Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for November 18, 2004

November 18, 2004 

Capitol Hill Library 

8:00 a.m. 

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

Cataloging Update - Pauline 

• Pauline would like to thank everyone for their help and support since the death of her husband’s twin, Larry.  Heidi has handled management issues; Janet taught the catalog searching section of the workshop; and the Cataloging staff has kept the department running effectively.  It has been very helpful to know that work-related issues are taken care of, and not to have to worry about them.  The expressions of sympathy and support from all the MLS family have meant a great deal to Pauline and to Gary. 
• Margaret and Christina were a big help to Cataloging the week of November 1.  All Cataloging technicians were out all or part of the week.  Margaret and Christina kept up barcode printing so completely that Pauline did not need to assist at all on some days.  Margaret worked extra hours, and mastered ordering AV barcodes during this time.  Thanks to both of them! 
• Cataloging is still struggling with the new barcode printers.  Most problems seem to be with the printers rather than the software.  Cataloging has begun cleaning the printers with alcohol, which seems to be helping somewhat.  It’s not clear if the printers work better when they are cleaner, or if they’re drunk, but it seems to help.  Pauline has ordered supplies to clean the print heads and media paths, to see if that further alleviates some problems. 
• Crystal attended the Staff Recognition Reception on October 16, and received her 5-year pin.  Jill also attended the reception. Paula’s 5-year pin has been delivered to her. 
• Pauline manned an exhibit for OLA at the annual OEA conference.  She has a new respect for exhibitors!  Several people expressed interest in library careers. 
• Crystal’s term as Cataloging’s representative to the Tech Support Group has expired; Clyde is taking her place.  Both attended the meeting on October 26. 
• Pauline taught part of the Collection Management workshop on October 27.  Attendees were interested in where and how to route materials, which pleased her.  She was disappointed that she was unable to teach the catalog searching section. 
• Pauline, Crystal, Ursula, and Clyde attended the OLA TSRT workshop, Electrify Your E-Resources, on October 29.  Aaron also attended.  Parts of the workshop did not apply to MLS, but the presentation on cataloging was quite helpful. 
• Jill attended the OLA Gold conference November 3-5. 
• The SIGALO serials cataloging workshop on November 10 was full, so staff were not able to attend it. 
• Pauline attended the X-Change on November 15.  She received several positive comments on the classification system for the Policy & Procedure manual. 
• Other system and OLA meetings and training sessions: 
• Pauline, OLA Program Committee, October 15 
• Pauline, OLA Administration Roundtable, October 18 
• Jill, Support Staff Roundtable, October 21 
• Ursula, Oklahoma Depository Libraries annual meeting, November 10. 
• Pauline, OLA regional meeting, November 16 
• Aaron visited MSL for two days, November 1 and 2; and Tech for two days, November 8 and 11. 
• Rhonda Harris Taylor, Aaron’s intern advisor, visited on November 4.  She was very positive about the internship and will recommend MLS Cataloging for others. 
• The system’s federal documents visit from ODL staff will be on November 30. 
• Pauline, Heidi, and Phil met to discuss arranging for staff in the CH building to complete the training assessment.  They agreed that each manager will facilitate a session, and staff from all departments will attend each session.  Phil facilitated on November 11; Heidi, November 17; Pauline will facilitate on November 18. 
• Cataloging’s DVD player has been received. 
• Greg Bennett will be coming to Cataloging on November 23 to train Veronica and Ursula in the new periodical check-in system. 
• Pauline has had an e-mail from Susan Burke, cataloging instructor at OU, about a student interested in a cataloging internship for spring.  Pauline will be getting back to her. 
• Pauline will be on AVL November 22-29. 

Materials Selection Update - Janet 

• Library Visits-During October selectors conducted a 6 month visit to WA and an annual visit to BE.  During November selectors will conduct an annual visit to CT.  During December, selectors will do an annual visit to VI and 6-month visits to CH and DC. Selection staff worked with OU Intern, Aaron Killough.  Janet had him assist with basement activities. 
• MSD Workshop-reviews of the workshop have been favorable.  Janet regrets that she was not able to conduct the Staff Catalog searching portion to the same level as Pauline would have. 
• Friends Grant- the initial encumbrances of the Friends grant are complete.  We will wait to see what discounts and cancellations we receive before we respend the grants. 
• SELFU-Janet has distributed a portion of the SELFU to selectors.  Orders will be spread out over the next month and half to help with receiving and storing. Selectors will be working on the Spotlight on Black History Month during December. 
• Meetings/Workshops 
• Elizabeth attended a joint meeting of the Outstanding Service Award committee and the Rewards and Recognition committee. 
• Susan attended a library managers’ meeting to discuss the use of the Daily OK archives database.  She also attended a training for searching the database. 
• Janet attended the Festival of Books in Norman.  She got to hear Susan Cooper, Walter Wick and Kimberly Willis Holt. 
• Training Needs Assessment-all MSL staff participated in the Training Needs Assessment. 
• Linda spent time with Joyce McCauley learning the Mail Room procedures she’ll need when Joyce is absent. 
• Janet attended the Young Adult Programmers meeting on November 3rd and is scheduled to attend the children’s programmers meeting on Dec. 8th. 
• Janet attended the 1st Amendment Congress at OCU.  John Tinker of Tinker v. Des Moines was one of the keynote speakers. 
• Janet attended the X-change meeting on November 15th. 
• Janet met with a representative from Midwest Tape on November 16th to discuss services they offer for DVD purchases. 
• Janet met with Dana/OR to discuss board books. 
• Janet is hosting Sequoyah YA final voting meeting on Friday. 

