Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for October 20, 2005

October 20, 2005 

8:00 a.m. 

Director’s Conference Room 

RJN Downtown Library 

Present: Janet Brooks, Chair, Heidi Johnson, Pamela Kosted, Karen Marriott, Pauline Rodriguez 

Cataloging Update - Pauline Rodriguez 

• Pauline expressed her appreciation to those present and, by extension, the MLS family, for their concern and support during this difficult time. 
• She announced that she will work 4 day weeks until the end of the year. 
• Pauline stated that materials have continued to flow through Cataloging in her absence, and that very few problems were waiting when she returned.  She commended her staff for their excellent work in carrying on the operations of the department during her absence.  Karen seconded the kudos. 

Interlibrary Loan Update - Pamela Kosted 

• Pamela distributed OCLC statistics on the number of lending items and number of items borrowed.  The numbers continue to increase.  She was not able to supply the amount of requests that come through Autographics, but reported that these numbers continue to increase. 
• Pamela did a quick cost analysis for borrowing material for our customers.  The cost comes to around $50 per request.  Karen asked Pamela to supply her with the figures she used. 
• Pamela discussed the difficulties they have been having with Mail room duties. 

Technical Processing Update - Heidi Johnson 

• The runs have been on average 788 labels per day, this is an increase of 28 labels over last month’s average.  TP currently receives an average of about 54 boxes of materials a day which is about 8 boxes more than last month’s average. • Technical Processing is trying very hard to process all of these materials in a timely fashion.  All rush materials are processed the same day.  The processors and part-time techs are currently processing non-rush materials from Oct. 11.   
• Maintenance delivered all 76 boxes of DVDs on time to the agencies for the October 17 starting date of circulation.   
• The bindery was late returning the rebound genealogy materials due to staffing problems.  The books were supposed to be returned the last week of September, yet were not actually returned until October 19 when the next bindery group was picked up. 
• Technical Processing did run out of DVD cases for processing the new DVDs due to an ordering problem.  By paying extra for a rush delivery, TP was able to resume processing DVDs after being out for about 1½ days. 
• Josh has been on Guard duty Sep. 26-30, 2005.  TP is glad to have him back. 
• The Staff Association Executive Council has asked Heidi to give a short presentation about Technical Processing during their next meeting.  The meeting in scheduled for the afternoon of Oct. 26 at the Capitol Hill Library. 

Materials Selection Update - Janet Brooks 

• During September, selectors conducted a 6-month collection review of BI and an annual visit to MC.  During October, selectors are making a 6-month visit to WA and an annual visit to BE and during November, selectors make an annual visit to CT. 
• Selectors updated the Native American Spotlight On bibliographies.  Updates have been sent to Teresa and should be up on the webpage the first of November. 
• Janet and Julie conducted the first session for the Materials Services Workshop on October 19th.  Heidi is scheduled to teach on October 26 and Pauline on November 2. 
• Kim Rickey’s position was reclassified.  As a result of the reclassification, she will assume supervisory responsibilities over the MSD Technician.  Please coordinate any projects or schedule changes with Kim. 
• The B&T database heavily used by MSL is migrating to a new version at the first of 2006.  Currently MSL staff have access to TSII and TSIII simultaneously.   Tammy Billings is coming on November 3rd to give a training session on TSIII.   If MSL staff feels comfortable with the new database before January, migration to the new one will occur prior to the new year.  So far the staff have not experienced any problems with the new version and like some of the new functions. 
• Due to staff shortages at Maintenance boxes going to CAT have not been picked up.   A leak on the 2nd floor caused flooding in the basement area.  Several boxes of books got wet but fortunately only about a dozen books were damaged.   
• Janet has provided Patrick with a floor plan so additional shelves can be erected for additional storage in the MSL basement.  The shelving will provide additional storage for NW when all the shelves in the compressed shelving area are full.  Until that time, staff will use the additional shelves for sorting and processing the CD settlement material. 
• All of the boxes from the CD settlement have been unboxed and all CDs are on the shelves in rough alphabetical order.  As staff have time, titles are checked in the catalog and for reviews.  This is a slow and ongoing project. 
• Selectors are ordering new titles and making transfers to Northwest from the withdrawn materials.  Approximately 16.65% of the NW budget has been encumbered.  Janet has encumbered nearly 42% of her BKS-Y and 46.19% of her BKSJF funds.  Julie has encumbered 37.11% of her BKSJN funds.  Selectors are to have all funds spent to at least 50% by the end of December.  Processed fiction titles are stored at CH.  Processed nonfiction titles are stored in the compressed shelving area. Janet spoke with Charlene Edmondson/Collection Development Librarian from Ingram about an Opening Day Collection Profile that could assist selectors in making selections for NW.  Janet is reviewing the information to see if it would be worth pursuing. 
• Janet rearranged selector/technician partners last month to allow staff an opportunity to learn new areas and work with new team members.  The new assignments seem to be working well and the transition has gone smoothly. The change has also allowed for more cross-training so staff can step in when someone is gone. 
• Staff have been experiencing a number of physical ailments due to strong light and glare coming from the large windows in the department at various times of day.  Staff have had to adjust their work areas and perform work in other areas of the building during the worst times of day. Shades for the windows over the technicians and selectors areas of the department are on order to eliminate the glare and eye strain.   Several workmen have made measurements and Todd and Frank have discussed the orders.   Hopefully, shades will be installed soon. 
• Meetings 
• Janet and Julie met with sales rep. Tammy Billings and the director of Children’s and Teens services from Baker and Taylor on Sept. 15th. 
• Elizabeth had an OSA meeting on Sept. 15th.
• Janet and Julie attended Encyclomedia on Sept. 20 th
• Janet held 3 sessions of discussions about banned books at PC North High School on Sept. 27th. 
• Kim attended the Tom Massey workshop on performance appraisals on Sept. 27th 
• Janet met with Bob Sly from Ingram on Oct. 4th. 
• Janet taped a segment for the Downtown Learning Consortium on October 5th. 
• Julie attended the Children’s Programmers’ meeting on October 12th. 
• Janet served as a resource person for VI’s Parent Child workshop on October 17 and did the storytime for the children. 
• Janet will attend the Tech Support Meeting on October 25th.
• Janet will attend the YA programmers’ meeting on November 2nd. 
• Janet is attending the OLA/CATs workshop “Connecting Boys with Books” on Nov. 4th. 
• Elizabeth and Ruby are conducting the True North session on Nov. 7th. 
• Ruby is attending the adult programmers meeting on Nov. 9th. 
• Janet will attend the First Amendment Congress on Nov. 10th. 
• Janet distributed copies of various statistical reports. 

