Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for July 17, 2003

 Date: July 17, 2003

Attendees: Janet Brooks, Heidi Johnson, Karen Marriott, Donna Morris, Pauline Rodriguez 

Absent: Pamela Kosted, 

Minutes 

Cataloging Update - Pauline Rodriguez 

• Pauline attended ALA in Toronto June 20-23.  She attended the pre-conference describing changes for the new edition of Dewey, as well as other sessions relating to cataloging and management. 
• Crystal attended the Tech Support Group meeting on June 17. 
• Ursula visited ODL with Ruby and Sharon to look at documents to consider adding to our selection profile for next year.  Ursula is working on the profile, which is due July 31.  She will get it to Karen by the last week of July. 
• Jana and Jill attended the benefits fair on June 26. 
• Clyde and Crystal attended the OLA TSRT meeting on June 27. 
• The annual poster vote is currently going on in Cataloging; new posters will be up shortly. 
• The system’s annual documents visit from ODL is scheduled for August 6.  Kevin Motes will come to Cataloging at about 9:45; then he, Ursula, and Pauline will go Downtown for a visit. 
• The release date for the Windows client for OCLC’s new cataloging interface, Connexion, has been delayed.  The new target date is September/October 2003.  The end of life for the current interface, Passport, has been extended indefinitely; the new date has not been announced.  Pauline will get with Jim Welch to plan for migration to the Internet browser for Connexion. 
• With the boxes of not in system gifts for the HRC collection, storage in Cataloging is tight.  The gifts cannot be worked until they can be cataloged, and the boxes cannot be emptied because there is limited space to store the materials.  This makes it difficult to store boxes of transfers when they come in. 
• During Pauline’s PowerPoint workshop on June 10 and 12, she took the Cataloging presentation that Clyde and Jana created to show other students.  It was the hit of the class!  The group watched it twice, then spent time dissecting how the effects were done. 
• Pauline will be working with Anne Fischer and Helen Chacon to set up Amigos online training for new ILL and Cataloging products at Capitol Hill, since it cannot be done Downtown. 

Technical Processing Update -  Heidi Johnson 

• Last close-out of FY03 went very smoothly and was uneventful.  The first purchase orders of FY04 were printed and sent off without any problems noticed. 
• Receipt of materials and the number of barcode labels in the daily run have increased since orders from FY04 are already being received.  TP receives about 40 boxes of materials daily, and the runs have been between 500-1000 labels. • Laqueta has turned in her resignation as full-time processor to return to school to become a dietitian.  Her last day will be August 15; time of the party to be announced.  Laqueta did say, however, that she would be available for part-time work if needed.  The job opening has been announced, and hopefully enough applications will be received by July 30th to interview and select a candidate from.  
• Gene has undergone physical therapy for carpal tunnel and is now pain-free through strengthening exercises.  She had to wear braces at all times for several weeks, but was told by her doctor that she is no longer required to wear them all the time.  However, she will still wear them while processing and handling materials. 
• Rosie, Laqueta, Erica, and Heidi have all been on AVL at various times during the last month.  Everyone is back now, just in time to help handle all the new materials coming in from FY04 orders. 
• Heidi finished the Technical Processing presentation in PowerPoint.  Heidi borrowed AUT's digital camera, and for about two weeks took pictures of all work processes within the dept. , or as she likes to put it: I took pictures of anything and everything that moves within the department; if TP does it, I took a picture of it.   The last picture to be added will be a picture of all Technical Processing staff.  Now that everyone is back from AVL, Heidi has scheduled a picture taking session for everyone on Friday, 7-18-03. The file is too large for a disk, but once Automation has burned it on CD, Heidi will send a copy to Karen. 
• Loretta, Melissa, Erica, Christy, and Heidi from TP attended the Benefits Fair on June 26. 
• Heidi taped a couple of booktalks for Kids' Corner on Read About It on July 14.  She also attended an Accounts Payable workshop on 7-16 from which she brought back some very interesting suggestions regarding filing of invoices, vendor relations, electronic payments, etc.  Heidi will compile and forward some of these ideas to Karen, along with some proposals about possible changes and how those would benefit TP's work processes and record keeping.  Heidi is also scheduled to attend an Excel workshop on July 28 and another one on August 28. 
• Loretta is to teach the Basic Materials Processing workshop by special request at Ralph Ellison library on July 23 in the morning, and again on July 30 in the afternoon.  This will be the first time this workshop has been held anywhere except in TP, and Loretta is working out the logistics with Helen in Planning and Ralph Ellison staff.  The manuals are in the final stages of the revision. 
• Julie, Kim, and Megan from Materials Selection are scheduled for a dept. visit on July 22, 2:00 p.m.  They can be the first outside the department to view the new TP presentation. 

