Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for May 15, 2008

Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes

May 15, 2008; Capitol Hill Library; 8:00 a.m.

Present: Janet Brooks, Heidi Johnson, Karen Marriott, Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins

Guests from Leadership Class II: Jana Hausburg, Kelley Riha

Leadership Group Jana + Kelley

The managers welcomed Jana Hausburg and Kelley Riha to the meeting. Jana and Kelley reported on the Leadership Group’s activities, like R&D and the blog they are contributing to.

Materials Selection Update - Janet

Library Visits

During April, Selectors made an annual visit to MC and a 6-month visit to VI.

During May, Selectors are conducting an annual visit to SO. They were supposed to make a 6-month visit to RE, but because of staff changes, RFID tagging at that location and the future move, the collection review was postponed.

During June, Selectors will make an annual visit to BE and a 6-month visit to WA.

RFID

Ruby assisted with DC’s RFID tagging.

Janet and Kim assisted with RE’s RFID tagging.

Janet hopes to go out to HR and LU in the next couple of days to help with their tagging.

VHS Inventories

Janet sent out inventories to a number of libraries that still had large collections of VHS with reminders of the weeding guidelines. All but two have returned the inventories to Janet.

Janet has been monitoring the inventories and compiling statistics based on the amount of items kept and withdrawn, the inventory dates and number of circulations. Once all inventories are received back, she will share the statistics.

System Reserve Lists

Janet has also been monitoring the system reserve lists after the technicians have completed their work on them.

She double checked any reserves that had only one holding to make sure the holding was not NW.

She also has cleaned up a lot of reserves that were made by staff for specific items to withdraw that were missing, long over due or already withdrawn. She is still working on a couple of parts of the list.

Spotlight On

The Spotlight On Asian Americans is up on the web page this month.

FY08

Janet is gathering information from selectors and from Kim regarding future spending plans for FY08 so she can see where funds need to be redistributed before the end of the year. She plans to distribute SELFU in the next week, and then see where we are with COs and other funds at the first of June.

FY09

Janet is waiting for budget figures from Karen so selectors can begin meeting about fund distributions for FY09.

Safety Committee

Janet is reviewing material from the Safety Resource Library related to Blood borne Pathogens training to make sure it matches our requirements for training on this topic.

HUM will look at getting all required safety training for new hires in a folder to be included with other new-hire information on the Intranet.

It was decided that a system-wide training on Blood borne Pathogens will be conducted in the 3rd quarter of the year. This is required training of all staff.

The committee began review of the facilities inspection checklists from last quarter. All Materials Services Division departments returned their checklists on time!

Meetings/Workshops

Janet, Julie and Ruby attended OLA in Tulsa. Janet presented a session on weeding at the conference.

Janet met with Kellie/PLA to put the replacements procedures in the Captivate program for the materials mentors.

Kim attended the Prepare, Safety workshop on April 24.

Ruby facilitated the Readers Advisory workshop on April 17 and 24th. Anna attended both sessions.

Julie attended a V2R training session on April 24.

Janet attended the YA services librarians’ meeting on May 7.

Kim attended a staff recognition dinner committee meeting on May 7.

Susan gave a presentation for OKULS at the Pioneer system on May 9th.

Janet attended the Safety Committee meeting on May 13.

Anna attended the True colors class on May 14.

Kim and Susan attended the Finding Federal and State Information workshop on May 15.

Anna and Kim are scheduled to attend the reference tools workshop on May 22.

Anna Graduates

Anna graduated from UCO last week. Materials Selection Staff congratulated Anna with a breakfast and a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble last week. She has been accepted to OU Library School and begins an online class this summer.

Cataloging Update - Pauline

Meetings and training attended:

Aaron – Staff Recognition Committee, May 7

Paula, Veronica – True Colors, May 14

Jill – OLA SSRT, May 15

Steven Streetman began work as the new MSD Technician on April 21. He has learned quickly and is a great help to Cataloging and Tech Processing.

Jeanie from MSL visited Cataloging on April 29 and 30. She worked with Steven, Margaret, and Veronica, learning to process transfers and order barcodes. Staff commented that she learned quickly and did a good job.

Several staff attended all or part of the OLA conference April 21-23. Jana attended a preconference on April 21; Pauline and Jill attended conference on April 22 and 23; and Aaron, Clyde, and Ursula attended conference on April 23.

