Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for March 15, 2007

Materials Services Division Managers’ Monthly meeting

March 15, 2007 8:00 A.M. Capitol Hill Library

Present: Karen Marriott, Janet Brooks, Heidi Johnson, Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins; guest, Melissa Weathers.

Technical Processing update – Heidi

• So far, the runs in March have been on average 619 labels per day which is a slight increase compared to February’s 605 labels. Technical Processing currently receives an average of 32 boxes of materials a day which is a decrease from last month’s average of 40.
• TP is current at this time on processing rush and non-rush materials. There were several days this month so far when processors ran out of materials to process and performed some housekeeping duties like dusting and reorganizing.
• Joyce Mathis with CFS, B&T’s accounting dept., has applied many of the current credits to our accounts. However, she informed Heidi that MLS will have to tell CFS which remaining credits to apply to which outstanding balances. Once Heidi is no longer short-staffed she will tackle this problem.
• Andrew’s last day was on March 2, 2007. Heidi has been receiving and entering invoices since then and is very much looking forward to March 19 when Christy will be back again to do so instead.
• The Ingram accounts continue to be all current at this time.
• On February 26, Heidi received an e-mail from Bruce Delp with Southwest Solutions that he had some software demos for Jim Welch and some more questions and would contact her again the following week. Unfortunately, this has not happened so far.
• Heidi is scheduled to tape some segments on children’s books for Read About It on March 30 at the DN library.
• Heidi attended the X-Change meeting on February 19 at the Edmond library.
• Kim and Melanie attended the workshop “Attitude determines altitude” on February 26 at the DN library.
• Ruby and Susan from MSL are scheduled for a visit to TP on April 20; Lisa and Denise on April 12. Jill from CAT will be scheduled for a visit shortly after TP is fully staffed again.
• TP received an e-mail from Karen Bays from ED, inquiring about instruction for some of their pages on how to repair materials. Heidi will contact her again the week of March 19 to schedule a time.

Materials Selection update – Janet

Library Visits

• Selectors made an annual visit to DN and a 6-month to CT during February. Materials Services Division Managers’ Meeting 1 March 15, 2007
• During March, Selectors are conducting an annual visit to ED and a 6-month to DC.
• During April, Selectors are scheduled to do an annual visit to MC and a 6-month to VI.

Department Visits

• Kim and Elizabeth visited CAT/TP on March 9th
• Veronica is scheduled to visit MSL on March 16. Janet plans to have her work with the Technicians and Kim.
• Denise and Lisa are scheduling their visit to CAT/TP for either April or May.

New Tech

• The new MSL Tech, Lisa Coker began work on Feb 26. She is well into the training process and is already doing orders and verifying customer suggestions.

Spotlight On

• Selectors are updating the Asian American Spotlight On for May.
• Julie and Janet worked on a bibliography for National Poetry Month and provided the information to Teresa for inclusion on the webpage.
• Janet and Julie provided another bibliography to the OKC Philharmonic’s children’s series.

Collection Workshop

• Marilyn, Ruby, and Janet are scheduled to facilitate the upcoming Collection Workshop in April.
• Janet has updated the collection manual from the feedback supplied from managers. She’ll forward copies of the updated sections to managers and selectors.

B&T Reps

• B&T reps Tammy Crooks and Phyllis Baker will visit with MSL staff on April 5th. Heidi is also planning to attend the meeting.

Meetings/Workshops

• Janet attended the X-change meeting at ED on Feb. 19.
• Janet attended the Safety Committee meeting on February 22 and another one on March 13th.
• Ruby attended the Booktalking workshop at MC on Feb. 22.
• Janet attended the Tech Group Meeting on Feb. 27.
• Janet attended a workshop on the First Amendment for Young People on March 6.
• Janet attended the Open Doors, Open Democracy? webcast sponsored by FOI and the library system on March 13.
• Janet and Julie attended portions of the YA programmers meeting on March 14.
• Kim is scheduled to attend the Staff Recognition Dinner committee meeting on March 19.
• Ruby is scheduled to teach a Readers Advisory workshop on March 21.
• Ruby is scheduled to teach the mini workshop on Audio Replacements on March 28.
• Janet, Julie and Ruby are registered for the OLA conference. Janet is giving a presentation on weeding at the conference.

Cataloging update – Pauline

Meetings and training attended:

• Pauline, Ursula – OLA Program committee, February 16
• Jill – OLA SSRT, February 22
• Aaron – Tech Support Group, February 27
• Pauline – OLA Local Arrangements committee, March 8
• Pauline – OLA TSRT, March 9
• Pauline – OLA Local Arrangements committee, March 12

Elizabeth and Kim visited Cataloging on March 9, and discussed continuation issues with Pauline and Ursula. Both indicated that they thought it was a productive discussion.

Ursula went to OSU/Stillwater on February 16 to attend the celebration of the library’s 100 years as a depository.

