Materials Services Division Minutes - May 21, 2015

Administrative Update    Karen

Budget

Karen reported that the A&P Committee met for their annual review of Human Resources – Salaries and Benefits. Minutes are posted on the Intranet.

There will be changes to the Professional and Travel accounts for the next fiscal year. Requests will be approved and funded on a system level, rather than on a department level.

A new budget cost center (DL) has been created for the Digital Library, managed by Kellie Delaney. Funds in account 401 for e-media have been assigned to this cost center.

Account 331 funds set aside for department recognition will be removed, starting next fiscal year. Karen asked managers for input on whether to ask Development to pursue a new grant to replace these funds. Also eliminated were funds to provide for food for staff retreats and meetings. Taxpayer money will not be used for these types of expenses.

A system level amount has been set aside for the purchase of Launchpads from Findaway. If these funds are approved in the budget, we will plan for the addition of Launchpads during FY16.

Karen mentioned that there will be some additional staffing requests due to the recent Kaleidoscope reorganization program.

The Finance Committee will meet on 5-28 to discuss the preliminary budget requests including the A&P Committee’s recommendations. Among other items, it is recommending that the merit increases for next fiscal year stay the same (0-3%). There is no market adjustment included in the preliminary budget.  A market adjustment may be added to the final budget if revenues received allow.

Ad Team

A subcommittee of the Ad Team is considering the parking situation in DN’s alley.

Lloyd will estimate costs to MLS if a system wide recycling effort is implemented and report back to the Ad Team.

There should be an e-mail soon about access to MLS’s Intranet for exempt employees from their home Internet or mobile devices.

Karen said to remind all staff that the Summer Reading deadline is approaching quickly. Any staff that have not completed their training yet should do so as soon as possible.

Plans to reorganize library operations nicknamed “Project Kaleidoscope”, will take effect on June 8. Chris Kennedy will work out of an office at DN to establish closer community relationships and to recruit for the library. Michael Gillespie will start as manager at RE on June 8, 2015. Chris Stoffel, the new Manager of Library Operations for the extension libraries, will have an office at NP.

Karen at this point asked Janet to share information on a workshop they both recently attended at TCCU in Tulsa, called “Transforming your Shelves”. One of the keynote speakers was David Vinjamuri who talked about how libraries could market their collections better and marketing strategies they could employ. Karen also shared an article, published in Publisher’s Weekly, by David Vinjamuri in which the author proposes closer cooperation between publishers and libraries. He suggests that libraries, together with publishers, should utilize marketing techniques already in use in retail stores, to better promote reading and helping readers discover new authors.

(Tim Rogers joined the group at the end of Janet’s report at about 8:45 a.m.)

Statistical Department Updates

MSL

Since the beginning of September, with the implementation of CARLX, 20273 titles and 134475 items have been added.  This averages to 533 titles and 3538 items per week.  Since the beginning of April, 4129 titles were added and 27392 items added.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year, MSL has received 10075 recommendations to add titles.  This averages out to 219 recommendations each week.

CAT and ILL

During March and April, 4,300 titles new to the collection were cataloged, including 377 e-media titles.  Approximately 800 records for mass market paperbacks were added during that time.

About 34,000 new cataloged items were added to the collections, and 4,950 new browsing collection items were added.

1,765 requests to borrow materials through ILL for MLS customers were received; 1,677 (95%) were submitted to lending libraries; so far, 1,234 titles have been borrowed.

Staff in ILL evaluated 2,373 requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries; 1,147 materials were lent.

TP

TP is glad to report that the department once again has statistics showing how many cataloged items were sent from Cataloging to TP each month. In March, TP received a total of 15,611 fully cataloged items, plus another 2,715 minimally cataloged paperbacks which were RFID tagged and routed to the libraries. The average daily run for March was 710 items per day.  In April, TP received a total of 18,390 fully cataloged items, plus another 2,230 minimally cataloged paperbacks. The average daily run for April was 836 items per day.  The processors are current on processing all rush materials; study guides and dated materials like continuations are also current.

During March, TP received a daily average of 53 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 1,164 boxes.  During April, TP received a daily average of 51 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 1,128 boxes.  As of May 20^th, TP has received 685 boxes, for a daily average of 49 boxes.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan Update     Pauline

ILL Technician Aaron Killough, his wife Carrie, and son Foster welcomed new family member Harrison Boyd Killough on May 20.  The young man arrived weighing in at 8 lbs., 1.5 oz., and 21” long.  Aaron is on FmLA leave through May 22; he will return to work on May 26 and take a more extended FmLA leave later in the year.

Margaret Angeles resigned her position as part-time ILL Technician effective April 29.

