Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for August 19, 2004

August 19, 2004 

Capitol Hill Library 

8:00 a.m. 

Present:  Janet Brooks, Heidi Johnson, Karen Marriott, Pauline Rodriguez'

Materials Selection Update 

•  Library Visits 
• Selectors made annual visits to CH and DC and a 6 month collection review to ED during July.   
• During August Selectors are making 6 month collection reviews to RE and SO.  They were scheduled for a collection review of DN, but have postponed that until the collection and staff is settled. 
• Upcoming in September are a collection visit to BI and an annual visit to MC. 
• Selectors have requested a visit to LU soon to check out the new facility and the collection.  Janet will make arrangements.  
• Spotlight On 
• Selectors completed updating the Spotlight on Hispanic Americans for the website.   
• Teresa has the updates and should have them on the website by September 1st. 
• Selectors will begin work on updating the Native American Spotlight in September. 
• B&T Rep 
• MSL staff and Heidi met with the B&T Rep Tammy Billings and David Hargrave, Dir. Of Sales on July 21st.  Staff provided feedback on using B&T Title Source and asked questions.   
• Janet has provided them with samples of titles with no stock at the South warehouse in hopes that they can get more stock at that location. 
• System Reserves/Cataloging 
• Janet met with Cataloging staff on July 28th to discuss ways to speed up the cataloging of material with system reserves waiting.  After MSL staff have reviewed the System Reserve List and identified problem titles, Janet will forward an email to CAT with the titles and Bib. Numbers.  This seems to be working out fairly well. 
• Ralph Ellison Staff Training 
• Janet spent time with Ralph Ellison’s new children’s librarian, Cheryl Coleman on July 29th.   
• Janet provided one-on-one training for submitting replacements and weeding the collection. 
• MSD Techs from CAT/TP 
• Laqueta worked in Materials Selection on August 9th.  She observed a variety of activities the Technicians perform and assisted with the entry of data into the “regret” spreadsheet.   
• Margaret is scheduled to come on August 30th. 
• Meetings/Workshops attended 
• Elizabeth, Julie and Ruby taped segments of Read About It on July 21st. 
• Elizabeth conducted several meetings of the Staff Outstanding Service Award Committee. 
• Linda attended a Circ/Reference Workshop on August 4th. 
• Kim conducted a meeting of the United Way committee on August 6th and has one scheduled for August 31st. 
• Janet attended a Sequoyah YA Committee Meeting on August 6th. 
• Janet and Julie attended the Children’s Programmers meeting on August 11th. 
• Janet attended the X-change meeting on August 16th. 
• Janet and Linda will be serving on the Planning Focus Group for Metropolitan University.  They meet on August 23rd. 
• Janet and Karen are scheduled to attend the Tech Support meeting on August 24th.  
• Julie is scheduled to attend the Young Adult Programmers’ Retreat on Sept. 1st.  She and Janet are preparing a bibliography and book display for librarians to use during Teen Read Week. 
• Ruby is scheduled to attend the Adult Programmers meeting on Sept. 8th. 
• Downtown Library/Grand Opening events 
• Many staff shelved books to get Downtown ready for the opening.   
• MSL staff participated in the Book Passing event on Friday, August 13th.  Many helped at the various registration stations along the route.   
• Staff attended the Grand Opening ceremonies on Tuesday, August 17th and were available to greet visitors to the department throughout the day. 
• Basement 
• Shelves and computers are up in the basement and staff is ready to begin work again. 
• Janet sent a memo to library staff on August 9th reminding them of the material they should send to the DN basement sort area (Withdrawals And Gifts-WAGS) and informed them that MSL is ready to receive material.   
• Karen and Patrick discussed the pick up and delivery schedule.  Maintenance will pick up from the libraries on Saturday.  They will deliver DN on Saturdays or Mondays.  Janet anticipates the first delivery to be made this weekend.  Cataloging should start to see transfers coming in the following week. 
• MSL staff begin regular hours of work in the basement starting August 23rd. 

