Materials Services Division Updates for September 2013

Department Highlights

• Since the beginning of July, a total of 3502 customer suggestions were received.  During the first 3 weeks of September, 849 suggestions were received.  Most suggestions are for print titles.
• Since the beginning of July, a total of 7357 titles were selected for the system and a total of 52582 items.  During the first 3 weeks of September 1742 titles and 13590 items were selected.
• 2,901 new titles were cataloged during August, including 595 e-media titles.
• 21,149 barcode labels were printed in August; 20,151 for new materials and 998 for reprocessed materials.
• 2,034 new titles were received in Cataloging during August.
• Average turnaround time for new titles in Cataloging in August was 2.75 working days.  This includes only time that materials were in Cataloging; it does not include time in Technical Processing.
• Average ratio of copies to titles was 4.88 copies per title for August.
• 1,114 requests to borrow materials through ILL were received in July; 701 borrowed materials were received.  Materials are not always received during the same month that a request is placed.  During August, 547 materials received (78% of receives) were requested in August.  In July, 895 requests were received and a total of 681 of the requested materials were borrowed, for a fill rate of 76%.
• Average turnaround time for borrowing materials in ILL during August was 6.88 working days.  This includes only time from the date requests are sent out from ILL to the date that they are received in ILL; it does not include routing time between MLS libraries and ILL.
• Staff in ILL evaluated 2,182 requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries in August; 952 materials were lent; average fill rate was 44%.  Materials lent to other libraries in July were returned after 23.5 working days on average.
• Due to an error in recording, some of the statistics released for July 2013 were incorrect.  2,512 new titles were received in Cataloging in July, rather than the 3,020 reported in August.  Average turnaround time for new titles in Cataloging for July was 3.85 days, instead of the 7.97 reported in August.
• The average daily run for August was 916 items per day, for a total of 20,153 items.  The average for September of 2013 so far is 1,022 items per day. The processors are current on processing all rush materials and are processing non-rush materials from the run 10 days ago. Study guides and dated materials like continuations are also current. 
• During August, TP received a daily average of 53 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 1,175 boxes.  The daily average in September so far is 61 boxes. 
• Most of the initial 25 title shipment of Playaway Views have been cataloged and the Processors are processing them as the titles are received from CAT. TP still plans to send the first batch of Views to the libraries during the first week in October. Heidi will e-mail the library managers prior to sending out the first shipment from TP.

Materials Selection update – Janet Brooks

• Library Visits
• Selectors made an annual visit to DC during September.
• They are scheduled to do an annual visit to VI and JN during October.
• Techs Help in TP
• On Sept. 3, Lessa helped at TP and on Sept. 4, Kristine helped.  They assisted with receipt of materials.
• Staff Activities
• Ruby met with Susan Urban, one of the new librarians DN, on Sept. 9th to go over weeding and collection maintenance processes.
• Susan attended the Connect Forum on Sept. 10.
• Ruby attended the United Way Committee meeting on Sept. 11.  She gave UW presentations at BE and WA on Sept 19th.
• Selectors met with Tammy Crooks/Baker and Taylor rep. on Sept. 11th.  Tammy showed selectors some of the new services offered by B&T and talked about changes to the database selectors use.
• On Sept. 12th Janet met with Jessica Gonzales, new children’s librarian at DN to review weeding the collection and using iWeed.
• Lisa is scheduled to attend the Staff Association meeting on Sept. 26.
• Lisa volunteered to work at the Drawn Together event on Sept. 28.
• United Way Basket
• Materials Selection staff are contributing to a department “basket” for the United Way raffle at Focus.

Technical Processing update – Heidi Johnson

• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts continue to be current. 
• Devin McGhee, library manager at DC, visited Technical Processing to job shadow in the department on August 20.  On August 22, there was a tour of the SC for new staff participating in the ILS classes scheduled in the conference room.
• On August 22, processing staff of TP attended a demonstration of the CoLibri book covering system. It was an interesting experience, but TP cannot recommend using this system for our libraries.  The main reason is that the covers appear to be too soft and flimsy, and, at a minimum of $0.72 per single cover, also too expensive to purchase in the quantities needed for MLS.
• On September 5, another group of employees from Pioneer Library System came by the SC to tour the facilities.
• Devin Dawson’s last day was August 23.  Heidi and Kristin have interviewed several candidates for the position and hope to have a new part-time Aide in TP by October 7.
• Heidi attended the Safety Committee meeting on September 10 at BE.  On September 11, she participated in a meeting with B+T rep. Tammy Crooks at the DN Library.
• Kevin Colwell attended the Staff Association meeting at the Service Center on September 5 as the SC’s SA representative to discuss proposed changes to the by-laws.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan update – Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins

• Interviews for the full-time Cataloging Technician position were held September 10-12.  Pauline, Mary, Karin, Margo, Paula, and Jill participated.  Morris Crisp, part-time ILL Technician, was selected for the position and will begin on September 30.
• Heidi Wells, ILL Technician, resigned effective September 18.  This leaves a full and a part-time ILL Technician position open.  The full-time position was opened on September 18.  Once that position is filled, the part-time one will be opened.
• The first few video media players (Playaway Views) have been cataloged and forwarded for processing.  More are being cataloged as they arrive.  Pauline is in the process of establishing local cataloging standards for the format.  Once this is done, all Catalogers will help with cataloging these materials.
• Several staff members from Pioneer Library System toured the Service Center on September 5.  The group was made up of staff who were unable to attend the January tour.  They asked many good questions and sparked interesting discussions.
• On September 12, Pauline received a call from Rae Cheney, coordinator for the Trans-Amigos Express courier service.  The service had received a large number of items belonging to MLS, with no indication of the source.  Many of the items are DVDs, which MLS does not lend through ILL.  Rae forwarded the items to Pauline; she will try to determine the items’ status and what to do with them.
• Other meetings and training attended:
• Ursula – GODORT meeting, September 3
• Clyde – Connect meeting, September 10
• Jenny – OLA CE committee meeting, September 12.