Technical Processing Update - Heidi 

• The runs have been on average 688 labels per day.  TP currently receives an average of about 45 boxes of materials a day.  
• CFS, Baker & Taylor's accounting dept., is still working on applying all of MLS's credit memos to the correct invoices.  They have made progress in the last 2 months to clean up MLS's accounts yet still are only current to about June or July of 2004. 
• Heidi is still receiving Baker & Taylor statements by mail.  B&T had told her that October's statements were to be the first ones to be e-mailed or faxed, depending on preference.  This has not happened.  Heidi will contact Tammy Billings for an update on the statement situation.   
• Phil, Heidi, and Pauline all have proctored/will proctor one session for the Training Needs Assessment Survey. The last of TP's staff will participate in the one be conducted Thursday, 11-18-04, 2:00 p.m. 
• Josh attended the last "Collection Management and Maintenance" workshop held in the new training facilities DN.  The revised workshop was very well received by all attendees. 
• When Christy tried to withdraw a barcode for a defective book returned from one of the agencies, she no longer had the ability to do so.  All functions in the Inventory Control menu on WIN6530 with the exception of periodical check-in were no longer active.  Apparently, this announcement had only been made to public service agencies and not the offices.  Unfortunately, no one had notified TP of this change and no one except the manager had V-Circ on their PC in Technical Processing.  IT had to download V-Circ onto Christy's PC in order for her to be able to withdraw or temp. loan materials again. 
• At the annual staff recognition dinner on October 16, the following TP staff were honored: Heidi for 25 years of service, and Alan and Loretta both for 10 years. 
• Heidi met with Lisa from the Business Office to discuss use of some of their storage space for replacement containers for books on CD.  TP will treat the containers like one of their other processing supplies as far as supplying them to agencies.  However, since TP does not have the space to store them, the Business Office has graciously offered the use of some of their storage space for this purpose.  Heidi will send an e-mail to all agencies once these replacement containers have been received and agencies can request them from TP. 
• Heidi also met with Scott Carter from MAC to discuss the design for some inserts to be used with CDs and DVDs.  TP currently uses blue inserts for videos whose artwork has either disappeared or is received without any to begin with.  Heidi discussed printing some blank inserts that can be used for CDs whose booklets/guides have disappeared, and inserts for DVDs once the library starts circulating DVDs next year.  MAC is currently working on designing and printing them. 
• Due to time constraints, short-staffing and large runs, Technical Processing's customer appreciation activity was the same as last year.  TP sent out a certificate of appreciation to all its internal customers commending them for the excellent work they do. 
• Aaron, the intern from Cataloging, spent time in TP on Nov. 8 and Nov. 11.  He asked some very good questions, made some pertinent observations, and wanted to try his hands at processing books and videos which he successfully accomplished.  
• TP's DVD player also has been received. 

Administrative Update - Karen

Karen referenced several items discussed during the last Ad Team meeting (see also the minutes of the meeting on the Intranet) : 

• The primary telephone number for the Business Office is 606-3791. 
• MLS now has over 400 employees. 
• The Administration presented some options regarding regarding the remodeling of the CH Library at the jpoint Long Range Planning and Finance Committee meeting.  These options are now being looked at in terms of cost, feasibility, etc.  The committee will meet again in late January or February. 
• Karen went to the OKC Community Foundation reception in October and attended the opening of the Holocaust Resource Collection.  MLS is to receive some more of the Shoah Foundation's DVDs similar to the ones already received for the collection. 
• Karen attended the Staff Recognition dinner; also Judy Walden's retirement party which was a lot of fun. 
• Donna will meet with the Ad Team about reorganization of duties in Public Services (see Donna's 11-18-04 e-mail announcement to all staff about this reorganization).  Karen has volunteered to serve on the policy revision committee, chaired by Kay. Karen reminded managers about the following items: 
• Request help from IT by calling IT's help number, 631-2210, NOT any of the technicians directly. 
• Managers need to complete the quarterly building safety checklist. 
• Make sure to send in timesheets early when so requested by the Business Office. 
• A short discussion about safety issues followed.
•  Karen stated that she was very pleased that Pauline got due credit for her new classification scheme for the Policy and Procedure Manual. 
• Karen inquired as to whether there were any problems with the genealogy books sent from DN to TP to be rebound.  Heidi stated that so far no major problems had been noticed, but told Karen she would keep her updated if any were to be discovered. 
• Karen mentioned that a downtown organization has donated money  to the library for purchases of children's books, yet insisted on having book plates inserted into the purchased materials.  Heidi Port from Volunteer Services volunteered to insert the book plates.  Once these materials have been ordered and received, TP should send these books on to Volunteer Services for insertion of the book plates.  Further information will be made available as it is received.  

Miscellaneous - all 

• Pauline mentioned that Cataloging has received ODL's age and condition survey.  After some discussion on how to determine which materials to choose for this survey, it was decided that Pauline willdelegate the actual filling out of the survey  to Aaron, the intern from OU, as this may provide valuable experience for him. 
• The Capitol Hill building Christmas party has been set for Dec. 14.  Karen stated she would like to attend, schedule permitting. 

The meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m.  The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 8:00 a.m. at the Capitol Hill Library.  Pauline will chair.