Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for February 16, 2006

Materials Services Division

Managers’ Monthly meeting

February 16, 2006

8:00 A.M.

Capitol Hill Library

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

1. Technical Processing update – Heidi

• The runs have been on average 736 labels per day which is a decrease of 126 labels compared to last month’s 862. Receipt of material continues steady at 44 boxes of materials a day, the same average number received last month.
• Technical Processing is still able to process all Rush materials on the same day they are brought to the dept. However, the processors are still processing non-rush materials from the run brought to TP on February 3; there have been ten runs since then.
• John Ellis-Etchison has started as TP’s new processor. His training in processing books is progressing; training in AV materials should start shortly.
• Melanie, as one of the more experienced processors, has moved upstairs to the new workstation set up in the area south of Cataloging. She now is cutting the run every day before it is brought to TP, then spending the rest of her time processing materials and helping with quality checking in the afternoons.
• The bindery has not returned the books by the end of January as promised in early January. No communication has been received from them as to the new projected return date.
• Heidi and the processors have updated some of the procedures and reassigned some of the duties among the processors to include the additional processor in the assigned duties rotation.
• Heidi attended the Train-the-trainer session on Feb. 2 at the DN library; Loretta was unable to attend as originally planned due to the death of her mother.
• Christy attended the supervisory workshop on Jan. 25th at ED.
• Josh received confirmation that he is scheduled for 2 weeks of guard duty in Biloxi, MS, March 13-24, 2006.

2. Materials Selection update – Janet

• Library Visits
• During January selectors conducted an annual visit to BI.
• During February, they did an annual visit to DN and a 6-month collection review of CT.
• During March they will do an annual visit to ED and a 6-month visit to DC.
•  Spotlight On
• The Spotlight On Black History Month is now on the webpage.
• Selectors will begin updating the Spotlight On Asian American in March. Materials Services Division Managers’ Meeting 1 February 16, 2006
•  Northwest
• Selectors are to encumber their funds for NW to at least 65% by the end of February. Several have exceeded that goal.
• Order Lists
• The last 3 lists have been exceptionally large.

List 29=5028

List 30=4913

List 31=5158

• Janet did an analysis to see what might have been causing these large lists and did not see anything unusual about the lists.
• Janet and Ruby have contributed the most items in the past several weeks. Most of their orders have been a mix of media and paperbacks which tend to have large number of multiples.
• Some of the recent activity may have been because of the Christmas holidays and AVL during December. The media was delayed quite a bit during that time as well,
• Selectors usually do not submit more than 1000 items each. If they have an excess in a week, it is usually because one of the other selectors have fewer than 1000 items. Kim continues to do an excellent job of monitoring the lists and making sure that we stay close to 5000 items each week.
• Budget
• Staff are evaluating furniture and equipment needs for FY07.
• Janet has distributed information about conferences and travel needs for FY07.
• Selectors are reviewing visit reports and other statistical analysis for any needs in the materials budget.
• Status of blinds
• The installers for the blinds in MSL delivered the shades during the week of January 30. At that time they determined they could not install some of the blinds because of questions about the ability of the wood trim to support the weight.
• On Friday, Feb 10 their supervisor visited and determined the blinds could be supported. Janet asked if they could install the blinds on the north windows as soon as possible. He indicated that they would be in immediately to install those. As of 2/14/06, the blinds still had not been installed.
• Staff are extremely frustrated with the situation and are still suffering from the glare coming in from the windows.
• Meetings/Workshops Attended
• Janet attended the FOI Annual Board meeting on January 22.
• Kim attended the “Essential Supervisory Skills” workshop on January 25 at ED.
• Janet attended the Commission’s Special Committee meeting on January 31.
• Julie and Janet attended portions of the Children’s Services Retreat on Feb 1. Janet made a presentation on getting boys to read.
• Janet, Ruby and Elizabeth attended the Trainer Workshop on Feb. 2.
• Janet and Elizabeth taped segments for Read About It on Feb. 8. Materials Services Division Managers’ Meeting 2 February 16, 2006
• Janet served as the resource person for CT’s Family Place on Feb. 13.
• Kay Bauman will talk to MSL staff about the Organizational Values on Feb. 17. Janet and Julie heard her presentation at the children’s services retreat and thought it would be beneficial for her to speak to the rest of MSL staff.
• The Technicians held a Tech meeting on Feb. 17.
• Janet plans to attend the X-change meeting at ED on Feb. 20.
• Janet will attend the Tech Group meeting on Feb. 21.
• Julie is attending the “Managing You” workshop on Feb. 22.
• Elizabeth is teaching G.O.A.L. on February 27.
• Susan will be working on the ODL Committee evaluating the state databases. They have their first meeting March 3.

