Materials Services Division Minutes - March 19, 2015

Statistical Highlights

• Since the beginning of September, with the implementation of CARLX, 15017 titles and 100,133 items have been added.  This averages to 500 titles and 3337 items per week.  Since the beginning of March, 2293 titles were added and 16675 items added.
• Since the beginning of the fiscal year, MSL has received 8080 recommendations to add titles.  This averages out to 218 recommendations each week.
• During January and February:
  • 3,456 titles new to the collection were cataloged, including 549 records for e-media.  Approximately 600 records for mass market paperbacks were added during that time.
  • About 32,500 new cataloged items were added to the collections, and 3,625 new browsing collection items were added.
  • There is currently no backlog of materials waiting to be cataloged or barcoded.
  • 1,685 requests requests to borrow materials through ILL for MLS customers were received; 1,562 (93%) were submitted to lending libraries; so far, 1,142 titles have been borrowed.
  • Staff in ILL evaluated 2,929 requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries; 1,202 materials were lent.
  • There are no backlogs of materials or requests waiting to be processed through ILL.
• Since the migration to the CarlX system, no receiving or barcode statistics are available to Technical Processing. However, Pauline in CAT is working on a way to provide TP with the number of barcodes produced, starting with January of 2015. The processors are current on processing all rush and non-rush materials received from Cataloging.  There is no backlog in Technical Processing.
• During January, TP received a daily average of 34 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 683 boxes.  438 were received from Baker & Taylor, 245 from other vendors. During February, TP received a daily average of 41 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 823 boxes.  548 were received from Baker & Taylor, 275 from other vendors. As of March 18, the daily average had increased to 53 boxes.

New Business

Welcome

Tim was welcomed to the meeting by the managers.

Customer Recommendation Process

Pauline explained that with the system’s migration to TLC, the “Request a Title” function in the OPAC was replaced by the “Suggest a Title” function.  The new form does not allow a user to input nearly as much information as the old one; there is no space for comments.  With the old system, a user could include information such as “Please ILL if not purchased” in the comments field.  Since the migration, ILL has seen an increase in requests for titles that have also been suggested for purchase.  Borrowing materials through ILL that are ultimately purchased is a waste of time and funds.  Pauline asked Janet to explain how user recommendations are handled in MSL, so that she can develop better procedures for ILL staff to handle titles with recommendations.

Tim asked if there is a way for requests to go both to MSL and ILL, or to go to MSL for consideration before being sent to ILL.  Everyone agreed that this would be preferable, but currently there is no mechanism in place.  Pauline mentioned that ILL requests for materials published in the current or previous year (currently 2015 and 2014) are forwarded to MSL for consideration.  She and Janet agreed that at least 50% of titles forwarded are purchased.

Karen asked if library staff are expected to check the catalog to see if material is in system, on order, or has been recommended for purchase before forwarding requests to ILL.  Pauline indicated that this should be part of each library’s procedures, but that some requests get missed.  She also explained that all such searches should be done in the staff client rather than in the OPAC.

Tim asked if more materials borrowed through ILL could be provided electronically.  Pauline responded that many materials that are requested are older and not available in e-media.  ILL would be open to developing a mechanism for electronic delivery whenever possible.

Janet provided a handout that explained MSL’s process for reviewing recommendations.  She mentioned that some savvy customers have begun inserting “please ILL” or something similar after the title on the recommendation form.  The form allows for a limited number of characters, so this is not always feasible.

When a customer recommends a title, the title is added to the OPAC and the staff catalog, a temporary item number is created, and a hold is generated for the customer.  In the staff catalog, recommendations can be identified by the word “RECOMMENDATION” in the call number.  In the item view, the branch is VRTL, location is NBK, status is On Shelf Temporary.  If the material is ordered, the item view branch changes to DN, location to 999, and status to Ordered.

Janet explained that if a recommended title is not purchased, the customer’s hold is cancelled, which triggers a notice to the customer.  The item and record are deleted the next day.  Items cannot be deleted until after notices have gone out overnight; otherwise, the customer may get a blank notice.  She mentioned that customers should not be able to place additional reserves on a temporary record created by a recommendation, but that some have discovered a “back door” that allows them to do so.

The group discussed the ways that ILL works with MSL, and how to make the partnership more effective.  Pauline commented that requests for videorecordings, especially feature films and TV series, have consistently increased over the past several years.  This is partially due to the system’s guidelines for purchase of videorecordings.  Pauline offered to compile data to illustrate the impact the the guidelines have on ILL requests.

Leave Entry Questions

Pauline referred to a document that she had forwarded to the managers earlier, outlining concerns regarding entering professional leave for non-exempt staff.

Library Operations and Human Resources have instructed that supervisors are to enter professional leave for non-exempt staff into PayCom using the “add punch” function.  This seems to indicate that non-exempt staff attending full-day professional events will be paid for time actually spent attending the event, rather than being paid for 8 hours.

