Materials Services Division Updates for June 2013

Department Highlights

With one week left in the fiscal year, Materials Selection selected a total of over 41,714 titles for the year and averaged 817 titles per week.  A total of over 254,693 items were selected for the year, for an average of 4993 items per week.  These figures show nearly 4900 more titles and 950 more items were selected in FY13 than in FY12.

As of June 7, 2013, MSL received 15,415 customer suggestions to purchase materials for the year, or an average of 315 per week.  Most of the suggestions received were for print, 10,460.  1656 suggestions for CD Music; 1172 for feature films; 921 for CD books; 524 for e-media; 455 for DVDs (other than feature films); and 227 for Audio Media Players.

Average turnaround time for new titles in Cataloging in May was 1.36 working days; average for the FY13 through May is 1.24 working days.  This includes only time that materials were in Cataloging; it does not include time in Technical Processing.

3,075 new titles were cataloged during May, the first time ever that more than 3,000 titles have been cataloged in a month.  This brings the total for FY13 to 29,720 titles cataloged, including 8,131 e-media titles.  For comparison, 25,529 titles were cataloged during all of FY12.

In May, the average turnaround time for borrowing materials in ILL was 8 calendar days.  This includes only time from the date requests are sent out from ILL to the date that they are received in ILL;  it does not include routing time between MLS libraries and ILL.

The average daily run for May was 924 items per day, for a total of 20,327 items. The average for June so far is 925 items per day. The processors are current on processing all rush materials and are processing non-rush materials from the run 8 days ago. Study guides and dated materials like continuations are also current.

During May, TP received a daily average of 52 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 1,140 boxes.  The daily average in June so far is 64 boxes.

Heidi attended the Library Managers’ meeting on June 19, 2013, at SO to provide the managers with some information about Playaways Views. Issues discussed dealt with how to process these items, what type of stickers would be needed, circulation practices regarding accompanying charging units, etc. Karen Marriott will contact Karen Peck with Findaway World to solicit answers to some of these questions. Managers will let TP know their decisions about processing issues after their next meeting in July.

Materials Selection update – Janet Brooks

Library Visits       

• In May, selectors made annual visits to Southern Oaks and Luther.  Janet met with Aaron/LO about the visits to Luther.
• Also in May, Janet also made a visit to Almonte to examine shelf space.
• Selectors made annual visits to Almonte and Bethany during June.
• In July, Selectors are scheduled to make annual visits to Capitol Hill and Northwest.

Staff

• Kristine Charter began as full time MSL tech on June 3rd.  She is training with all staff to learn procedures and processes for MSL.

Volunteer

• For several weeks, MSL had a volunteer helping with updating the spreadsheet for the “hot titles”.  He completed the update which allows MSL staff to track and retrieve titles for replacements.

Budget

• Selection staff have been working to get all funds encumbered before June 27th when the last purchase orders for FY 13 are sent out.
• Kim extended a number of purchase orders that were due to expire before the end of the fiscal year.  She routinely does this so these funds are not lost after the fiscal year ends.  She also cancelled orders for some titles for which the publication dates were pushed back.  This allowed selectors to re-encumber the funds before the end of the fiscal year.

Workshops/Meetings

• Susan attended the Connect meeting on June 11.
• Susan and Denise attended the Zinio for Libraries training on June 14.
• Staff attended benefits meetings on June 14.
• Ruby is scheduled to attend a United Way Committee meeting on June 19.
• Lisa is scheduled to attend the Staff Association meeting on June 27th.

Technical Processing update – Heidi Johnson

• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts are current.
• Heather Kolliopoulos, one of TP’s processors, continues to be out on FMLA leave, duration yet to be determined. Melanie is on AVL until June 21, and then Kimberly and Alan will take some time off.
• Kimberly Clark’s house in the Crutcho Creek area in Midwest City was totally flooded and she had to take some leave to deal with insurance claims and adjustors during the past two weeks.
• All TP staff have sent in their requested insurance and flex enrollment forms to HUM by the given deadline. Everyone, except Heather who is on FMLA leave, has completed their 2nd quarter safety training.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan update – Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins

• 21,786  barcode labels were printed in May.  This includes 20,325 labels for materials added to the MLS collections, and 1,461 labels used for reprocessing materials.  241,495 barcode labels have been printed in FY13 through May, compared to 240,401 during all of FY12.  The number of labels printed should exceed 250,000 for the fiscal year, the first time that this milestone has been reached.
• During May, the average ratio of copies to titles rose to 5.11 copies per title, bringing the average for FY13 to 4.51 copies per title.  In FY12, the average was 5.61 copies per title.
• ILL received 759 requests from MLS customers to borrow materials from other libraries in May, forwarded  96% to lending libraries, and borrowed 570 items for MLS customers, for a fill rate of 75% of all requests received.
• ILL staff evaluated 1,728  requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries in May, and were able to lend 925 materials, for a rate of 54% of requests filled.
• Staff in both areas have been very busy during May and June with end-of-year materials received, requests to borrow, etc.
• Ursula Ward returned from FmLA leave on June 17.  Everyone is happy to have her feeling better and back at work.
• The annual Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan staff appreciation event was held on June 18.  All staff received gold records in recognition of their record-breaking work over the past year, as well as team membership gifts.  They participated in the “string along” activity as a way of expressing appreciation to one another.
• Pauline attended the Managers of Library Operations meeting on June 19.  She presented information about how records for video media players will appear in the catalog.
• Pauline will be out of the office June 24-July 12, for ALA and vacation.  Other staff in ILL and CAT are rotating in and out for vacations, and will continue to do so through July.  Both departments will have adequate staff to handle normal operations at all times, and will be available to respond to questions and provide assistance.