Cataloging Update 

• The biggest news is the implementation of the new mlsCatClerk Barcode and Item Management System on July 26.  Barcodes have been ordered using the new system exclusively since July 27.  Pauline and the Cataloging Technicians met on July 22 to plan for workflow changes; and met again on August 2, with Heidi, to refine the system.  A number of “bugs” and desired enhancements were identified during the first two weeks.  Pauline reported these to Jim Welch, who developed fixes for most of them; the fixes were downloaded on August 17.  Runs were small the first few days, but are now about normal, and everyone is pretty comfortable with the new system.  A big BRAVO and THANKS to the Cataloging Technicians for willingly taking on the new system and persevering to find ways to make it work efficiently. 
•  OCLC’s Connexion Windows client was installed on Jana’s PC on July 26 also.  Even though Pauline has been using it for some time, there were still problems with getting it to work on another PC.  It is now functioning effectively, and Pauline has requested that it be installed on the other Catalogers’ PCs.  Bravo to Jana for sticking with it and finding a way to work even when it was a struggle. Cataloging held a staff meeting on July 20.  They discussed options and priorities for getting gift materials out, and possible new layouts for the department when additional space is gained.
• Staff have attended various system and OLA meetings and training sessions: 
• Pauline, Crystal, and Clyde, TSRT planning meeting, July 23 
• Clyde, Recognition and Reward Committee meetings, July 27 and August 10 
• Pauline and Clyde, OLA CRRC meeting, July 29 
• Pauline, X Change meeting, August 16 
• Jana, Providing Constructive Feedback workshop, August 19 
• Jill, Support Staff Conference, August 19. 
• Pauline, Jana, Crystal, and Clyde met with Janet on July 28 about problems with some materials with system reserves not being cataloged in a timely manner.  It was determined that the problem most often occurs when a material does not meet Cataloging’s “rush” criteria for system reserves at the time that it is received in Cataloging.  Materials are checked for reserves only at the time of receipt; if one or more reserves are placed after that time, Cataloging is not aware of it.  Since the materials are not coded “rush”, they are considered lower priority, especially when original cataloging is needed.  Materials Selection staff generally observes the problem when they check system reserve lists and note that a material has been received, but not cataloged.  Janet and Pauline walked through the original cataloging process, then discussed the issue with the Catalogers.  It was agreed that Janet will e-mail information about any such items to Pauline and to Cataloging when she receives the report from the MSL Technicians. 
• Stacy, from Planning, visited Cataloging on the morning of July 30.  He was impressed with the operation and enthusiastic about the slide presentation. 
• Laqueta worked DN at MSL on August 9, and ILL on August 11.  Both Janet and Pamela had good things to say about her work.  Pauline will work to schedule more visits later.    
• Jana, Crystal, and Jill volunteered at the Book Passing on August 13. 
• Pauline, Jana, and Jill attended the staff reception at the new DN library on August 14. 
• Laqueta and Margaret have been helping out with processing of new materials recently, when Tech has been short staffed.  Since they have not had transfers, they have also cleaned up and rewrapped a number of CH materials. 
• Dewey recalls have been proceeding at a rapid pace.  The new barcoding system has features that make it very effective for recalls.  It has also been extremely helpful to have Margaret and Laqueta process them.  Veronica helped process when they were backed up due to helping out in Tech, since new materials always take priority. 
• Laqueta will be cutting back her work hours as of August 19, when the new semester starts at UCO. 
• Ursula plans to attend a reception at ODL for Gary Phillips, new director of the Oklahoma Publications Clearinghouse, on August 19; and a retirement reception for Donna Denniston on August 31. 
• Ursula is working to schedule a date for ODL staff to visit the federal documents collection.  Steve Beleu and Clif Broadworth will be visiting.  Pauline will notify Karen as soon as a date is set.   
• Staff have submitted ideas for a new department layout, and Pauline is working to come up with a final design. Aaron Killough, intern from OU SLIS, will be joining Cataloging on August 23.  Pauline has met with him and his advisor, Rhonda Harris Taylor.  She will arrange times for him to visit MSL and Tech during the semester. Pauline went to the old DN building and tagged several pieces of furniture that Cataloging would like to have. 
• Clyde’s position has been changed to Associate Cataloger, but Pauline is not sure of the exact implementation date. 
• Margaret has learned to order barcodes and will be helping out while Jill is on FaMLA leave. 

