Materials Services Division Carl.X Issues/Decisions

Managers had been asked to submit a list of questions prior to the meeting.  Some of the questions were discussed and decisions made; other issues are still pending. Karen announced that she would like to discuss any issues involving multiple departments first.

MSL + TP

• Discussion followed about which vendor and/or Cataloging instructions would still be needed on orders placed in the new system. Janet will send a list with notes from the current dropdown menu to Pauline and Heidi for review.
• Karen will check with Steve in OUT whether BC books will still need category stickers put on non-fiction materials during processing in TP. If not, use of non-fiction category labels can be discontinued. Category/genre stickers will still be needed on fiction books for BC and for order by the extensions. Other processing issues will be discussed separately.
• The question was asked whether there is still a way to perform cancellations in the new system and whether the current cancel codes would still be valid. Karen will investigate this issue.
• Once an order has been placed, there is no way to change the vendor an order will be received from.  If an order is received from a vendor other than the one listed on the original order record, the original order has to be cancelled and an order for the new vendor input instead.
• TP will have a way to keep track of how many orders are being placed by MSL, including the number of copies. This will help with TP’s anticipated workflow.
• Karen mentioned that most reports currently available on Big Bin will still be available once Carl.X goes live. Anne will come to TP and demonstrate the new interface, letting TP choose whether to receive and/or retrieve items ordered through the old ILS system or through the new system.
• After Materials Selection starts printing out purchase orders in their department, prepay materials will be handled by MSL. They will create the Prepay RFP in MSL to send to the Business Office. Copies of both of the RFP and the purchase order will be forwarded to TP for receipt of these prepays materials.
• Future invoices for BC materials purchased locally will be sent to the Business Office. TP no longer needs to input these.  Other local purchases will be handled as telephone orders and will have order records input. Once they are sent to TP with their receipt/invoice, TP can receive them like regular orders.
• Then discussion focused on the new 8-digit purchase orders in Carl.X. The plan is for each Selector to be assigned a letter (A, B, C, etc.).  P.O. numbers would look like this:

15/A0001 ; 15/A0002 ; 15/A0003, etc.

15/B0001 ; 15/B0002 ; 15/B0003, etc.

• Each Selector will keep track of their own purchase order numbers.  MSL will have a list with a running total of orders placed each day. Techs are to have orders entered by noon so Selectors and MSL Assistant can check their orders and change order status to “New” by the end of the day. MSL will place orders on a daily basis. TP would like to use this information about number of items ordered to help schedule staff absences.
• Item maintenance in Carl.X does not list withdrawn items, so new ways will need to be investigated to determine information for MSL to use when dealing with withdrawn items and transfers. Pauline and Janet are to further discuss this issue.
• Susan and Kristine are inputting continuation titles. MSL and TP talked about possible approval of continuation invoices in TP instead of sending to Selector and Selector returning to TP for entering after approval.  It was decided that if Selectors can provide total amount of invoice to be approved or any additional information such as negotiated price, special handling, etc. in a note field, then TP can approve that invoice. If there is not sufficient information given, then Selector will need to be contacted or invoice sent to MSL for approval.

CAT/ILL

• MSL will order unclassified mass market paperbacks on separate BIDs from cataloged copies of the same title.
• Cataloging and ILL operations may resume on September 3.
• MSL is to continue using BID numbers of the old edition when ordering a new edition instead of assigning a new one.
• The new workslips (=distribution lists) indicate that a title has “Holds” on it, but does not indicate the number of customers waiting on this title. Due to this, Cataloging will change the way that it identifies priority materials. Any material received with holds waiting will be considered priority. This will increase the turnaround time for materials with no holds waiting. If a hold list develops on a title that has already been received, MLS will e-mail both Cataloging and Pauline. TP can continue their current “Rush” procedures.
• Workslips still need to be initialed in both TP and in CAT.
• Pauline asked that Selectors indicate “NBK”  as the location code for materials to be coded for that location in Cataloging.  NBK is listed in the dropdown menu for location code on the order screen.
• Pauline stated that the Cataloging Technicians need permission to edit the item call # on existing items so they can make corrections when appropriate.
• When ordering barcodes and entering the cost of the materials, Cataloging needs to round the cost down to the nearest 5 cents due to POS (Point of Sale) set-up.

“Mini-Cats” (paperbacks with minimal catalog records)

• Cataloging will create brief catalog records for all unclassified mass market paperbacks, separate from records for classified copies.
• Records will include a note indicating that the material is not available for holds.
• Unclassified paperbacks will be inventoried using preprinted barcodes.
• Pauline will investigate to determine if items inventoried as unclassified paperbacks will be automatically unavailable for holds.
• Pauline and Heidi will continue to refine procedures for unclassified paperbacks. The basic steps agree upon so far:
• TP receives these materials as usual and mark them up for branches per order information.
• All copies are taken to Cataloging for record uploading and barcoding.
• Cataloging will be responsible for uploading records, inventorying barcodes, and attaching barcodes, making sure to that each barcode is inventoried for agency marked on the material.
• TP will property stamp and insert RFID tag.
• TP will then tag and send out through the automated sorter.
• MSL no longer needs to put “Do not cat” on all uncataloged paperbacks. They only need to note if a mass market paperback should be fully cataloged. Otherwise it is assumed that a paperback title will not be fully cataloged, but treated as a mini-cat.

There were no miscellaneous items for discussion. The meeting adjourned about 10:45 a.m.

The next monthly MSD meeting is scheduled for September 18, 2014. Pauline will chair.