Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for May 20, 2010

Materials Services Division Managers Meeting

May 20, 2010; Downtown Library; Jim Thorpe Meeting Room

Janet Brooks, Chair, Heidi Johnson, Karen Marriott, Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins

Technical Processing Update - Heidi

TP’s current statistics show the number of items processed on average per day in April was 833 items, for a total of 18,333 items processed. So far in May, TP’s daily average has been 891 items. During the week of May 10-15, 2010, the average was 991 items.

During the month of April, TP received an average of 39 boxes a day. In May so far, the average has been 38 boxes a day.

B&T’s accounting dept. continues to have problems e-mailing the monthly statements. They hope to have the problem fixed by the end of this month and Heidi should finally start receiving the statements by e-mail. Heidi will keep everyone posted as to whether this actually happens.

TP received a shipment of DVD cases where quite a few of the cases had a problem with the plastic sleeve going around the outside of the case. Instead of the sleeve being attached at both ends, only one end was attached to the case. This made it impossible to keep the artwork with the barcode positioned correctly. Heidi contacted the vendor who replaced the defective items free of charge.

Heidi and Kim Rickey from Materials Selection have been interviewing several candidates for the TP Aide position during the last two weeks. The hope is to have the Aide in place by the end of May.

Heidi has e-mailed the libraries to send their bindery books to TP by Friday, May 28.

Heidi attended BJ Williams’ retirement party DN on April 30 and the quarterly X-Change meeting on May 17 at RE. Heidi also went to OLA and attended the workshop on Sustainable Libraries conducted by two staff members from Denver University.

Tanaz attended an United Way meeting DN on May 12 and has several more meetings scheduled at the Service Center during the next few months. She is very excited about being part of the United Way Committee.

All TP staff have completed the Summer Reading training.

Beth Wilson, librarian at MC, job shadowed in TP on May 5 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. She came back on May 18 to drop off a thank you note and chocolates for everyone.

Technology is wonderful when it works as it is supposed to, but can be a pain when it does not. Both Big Bin and the Sorter have experienced intermittent problems. Big Bin’s door was not functioning properly on one side; it would start to open the door, but then freeze up and refuse to do anything else. For about three days, the sorter kept suddenly shutting off, sometimes as often as 4 times per hour. Both machines have been fixed and are now working properly again.

Cataloging/ILL Update - Pauline

Meetings and training attended:

Jana – Microsoft Publisher class, April 22

Vickie – Staff Association, April 22

Pauline – Tech Support, April 27

Pauline, Jana, Ursula – BJ Williams’s retirement reception, April 30

Aaron – Generational Diversity class, May 6

Pauline, Aaron – OLA TSRT, May 7

Ursula – United Way meeting, May 12

Jana – Staff Recognition, May 12

Ursula – MetroDocs, May 13

Pauline – X Change, May 17

Darryl Hillard, Jr., and Heidi Wells began work as MSD Technicians in ILL and Cataloging, respectively, on April 19. Both have meshed well with other members of the departments, and are providing valuable assistance.

All Cataloging and ILL staff have completed summer reading training. Several have also completed second quarter safety training.

On April 19, Ellen Mizio, our OCLC regional member services consultant, and Jim Galbraith, consultant for an adjacent region, visited the Service Center. Pauline gave them a tour; they were impressed with the way that our system has adapted technology for efficient service. They also met with Pauline, Jana, Clyde, and Brittany. Each staff member shared her/his thoughts regarding what works well with the OCLC service that s/he uses, and ideas for improving things that did not work well. Ellen has contacted Pauline to express her appreciation for the visit. Pauline asked Ellen to see what she could do about correcting the system name in the ILL system from “Metropolitan Library System – Downtown Branch” to “Metropolitan Library System”; this has been done.

Several Cataloging and ILL staff members attended part of the OLA Annual Conference April 19-21. Jana assisted with Intellectual Freedom Committee programs; Aaron was elected secretary of the Technical Services Roundtable for the upcoming year. Everyone who attended has expressed appreciation of the number and quality of the programs.