Technical Processing Update 

• Runs have been between 300-1100 labels per day since our last meeting. TP currently receives an average of about 46 boxes of materials a day.  TP has been extremely short staffed due to staff being on vacation and out with illnesses.  Thanks to Cataloging and Materials Selection for letting TP borrow their part-time technicians to help out in Tech.    
• Josh, along with 2 other library staff, attended the Basic Materials Processing workshop which Loretta facilitated on July 22. 
• Other than that, none of TP's staff attended any training since the dept. was very shortstaffed and everyone was too busy at this time. 
• Heidi participated in the July 21 meeting with the B&T representatives held in the Materials Selection office.  She suggested some enhancements to B&T's Online Customer Support database and resent a previously submitted list of suggestions to David Hargrave and Tammy Billings.   
• Heidi was asked to be a member of the OSA Committee which had its first meeting on August 5, and will meet again on August 24, 2004.  A  pizza party and a pick the winner marathon are on the schedule. 
• Heidi and Josh met with Stacy Schrank from Planning on August 18 as part of the Employee Development Focus Group "Metro University".  They were also asked to volunteer at Focus 2004  to help sign  in people and coordinate setup of some of the breakout sessions. 
• Heidi and Melanie both participated at the DN book passing event on August 13.  It was a lot of fun and wonderful to see all of the people getting fired up about their library. 
• Heidi will ask to have 2 chairs from the former Automation area transferred to TP.  This will prevent TP from having to purchase chairs to replace some that are no longer height adjustable. 
• Quality Book Binding Company has fixed all the problems TP encountered when the rebound books were originally returned.  All bindery materials have now been reprocessed and returned to the owning libraries.  The date for the fall bindery group has been set for September 21. Once Frank has received a price quote for this fiscal year's bindery materials from Quality Book Binding Company, Heidi will send out an e-mail requesting agencies to send their books for rebinding to TP.  
• Heidi and Loretta are enrolled in the workshop "Care & Handling of Collection Materials" offered by Amigos here in OKC on October 1, 2004.  Heidi will also attend "Preservation of AV Materials" on November 5, 2004.  Pauline will pay for these workshops out of her Amigos deposit account.  Thank you, Pauline! 

