Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for November 19, 2009

Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes

November 19, 2009; Capitol Hill Library; 8:00 a.m.

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

Cataloging/ILL Update Pauline

Meetings and training attended:

Aaron – Staff Association, September 24, October 22

Pauline – Tech Support, October 27

Aaron, Clyde, Brittany – OLA TSRT workshop, October 30

Veronica – Prepare workshop, November 6

Pauline – X Change, November 16

As announced at an earlier meeting, Nicholas Thompson has been promoted from part-time MSD Technician to full-time ILL Technician, effective October 6. This has been a great benefit to ILL.

Veronica Bernal has resigned her position as Cataloging Technician, effective November 25. The position has been posted internally, with a closing date of November 27.

All full and part time staff from both departments attended Focus on October 12, except for Pauline and Jill, who were both on FmLA leave.

At the Tech Support meeting, Pauline presented a report on her discussions with Karen Marriott and Jimmy Welch, regarding the possibility of creating brief catalog records for paperbacks in browsing collections. They determined that any form of cataloging is not feasible, for a variety of reasons. Jimmy is working on an idea to utilize order records to provide access to these materials.

On October 6, Cataloging held a special “milestone” birthday party for Ursula, Jill, and Pauline, who celebrated “decade” birthdays this year.

Pauline and Aaron attended the MLS Leadership completion ceremony on November 4. Pauline was impressed with the group’s presentation, especially Aaron’s part!

Pauline presented a portion of the OLA TSRT workshop “Breaking Down the Walls”, on relations between public services and technical services. She was unable to attend the entire workshop, but staff who did stated that it was excellent.

Amigos announced in September that its contract with Velocity for courier service to southeastern Oklahoma would end on October 1, although service to that part of the state would continue. However, in late October Amigos contacted Pauline about the possibility of resuming the service, with MLS as a transfer point. This was agreed upon and service began on November 16.

Trans-Amigos Express has begun using canvas bags for routing materials through the service. This means that ILL staff can simply place materials in the bags, or open the bags, instead of having to deal with tape, staples, packaging, etc.

Now that AGent has been discontinued, ILL is having an easier time with loans, as they no longer have to work with two systems. However, the number of loan requests received through FirstSearch has at least doubled.

Pauline visited the Service Center in October with Karen and Todd Olberding, to review locations for the tracks used to carry materials between Cataloging and Technical Processing.

Pauline has been working with Jimmy Welch on several IT issues for ILL and Cataloging. So far, Jimmy has completed the following:

Notices of unfilled ILL requests are now automatically generated through the mlsILL application. This has shortened the process considerably; when staff has worked through the backlog of requests waiting for notice, customers should receive notices much more quickly. Libraries will receive monthly reports of unfilled requests, so that they can clear files as needed.

Barcodes are now printed on green labels for MLS materials lent to other libraries. Hopefully, this will eventually allow ILL staff to stop printing and filing requests for these items.

Catalogers can now access records for downloadable materials in the mlsDigiMARC application without having to page through the entire alphabet.

Pauline plans to begin work on establishing cataloging standards for e-publications.

Lisa and Kristin have been helping process new materials for the past month.

Paula worked in ILL on October 29, helping to return materials borrowed by other libraries to MLS agencies.

Several staff from both departments attended the Staff Recognition dinner on November 14. Paula received her 10 year pin; Paula and Brittany were both nominated for the Outstanding Service Award.

Melissa Weathers (MSL) has sent Pauline a list of titles to be recalled and withdrawn. Most deal with planets and incorrectly include Pluto as a planet. Melissa has also requested a few reclassifications. These are on hold for now, as no one is available to process them.

Jimmy Welch (IT) has agreed to lend Cataloging their spare shredder. Pauline will request that it be delivered the first week of December. It will be available to Cataloging and Tech Processing for clearing out unneeded files and information.