Laqueta Lewis, former Cataloging Materials Services Technician at Capitol Hill, filled the part-time ILL Tech position on April 27.  This allowed her to spend a few days training with Margaret.  Laqueta is doing very well in her new position, has mastered her assigned tasks and is learning to fill in at other tasks.

Karin Daugherty, former Cataloging Materials Services Technician at the Service Center, returned to her old position on May 11.  The position had remained open since Karin’s departure, as Pauline waited to see how migration to TLC would impact the need for the position.  Although the duties of the position have changed somewhat, and Karin has been required to learn to work with CarlX, she is rapidly becoming proficient in the major tasks of the job.

Pauline submitted the order for ILLiad access on May 5.  On May 20, she received notification that the server has been built and the client may be installed on ILL computers.  She has forwarded the information to Anne Fischer and will follow up with her on May 21.  Pauline plans for ILL staff to work with ILLiad and determine the best ways to utilize it for daily workflow and tasks.  She will present ideas for MLS libraries to utilize it after summer reading is completed.

Chuck Lawrence from Scott Rice brought sample task chairs for staff to consider for replacement of chairs brought over from the old work sites.  Staff tested the chairs and selected a model; Pauline is in the process of requesting purchase of two chairs.  Additional chairs are included in next year’s budget.

Pauline, Mary, and Alice attended both days of the OLA Annual Conference in Midwest City; Brandon, Jenny, and Clyde each attended one day.  Everyone agreed that sessions were relevant and that they acquired new ideas.  Pauline presented a session on “Daily RDA”, practical tips for those who do not have time to spend learning all the aspects of the cataloging guidelines; and participated on a panel discussing technical services issues when migrating to a new ILS.

Pauline attended the X Change meeting on April 21.

Alex attended an Amigos online workshop on salvaging wet books April 7 and 9.  The information will be helpful to ILL when materials are returned with liquid damage.  Knowing how to treat the materials may prevent the system’s need to pay owning libraries for them.

Materials Selection Update    Janet

Library Visits

• In April, selectors made annual visits to MC and LU.
• During May they are visiting SO and NP.
• In June, they are scheduled to visit AL and BE.

Budget

• Selectors are in the final weeks of FY15 and are busy encumbering remaining funds.

Order Entry Problems

• MSL staff experienced some difficulties with order entry and updates over a two week period.  Staff received error messages when saving orders, after orders were saved some showed a BID of “0” and could not be updated, and some could not update the status from “H” to “N” and could not display orders in PAC.  
• Janet forwarded a number of samples to Anne.  TLC was not able to recreate the problems.  
• Since 5/18/15, no further errors have been received.

Tailored Titles Newsletter

• MSL is working with the Digital Library to add appropriate titles to the system that will appear in the monthly Tailored Titles newsletters that are emailed to customers who have subscribed to this service.
• Tim Spindle gets a list of the titles about 3 months in advance. Melissa is coordinating with Tim and asked him to email the lists of titles we don't own.  This should save Tim and MSL time, as well as put a higher priority on purchasing these titles.  He initially was submitting patron recommendations for the titles.  
• Once Melissa gets the email, she will assign the list to one of the technicians, who will cart the titles we do not own and transfer the carts to the appropriate selectors. Selectors will email Melissa to let her know what titles we add, so she can let Tim know the status.
• There will be some print and audio book titles. 
• Tim would like to have as many of the Tailored Title suggestions as possible, but he has the ability to delete titles that we do not own from the newsletters.

Meetings/Workshops

• Selectors and Janet met with Karen on 4/2/15 to discuss FY16 funds.
• Janet met with Brandon/AL on 4/2/15 to review collection management and maintenance processes.  She met with Ben/VI on 4/15/15.
• Selectors attended a webinar on Collection HQ on 4/7/15
• On 4/9/15 Janet, Kristine and Susan, along with TP and CAT staff, met with TLC staff to discuss serials issues and work out procedures for handling continuations.
• Janet attended the X-change meeting on 4/21/15.
• Ruby and Janet attended the workshop Transforming Your Stacks at TCCL on 4/24/15.
• Kristine and Susan met with TP staff to fine-tune continuations processes.
• Janet, Melissa and Susan met with the Hoopla rep, Eric Timm on 4/29/15.
• Kristine attended OLA on 4/30/15 and 5/1/15.
• Janet is scheduled to meet with Angie/OUT on 5/29/15.