3. Cataloging update – Pauline

• Sadly, Laqueta Lewis has turned in her resignation as MSD Tech. Although we will miss her, we are glad that she is going on to a job in her chosen field of nutrition. Cataloging held a farewell party to wish Laqueta well on February 15; her last day will be February 21.
• The MSD Tech position does not have an official closing date, but the preferred date is February 22. Pauline is working on getting practical tests together so that she can begin scheduling interviews as soon after that as possible.
• All staff who are participating in the new Mass Mutual retirement plan attended informational meetings in January.
• Other meetings and training attended:
• Pauline – Train the trainer workshop, BI, January 26
• Pauline, Jana, Aaron – TSRT meeting, January 20
• Recently, there has been some confusion about how Tech, Cataloging, and libraries are to handle CO materials received on CD-ROM. Pauline, Josh, and Kim exchanged several e-mails about this. It was determined that, since the number of such materials has declined, it is possible for Cataloging to update catalog records to reflect the latest edition received. Pauline wrote procedures for Cataloging and Tech, and sent a memo to libraries outlining the process that should be followed there.
• Gary Phillips and Clif Broadworth from ODL made their annual state depository visit on February 13. Pauline and Ursula attended the meeting; both felt that it was productive. There was quite a bit of discussion about cataloging state depository microfiche, and about the vertical file.
• Since February 1, there have been three barcode runs consisting of more than 1,000 labels, and two more consisting of more than 800 labels.

4. Administration update – Karen

• Budget
• The budget schedule is out, with a deadline of April 17. Karen would like for the managers to meet prior to the deadline. Managers agreed to move the April meeting from April 20 to April 13.
• Libraries have been told to expect a flat budget except for increases for inflation in COs and databases. Materials Services Division Managers’ Meeting 3 February 16, 2006
• Service Center Building
• Todd has looked at several sites; some are real possiblities.
• The Long Range Planning Committee is scheduled to meet on March 7. Todd will present a report on the site search. Karen encouraged Heidi and Pauline to attend.
• Joy of Subjects
• Karen asked Pauline if she has any information regarding printing of the Joy of Subjects browsing guide, especially regarding distribution and number printed. Pauline will send what she has.
• Bindery
• Karen asked if, in view of workload, Tech Processing would prefer to skip the second bindery group. Heidi stated that it would be helpful. There will still be one more group of local history materials sent, to use up grant money.
• Special collection
• The Commission will vote on the proposal to create a special collection of “sensitive” materials today.

5. Documents Issues – Pauline

• Pauline mentioned several issues that have arisen recently with government documents. The main question regarded who is responsible for following up on problems with shipments, charges, etc., for non-depository documents ordered by MSL and paid for from the GPO deposit account. All agreed that the Documents Cataloger should retain this responsibility.
• Pauline also commented on the large number of state depository materials on microfiche that have been received. There is a large cataloging backlog of these items. She and Ursula are working on a plan to evaluate them and determine whether all should be cataloged.
• Pauline and Ursula are working with Sharon Bish to improve the vertical file subject heading system. ODL no longer requires piece-level bibliographic control of ephemeral materials, so listing titles of state documents in vertical files will cease shortly.

6. Questions/Miscellaneous - All

• Heidi followed up on the issue of barcode and disclaimer labels covering closed captioning information on DVD containers. There are cases in which this is the only place where captioning is noted. Heidi is working with Standard Printing to come up with a disclaimer label that could include closed captioning information if needed.
• Janet reminded managers to get updates to the Collection Management workshop manual to her by March 1.

7. Miscellaneous

There was no miscellaneous business.

The next meeting will be on March 9, 8:00 A.M., at Capitol Hill. Heidi will chair.