Pauline’s concerns focused on the OLA Annual Conference, scheduled for April 30-May1 in Midwest City.  On Thursday, April 30, the conference schedule runs from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM, with “Lunch and Learn” sessions scheduled for an hour and a half during the day.  On Friday, May 1, the schedule runs from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM, with the same “Lunch and Learn” schedule.  Since the lunch sessions include learning opportunities, they count as work time.  An employee who attends conference for the entire day on Thursday will work 9.75 hours, while one who attends for the entire day on Friday will work 7.5 hours.  Pauline asked if non-exempt employees are to be paid overtime for being at conference more than 8 hours; and if they need to adjust schedules if they attend for less than 8 hours.

Karen explained that non-exempt staff attending OLA Conference are to be paid for time spent at the conference.  It is up to the supervisor to adjust employees’ schedules during the week to allow each employee to work a full 40 hours, and to avoid paying overtime whenever possible.

Janet asked about workshops for which contact hours are less than 8 hours, but time spent traveling to the workshop makes the total day more than 8 hours.  Karen responded that in such cases, the employee is considered to have worked 8 hours, but is not paid overtime for time spent traveling.

Karen reminded the managers that as exempt employees, any leave taken to attend full-day professional events will be treated as 8 hours of leave.  Since managers are unable to enter requests for professional leave for themselves, she asked that they contact her directly with such requests.

There was discussion of the need to track professional leave, and of the positions which are considered non-exempt.

Heidi asked about the correct procedure to use when an employee uses personal leave in the middle of the work day, especially when that leave includes the employee’s scheduled lunch break.  She related an incident in which an employee left for an appointment and took a lunch break before returning to work.  Since the employee planned to use the lunch break as part of the time out, she punched out for lunch before leaving.  This caused issues when she punched back in after the appointment because the entire time out showed as unpaid meal time, when in fact some of the time was paid leave.

Karen explained that employees leaving for such absences should punch out for the day when leaving, rather than punching out for lunch.  When the employee returns, s/he should punch in for the day again, and punch out at her/his regular leave time.  The employee can then request leave for the appropriate amount of time, excluding the lunch break time.  Janet indicated that she has used this procedure, and it has worked effectively.

Heidi also asked about new pay codes listed as options when a managers adds hours for an employee, such as Salary No Pay (SNP) and PAL (PLE).  No one present was familiar with the codes.  Karen indicated that they are unlikely to be important frequently, but will check on them.

Updates

Technical Processing update – Heidi

• The last open orders in the ILS system have now expired. TP is now receiving all ordered materials in CarlX.
• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts continue to be current. 
• Staff is getting more experienced using Paycom. Heidi is happy to report that since she rescanned some of her employees’ finger prints, few problems have been reported.
• Big Bin experienced a problem with the lights on one side not working, even after changing out the lights bulbs. Southwest Solutions came to investigate and found that a function key had been activated by accident which turned off the lights on that one side. Once discovered, the problem was easily fixed. While there, the Technician also performed our scheduled annual maintenance which was due in about another month or two.
• TP is very grateful that Pauline has been working with Karen Marriott and other staff to develop ways to check in standing order materials without creating temporary records.  She created bibliographic records that can be used to check in paperback series, such as those received through Harlequin.  Each title is added to the catalog separately as a browsing collection paperback.  This allows Tech Processing to check in and confirm receipt of all volumes received, without the need for a checkin record for each title.  The checkin records are suppressed and do not display in the OPAC, although they do show in the staff client.
• This year’s honorees for MLS’s Staff Recognition event from Tech Processing are Katherine Casey, Melissa Clabaugh, Katie Herd, Oscara Koszara, and Lenard Ward. Kristin and Taylor are in charge of compiling the memory books.
• Tim Rogers visited with staff from Technical  Processing on March 12, 2015. Staff felt free to interact and ask questions of him, and everyone enjoyed the meeting.
• Heidi is scheduled to attend the next Safety Committee meeting which Candace McDaniel is about to schedule for sometime in the middle of April, date yet to be determined. Kevin Colwell is scheduled to attend the next Staff Association meeting on March 26, 2015, at MC.
• Heidi is scheduled to attend OLA during the last week of April, but has not decided yet which programs to attend.
• On February 19, Heidi met with Curtiss Ray, Lloyd Lovely, and Stuart from Commercial Concepts about providing a less windy entry into the building through the staff entrance. Requirements and various concepts were discussed, and Stuart is to provide an estimate for enclosing some of the current entrance area.
• Tony Alfonso was out for about a week due to dental surgery. The processors filled in tagging and pulling materials during his absence.
• The Service Center is scheduled for carpet cleaning of all departments for Tuesday, March 31, after hours. TP will move as many items off the carpeted areas as possible before leaving for the day.

Materials Selection update – Janet

Library Visits

• In February, selectors made annual visits to DN.
• During March they are visiting ED and HR.
• In April, they are scheduled to visit MC and NP.

Budget

• Selectors are preparing recommendations for their FY16 funds.
• The number of items ordered for FY15 increased in the last few weeks, as selectors boosted their selections to get funds encumbered.

Serials

• Susan, Kristine, Lauren and Marlene are updating serials records to include Ebsco subscription numbers. This should aid in electronic claiming.

