Materials Services Division Updates for August 2013

Department Highlights

• During July, Materials Selection received 1425 suggestions to purchase material, for an average of 285 suggestions per week. 
• Selection ordered a total of 3020 titles and 21400 items during July.  In the first two weeks of August there have been 949 titles ordered with a total of 7833 items.
• 2,991 new titles were cataloged during July, including 358 e-media titles.
• 24,652 barcode labels were printed in July; 23,076 for new materials and 1,576 for reprocessed materials.
• 3,488 new titles were received in Cataloging during July.
• Average turnaround time for new titles in Cataloging in July was 7.97 working days, chiefly due to the large volume of new materials received.  This includes only time that materials were in Cataloging; it does not include time in Technical Processing.
• Average ratio of copies to titles was 4.7 copies per title for July.
• 895 requests to borrow materials through ILL were received in July; a total of 766 borrowed materials were received.  Materials are not always received during the same month that a request is placed.  During July, 527 materials received (69% of receives) were requested in July.  The fill rate for requests to borrow materials in June 2013 was 78%.
• Average turnaround time for borrowing materials in ILL during July was 6.95 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 2,000 requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries in July; 987 materials were lent; average fill rate was 49%.  Materials lent to other libraries are returned after 16.56 working days on average for July.
• In Technical Processing, the average daily run for July was 1070 items per day, for a total of 23,529 items. That is the 2nd highest run average since TP moved to Service Center; the highest ever was recorded in August 2012, with a total of 24,637 items. The average for August of 2013 so far is 944 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 July, TP received a daily average of 53 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 1,174 boxes.  The daily average in August so far is 50 boxes. 
• Heidi has ordered the new Playaway View labels from Standard Printing. They should be ready for use in TP by the end of August. Heidi will notify Materials Selection when the labels have been received so orders for Views can be placed after that.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan Update

The open Cataloging Technician position was opened on August 9 as promotion only, and closed on August 19.  Pauline plans to schedule interviews the week of September 9.
CAT and ILL hosted a number of staff members for job shadowing during the past month:

Tim Spindle, Virtual Librarian    July 23
Sabrina Littleaxe, DC Librarian    August 9
Kristine Charter, MSL Technician    August 14
Devin McGhee, DC Manager        August 20.

All were very interested, asked good questions, and indicated that the experience was educational and fun.  Staff in CAT and ILL participated by being shadowed, and all provided positive interactions and suggestions; Pauline would like them to know that she is very proud of them!

Pauline has worked with Karen and Anne Fischer on reviewing sample Requests for Proposals sent to ILS vendors, to make sure that the cataloging and ILL areas are appropriate for MLS’s needs.

Other meetings and training attended:

Clyde – Connect meeting, August 8
Jenny – OLA UCD meeting (for CE committee), August 20.

Staff in ILL and CAT have continued to rotate in and out for vacations during August, and will do so through the first week of September.  As always, both departments will have adequate staff to handle normal operations at all times, and will be available to respond to questions and provide assistance.

Cataloging is sad to report that Ursula Ward has set November 30 as her retirement date; her last day of work will be November 27.  It will be the end of an era!  Plans for a celebration/going-away even are under way and announcements will be forthcoming.  Ursula and Pauline are working on transition plans.

ILL has happy news to report!  Brandon Johnston, ILL Tech, and his wife, Lauren, are expecting their first child in December.  We are looking forward to having a baby to gush over.

Materials Selection Update

Manager on AVL

• Janet was on AVL August 5-14th and thanked Ruby for serving as staff “in charge” while she was out of the office.

Library Visits

• During July selectors conducted annual visits to CH and NW.
• In August, selectors are doing annual visits to Book Centers, Books-by-Mail and CT.
• In September, they are scheduled to do an annual visit to DC.

Staff Activities

• Lisa attended the Staff Association meeting on July 25.
• Janet and Melissa met with Karen, Heidi and Karen Peck-the Playaway Rep on July 30th to discuss the addition of the Playaway Views and the continued selections of Playaway Audio Media Players.
• Kristine job shadowed in CAT/ILL/TP on August 14th.
• Ruby attended a United Way Committee meeting on August 14th.

Preparing for Change

• In an effort to help staff deal with upcoming changes, Janet prepared a variety of quotations about change.  During daily stretches and office meetings, staff read a quotation and discuss what it means or how it may help staff in the future.  Some of the quotes are entertaining or humorous and all are thought provoking.  Janet planned enough quotations to do through September.

Technical Processing Update

• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts continue to be current. 
• Joy Summers and several of her coworkers from the Robert M. Birch Library at the OU Health Sciences Center visited Technical Processing on July 22, 2013, for a demonstration of Big Bin. Their library is considering utilizing an unused elevator shaft to install a vertical lift module storing some of their collection.
• On July 23, Tim Spindle, the new virtual librarian from PLA, toured TP and the sorter room.
• Heidi met with Karen Marriott, Janet Brooks, Melissa Weathers (all from MSL) and Karen Peck, the Playaway rep., on July 30, to discuss implementation of adding the new Playaway View format to MLS’s collection. The first orders should be placed and hopefully received in TP in September.
• Kristine Charter, the new MSL Tech, came for an introductory visit to TP on August 14. During that time, she showed great interest in the workflow in the department, and later helped out with receiving materials. 
• Devin Dawson, part-time Aide in TP, turned in his resignation effective August 23, to go back to school for an engineering degree. HUM has opened the afternoon part-time TP Aide position on August 19; hopefully there will be plenty of good applicants. Lenard Ward, the morning part-time Aide, will be able to work some extra hours until a replacement can be hired.
• Kevin Colwell attended the Staff Association meeting at Edmond on July 25 as the Service Center’s SA Representative.