Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for July 20, 2006

Materials Services

Monthly Managers’ Meeting

July 20, 2006

8:00 a.m.

Downtown Library Director’s Conference Room, 3rd Floor

Attendees:

Janet Brooks-Chair, Heidi Johnson, Pamela Kosted, Karen Marriott, Pauline Rodriguez

Agenda:

Cataloging Update - Pauline Rodriguez

• Ursula is back at work half time. Everyone is glad to see her. She will remain on half time until at least July 27.
• Cataloging is experiencing one of its rare slow periods. Pauline is encouraging everyone to enjoy looking at empty shelves and not worrying about workload while they can.
• One of Cataloging’s Zebra model barcode label printers bit the dust in June. A small plastic piece needed to hold the labels in place broke off. IT replaced the printer with the one that they had used for testing. The Zebra printers have received heavier use than originally anticipated, and have proven to be high maintenance. Pauline checked with various vendors at ALA about finding printers that would be more suited to the workload. The suggested printers are considerably more expensive than the Zebra model. Pauline will talk with Anne Fischer and Jim Welch about options for the future.
• Pauline met with Heidi and Karen Marriott about preliminary plans for the Service Center.
• Margaret and Karen Davis have been helping Tech with the bindery materials.
• All staff who wanted to attended Mass Mutual meetings in June.
• Pauline has been working with Phil Tolbert to interview for a half time librarian at CH.
• Meetings and training attended:
• Pauline – Amigos union listing workshop, June 20
• Aaron – Amigos authority file workshop, June 21
• Pauline – OLA Local Arrangements, July 10 and 17
• Pauline – OLA TSRT, July 14
• At ALA, Pauline attended a program on “Talking with Your Architect”, which discussed issues involved in designing libraries and communicating with architects. Although it was geared for public service spaces, she gained a good deal of information. The speakers recommended two books, Designing Better Libraries, by Richard C. McCarthy, and Construction Notes, by Wallace J. Mlyniec, as good resources to learn architectural/building jargon and facilitate communication. She has obtained McCarthy’s book through ILL, and is finding it quite useful. She recommended purchasing it for Cataloging’s professional collection.
• Pauline distributed copies of Cataloging’s year-end statistical report, and the year-end report on Cataloging Consideration Requests.

Interlibrary Loan Update - Pamela Kosted

• Pamela shared statistics for borrowing and lending. 
• She reported that they continue to make strides in decreasing the turnaround time for our borrowers.

Technical Processing Update - Heidi Johnson

• So far, the runs in July have been on average 580 labels per day which is a decrease compared to last month’s 655 labels. Technical Processing currently receives an average of 37 boxes of materials a day which is a decrease from last month’s average of 45. Since the first orders for the new fiscal year have been sent, TP expects these numbers to increase again shortly.
• TP is current on the processing of materials. The processors are currently also working on reprocessing the bindery books recently received back.
• The processors just finished the process of checking all the rebound books received back from Quality Book Binding. Quite a few problems have been discovered.
• Heidi and Janet met with Tammy Billings from Baker & Taylor. Heidi discussed the still ongoing problems with B&T’s accounting dept., CFS. The most recent statements received showed no additional activity from CFS to clear up the same old accounting items listed on last month’s statements. The day after the meeting, Heidi finally received notification that all old items prior to January 2006 should be gone from the next statement to be sent at the end of July. Heidi will keep everyone updated.
• The Ingram accounts are all current at this time.
• Loretta attended the workshop “Be the boss of the clock” on June 22. Andrew visited the Business Office on June 19, MSL on July 17, and the workshop “Excelling with Excel” on July 19.
• Heidi Port is working on finding another volunteer for TP to help with processing paperbacks and helping to unbox materials. Since Kayhan Yazdani, long-time volunteer in TP, was recently hired as CH Library’s morning page, he will no longer be able to serve as a volunteer in TP.
• Heidi (TP) and Pauline (CAT) met with Karen Marriott on July 11 to discuss the future layouts of their departments in the planned Service Center.
• TP’s carpets within the department were cleaned on June 30. The sorting area’s carpet is in desperate need of cleaning also, but could not be cleaned since all items moved out of the dept. itself had to be stored temporarily in that area.
• Kelley Hoffman has met with Kevin and Andrew on July 19 about their benefits for which they will become eligible shortly.
• Several staff in TP have scheduled AVL during the last part of July and during August, including one of the receiving techs and several of the processors.

