read About It on January 19.
Jana attended the Lunch and Learn workshop “The Abilene Paradox” on January 19.
All staff who wanted to attended one of the meetings discussing the pension plan opinion poll. All staff completed the poll.
Using the cleaning cards in the thermal barcode printers seems to have reduced the number of problems with the printers. y Jim Welch installed Connexion version 1.20 on Pauline’s PC on December 20, and is scheduled to install it on all catalogers’ PCs.
The runs have been on average 604 labels per day. TP currently receives an average of about 36 boxes of materials a day.
Once again, Technical Processing is short staffed; this time by 2 processors and 1 receiving tech. Heidi has been helping with processing materials and would like to commend the remaining processors who have been working extra hard to keep materials flowing through the dept. Other TP staff have also helped out, sometimes working 3 different jobs in the same day.
Other than that, the rush materials are getting processed on a daily basis, AV within a day or two, and the non-rush materials as soon as possible. Once again big thank yous to Cataloging and the MSD Technicians who have been helping TP a lot, their own workload permitting.
Pauline would like to thank everyone for their help and support since the death of her husband’s twin, Larry. Heidi has handled management issues; Janet taught the catalog searching section of the workshop; and the Cataloging staff has kept the department running effectively. It has been very helpful to know that work-related issues are taken care of, and not to have to worry about them. The expressions of sympathy and support from all the MLS family have meant a great deal to Pauline and to Gary.
Margaret and Christina were a big help to Cataloging the week of November 1. All Cataloging technicians were out all or part of the week. Margaret and Christina kept up barcode printing so completely that Pauline did not need to assist at all on some days. Margaret worked extra hours, and mastered ordering AV barcodes during this time. Thanks to both of them!
Cataloging is still struggling with the new barcode printers. Most problems seem to be with the printers rather than the software. Cataloging has begun cleaning the printers with alcohol, which seems to be helping somewhat. It’s not clear if the printers work better when they are cleaner, or if they’re drunk, but it seems to help. Pauline has ordered supplies to clean the print heads and media paths, to see if that further alleviates some problems.
Crystal attended the Staff Recognition Reception on October 16, and received her 5-year pin. Jill also attended the reception. Paula’s 5-year pin has been delivered to her.
Pauline manned an exhibit for OLA at the annual OEA conference. She has a new respect for exhibitors! Several people expressed interest in library careers.
Cataloging is still struggling with the new barcode printers. Most problems seem to be with the printers rather than the software.
Pauline attended an Amigos live online course on XML September 27-30. She was pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed the online format; the course was interesting and will be useful in planning for future changes in cataloging formats.
Aaron’s visit to MSL has been rescheduled for November 1 and 2, due to the date of his comp exams.
All staff who wanted new ID photos have had them taken.
Pauline worked with Heidi on interviews for Processor October 5-7.
Other system and OLA meetings and training sessions:
Ursula, OLA Legislative Committee, October 7
Clyde, Recognition and Rewards Committee, October 5