Beth Wilson, MC, job shadowed in ILL on May 5, and in Cataloging on May 10. She found both experiences valuable, giving her a better understanding of how the work of the departments fits with her work to give customers the best experience possible.

Cataloging’s production hit the lowest levels in ten or more years with the move in January. Monthly output in all title areas (titles cataloged and titles with added copies) for January were smaller than they have been for any month since 2000. Output totals rebounded dramatically in February, with an average increase of 50% across the board. Output has continued to rise each month, also the percentage increases are smaller. As of the end of April, total title output for the fiscal year is about the same as April 2009.

The number of barcode labels printed has followed roughly the same pattern, but changes have not been as dramatic. The average ratio of copies per title for FY10 is the highest recorded, at 5.16, and this had had an effect on the number of barcodes printed. As of the end of April, 168,958 barcodes had been printed; the 150,000 mark was reached in March, the earliest it has ever been reached during a fiscal year. With 9,241 labels printed as of May 14, we are well on our way to our next milestone of 200,000 barcodes.

ILL’s requests to borrow materials from other libraries have increased slightly over the same period last year; the percentage filled remains at 80%. The number of requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries is also up slightly, but the percentage filled is down to about 20%. This may be due to the fact that ILL staff were not able to spend as much time on requests to lend because of doing more packaging since the move. Now that the ILL MSD Tech position has been filled, the percentage of requests filled should increase.

Cataloging and ILL have been experiencing a shortage of book trucks recently. The increases in workload have resulted in more materials waiting on trucks in the queue to be cataloged. The addition of two more MSD Technicians means more staff members who require trucks to hold work. This all combined to sometimes make it difficult for Cataloging Techs or Tech Processing staff to find an empty truck to use to move materials between departments. Pauline ordered 8 additional trucks, 6 for Cataloging and 2 for ILL; these were delivered on May 18.

While Pauline is on AVL, Aaron will be the acting supervisor for Cataloging; Jana, for ILL; Heidi Johnson will be the acting manager for both departments.

Pauline, Jill, and Paula attended the library managers’ meeting on May 19.

Pauline completed a draft of system routing procedures and sent it to the library managers and Stuart in Planning for comments. She will finalize the procedures and distribute them by May 21.

Since there are some funds remaining in account 408, Pauline is finalizing an RFP for an additional shelf unit for ILL.

Lisa has been helping to process new materials whenever the Cataloging Technicians are caught up in their work. Kristin has been working on new materials most of the time; Heidi Wells is not yet sufficiently trained to do so. Thanks to Heidi, transfers have begun to be processed again.

Cataloging recently received a couple of questions about materials that showed as having been checked in at CAT, but never returned to their owning agencies. Upon checking, it turned out that the materials were transfers that had not been processed yet. The Cataloging Technicians have gone through all the transfers waiting for processing and separated the ones for NW from those for other agencies. Currently, the MSD Technicians are working on processing transfers for open agencies.

A VI staff member called Cataloging about a customer who had reserved the title Three cups of tea. This material is available in an adult and a juvenile version, both under the same title. The customer was upset because she had placed her reserve on the first title in the listing, which happened to be the young reader’s edition. After discussion, it was decided that the record for any juvenile adaptation which carries the same title as an adult version will include [young reader’s edition] after the main title. This will cause the juvenile version to file after the adult, and also alert customers as to the difference. The situation occurs very rarely, so will not create a significant amount of extra work.

Materials Selection Update - Janet

Personnel

Anna’s last day was May 7th. She began work at RE on May 10.

Julia has agreed to go full time and take over the MSL Tech position vacated by Anna. Her first full-time day was May 17.

The MSD position to replace Julia closes on May 21st. We’ll begin testing and interviews as soon as possible.

Library Visits

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

In May, Selectors conducted a 6-month collection review of RE and an annual visit to SO.

Selectors are scheduled to do an annual visit to BE and a 6-month visit to WA during June.

Staff Recognition

MSL staff had their staff recognition lunch at the Red Pin Bowl on April 30.