Administrative Update 

• Downtown Library
• The move is done!  A sale of surplus items is to take place soon. Karen thanked everyone for their hard work; all materials now integrated on the shelves look very impressive and show how much work was done by everyone.  She hopes that whoever has not been to the new DN library can go and check it out soon. Karen said that some of the duplicate copies now on DN's shelves may be sorted out and set aside for the new NW library. 
• The reception on August 14 went well.  It was a nice evening, with good food and good entertainment. 
• The book passing event was very successful.  Heidi Port did an excellent job of organizing the event. 
• Karen said to make sure that all staff members knew about the free canvas bags available for all staff. 
• About 400 people attended the grand opening and everything went well. 
• Finances
• The Finance Committee passed the budget on August 18.  Tax revenues are about 2.7 mill. higher than originally anticipated.  $75,000 will be added to the materials budget of which about half will go to purchase additional electronic resources. 
• There was discussion about the fact that the materials budget can't be increased too much due to space restrictions at Cataloging and Technical Processing.  The Finance Committee seems to understand the problem and is willing to consider and evaluate options. Some items purchased from the additional budget funds will be carts for system reserves, similar to moveable shelving.  The system reserves committee headed by Denyvetta Davis recommended the purchase of these carts to help with speeding up the system reserve process.  The committee’s full proposal is due in February. 
• $142,000 will need to be spent on additional retirement contributions. 
• Some additional money will be used by IT to investigate WiFi  technology which would give all agencies wireless capability. Part of the additional tax revenues may be added to the reserve fund, possibly to be used for future building projects.  The proposed budget will go to the Commission for approval on Thursday, August 26, 2004.  Also, a proposal will be presented to postpone asking for a mill levy increase until 2006.  
• Building Renovations
• The original bond issue specified improvements to CH restrooms and meeting rooms only.  However, the administration recognizes that there are other problems with the building. Jim Davis, an architect, looked at the CH building in order to make recommendations on the improvement needs, including the space needs of Cataloging and Technical Processing.  Issues include problems with the heating and air conditioning system, the restrooms, and the roof, among others.  Mr. Davis will submit a proposal for a detailed building study to Donna Morris.  If his proposal is accepted, it is anticipated that the study will take about sixty days.   It is assumed that additional funds would be needed to make all needed improvements to the building.   Recommendations of the study will be presented to the commission’s Long Range Planning Committee for their consideration in light of current and potential funds and other needs. Karen is to compile information about space requirements and layout previously provided by MSD managers.  The needs of both Cataloging and Technical Processing for the next 10-20 years will be looked at.  Karen may contact MSD managers for additional information. The managers of both CAT and TP expressed an interest in attending future planning sessions for the CH building renovation. 
• Renovations to RE included in the bond issue are expected to proceed as planned, including the proposed meeting room expansion. 
• Misc.
• System reserves for July have increased 18.6%.  Karen Marriott and Jim Welch are currently looking at ways to provide monthly statistics on reserves to the commission as we currently do circulation and Internet statistics. 
• Karen mentioned that she would be working on the ODL report during the week of August 23. 
• Karen requested that if managers are contacted by HUM or others regarding transfer of an employee into the department, they should contact Karen first before acting on this request. 
• MSD Workshop and Manual 
• The dates for the upcoming MSD workshop are Oct. 27, Nov. 3, and Nov. 10, 2004.  Managers received draft copies of the revised manual.  Proof-read copies should be turned in to Janet by Sep. 10 so she can bring the completed version to the next MSD managers' meeting on Sep. 23.   
• Managers then discussed the division of the workshop parts and responsibilities for each section.   
• DVDs 
• The target date to start circulating DVDs at the agencies is October 2005. All MSD managers will be attending the next library managers' meeting on August 25, 1:00 p.m., at Del City to talk about the addition of DVDs to the collection and some of the issues connected with this new format. 
• TP is to estimate the number of CDs currently received in an average box shipped from BTE.  Assuming that most DVDs ordered on one p.o. will be in stock and should arrive together in one shipment, this will provide MSL with an estimate of the number of DVDs they can order per purchase order so as to not overwhelm TP spacewise when they are received.   
• Heidi talked with Charlotte Frazier of Tulsa City County Library regarding their experience with DVDs.  It turns out, TCCL is using the same DVD case as TP is proposing to use, too.  Tulsa does not catalog and circulate with their DVDs any extra materials received (like games, booklets, etc.).  This saves them time when checking these DVDs back in after circulation since circulation does not have to count and account for these items.  This also prevents the necessity of putting DVDs with accompanying materials into a bag of any sort. 
• Pauline commented that notes in records for DVDs will need to be formatted slightly differently than for videotapes.  She will talk to Jimmy about whether these changes will affect the system’s reading of the “restricted” code for materials rated R.  She also will talk to Jimmy about an icon for the new media code, DVD.
• Janet mentioned that many of the selection issues are still pending until some policies have been changed, so she will not have much to add to the library managers' meeting. 
• Miscellaneous 
• Pauline and Janet requested a change in the date of the next MSD managers' meeting due to a workshop that they would like to attend.  It was decided to move the meeting from Sep. 16 to Sep. 23 instead. 

The meeting adjourned at 10:50 a.m.  The next meeting will be held on Sep. 23, 2004, 8:00 a.m., at the CH Library in the basement meeting room.  Pauline will chair.