Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for May 26, 2005

May 26, 2005

8:00 A.M. 

Capitol Hill Library

Present:  Karen Marriott, Janet Brooks, Heidi Johnson, Pauline Boyer Rodriguez

Technical Processing update – Heidi 

• The runs have been on average 687 labels per day.  Receipt of materials has remained steady since the last MSD meeting at an average of 41 boxes ofmaterials a day.  
• Heidi is back from vacation and trying to catch up on mail, e-mails, and two appraisals due shortly.   Staff in TP carried on very well in her absence and is to be commended.  Thanks also to Pauline, Janet, and Karen for helping out as needed, as well as to staff in Cataloging and Materials Selection for giving a helping hand.   
• Heidi has received notification from B&T’s accounting dept. that some of the problem credits still listed on MLS’s accounts have now been properly applied and should no longer be listed on next month’s (June’s)  statements.  Heidi is hopeful about the situation, but reserves jubilation until these statements have actually been received.
• Jim Welch has installed a trial version of the new GUI receiving system in Technical Processing.  Some minor problems are currently being worked out, but overall it will be a very helpful update to the receiving process.  All orders placed on a purchase order can be accessed at once, without separate order numbers having to be entered.  This will speed up the receiving of materials enormously, and the entering of invoices takes  almost care of itself, making the whole process more efficient.  Also, partial receipt of an order will be much easier, since receiving and backordering/canceling of orders is now possible on the same screen, not on two separate screens as before, again speeding up the process.  Thank you, Jimmy!    
• The big holes in the back parking lot and at the entrance to the Capitol Hill Library have been fixed.  It is wonderful to be able to walk across the parking lot without having to watch out for holes.  And the walkway in front of the library is now much safer for customers to use, too.

Materials Selection update – Janet 

• Library Visits- 
• During April selectors completed an annual visit to BI and the Ext. and a 6-month visit to BE.
• During May, Selectors are making an annual visit to WA and 6-month visits to CT and VI.   
• In June they will be doing annual visits to CH and DC and a 6-month review of ED.
• Materials Collection and Maintenance Workshop- 
• Reviews for the workshop have been very favorable.
• MSD Tech- 
• Janet, Pamela and Kim conducted interviews for the MSD Tech position on May 16 and 17.  Kelly Wolf  begins in MSL on May 31.  The first week, she will work in MSL, second week in ILL and then begin a split schedule between the two departments.  Janet hopes to schedule her in TP and CAT sometime in July. 
• Christina continues to do double duty, working on MSL Tech assignments and still helping out in ILL.  Hopefully, with Margaret and Laqueta helping out in ILL this week, Christina can finally get settled in with MSL routines.
• DVDs- 
• Selectors are starting to input orders for DVDs now.   
• Janet asked selectors to submit 1/3 of the funds in an initial order and then equally divide the remaining amount over the next 5 weeks.
• MSL Staff Recognition-
• MSL Staff Recognition party is scheduled for June 29 from 11:30-2:00.  Staff will be having pizza and games in the MSL basement area.   
• Staff can be reached for emergencies at the basement extension 3816.
• Meetings/Workshops Attended- 
• Janet participated in United Way Allocations Committee Site visits on April 28 and a committee meeting on May 4.  She should be completed with work for this committee until next year. 
• Ruby attended a customer service workshop on April 29. 
• Julie attended the YA Programmers meeting on May 4. 
• Ruby attended the Staff Recognition committee meeting on May 4.
• Janet attended the ODL workshop “Making Family Connections” on May 10.  She had hoped to be able to get some titles to purchase that might support a family literacy program.  She wound up volunteering to work with LaVetta on developing lists of titles library staff could use.
• Ruby attended the Adult programmers meeting on May 11. 
• Janet attended a Sequoyah YA committee meeting on May 13.  She has one more meeting on June 10. 
• Janet attended the X-change meeting on May 16.