During the first third of the fiscal year, 6,511 titles have been cataloged; 457 records for downloadable titles have been added; and records for 5,644 titles have been enhanced. This leads to a total of 6,746 records added to the catalog, and 12,390 titles for which barcode labels were printed. Although Materials Selection has increased orders prior to the move to the Service Center, these overall numbers are very close those of the same period last fiscal year. This appears to be due to a significant spike in titles handled during October 2008. 68,442 barcode labels have been printed for materials added to the collections; overall, this represents a 14% increase over the same period last fiscal year. For the first third of the fiscal year, approximately 5.33 copies were added per title; this is an 18% increase over last fiscal year, and is the first time since FY00 that the number of copies per title has exceeded 5.

During the first third of the fiscal year, ILL received 3,282 requests from MLS customers to borrow materials from other libraries, a 17% increase over the same period last fiscal year; and filled 2,611, or 80% of those requests. The department received 9,778 requests from other libraries to borrow MLS materials, a 31% increase over the same period last fiscal year, and filled 2,828, or 32% of them. The number of loan requests filled is down 16% since last fiscal year, and the percentage filled has dropped from 45% to 29%. This is a reflection of the continuing increase in the number of requests received.

Materials Selection Update Janet

Staff

On Nov 2, new standards were reviewed with all staff except for two who are scheduled to have their appraisal in December. Signed summary sheets have been turned in to HUM.

Lisa was nominated for the Outstanding Service Award.

Anna completed her comprehensive finals in Oct. and received notice that she passed with flying colors.

Several staff will attend the benefits fair on Dec. 1.

Library Visits

During Oct. selectors made an annual visit to VI and a 6-month visit to MC.

During Nov. selectors made a 6-month visit to SO. The annual visit to RE was postponed until they are settled in their new building.

During Dec. selectors are scheduled to do an annual visit to WA and a 6-month to BE.

Janet is scheduled to go to JN on Nov. 19th to work with Josh Lewis the new Ext Specialist on collection matters.

Janet has volunteered to help with the move at RE Dec 3rd from 8-5.

New System Reserve Function

MSL staff met on Oct. 30 to go over the new program Jimmy developed for working the system reserve lists in MSL.

Each week 1 technician pulls up the list, filters it by ratio and works about 20-40 titles each week that have a ratio of 2 or more. They spend about an hour to 2 hours doing this process, compared to the old method which required about 2 to 3 days for each of the 4 technicians to do at the beginning of the month.

Once a month Kim checks the list for items with no holdings, single copies and by date.

The process seems to be working fairly smoothly. A few bugs have had to be worked out.

The new process saves quite a bit of time, paper and allows staff to catch items that need attention more quickly. It has nearly eliminated the need to check the best sellers each week, except to find items that are not in system yet.

Staff are meeting on Friday to review the procedures to see what has worked well or what procedures need to be refined.

Basement

MSL staff held an all day workday in the MSL basement on Nov. 13 to take care of a backlog of materials. Staff made quite a dent in the backlog.

Unfortunately, staff discovered that the dolly they had purchased for the basement area was missing. Janet tracked down the dolly and it has been returned to MSL.

Job Shadowing

Sheldon Beach/DN job shadowed Janet and Ruby on Nov. 3

Beth Wilson/MC job shadowed Marilyn on Nov. 11.

Meetings/Workshops

Janet attended the OLA Program Committee meeting at the Chickasaw Public Library on Oct. 16. She will attend the next Program meeting on Nov. 20th at the Renaissance Hotel and Cox Center. The rest of the meetings will be held as teleconferences from Rose State and other locations around the state.

Janet and Kim attended the Supervisory Skills workshop on Oct 20 and Nov. 17th. The last of the series is scheduled for Dec. 15.

Lisa attended an Excel workshop on Oct. 21 and a Word workshop on Oct 27

Janet attended the Tech Support meeting on Oct 27.

Janet and Anna attended the First Amendment Congress on Oct. 28 and 29.

Janet attended the YA Services meeting on Nov 4.

Janet and Anna plan to attend the OLA IFC meeting on Dec. 4 at the Chickasha Public Library.

Holiday Schedule

Janet shared copies of the schedule showing which MSL staff will be in the office and those that are scheduled off during the holidays.