Paula and Ursula helped with the RFID project at DC on April 28 and 30. Margaret helped at WR on May 12.

Jana has continued to attend Leadership MLS activities. The group visited with Ursula on May 1, since they were unable to spend time with her during their visit on April 9.

Jana taped a segment for Read About It on May 9.

Pauline attended the OKULS/SIGALO membership meeting on May 9. Not a great deal has changed for the organizations; OKULS dues will continue to be suspended indefinitely, and there are no dues for SIGALO.

Pauline and Susan Ryan from MSL gave a short presentation describing MLS’s selection, receipt, cataloging, and tracking of serials. They were the only public librarians to present, and their information was well received.

Staff are working on summer reading training. Several have completed it already.

Cataloging’s output remains about the same as last year’s at this time. The number of barcode labels printed is still up 5%. The number of copies per title is the highest it has been all year, at 4.63; this is an increase of 5% over last year.

ILL Update - Pauline

There have been several problems with the Trans-Amigos courier service recently. After a period of having the same courier arrive at around the same time each day, ILL suddenly began having different individuals arrive at varying times. On at least two days, the courier attempted to deliver at the old DN address. The address problem has been resolved, but delivery times are still erratic.

Library of Congress is once again lending to MLS, after having suspended our borrowing privileges for some time. This indicates that our reputation has improved.

ILL has been receiving a number of requests for new titles from other libraries. This may be because the end of the budget year is approaching.

Pauline and Karen Marriott have worked on revising the ILL policy. Pauline asked Karen Davis and Brittany to go over the final draft. She and Karen M. will finalize it to go to the Public Services Committee next week.

Pauline has been contacted by several libraries interested in finding out the source of the ILL removable labels.

Brittany Boyd of Right Management has contacted Pauline to set up a phone discussion of the proposed performance appraisal revisions for Cataloging and ILL.

Staff are working on summer reading training.

As of the end of April, ILL has submitted 4,982 requests to borrow materials, only 2% less than were submitted in all of FY07. 80% of these requests were filled, for a total of 3,978, 12% more than all of FY07. The borrow fill rate has increase 9% since FY07.

ILL has received 13,020 requests to lend materials through FirstSearch. This is a 12% decrease when compared to the same period in FY07, but no requests were received during July and most of August 2007. However, 6,074 requests were filled, for a fill rate of 45%; 5,592 requests were filled for all of FY07, at a fill rate of 33%. Again 9% more requests have already been filled when compared to FY07, and the FirstSearch fill rate has increased by 33%.

5,808 requests to lend have been received through AGent, 8% more than the 5,377 that were received for the same period in FY07. Again, 2,474 requests have been filled, for a fill rate of 43%. In all of FY07, 2,027 requests were filled, for a fill rate of 26%. The AGent fill rate has increased by 64%.

Overall, ILL has handled 24,435 borrow and loan requests during FY08, only 18% less than in all of FY07. 12,526, or 51%, of those requests have been successfully filled, for a 35% increase in fill rate over FY07. 11,271 requests were filled in all of FY07.

Technical Processing Update - Heidi

So far, the runs in May have been on average 736 labels per day which is almost 70 labels more than April’s average of 667 labels. Technical Processing currently receives an average of 34 boxes of materials a day which is slightly less than April’s overall average of 39.

B&T’s account statements are current at this time with the exception of one misapplication of funds from about a year ago. The accounting dept. has not yet corrected this error. Heidi will contact them again to request they research this item and remove it from MLS’s account.

All Ingram accounts continue to be current.

The leak in TP turned out to not be related to roofing problems. The air conditioner above the dept. froze up, and once it started to defrost, the drip pan overflowed and water seeped into the dept. Heidi reports that the A/C has been repaired and the problem fixed.

The books going to bindery are ready for pick-up by HF Group’s driver this week. There are 108 books and 38 periodicals in this bindery group, 146 items total. The periodical count includes items that are part of a series which the branches want bound and lettered in the same color and way, like Contemporary authors, different volumes of funeral home records, copies of the local telephone directory for DN’s reference section, etc. The bindery calls this “establishing a pattern”.

Jeannie from MSL visited the dept. on May 8 and 9 to get an overview of the work processes. On Thursday, she first learned about the basics of materials processing and later worked with one of the Receiving Techs unboxing and receiving ordered materials. On Friday, she first practiced inputting invoices, then helped with the purchase orders. In the afternoon, she helped Christy with invoice close-out. She proved to be a fast learner and quickly made connections between how her regular work in MSL relates to TP’s duties.