Meetings/Workshops

• Melissa met with Angie/OUT on Feb. 18.
• Selectors met with Risa/DN on March 5 to see how the macros work for CarlX weeding reports.
• Ruby attended to the United Way meeting March 11.
• Janet and Karen met with the representative from Collection HQ on March 13.
• Janet, Susan and Kristine met on March 18 to discuss issues with serials and COs.
• Janet is scheduled to meet with Angie/OUT on March 24.
• Tim Rogers is scheduled to meet with MSL staff on March 25.
• Janet is scheduled to meet with AL’s new Library Manager, Brandon on April 2.
• Selectors are scheduled to meet with Janet and Karen on April 2nd to discuss FY16 budget.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan update – Pauline

• TLC informed Anne Fischer on January 15 that records for e-media materials are automatically suppressed in the OPAC.  The records must be manually unsuppressed in order to be displayed.  Since then, the Catalogers have made unsuppressing each record a part of their routine when adding records for e-media.  As time and workload allow, they have gone back to existing records and unsuppressed them.
• A library staff member contacted Cataloging with a question about Blu-Ray DVDs.  Although the system does not purchase Blu-Rays, certain searches within the OPAC cause Blu-Ray to appear as a format option.  Pauline and the Catalogers determined that there was nothing in the MARC record that should cause this to occur, so the question was passed on to Anne Fischer.  It appears that there is an issue with the way that the LS2PAC reads coding in certain MARC format fields.  The fields are formatted correctly, so the issue is on the TLC side.  Pauline discussed the situation with the Catalogers and they have agreed on a temporary workaround that will stop “Blu-Ray” from displaying.  They are not sure how the workaround will affect the field’s functionality.  Anne is reporting the issue to TLC.
• Cataloging and ILL staff met with Executive Director Tim Rogers on March 2.  Several staff expressed appreciation for Tim’s visit and the information that he shared.
• On February 5, Pauline attended an online TLC demo of updates to their cataloging product.  The next version will include a product called BibMerge, which will allow two catalog records to be merged without losing holdings or hold information.  This has the potential to help reduce problems when an ordered material requires or does not require a new BID.
• On March 18, Pauline attended an online TLC demo of updates to the CarlX and LS2PAC products.  Some of the LS2PAC updates will be very helpful in reducing ILL’s time per requested material.
• Pauline has been working with Karen Marriott and other staff to develop ways to check in standing order materials without creating temporary records.  She created bibliographic records that can be used to check in paperback series, such as those received through Harlequin.  Each title is added to the catalog separately as a browsing collection paperback.  This allows Tech Processing to check in and confirm receipt of all volumes received, without the need for a checkin record for each title.  The checkin records are suppressed and do not display in the OPAC, although they do show in the staff client.
• Pauline attended the Managers of Library Operations meeting on January 21.  She provided the managers with procedures for adding item records so that they can check out printed tax instructions.  She also asked managers to remind staff that ILL labels should never be taped to materials, and that barcodes should never be marked out when preparing to return borrowed materials to ILL.
• At the same meeting, Pauline presented the workaround for problems caused by the limited number of characters in a call number that may be printed on spine labels.  The limit causes the largest number of problems with video media players.  Since January 21, call numbers in new records for VMPs will have the designation “VMP” as the last line, rather than “VIDEO PLAYER” as the last two lines.  Added copy VMPs will keep existing call numbers.  Over time, all materials with the older designation should be phased out.
• All Cataloging and ILL staff have completed first quarter safety training; Pauline completed the Quarterly Facility Checklist and the Chemical Inventory.
• Several staff members plan to attend all or part of the OLA conference at the end of April, but there will always be sufficient staff in the office to answer questions and continue workflow.
• Margaret Angeles, Alex Hinton, and Mary Long will receive 5 year pins at this year’s Staff Recognition; Pauline will receive her 30 year pin.  Various staff members are working on scrapbooks for each individual.

Administrative update – Karen

• The Long Range Planning Committee is scheduled to meet on April 6.  The city of Oklahoma City has requested information and ideas for projects to be included in its next bond package.  Several communities have expressed interest in expanding their library space, including Bethany, Harrah, and The Village.
• The budget process has changed somewhat this year.  The entire Ad Team will review the budget before it is sent to the Commission.
• Managers are expected to think about what long range goal(s) their budget requests will help to meet.  This information should be included when entering budget requests.
• Karen asked managers not to enter new requests until she is able to get back to them with information as to how links to long range goals should be indicated.
• Karen is working on vendor evaluations.
• Karen and Anne Fischer are working to arrange for TLC staff to come and provide training assistance for serials, especially continuations.  All Materials Services departments will need to be involved.  She will contact managers with dates as soon as possible.

The group discussed issues with audio and video media players.  The number of such items reported as being defective seems to be increasing.  Libraries are requesting replacement of items that are no longer eligible for free replacement more frequently.  Heidi will contact Karen and Janet with more information.

The next meeting will be on Thursday, May 21, 8:00 AM, in the Service Center meeting room.  Heidi will chair.