Materials Selection Update  -  Janet Brooks 

• Year End Statistics:  Janet shared copies of year end statistics for MSL. 
• Library Visits:  During June Selectors conducted a 6 month collection review of ED.  Annual visits to CH and DC were also conducted.  During July, Selectors are conducting a 6 month collection review of RE.  Janet and Karen had follow up visits to DC and CH.  Selectors will be conducting 6 month visits to DN and SO during August. 
• New FY:  Selectors have begun selecting with FY04.  The cassettes and CD book budgets have been combined to form AUDfunds.  Selectors are maintaining weekly order lists at 5000 or less items (4270 and 4287).  The last 3 lists of FY03:  2977, 4069, 2201, so there should not be a noticeable slowdown for Tech and Cat, as there was last year. 
• DNLLC Tour:  So far, Janet, Ruby, Julie, Kim, Elizabeth and Megan have made the tour of the new DNLLC facility. Others will be scheduled soon. 
•  Spencer:  Janet, Ruby and Karen transferred materials from SP to various libraries.  The project was completed in one day, with a few boxes full of items with no printouts sent to MSL to be worked on. 
• Meetings/Workshops: 
• Elizabeth trained True North during June. 
• Elizabeth worked at the benefits fair.  Most MSL staff attended the benefits fair. 
• Ruby attended a government documents meeting at ODL. 
• VI Playtime-Janet served as a resource person at the Open Playtime at VI on June 23rd. 
• Julie conducted another basket weaving program at VI.  She also is giving basket weaving instructions to MSL and some DN staff at noon on Fridays. 
• Susan attended the Adult Programmers’ meeting on July 9th. 
• Staff Recognition:  MSL staff had a pizza/game party for the staff recognition on June 20th.  Fun and full bellies were experienced by all. 

Administration Update -  Karen Marriott 

• Nicoma Park:  Donna announced that the city of Nicoma Park has offered the use of the entire building currently housing the NP Library.  Right now, the plans are to use the additional, larger space for programming.  There are no plans to move the library into this area due to the fact that the area will need shoring up to accommodate the extra weight of the library materials. 
• Luther:  Donna also announced that Luther town council voted to help purchase a building for the Luther Library.  They hope to be able to move into the new space by the end of 2003.   
• Choctaw:  Construction on the new Choctaw library is scheduled for completion in September.  The grand opening is planned for November. 
• Public Services Council:  Karen presented the Public Services Council with some new issues, including reserves, foreign language collections, DVD’s, GPO depository status, and electronic access of GPO documents. The next PS Council is scheduled for August 19th.  Let Karen know of any questions or issues she should take to the group. 
• GPO electronic access:  Karen mentioned that there are new regulations coming at that require us to provide access to government documents either on our catalog or on the library’s webpage.  She understands that the capability to provide links on our catalog is already available.  She will arrange a meeting with Jimmy and Pauline to discuss. 
• Friends Grant:  Donna announced that Friends have approved two grants Karen applied for.  We will receive $4000 for special DN bindery and $10000 for materials.  Heidi will check with the bindery company to see if they can handle the additional bindery soon.  Pauline will send Karen an updated count of genealogy/OK materials waiting in Cataloging for binding. 
• DVDs:  Karen indicated that the Public Services Council will look at this format and its impact on staff.  She said they have discussed the possibility of using the addition of this service as leverage with the millage increase we are seeking in the future. 
• Videos for DN:   Karen has purchased some videos for the DNLLC.  She wants to have them stored until the new building opens.  Most of the titles are already in system.  Pauline will send Karen checklist to be used to determine if videos fit bib records currently in the catalog.  If there are differences with the videos, Karen can separate them from the rest, so it will be easier for Cataloging staff to work with them.  Pauline said that the best time for Cataloging to work the videos is around the Christmas holidays. 
• Meetings:  Karen will be attending Cataloging’s staff meeting next week.  She is also scheduled to attend an Endowment meeting this month.   
• Library Night at the Ballpark:  The library night at the Ballpark is August 7th.  Tickets are still available. 

New Dewey Changes - Pauline Rodriguez 

• Pauline attended an ALA preconference on the changes to the Dewey Decimal Classification.  She presented a report of the changes, along with her recommendations regarding areas to be reclassified, to the managers. She recommends starting reclassification with materials dealing with spreadsheets, word processing and business writing.  The next area would be the changes in the comparative religion section.   
• Pauline asked Janet to send a copy of the grand totals from the new Collection Analysis.  This should help her with deciding which areas to recall. 
• Pauline plans to attend the August or September library managers’ meeting to discuss the changes, depending upon when the new edition volumes are received.  She will also check with the managers to see if there is a need for libraries to keep the old editions.  Cataloging keeps all one copy of each old edition, with system-specific notes in it. 

Miscellaneous - All 

• Pauline reported that many library staff members have difficulty in performing inventory control functions effectively.  This causes problems for Cataloging and Tech Processing, who must do the inventory control before they can perform their own functions.  She will take a proposal Clyde worked on to Helen in Planning to see if it can be incorporated into staff training.
• Pauline has updated information for routing that can be added to the Intranet.  She will forward the information to Traci in Planning. 
• Heidi asked Karen when the new GUI systems for TP and CAT will be completed.  Karen indicated that she did not think it would be this year, as Jimmy would be involved with the new DNLLC and getting the new computer system and phone system set up. 
• Pauline would like to ask Mary Grace to come back temporarily to help out with the backlog of HRC gifts, if arrangements can be made for an additional computer in Cataloging for her to use. 
• Because of storage space problems, Heidi and Pauline request that Transfers and Gifts from DN be stored in the basement, until they can free up some space.