Loretta has been released by her hand surgeon to resume her regular duties without any further restrictions.

TP is experiencing a rather long delay in receiving a custom order of #4 AV hanging bags, ordered through Brodart, but manufactured by the Monaco Co. It is usual for the order to take about 4 weeks. This time, Brodart contacted MLS for a sample of a previously made bag to be able to copy the imprint from the previous shipment; apparently something happened to their stored/saved copy of MLS’s imprint. Then, about a month after this happened, Frank was told that it would be about another month before they could deliver our order. TP was close to running out by this time (8 weeks after the original order date!) and had to place an emergency order of regular #4 bags to avoid running out before the new batch will be received.

Per agency request, TP will start RFID tagging any new books processed as “Hot rushes” before taking the books to the CH Library. Staff in CH will link the records prior to filling reserves for customers.

Heidi’s portable phone keeps “losing its identity”. Whenever that happens, Heidi can no longer just dial the 4-digit extensions to make calls within the system, but has to dial an outside call. Anne from IT can usually fix it, but is puzzled what causes this to keep happening.

Heidi attended Clyde Martin’s funeral on April 25, and Mary Patton’s retirement party on April 30.

Melanie Levick attended the True Colors workshop on May 14.

Heidi received a phone call from Ryan Thompson with Four Star, the company distributing Remstar, inquiring about the status of the new service center. Remstar is one of the companies which has submitted proposals for book storage ideas for the new service center.

TP staff are supposed to complete their online Summer Reading training by the end of May and print out a copy of their form for Heidi. Alan has volunteered to help out for 4 hours on June 4, 2008, at WA.

Christy has informed Heidi that her last day with the System will be on July 3, 2008. Christy and her family will move to Utah to be closer to her mother who has been experiencing health problems. She will be missed and our best wishes go with her and her family!

Administrative Update - Karen

Service Center

Karen reported that there are still code issues with the driveway of the new building. However, the construction contract is to be ready for the June 19th Commission meeting.

The Finance Committee will meet in early June. Heidi will talk to Bruce with Megastar about the availability of a video presentation of the vertical lift module for this meeting.

Ralph Ellison Library Remodeling

The funding originally approved for the RE remodel is not sufficient and will require additional money. Future needs for the Ralph Ellison Library include funding for the Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment. These dollars will be included in the Preliminary FY’09 Budget.

August 18, 2008, has been set as the starting date of the remodeling project. RE will be temporarily relocated to the former Hollywood Video Store on NE 23rd, not far from its regular location.

NW Library

Contract negotiations for the design work of the Northwest Library are underway and the award is expected in the next 30 to 45 days. The Northwest Library will be located at 5600 NW 122nd, just east of Rockwell.

Long-Range Planning Committee

The Committee discussed the future remodeling projects of SO, CH, and BI.

Collection Workshop

Karen mentioned there will be a delay in mentoring training of some of the Collection workshop until after Summer Reading is completed and some policies have been revised.

Budget

Karen stated there were not many questions regarding the proposed budget for the next FY. She mentioned the big issue are the various tape formats as their circulation figures have been dropping. It is hoped that a big increase in funding for Books on Tape and Disc, etc., will stimulate renewed interest by enlarging the inventory and updating the collection.

RFID

A group from Tulsa came to check out MLS’s RFID project. Members of the group were impressed by the speed with which the tagging project is progressing, especially since none of the libraries were closed during the process.

Report on Amigos Conference Pauline

Pauline attended the Amigos Membership Conference on May 7 and 8.

It is likely that OCLC will change its governing structure beginning with FY2010. OCLC will probably assume tech support, billing, and training activities that Amigos has been handling. Many Amigos members are not happy about this.

The anticipated changes will not impact MLS’s OCLC services. They will affect the way that the system pays for those services: who is paid, when, and how payments are made. Pauline expects the changes to make budgeting for FY10 difficult, since she will probably not have cost and pricing information by budget time. She plans to deposit the minimum amount needed to pay for FY09 costs into the Amigos deposit account, and hold back the rest until more information is available.

Miscellaneous - all

There were no miscellaneous items for discussion.

The meeting adjourned at 11:10 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for June 19, 8:00 a.m., at the CH Library. Pauline will chair.