Cataloging update – Pauline 

• There have been major problems with the labels for barcodes of late.  Pauline had ordered a new supply of blank labels, using the part number supplied by the vendor for the last order.  When the labels were received, the part number was the same, but the labels are not.  There are no perforations between the labels on the rolls in the new batch.  This causes serious problems for both Cataloging and Tech.  Pauline has ordered a new box of labels with perforations specified; 4 of the 5 boxes received in the most recent order have been returned to the vendor, which will try to add perforations.  Unfortunately, staff will have to live with the unperforated labels until the new shipment arrives.
• Margaret and Laqueta have been real troopers during the month of May!  Both have worked a number of extra hours to assist with processing new materials for Tech.  During the week of May 23, they have taken turns going Materials Services Division Managers’ Meeting 2  May 26, 2005to assist in ILL until the new MSD Tech is able to start at DN.  Their work has helped all MSD departments to avoid backlogs and provide excellent customer service.
• Pauline worked at ILL several days during May and June, to assist with the transition from OCLC Passport for ILL to OCLC FirstSearch Resource Sharing.  The Passport product was discontinued on May 9.  ILL staff are now using the new product, and are reasonably comfortable with it.  Pauline continues to check in with them, and to help with addressing problems.
• Beth’s last day as Cataloging intern was May 9.  She will be missed. 
• Meetings/workshops attended: 
• Clyde – Tech Support Group, April 26 
• Jana – Adolescent Development workshop, April 28-May 19 
• Ursula – MetroDocs meeting, May 12 
• Pauline – X-Change, May 16 
• Jill – SSRT, May 19 
• Pauline – OLA Program Committee, May 20 
• Pauline – Amigos Membership Conference, May 4 and 5.  She collected valuable information about OCLC’s new ILL and cataloging products.  ILL and Cataloging have both completed migration from OCLC Passport to the new products.
• Pauline – Oklahoma Union List of Serials annual meeting on May 6.  The membership voted to suspend dues for the upcoming fiscal year, and to work on organizing training for OCLC’s new union list product when it becomes available.  There was also discussion of merging OKULS with SIGALO, the Serials Interest Group of Academic Libraries of Oklahoma.  Since SIGALO has decided not to limit its membership to academic libraries any longer, Pauline has arranged for MLS to join.  This should increase the system’s access to serials training.
• MaryGrace worked the week of May 16.  Pauline is working to arrange to have her come in periodically over the next few months, as catalogers go on vacation.
• Pauline was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a focus group at the OU SLIS on May 20.  The group discussed ideas for outside professionals to provide input regarding all the degrees offered, including curriculum, future employment options, professional involvement, etc.
• Pauline taught two sections of the Collection Management and Maintenance workshop on May 11 and 18.  It was the first time she had taught the catalog searching section; she observed several areas that need to be tweaked.  She will work on completing that before the next offering of the workshop.
• Gary Phillips and Clif Broadworth visited on behalf of the Oklahoma Documents Clearinghouse on May 25.  Since this was Gary’s first visit as coordinator, he visited both the Cataloging and DN locations.
• Exchange lists will no longer be required for state depository materials; they may be discarded after their retention period. 
• State depository materials with .1 and .2 OKDoc numbers may be added or not at the discretion of the library.
• Karen attended Cataloging’s staff meeting on May 24.  She discussed the two major issues interesting staff at this point: “the book” and “the building”.  At the meeting, Pauline expressed her appreciation to staff for their accomplishments and hard work during the last year. She presented each staff member with a “Whatever It Takes” lapel pin, to symbolize Cataloging’s commitment to doing whatever it takes to provide good customer service.  She also presented each with a “TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More” stationery set, in recognition of the fact that everything that the department has achieved is due to working as a team. 
• Pauline has contacted several libraries in the Dallas area, as well as the Harris County Public Library in Houston, to find out about their technical services operations.  Most are not similar to MLS; Dallas County Community College resembles MLS most.  Plans are under way to visit that library, and possibly others.

Administration update – Karen 

• Friends Grants 
• No grants are being requested for bindery or materials.
• The Ad Team is recommending $198,000 in grants over a period of three years, to go toward the new technical services building.
• Recommendations will go to the Friends soon.
• Additional information is available in the Ad Team minutes.
• Building update
• Oklahoma City Northeast presented MLS with a price for the property next to the current Maintenance building.  The average price of property in the area is about $0.75 per square foot; the price offered was around $4.88 per square foot.
• Karen stated that this does not mean that the building project will not go on.  Everyone knows that Cataloging and Tech Processing cannot remain in their current locations.
• MLS will now move on to plan B, looking for another appropriate building site or building for renovation.
• Karen attended the recent Library Managers’ meeting and distributed the administrative guidelines for feature films and DVDs. 
• The wireless policy has been approved and will be implemented in summer 2005. 

Standards for cataloging continuations

• Pauline explained that Cataloging has received several requests to catalog supplemental issues of annually published continuations.  In the past, Cataloging’s standard has been to catalog only cumulated editions, not supplements, since supplements are superseded by cumulations.  She asked if Karen and/or Janet had received requests to change this standard; and if any of the Managers felt that it should be changed. It was agreed to continue cataloging only annual cumulations.  If requests to catalog supplements are received, Pauline will contact the library and/or librarian, and explain.  Pauline will make sure that Josh is aware of titles for which supplements are not to be cataloged. 

Miscellaneous

• There was no miscellaneous business.
• The next meeting will be on June 16, 8:00 A.M., at Capitol Hill.  Heidi will chair.