Administration Update - Karen Marriott 

• The Commission met on October 13 and approved the sale of surplus furniture and equipment.  Jimmy was recognized for 35 years of service. 
• The Commission’s Ad-Hoc Committee assigned to develop guidelines for the parenting collection is scheduled to meet on Oct 27th at 3:00 p.m. in the DN Friends Room.  A report from Donna’s recent visit to TCCL’s parenting collection will be presented, and information about the current parenting display at Edmond will be provided.  Jimmy will demonstrate proposed enhancements to the PPO which include the ability for parents to block material by keyword/subject. 
• Jimmy is currently working on an update of the CyberMars system.  Along with it, he is developing a Spanish language version.  Once this is available, we may experience an increase in requests for materials in Spanish.  Managers need to consider what implications this might have for their departments.   
• Lloyd has reported that all transfers to the new pension plan have been successfully completed. 
• Karen is serving on two committees related to Outreach and programming. One will review this year's 'summer at the Library' programand consider needed changes. Another will be coordinating major system events i.e. those requiring more than the usual amount of support on publicity, training, materials, etc. Karen plans to attend the YA and Adult programmers meetings next month. 
• Karen attended the Outstanding Service Award Committee Meetings. Melissa Weathers and she announced the nominees at FOCUS. The awards will be presented at staff recognition on November 19. 
• Karen will be serving on the OLA-IFC committee at Donna's request.
• Karen attended a Coffee Talk session for Family PLace resource people.
• Karen has been meeting with representatives from out-of-print materials vendors including Abebooks and Alibris regarding their services.
• Karen attended a Ralph Ellison Friends reception where Denyvetta Davis received a Distinguished Award.
• Karen asked Julie to attend the Oct. 31st Deputy Executive Directors' meeting when they discuss the CD Music selections.
• Karen asked the managers to review the Wages and Hours policies and to review them with their staffs. She reminded them that they are responsible for making sure that exempt employees do no work more than 40 hours within a work week. Managers should document any schedule changes they approve in writing.
• Managers need to make sure their staffs are following appropriate procedures regarding breaks and lunches.  She reminded them that breaks are ‘on the clock’ time and are given to staff members who work four or more continuous hours.  Break time cannot be used to make-up for late arrivals, to leave early or to extend lunch time.   

Records Management Survey - All 

• Karen and Pauline answered questions about the records management survey. 
• Managers should include physical and electronic files. 
• Any files that may be duplicated elsewhere (within or outside MLS) or that may be valuable to other staff should be included. 
• Personnel files and temporary working files do not need to be included in the survey.  

The next managers’ meeting is scheduled for November 17th at Capitol Hill.  Heidi will chair.