Staff who wished to attended Mass Mutual meetings in February.

Aaron toured the Pioneer Library System service center on March 6. He was impressed by the amount of space and the fact that it is all on one floor, but felt that it was limited by the design of the space. The design makes it difficult to lay out the space for effective operation. He noted the absence of a loading dock or track for moving boxes off trucks.

Pauline facilitated an OLA regional meeting in Ardmore on March 13, as neither of the Career Recruitment and Retention Committee co-chairs was available.

Ursula has updated the system’s list of GPO standing orders to reflect current publications and order status. Some titles are no longer issued in paper; some have not been updated recently; and some are not listed as standing orders. She will follow up on orders not received.

The number of titles cataloged in February was almost identical to January; the number of in-system titles handled dropped considerably. Overall, the number of titles passing through Cataloging is down 21% when compared to the same period last fiscal year. The number of labels printed for the year is down about 13% compared to last year.

Administration update – Karen

Service Center

• The Building Committee has selected an architect for the service center. The contract is on the Commission agenda for March 15.
• The process for selecting the architect is outlined in the Commission packet.
• The first meeting with the architect will be March 20, at DN. Karen requested that Pauline and Heidi think about space within the building that will be shared, such as meeting room, loading dock, staff lounge, etc. She also suggested that they think about equipment that might be shared.
• Karen brought a copy of the architect’s response to the Request for Qualifications for Pauline and Heidi to review and share with staff.
• Karen asked Pauline and Heidi to enter information for any vacation or other leave that they know about. Todd will use this information for scheduling future meetings.

Ad Team

• Sue Grafton will be speaking at the Literary Voices dinner on April 17.
• The annual meeting of extension library personnel is scheduled for March 26. Managers should send any concerns or ideas that they would like brought up to Denyvetta.
• The first assistant manager rotation is ending and the second is beginning. Ann Aliotta will go to SO and Jack Kinzie to ED.
• The Commission has a new member from Village, Judy Smith, who replaces Peggy Winters.

Vendor evaluation

• Karen is working on the evaluation.
• She has a meeting scheduled with the Ingram representative.

There is no new information about the NW library.

The café is currently waiting for city building permits.

Karen has met with Jim Welch to see his ideas about possible future utilization of RFID. She may ask him to demo for the managers at the April meeting.

Karen will be attending OLA.

Work on policy updates continues.

AV processing question

Melissa asked whether it would be possible to process books on CD and/or tape in binders, rather than in hanging bags.

The managers agreed that this is desirable, but it is not feasible at this time. Among the reasons:

• Most manufacturer’s containers are too flimsy to stand up to much circulation, so the CDs or cassettes would need to be transferred into a different container for processing.
• Containers that will stand up to circulation are prohibitively expensive, approximately $5 per container, as opposed to less than $1 for the current processing style.
• Tech Processing would need to keep a number of different sizes and styles of containers on hand. Currently, there is no space to store such items.
• Since manufacturers’ containers are not standardized, the inserts are not a standard size. Some inserts would not fit into the replacement containers without trimming or other alteration. This would add to processing time.

During the discussion, the managers reiterated that using binder-style containers would be desirable. They discussed the possibility of switching to such containers for fiction CDs and tapes after the move to the service center.

• Pauline will try to determine how many fiction CDs and tapes are handled, on average.
• Heidi will continue to monitor available binders and prices.

The managers will revisit the issue after the move. Materials Services Division Managers’ Meeting 4 March 15, 2007

Bindery

Heidi has been contacted by the HF Group, which has apparently absorbed Heckman, Houchen, and ICI binderies. She will respond to them to find out about pricing, timelines, standards, etc.

Ace Bindery has not returned the materials that were sent back to them as unacceptable.

Sooner bindery has not returned the test group of materials that were sent to them in December.

Collection Management workshop

Janet gave Pauline and Heidi copies of the updated sections of the workshop manual.

The group reviewed the agenda and agreed that it is fine.

Questions/Miscellaneous

Safety issues

• On behalf of the Safety Committee, Janet explained that the library system is working to comply with PEOSH (Public Employee Occupational Safety and Health) requirements. MLS was cited for a number of violations during a recent inspection at RE.
• Managers are being asked to complete a listing of all chemicals and other hazardous items, such as sharp objects, in their areas. Once the lists are compiled, the Safety Committee will work to complete a Materials Safety Data (MSD) form for each one.
• Managers are also asked to complete information on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required in their areas. The list should include each type of equipment used and when it is required.
• Janet requested that Pauline and Heidi turn in their information by March 23.

OLA

• On behalf of the OLA Local Arrangements Committee, Pauline asked that any employee registered for OLA consider volunteering some time as a greeter or working at the bookstore. There is an online volunteer form on the OLA website. OLA is April 2-4, Monday-Wednesday.

The next meeting will be on April 19, 2007, 8:00 A.M., at Downtown. Janet will chair.