Technical Processing Update Heidi

The average daily run in September was 859 items, in October, 865 items, and so far in November 889 items. The dept. processed a total of 18,032 in September, in October 18,158 items, and as of Nov. 18, 2009 (yesterday), 11,553 items. Technical Processing currently processes non-rush items from the run 2 days ago; also, the part-time techs are still helping out with the processing of new items. This has made a big difference in TP; our thanks to the MSD Techs.

In September, TP received an average of 47 boxes of materials a day, in October 52 boxes, and so far in November, an average of 41 boxes per day. Materials receipt had continued to be above average early in the month; however, there seems to be a slight decrease in the number of boxes received this week. Maybe this is an indication that things will slow down somewhat during the next few weeks while TP is still operating in the old building. TP appreciates very much that MSL temporarily postponed some of their replacement lists and other orders. At one point, the garage was so full that the drivers had to maneuver very carefully when taking out new books through the garage. Having a temp, at least through the end of this week, to help with unboxing these materials has been a lifesaver. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

All B&T accounts are still current as Heidi continues to contact the accounting dept. every month to have credit memos applied to open invoices. However, B&T still has problems sending out electronic statements as requested by MLS. And even though MLS did not request to have credit memos e-mailed, B&T started to send them that way anyway. Also, for the month of October, TP received statements for the smaller accounts like Rush and Continuations by U.S. Mail, but no statements at all for the Adult or Juvenile accounts. All Ingram accounts continue to be current.

Several supply problems occurred during the last month. The blue cards, when received, had been cut to the wrong size and had to be returned to the vendor for retrimming. The single DVD cases which are now manufactured by another company no longer close as securely as they did previously. Heidi notified Demco of this problem and they promised to investigate the issue.

Melanie Levick attended the Resistance to Change committee meeting on Oct. 21 at DC.

Tanaz is scheduled to attend the Basic Excel workshop on Dec. 9 at MC.

Heidi attended the X-Change meeting on 11-16-09 at DN.

Heidi met with the Processors on 11-17-09 to work out some Service Center workflow issues.

All TP staff whose performance appraisals are due after Feb. 1 have signed copies of their new standards.

Several TP staff have requested to attend the Benefit Fair on Dec. 1.

Michelle Merriman handed in her resignation effective Nov. 30. She plans to return to school.

Several staff members from TP attended the Staff Recognition dinner at the Clarion, incl. three of the five honorees. Everyone said they had a good time and enjoyed themselves. TP’s thanks to the Friends and all who made this event possible.

Dates for TP’s move to the new Service Center continue to be fluid. There have been some security issues under discussion, like secure storage for all materials and safety of staff when opening outside doors for deliveries. These items continue to be looked at. Southwest Solutions is still working on providing transport tables to move trays of books from the conveyors to the vertical lift before staff need to use them in the new SC. The version currently looked at will require about 6 weeks to be delivered.

Administrative Update Karen

Service Center

The sorter was delivered on 11-18-09 and installation is proceeding very rapidly. Staff is to receive initial training in its operation on Nov. 20. We do not know yet when the building will be turned over to us. The date of the move has not yet been set.

Ralph Ellison

The newly remodeled building will be turned over to MLS on Nov. 23. The move will start on Nov. 30; the grand opening is scheduled for Dec. 14. Karen has volunteered to help with the move.

NW

Significant progress has been made on the lighting issues for NW. The project is expected to go out for bid in January, with contract award in February and ground breaking in March.

ADA Bathroom Issues At BI, CH and WR

The bids for renovating bathrooms at BI, CH and WR is expected to go out in December. The City of Oklahoma City plans to hire an architect to evaluate the CH building to outline issues to be faced in renovating the building. Donna expects this to occur after January 1.

Additional ED Library

Donna met with the new mayor of Edmond to discuss plans for an additional library. Edmond is still very interested in a new library, but their current priority is the Public Safety Center.

Literary Night at the Thunder

This event will take place on Dec. 7. Info Magazine will be two days late so an article about the Thunder’s “Read to Achieve” initiative could be included.

