Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for September 23, 2004

September 23, 2004 

8:00 A.M. 

Capitol Hill Library meeting room

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

Technical Processing update – Heidi 

(To best describe the last month in TP:  if it was not on fire or a "Rush," it was not a priority) 

• Runs have been between 400-1000 labels per day since our last meeting. TP currently receives an average of about 45 boxes of materials a day.  TP has been short staffed again due to a vacancy and staff being ill.  Again, thanks to Cataloging and Materials Selection for letting TP borrow their part-time technicians to help out in Tech.    
• Heidi attended Outstanding Service Award committee meetings on August 24 and on September 21.   
• Heidi presented a draft of DVD processing guidelines at the August 25 Library Managers' meeting at DC  (see also the minutes of that meeting on the Intranet) 
• Heidi will be on AVL from September 24 -30.  On October 1, Loretta and Heidi will attend the Amigos workshop "Care and handling of materials" at the OU Health Sciences Center.   
• Heidi called in 8 of the 12 applicants for the processor position for testing; one never returned her calls, and seven came in for tests on Monday and Wednesday.  Heidi will call applicants to schedule interviews during the week of October 4, and hopes to have a new processor in place no later than October 25. 
• Quality Book Binding picked up the fall bindery materials on September 21.  The pick-up date for the first half of the genealogy materials to be rebound from the Friends' grant is tentatively scheduled for December 15, 2004.  These materials will need to be coded for bindery and sent to TP around November 15-20. 
• All MSD managers met with the architect Jim Davis, Todd Olberding, Donna Morris, Karen Marriott and Denyvetta Davis to talk about the CH remodeling project.  Updates on this issue will be forthcoming as defininte information becomes available. 
• Heidi is trying to keep the Baker & Taylor accounts straightened out.  There seems to be a problem with getting credit memos taken off our accounts; some of them are as old as November 2003.  Heidi has contacted the credit department, yet not received any results yet.  Unless this problem will get taken care of shortly, Heidi will contact Dave Hargrave, the regional sales manager for Baker & Taylor; hopefully he can get some results for MLS. 

Materials Selection update – Janet 

• Library Visits 
• During August selectors made 6 month collection visits to RE and SO.  
• During September they are conducting a 6-month collection review of BI and an annual visit to MC.  In October, selectors will make an annual visit to BE and a 6-month collection review of WA.  Also in October, selectors would also like to make a visit to LU to see how full the shelves are and if we need to redirect our purchases to particular areas.  This visit is yet to be determined. 
• MSD Tech Visit 
• Margaret worked in MSL on August 30th.  She worked with techs to learn how orders are input, how customer suggestions are handled and how the operations in the basement go. 
• Spotlight on …
• Selectors updated the Spotlight on Hispanic Americans which is now up on the Internet.  They are updating the Spotlight on Native Americans during September.  This will be on the Internet the first of November. 
• FY04 Anomalies 
• Karen, Jimmy Welch and Janet met to discuss some problems that have started showing up on the budget printouts for FY04.  A number of funds have negative balances in the On Order column.  Janet investigated and found that the numbers are associated with some cancellations made for the duplicate P.O.s run in February.  Janet and Jimmy have not had a chance to discuss anything else related to this. 
• Basement/WAGs 
• Staff continue to work hours in the basement.  Fortunately, the number of boxes received from libraries has remained low, 16 boxes last week and 15 boxes this week.  This has allowed us to stay ahead of the withdrawals fairly well.   
• System Reserve List 
• MSL has started new procedures for working with the system reserve lists.  Instead of receiving the list twice a month, the list is now sent once at the first of the month.  Because of we received two lists a month, the Technicians were barely getting through one list before the next list came out.  The second list did not reflect any orders or changes made from the first list, causing double work in some instances.  The division of responsibility has changed now too.  Instead of working the list according to funds, the Technicians have a specific part of the alphabet to thoroughly review (i.e., Elizabeth A-H, Denise I-P, Linda Q-Z).  The techs are to work the list within a week and provide selectors with the titles that need attention.  Selectors have a week to review and make decisions and return orders to technicians.  This means that orders for system reserves will go out the 3rd week of the month.   
• In addition to the once a month review, every Monday the technicians are checking the system reserves/holdings of best seller titles in all formats to ensure that we are on top of fast moving items and none our out of ratio.   
• Friends Grant 
•  Karen announced we would be receiving a Friends Grant this year.  So that all the P.O.s don’t go out all at the same time, Janet divided the grant between all selectors and assigned them a date to have their orders go out.   
• Meeting/Workshops 
• Janet and Linda attended the Planning Focus Group on the Metropolitan University on August 23. 
• Ruby attended the staff recognition reception committee meeting on Sept. 1. 
• Julie and Janet attended portions of the YA programmers retreat on Sept. 1. 
• Kim has had several United Way Campaign meetings and spent all of Sept. 20th distributing packets to libraries.  Janet had a United Way Allocations Committee Meeting on Sept. 22. 
• Julie attended a meeting planning for a multicultural fair. 
• Kim and the Technicians met to talk about workflow issues and share tips with each other. 
• Janet attended the workshop on giving recognition on Sept. 16. 
• Janet and Julie met with sales rep. Fred Stanley on Sept. 17. 
• Linda worked with the 3rd floor receptionist-Collette to help her with using Excel. 
• Elizabeth had an Outstanding Service Award meeting on Sept. 21.  They have made their selections which have been approved by Donna. 
• Denise attended the workshop on using V-Circ and ILL. 
• Julie, Kim and Janet will be attending Encyclomedia on Sept. 27 and 28.  
• Janet will be part of the presentation for the Sequoyah YA committee and will work in the booth. 
• Marilyn will be attending a workshop on working with system reserves on October 7. 
• Janet is attending a writing workshop on October 8 at the Westin. 
• During October Julie will have a display of her baskets in the OK Collection. 