Materials Selection Update Janet Brooks

• Library Visits
• During June selectors completed an annual visit to BE and a 6-month collection review of WA. During July selectors are making an annual visit to CH and a 6-month collection review of BI. In August selectors will make an annual visit to CT and the Extension and a 6-month collection review of DN.
• Budget
• Selectors finished out FY06 at 101.64%. With $122,697 still on order.
• Kim still going through old P.O.s to make sure as many orders are filled and to decrease the number of cancelled titles.
• Selectors are encumbering FY07. NW received additional funds to begin purchasing CDs and DVDs.
• Spotlight On
• Selectors are in the process of updating the Spotlight On Hispanic Americans.
• Baker and Taylor
• Tammy/B&T rep visited on July 12th
• TP staff visit MSL
• Andrew visited MSL on July 27th.
• Kevin is scheduled to meet with Kim and Susan on August 1st.
• Ralph Ellison Staff Training
• Janet is scheduled to train RE staff on weeding and using the shelf management lists on July 26th.
• Fall Collection Management Workshop
• The fall collection management workshop is scheduled for Wed. Oct. 4, 11, 18th in the a.m.
• Julie and Marilyn are scheduled to teach a portion of the workshop.
• Workshops/Meetings Attended
• Reagan attended the time management workshop on June 22nd.
• Elizabeth facilitated G.O.A.L on July 3rd. Ruby facilitates on July 17th.
• Janet is attending the Adult development workshop on July 11th and 18th.
• Reagan is attended the What’s That you Say workshop on July 13th.
• Julie and Ruby are attending the Coaching a Winning team workshop on July 26th.
• Statistics
• Janet distributed copies of the year end statistics for MSL.

Administration Update - Karen Marriott

• Budget
• Managers should let Karen know of any changes to the budget within the next week.
• AdTeam
• Karen reported that Rosemary/CT sat in on the AdTeam meeting as part of a new plan for library managers to job shadow various administrative departments. Priscilla Doss will be attending the next MSD Managers’ meeting and working with selectors.
• Downtown has implemented a plan for “Code Adam”. Ric is meeting with departments to explain their roles in this emergency plan.
• Commission
• Finance Committee report and Audit report will be presented to the Commission.
• Ralph Ellison
• Barbara Beasley developed a plan to assist with reorganizing and cleaning up RE.
• Administration is in the process of interviewing architects for the expansion project.
• Service Center
• Staff are still dealing with the flood water issues after the acquisition of land from MetroTech fell through. They are looking at acquiring land from other adjacent properties now.
• The library still plans on closing on the property next month.
• Northwest
• Still no decisions made about the location. The library has identified several possible sites. The city has asked Donna to prioritize the list of sites.
• Opening of this facility is planned for FY09 or FY10.
• Overdrive E-Audio
• Jimmy does not want to catalog downloadable audio books due to concerns that some customers could potentially use links in the records to jump onto the Internet and bypass filters. Karen asked Pauline for her feelings as to whether these titles should/could be cataloged.
• Administration plans to meet on July 28th to review the contract.
• Miscellaneous announcements
• Mary Mahan/NP is in the hospital. Lucie is filling in at NP.
• Karen attended the unveiling ceremony for the Ron Norick bust DN. She also reported that the Norick family donated $25000 to the Endowment Trust.
• Karen will be serving on the Literary Voices Committee.
• August 7th is Library Night at the Ballpark. Staff can request vouchers for tickets from Kristin Smith/OR.

Bindery - Heidi Johnson

• The bindery has finally been received with a few problems. Heidi asked for feedback on how to handle some of the errors.
• Heidi researched the other binderies we could use in the future. She identified several possibilities.
• Karen and Pauline will send Heidi some copies of titles that can be sent to these binderies for tests.

