Materials Services Division Minutes - May 05, 2016

Report On Illiad Implementation - Pauline

ILLiad, aka ILL online, is now live!  Library staff members were allowed to create personal accounts beginning on April 18; all members were allowed to create accounts beginning May 2.  Currently there are around 120 personal online ILL accounts.  Several ILL “power users” have already begun using the service.

For now, the online service is being promoted locally.  Library staff are encouraging members to sign up.  On metrolibrary.org, under the Services tab, the Interlibrary Loan service contains a link to the login page for the online service, as well as instructions on how to sign up.  The FAQ “How do I place an interlibrary loan request?” also links to the login page for the online service.  Tim Spindle has reviewed “Ask a Librarian” questions since the beginning of 2015, and has notified all individuals who asked about online ILL requests that the new service is available.

MAC is working to develop a marketing campaign for ILL in general and the new service in particular.  This campaign will begin around the last week of May or first week of June.

ILL has not had any difficulty in keeping up with new users to be activated.  This may change after the promotional campaign.  Very few users have not been activated.  Tim, Kim Terry, and Kay Bauman all assisted in creating copy for e-mail templates to notify users about activation.

Library staff have let ILL know that they and their members are excited and enthusiastic about the service.

The first batch of requests to be forwarded to MSL for possible purchase were sent and results returned to ILL.  Pauline hopes to continue working with Janet to make sure that MSL gets all needed information, as well as to share information about all materials requested.

Anne is working with TLC to arrange for members to be able to access online services through their regular MLS accounts.

Business Plans/Budgeting - Tim

Tim said that Lloyd Lovely will e-mail templates to use for both the business plans and for budget entry to each of the libraries and departments. He also mentioned that the new financial system will use different account numbers, and a chart of account conversions will be attached as well. Some items will be moved from their previous accounts to different accounts. He announced a deadline of noon on Monday, May 16, 2016.

Jones New Library Collection - Janet

The new Jones Library is scheduled to open in October. Materials Selection will start ordering some additional materials for Jones. Janet indicated that the new JN collection will be about the same size as the one at LU.

Since Jones has no storage room at this time, Nicoma Park will store some of the additional items for them. If an item is ordered only for JN, and the distribution list indicates “Storage”, TP will receive and process the items as usual. However, instead of activating the tags and routing the material through the sorter, the RFID tags for these items will be activated only. The items will be boxed and sent to Nicoma Park, with a note saying “for JN Storage”. The items will be checked in once Jones has room to put them. Items that are ordered for Jones without the storage note will be treated like all other materials and sent to JN the regular way.

Administrative Update - Tim

Tim stated that pilot projects spearheaded by certain libraries and departments are due by June 1.

Tim mentioned that he is currently working on the budget and business plans; and that planning for Focus is in progress.

Department Highlights

• Since the beginning of the fiscal year MSL has ordered 25153 titles for a weekly average of over 559 titles.  A total of 160191 items were ordered for an average of 3560 per week. 
• MSL received over 10381 recommendations from customers to purchase titles, for an average of 226 recommendations per week.
• 2,034 titles new to the collection were cataloged in April; slightly over 100 records for browsing collection materials were added.
• About 22,500 new items were added to the collections in April; roughly 2,500 of those items were added to browsing collections.
• Since migrating to ILLiad, ILL received 2,373 requests to borrow materials for MLS users; 2,166 (91%) were forwarded to possible lenders; 1,769 of those materials were borrowed, for a fill rate of 82%.
• In April, TP received a total of 18,292 barcodes from Cataloging. The average daily run in April 2016 was 871 items.

Cataloging/ILL Update - Pauline

The Catalogers presented their plan for taking over cataloging nonfiction videos to Pauline on April 15.  Pauline approved the plan as the most effective and efficient method for dealing with these materials, and the Catalogers have added them to their daily workload.  As a result, nonfiction videos are cataloged in the same order as all other materials.  Pauline expressed pride and appreciation for the Catalogers for their collaborative process and good proposal.

Devin has developed and implemented a plan for adding Lexile levels to records for LaunchPads.

After the Library Unbound document was released, Pauline held staff meetings with Cataloging and ILL staff to allow staff members to ask questions about it.  She shared information that Tim had shared during the last Materials Services Managers’ meeting.  Laqueta shared some of the things that she has learned in her MLIS program about the future of libraries, and how Library Unbound relates to it.  Several staff members expressed good ideas about how Library Unbound could be used in the future to reach out to members.

Anne Fischer has updated the Cataloging Technicians’ CarlX permission level to allow them to overwrite order records for browsing collection materials.  This has saved time in getting those materials out, since the Technicians no longer have to ask a Cataloger to overwrite the records.

Anne has also updated the ILL Technicians’ permission levels.  The new levels allow the Technicians to add prices when items are created.  Adding prices will be useful to library staff and members because the price will appear on the member’s account information and the correct amount can automatically be charged if material is not returned.

Materials Selection Update - Janet

Library Visits

• In April, selectors made annual visits to MC and NP.
• In May, selectors are scheduled visits with SO and LU staff.
• In June, selectors will be conducting visits to AL and BE.

Meetings/Workshops

• Janet, Ruby, Kristine and Lauren attended the PLA webinars on 4/7 and 4/8.
• Janet attended a budget meeting with Lloyd, Kelley/HR, John/BUS, Curtiss/Maint and Jim/Maint to discuss budget entry for FY17.
• Kristine continued to attend supervisory training sessions on 4/13 and 4/28.
• Kristine assisted with interviews for the IT Tech position on 4/14 and 5/14.
• Janet, Ruby and Susan attended a meeting with B&T regarding TS360.
• Janet and Susan attended a demo from ProQuest on 4/14
• Janet met with Julia/ED to review the annual visit report and discuss collection maintenance issues.
• Kristine and Lauren attended Excel training on 4/20 and 5/3.
• MSL Techs met to discuss workflow issues on 4/21.
• Janet met with Kellie/DL to discuss digital strategies on 4/27 and had a follow-up meeting with Tim on 4/29.
• Melissa attended the Children’s Services meeting on 4/27.
• Janet, Kristine, Denise, Ruby attended a webinar from TLC on the Patron Recommendation workflow.
• Janet attended the Budget Team meeting on 5/4.
• Janet and Ruby attended a demo of Bilbioboard on 5/8
• Anna/CH job shadowed in MSL on 5/12.
• Janet attended supervisory training on 5/12.
• Janet and Susan attended a meeting with Scott Ross who is developing an electronic resources management system for the library.

Technical Processing Update - Heidi

• Materials receipt has been pretty steady throughout April, and May so far.
• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts continue to be current.
• Heidi conducted tours of TP for several new employees who were in the Service Center for part of their GOAL training.
• Heidi attended the supervisory workshop on May 12 at Almonte, and is enrolled for the next part on May 24 in Midwest City.
• Heidi has been busy with several performance appraisals and inputting TP’s business plan and budget for next fiscal year.
• IT was in the SC last week to investigate the “weird” noise the sorter was making. Some lubrication appeared to fix the problem, at least at this point.

Miscellaneous - all

There were no miscellaneous items and the meeting adjourned about 10:30 AM. The next meeting is scheduled for May 19, 2016; Pauline will chair.