Technical Processing Update    Heidi

• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts continue to be current. 
• TP is very grateful that a more efficient way of receiving standing orders and other continuations has been found. The new ordering and receiving procedures have helped to speed up receipt of continuations by about 50%.
• The memory books for TP’s honorees at this year’s Staff Recognition have been completed.
• Heidi attended the last Safety Committee meeting on May 12, 2015, at WA. Curtis talked about the need to properly inspect and maintain all equipment periodically, especially if used heavily and frequently, like dollies used to lift heavy boxes.
• Heidi attended OLA for two half days. She went to several different workshops in the afternoons, and especially enjoyed the one on the history of Oklahoma agriculture put on by the OSU Extension Service. Another favorite was the one called “Hidden Treasures” which, among others, talked about the Pigeon Museum and Library on NE 63^rd Street.
• Heidi attended the meeting with TLC about serials/continuations on April 9^th, along with Cara and Kristin from TP, and CAT and MSL staff.
• Heidi also attended the X-Change meeting on April 21 at WA.
• On April 14, the fire alarms were tested in the SC. The company hired also inspected Big Bin’s fire alarm. Starting April 17, there were several instances when Big Bin’s fire alarm went off without any apparent reason. The company came back several times to work on the issue, but it took more than a week before things went back to normal and fire alarms did not go off.
• On May 6, several staff had to leave early since several schools were closing early due to the expected storm that day. Thankfully no one had any major damages, other than being without power for a few days.
• Alan Siavashi will be on vacation until June 10^th. His first grandchild was born recently and he is visiting with the new parents. Other staff in TP will help with receiving materials during Alan’s absence.

Other Topics

AMP Replacements    Janet

Janet supplied information Kristine has tracked related to the AMP replacements and mentioned that staff were concerned about the amount of time and effort spent obtaining replacements.  Janet thought that TP staff had most of the time and effort expended on this activity.  Kristine estimated she spends approximately 2 hours a month handling replacements.  Janet stated that there are issues with staff not understanding proper procedures and she recognized that the procedures can be confusing.  Tim asked managers to do a cost analysis of the process to see if the free or reduced price replacements offset the time and effort in takes to get the replacements. Heidi mentioned that there are a number of requests for replacement artwork. Pauline commented that most of these come from CAT since AMP and VMP sent in for replacement barcodes usually come without artwork.  Heidi will ask Taylor to closely track any time she spends on AMP replacements. Janet and Heidi will conduct the analysis and discuss at a future date.

Serials/COs   Karen

• Susan, Kristine, Lauren and Marlene are updating serials records to include Ebsco subscription numbers. The project helped them update records that had some problems associated with them.   Lauren and Marlene have entered all the claim numbers.  Kristine and Susan are working to fix issues with some problem titles.  Susan indicated that she and Pauline have had a lot of communication regarding the serials, especially with temporary records.  It is still unclear what to do with the temporary records, since it appears no one can delete them.
• The changes in the continuations procedures, entering titles as regular orders instead of treating as serials, is working out very well.  
• Kristine reported they decided not to use the in-system BIDS attached to catalog records to enter orders because it allows more flexibility in changing the title to fit our needs.  Cara is sending Kristine a list of titles she receives and Kristine prioritizes those as first to enter.  She is also going through the continuations masterlist alphabetically, entering titles one-by-one.  She has entered approximately 180 out of 452 titles.  Marlene is assisting with the process of entering titles and Kristine updating and adding notes from MrWin.  
• There are two outstanding issues with the continuations:
• Kristine is entering notes into the extended notes section because it allows more room.  These notes don’t transfer automatically when Cara clones the order, so she has to copy and paste the notes.  This works, but is an extra step for Cara and leaves room for human error.  Kristine left a message on Basecamp, but TLC hasn’t replied yet.
• The orders still have a price limit that stops Kristine from entering correct prices for a dozen or so expensive continuations titles.  She is entering the price as $0.00.  Cara is able to receive the titles with the $0.00 price and adds notes about how much we paid for it.  She uses the postpayment method to pay the invoice outside of the order entry section.  This works, but causes extra steps.  The last communication with TLC about this was that Ebony was looking into whether or not we could change that price limit for just these continuations or not.  No response since April 28th.  
• Karen asked who is deleting the original records from the Serials section.  Since the meeting, Janet checked with Kristine about this.  Kristine said she has not deleted these records yet.  She said they are waiting until they are certain that the new procedures continue to be the best way to handle these titles.

Miscellaneous

Heidi inquired about the best way for branches to tell when an item was received. This is needed if an item is found to be defective and needs to be returned to the vendor for exchange or refund within a specified time limit. As far as Heidi could tell, the only date available for the branches to determine when an item was received is the date on which the barcode was created. The receipt date is attached to a “dummy” item. This item allows holds to be placed, but is deleted when barcodes for regular items are printed. No one else in the meeting knew of any other way either. It was determined that branches should go by the date printed on the barcode of the item in question.

Tim left the meeting at about 9:45 a.m. The meeting adjourned at 10:10 a.m. The next MSD managers’ meeting is scheduled for August 6, 2015, at 8:00 a.m. in the Service Center. Janet will chair.