Dual Disc Issues - Janet Brooks

• Julie Ballou researched the issue of DualDiscs and asked Janet to bring the information to managers.
• DualDisc has both a CD player side and DVD side.
• Allows artists to create in exciting new ways using audio, video and computer content all on a single two-sided disc.
• Because the DualDisc CD layer does not conform to Red Book specifications, Philips and Sony have refused to allow DualDisc titles to carry the CD logo and most Dual Discs contain one of two warnings:
• “This disc is intended to play on standard DVD and CD players. May not play on certain car, slot load players and mega-disc changers”
• “The audio side of this disc does not conform to CD specifications and therefore not all DVD and CD players will play the audio side.”
• The DVD side of a DualDisc completely conforms to the specifications set forth by the DVD Forum and DualDiscs have been cleared to use the DVD logo.
• Record companies have 2 main hopes for DualDiscs:
• They will eventually replace CDs as the preferred media for purchase at music retailers.
• The inclusion of bonus DVD content at a price similar to a conventional CD will help to slow down online music piracy by giving consumers more incentive to buy their music through retailers.
• The cost of a DualDisc at retail versus that of a conventional CD varies depending on the title but, on average, a DualDisc costs about $1.50-$2.50 more than the same title on CD.
• What one finds on the DVD side of a DualDisc title will vary. Common content includes:
• The entire album in higher-quality stereophonic and/or surround sound
• Documentaries
• Music videos
• The artist’s discography
• A link to the artist’s website
• The biggest competition to DualDisc is the hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD). DualDiscs and hybrid SACDs are competing solutions to the problem of providing higher-resolution audio on a disc that can still be played on conventional CD players. Hybrid SACDs are a one-sided solution that instead uses two layers: a conventional CD layer and a high-resolution layer.
• Criticisms-There are numerous criticisms about DualDiscs, ranging from size to DualDiscs being more fragile than conventional CDs.
• In addition to the possible inability for some CD players to read a DualDisc properly, other consumer criticisms of Dual Disc include:
• Disk can get jammed in an extremely small number of computer DVD drives, DVD players, slot-loading CD players (such as car CD players) and mega-changers. This may even damage the disc.
• Anomalies such as small scratches, fingerprints or disc tilt may cause tracking errors more easily than those same anomalies would on a conventional CD. Since disc damage is inevitable over time, this can mean a reduction in a DualDisc’s effective lifetime as compared to a CD.
• Players that use a DVD drive can generally not play the CD side.
• The recommended 60-minute limit of the CD side prohibits it from including the entire content of some conventional CDs. When record companies have wanted to issue extended content that exceeds the current capabilities of DualDisc, they have generally opted for a “DoubleDisc” package: a single package containing a regular CD and a DVD-Audio/Video disc.
• Since both sides of the disc are used for data, a label cannot appear on either side of the disc. The only way that a consumer knows which side is CD and which is DVD is by looking the center ring of the disc where it is marked.
• A number of electronics companies issued statements warning consumers about possible problems with playing DualDisc titles on the equipment. These warnings ranged in severity from DualDiscs just not working with the equipment to actual damage to the disc and/or equipment.
• Issues:
• Titles distributed in only DualDisc format. Future releases of older titles in DualDisc format only. Makes it difficult to make replacements, fill reserves or customer suggestions.
• Additional Labels needed
• Can’t add labels to discs (?)
• Possible newer format coming out Combo packages.
• Managers agreed that we would avoid purchasing DualDisc format at this time.

Miscellaneous - All

• Heidi reported that the storage room at CH for NW adult fiction, children’s fiction and YA fiction is approximately half full. They have 185 boxes stored.
• If the new service center is not completed in the next year, we will need to look for additional storage.
• It was decided that all AV will be sent to MSL for storage.

Next meeting is scheduled for August 17th, 8:00 a.m. at CH. Heidi Johnson is chair of that meeting.