FAMLA

New FaMLA regulations were announced regarding leave for military families. MLS will review and update their policy accordingly. In the meantime, contact Ric Rea in HUM with any questions.

GPO

Karen is working with Ursula and other staff on the biennial Federal Depository survey. She attended part of the annual meeting of depository libraries at ODL and heard a presentation on the use of social networking sites to promote and enhance government information service.

The Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries won the Depository of the Year award.

E-Media

Karen completed renewal of subscription for the downloadable, ‘always available’ titles from Blackstone. A discussion of the pros and cons of certain formats followed. Karen also has discovered that sometimes rights to certain ‘always available’ titles simply expire with the subscription and they cannot be renewed.

Policy +Procedures

Karen stated that the e-mail guidelines for staff are almost finalized now. They should be ready before e-mail addresses are provided to all staff. Social networking policy is in progress.

Commission

A meeting of the Commission of the Metropolitan Library System is scheduled for the afternoon of 11-19-09. There was no Commission meeting in October so the agenda is a long one. Agenda items include executive session for Executive Director’s appraisal, acceptance of the audit, approval of commission dates for 2010 and approval of the 2010 holiday calendar among others.

Circulation statistics show an increase in materials borrowed. System reserves also show an increase.

The MLS Benefits Fair is scheduled for Dec. 1. Mass Mutual meetings are scheduled for December, 3, and 8.

The Downtown Library will have their open house on Dec. 10 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The Commission will meet at Downtown that day.

Heidi Port presented the new staff volunteer schedule to the Ad Team and it was approved..

The Endowment Trust has funded a series of concerts by pianist Wayne McEvilly in honor of Ernestine Clark, retired. The first one will be on January 10 at the Downtown Library followed by a reception for Ernestine.

Karen attended the luncheon honoring Leadership MLS class III on November 4 and the Staff Recognition event on November 14.

Miscellaneous all

The MSD meeting schedule for 2010 was discussed and some dates were changed to better accommodate staff schedules and other scheduled meetings.

Karen made the suggestion to add a new heading “Action Items/Decisions Reached” at the end of the minutes. This will help clarify who is to take what actions after the meeting. It will also make it easier to find what decision was reached on a topic and when, should it need to be revisited later.

Action Items/Decisions Reached all

Janet will send the corrected MSD meeting dates to PLA to be posted on the Intranet. (update 11-23-09: Janet has forwarded the schedule to PLA to be posted)

Processing Books on CD once TP has moved to new SC (recap)

Easy/Reader/Tween: process in bag with blue card

JF/YA/Adult fiction: process without blue card/bag; if book is included, book will be cataloged separately

JNF/ANF/YNF: if essential accompanying materials are included, process with blue card and in hanging bag if non-essential accompanying materials are included, discard them, put barcode on the container and process without blue card/bag if no accompanying materials are included, put barcode on the container and process without blue card/bag

Cataloging will start printing duplicate barcodes for juvenile, YA, or adult titles with accompanying materials that have to be put into hanging bags. TP will put these duplicate barcodes into the inside of the front cover of the container. If materials are returned without the blue card, this will make it easier for branches to determine which item number was returned.

Heidi is to check with IT about the best locations for RFID tags on AV materials.

Pauline is to attend the next LO managers’ meeting to inform managers about the cataloging of bonus DVDs.

Pauline confirmed that ILL request forms are listed in the Forms Catalog on the Intranet. This catalog is accessible by clicking the “Supplies” link in the

“Forms/Supplies” menu. The forms cannot be printed from the “Forms” list because they are multipart; they must be ordered from Business Office. Karen will check into having the Forms Catalog integrated into the Supply Catalog.

Janet will look into splitting any future Fiction replacement lists into several parts instead of ordering all items at once. This will help TP to not receive boxes and boxes of one copy orders all at once which are very time consuming to receive.

Karen will forward lists of duplicate e-media records to Aaron to delete.

The project to evaluate and reclassify BHC materials as needed is continuing. Pauline will report when the project is completed.

The meeting adjourned at 10:50 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 17; Pauline will chair.