Cataloging update – Pauline 

• Pauline attended a space assessment meeting for the CH building on September 22, along with Heidi, Karen, Denyvetta, Todd, Donna, and architect Jim Davis.  It was an interesting session and everyone is looking forward to seeing what develops. 
• Cataloging’s “new” furniture from the “old” DN building has been delivered and set up.  Since it is a little bigger than the previous furniture, staff have more desk area to work on, but the overall floor space in the department is smaller.  Everyone is getting used to the new setup. 
• Cataloging is continuing to adjust to the new mlsCatClerk software. 
• All catalogers are now using OCLC’s new Connexion software rather than Passport. 
• Aaron started work as an intern on August 23.  He is a quick learner and is fitting in well.  He has helped to reduce the backlog of gift materials waiting for cataloging.  He and Pauline toured ODL on September 13. 
• Ursula has represented OLA GODORT at several meetings, including the Planning Committee on August 20 and the Legislative Committee on September 22. 
• Pauline attended the Library Managers’ meeting on August 25 to present information about how DVDs will be cataloged. 
• Crystal attended the Commission meeting on August 26 to receive her five year pin.  Yea, Crystal! 
• Margaret visited MSL and ILL on August 30 and September 1.  She enjoyed the people and the work, and staff there enjoyed her visits.  She also attended the ILL workshop on September 15. 
• At Phil’s request, Margaret and Veronica taped “Read About It” segments on September 15, highlighting Spanish language materials available at CH, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.  Both enjoyed the experience. 
• Pauline attended the “Giving Recognition” workshop on September 16.  It was helpful and she has already applied some of the information to her work. 
•  Other system and OLA meetings and training sessions: 
• Pauline and Ursula, OLA Planning Committee meeting, August 20 
• Crystal, Tech Group, August 24 
• Pauline and Crystal, TSRT, August 27 
• Clyde, Recognition and Rewards Committee, September 7 
• Pauline, Administration Roundtable, August 24 and September 13 (with Aaron). 
• Margaret has been helping out with processing of new materials recently, when Tech has been short staffed.  Since she is doing this and Laqueta is working fewer hours, transfers have backed up.  Cataloging will suspend Dewey recalls for a while to allow for catch up time. 
• Margaret was also a great help in ordering barcodes while Jill was off in early September.  Clyde has been on vacation August 23-27 and September 20-24; MaryGrace has come in to help both weeks. 
• Steve Beleu has notified Ursula that ODL federal depository visits will be later in the year, probably November or December. 
• Pauline met with Judy Walden on August 23 to show her the classification plan for the Policy and Procedure Manual.  Judy has shown it to the Ad Team and Kay Bauman and Traci Jinkins are working on implementation.

Administration update – Karen 

• Commission 
• Most information that staff need to be aware of appears in the most recent Commission packet. 
• The Friends Grant totals $15,000 for materials and $3,500 for bindery. 
• Pension Board 
• The Pension Board will meet on November 3 and November 10.  At these meetings, they will hear information from the consultant retained to review the retirement plan. 
• Capitol Hill issues 
• Karen, Denyvetta, and Donna attended the meeting between Jim Davis, Todd, Pauline, and Heidi on September 22.  All three will also attend the meeting between Jim, Todd, and Phil. 
• Policy and Procedures Manual 
• The Ad Team was pleased with the classification plan ; the project to update the manual is ongoing. 
• Dates 
• Judy Walden’s retirement party is October 29.  
• Staff Development Day (Focus) is October 11. 
• Staff Recognition is October 16. 
• Karen will be attending a communication and management workshop October 19. 
• Pamela and Sharlott will be attending an Amigos ILL workshop on October 14.  Managers discussed briefly how to cover ILL on that date. 
• CDs 
• Karen has been assured again that the CDs from the Sony settlement are on the way. 
• Janet and Julie have talked about them and will evaluate when they arrive.  Janet will notify Pauline before they begin being send to Cataloging. 
• Northwest Library 
• The new Northwest Library is scheduled to open in 2008. 
• Purchasing for NW will need to begin next fiscal year. 
• Karen would also like to begin transferring materials to NW.  At this time, NW is not a valid branch code. New and transferred materials will need to be stored somewhere until opening.  At this point, where they could be stored is unclear.  Karen is looking at alternatives. 
• Training and state aid 
• Karen reminded all managers that any employee who works 20 or more hours per week must have some form of continuing education.  Safety training counts for this.  If all employees do not have training, MLS could potentially not be eligible for state funds. 
• DVD administrative guidelines
• Karen is working on administrative guidelines for DVDs.  These include any guidelines that should be approved by the Commission. 
• Janet mentioned purchasing guidelines regarding types of DVDs that will be added. 
• Pauline mentioned that any set consisting of more than four discs will be cataloged as separate pieces. 
• Heidi mentioned that promo items will not be included in packaging; and that DVDs will only be considered defective and returned to manufacturers if the defect is discovered on the first circ. 
• Karen asked that any other thoughts be sent to her. 

 Materials Services workshop and manual

• Janet distributed copies of the most recent update of the workshop manual. 
• Managers are to review and respond to Janet no later than October 18; sooner if possible. 
• Janet asked each manager to suggest objectives for the workshop, and to send ideas to her by the same deadline. 

The next meeting will be on October 14, 2004, 8:00 A.M., at Downtown.  Janet will chair.