Extension Weeding

Janet and Ruby have been working with Extension staff to weed their collections. They worked at HR on May 13 and NP in the morning of May 14. Janet returned to HR in the afternoon on the 14th to try to finish up the project.

They are scheduled to work at LU on May 27th and WR on June 3.

Training

Janet is going to work with Anna at RE to get her familiar with collection processes from the librarian’s position.

Electronic Customer Suggestions

Janet and Kim have been working on the electronic customer suggestions program for several weeks.

The MSL staff received a demonstration from Janet on May 19th and solicited feedback on some portions of the program which they will forward to Jimmy.

Janet hopes to launch the program at the beginning of the new fiscal year.

Staff still need to determine how they will handle the transition between the print suggestions and the electronic ones.

Meetings/Workshops

Janet, Ruby, Melissa and Julia attended OLA

Janet attended a copyright workshop at UCO on April 23.

Janet and Anna attended the YA services meeting on May 5.

Marilyn attended the Adult services meeting on May 12.

Janet attended the X-change meeting on May 17.

Julia attended GOAL on May 17

Janet attended the Library managers’ meeting on May 19

Lisa attended the genealogy workshop on May 19.

Janet is scheduled to attend an OCLC webinar on May 20th on “The Future is Mobile”.

Administration Update - Karen

Karen mentioned that the Library’s Surplus Sale is scheduled for June 4th. Lloyd is needing volunteers to help fill out sales slips from 7:30-4:30.

Karen referenced the construction update that was part of the X-change meeting.

New library commissioner, Carolyn Leslie, will fill the remaining unexpired term of Lee Alan Leslie.

Administration is still working on budget. They have not received updates on the amount of revenue we will receive.

IT has finished the automation part of the new security system at the Service Center and at RE. Linda is now working with it and will set up training with staff.

Karen referenced the email from John Wood about the shared drive. She asked managers to make sure the share drives are used wisely and are cleaned out often.

The Literary Voices dinner was within $1000 of bringing in the highest amount of revenues.

Twenty nine artists submitted applications for public art at RE. Diane/DVS is heading a committee to review the applications and narrow them down to 3 who will make presentations before a decision is made.

Kim Terry has completed the system brochure, but will need to update it already due to the decision to change the loan period of DVDs to two weeks.

Dana reported there are cuts in the funding we receive from the Arts Council for programs. Karen said the difference will be made up by Friends Grants and budget.

Karen referenced the email regarding the Outstanding Service Award and asked if managers had received any feedback.

Karen asked Heidi to investigate the issue regarding book tape placed on the spines of paperback books with the gold dots underneath the tape. Heidi will check with staff and get more information from library managers as needed and then report her findings.

Library managers discussed the use of the smaller cases for CDs. It was decided that TP will use the standard cases for CDS with fewer number of discs.

Karen asked if there were any questions related to the use of Acct. 408 instead of 450 for furniture at the SC. Managers should get their RFPs in before the end of the FY. They can look at other needs for the SC after July 1.

Karen is now receiving emails of performance appraisals. Managers don’t need to send her notice.

Karen is on AVL the week after Memorial Day.

Library Managers Meeting/DVD Loan Period - All

MSD Managers discussed the changes in DVD loan period. Before the changes occur, several issues need to be discussed further, including: IT, all printed matter, and fines. The Deputy Directors will discuss on Monday to decide timeline. This is a policy change and will need to go to the commission.

MSD Managers discussed the floating collection idea. More discussion and research needs to happen before any decision can be made.

Action Items

Let Lloyd know of any volunteers to help with Library’s Surplus Sale scheduled for June 4th.

Managers need to make sure the share drives are used wisely and are cleaned out often.

Heidi is to investigate the issue regarding book tape placed on the spines of paperback books with the gold dots underneath the tape and report her findings.

Library managers discussed the use of the smaller cases for CDs. It was decided that TP will use the standard cases for CDS with fewer number of discs.

Heidi and Pauline should get their RFPs for furniture from Acct. 408 in before the end of the FY. They can look at other needs for the SC after July