Materials Services Division Managers' Meeting Minutes for May 18, 2006

Materials Services Division

Managers' Meeting Minutes

May 18, 2006

Capitol Hill Library

9:00 a.m.

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

Cataloging Update - Pauline

Ursula’s surgery on May 15 was a success. She expects to be off for 4-6 weeks. Per HIPAA guidelines, Pauline has written permission from Ursula to provide updates on her condition to friends and co-workers. Currently, Pauline is receiving depository shipments; Clyde has taken over continuations; and Aaron is assisting with cataloging in Clyde’s assigned areas.

Label counts have continued to be high. As of the end of April, the number of labels printed is already 3% higher than the number printed through May in the last two fiscal years. It is only 6% behind the highest ever total for a complete fiscal year.

Because of the high label counts, Pauline has ordered an additional 50,000 blank labels. She plans to order 200,000 more after the start of the new fiscal year.

Pauline taught part of the Collection Management workshop on April 19. She was impressed by some of the questions.

Ruby and Susan visited Cataloging on April 27. They visited with Pauline and Ursula about depository and purchased documents. Both sides felt that they gained a great deal of information.

Several members of the Pioneer Library System technical services group visited on May 5. They spent time with Catalogers and Cataloging Technicians, asking questions and comparing notes. They were particularly impressed by the barcode printing system. Cataloging staff report that they were pleased by the interest and the good questions asked.

After Kim in MSL suggested that the location code SUP be replaced, Pauline added a request to replace other codes that are no longer valid. Karen supported the request, and Jimmy has implemented the new codes. Pauline sent a list of new codes to the managers, Cataloging staff, and MSL staff. She also notified Planning to update manuals.

Pauline attended the Amigos annual member conference on May 10 and 11. She gained a lot of relevant information regarding cataloging and ILL. Among the highlights:

• Price quotes for FY07 will be sent this week. A major change in the pricing structure is that credits given for original cataloging, holdings deletion, and ILL lending will not be included in the estimate for the price quote. Credits will be given for actual activity on a monthly basis. This change should benefit MLS, given our increased original cataloging activity.
• Connexion version 1.60 is due out in June, and will require Net 2.0 OCLC numbers will increase from 8 digits to 9; and 13-digit ISBNs will become standard. Pauline has informed Jim Welch of all this, and will keep him updated on implementation dates.
• In July, the Resource Sharing system should allow marking of records to be printed, and an option to print a summary page. Pauline has informed Pamela of this.
• So far, libraries using RFID for self-check have not be able to allow customers to check out a stack of books at one time; customers must still place each book on the reader separately.
• B&T is planning to put OCLC numbers in its catalogs. Pauline would like to explore a way to utilize this with MSL.

Pauline and Ursula developed a new process for making depository vertical file materials more easily accessible. They created a list of subject topics; any vertical file material sent to DN will have a label with one of the topics. They have also done away with listing of titles of state depository vertical file materials. Mary Patton and Sharon Bish approved the plan, and it has been implemented.

Karen is doing very well at processing. She has begun training in barcode ordering, so that she can help order while Paula is on vacation later in May.

Meetings and training attended:

• Clyde – Tech Group, April 18
• Jill – OLA SSRT, April 20
• Ursula – Oklahoma Depository Libraries, April 25
• Pauline – OLA Local Arrangements, April 25 and 28
• Karen – Materials Processing workshop, May 3
• Pauline – Rose State LTA advisory, May 4
• Pauline – Read About It taping, May 5
• Pauline – X Change, May 15

Pauline recognized Cataloging staff for their hard work over the past year with “Thank you” bookmarks and mugs filled with candy.

One of the smoke detectors in Cataloging fell off the ceiling the night of May 16. Fortunately, no one was injured and no other equipment damaged. Pauline has contacted Maintenance for repairs.

Pauline plans to be out on AVL November 9 through December 1.

Materials Selection Update - Janet

Library Visits

• Selectors conducted an annual visit to MC and a 6-month visit to VI during April.
• They are doing an annual visit to SO and a 6-month to RE during May.
• They are scheduled to do an annual visit to BE and a 6-month visit to WA during June.

Collection workshop

• The last session of the workshop was held on April 19th. Janet has not seen any feedback on the workshop yet.

Pioneer Acquisitions Department Visit

• Twelve employees from Pioneer Library System’s Acquisitions Department visited MSL on May 5th.
• While the visitors had coffee and muffins, Janet provided them with a brief introduction of the department and statistics. The large group was divided into groups of 3 and spent about 15 minutes with various MSL staff.
• At the end of their visit, Janet gave them a behind the scenes tour of the DN Library.

Extension Weeding

• Janet spent a half day at each of the extension libraries to help them get started with working the shelf management lists.

FY06

• Janet asked selectors to encumber their funds to 100% by the end of May. This should help with the finalization of the budget by June 30th.
• Janet divided out some of the remaining SELFU and assigned selectors’ orders to go out on different weeks. She has more SELFU to distribute the first of June that should finish out the large balance from COs.
• Selectors are to have NW funds encumbered to 100% by May 31st as well.

FY07

• Selectors have not had a chance to meet to see if there is a need to redistribute money between the funds for each library. Janet placed budget worksheets on the shared drive with comments from library visits and library staff and asked selectors to add any comments they need to the worksheets.
• Janet hopes they can set a meeting to discuss FY07 before the end of May.

Staff Recognition

• MSL staff had lunch at the Oklahoma City Art Museum Café for their staff recognition.

Workshops/Meetings

• Kim attended the management workshop on April 18th at Bethany.
• Janet attended the Tech Support meeting on April 18th.
• Janet met with members of the AdTeam to review the proposal to add E-Audio service to the library.
• Kim attended a meeting of the Staff Recognition Committee on April 19th.
• Janet and Elizabeth attended the Summer Reading Training on April 27th.
• Ruby and Susan visited CAT and TP on April 27th.
• Julie attended the YA services meeting on May 3.
• Janet presented the summer reading training to CH staff on May 3rd. Janet presented training to CAT and TP staff on May 18th.
• Ruby was a presenter at the Oklahoma Writers conference on May 5th.
• Janet attended the X-change meeting May 15th.
• Julie and Janet attended the Middle school development workshop on May 16th and are scheduled for the second session on May 23rd.
• Kim is attending the Staff Recognition Dinner committee meeting on May 18th.
• Kim and Susan are attending the Reference USA workshop on May 23rd.
• Reagan is attending the Communication workshop on June 1.

Technical Processing Update - Heidi

So far, the runs in May have been on average 682 labels per day which is a decrease compared to last month’s 814 labels. Technical Processing currently receives an average of 41 boxes of materials a day which is a slight decrease from last month’s average of 42.

• The oldest non-rush materials Technical Processing is currently processing are from the run brought to TP on May 10; there have been five runs since then.
• The bindery status remains uncertain at this time. At the meeting, Karen and Heidi discussed encumbering enough money to cover the cost of the materials still at the bindery and the need to find a new bindery.
• There have been no additional problems with supply orders since late April. At that time it was discovered that several supply orders sent by fax had not been received by the vendor, possibly due to a fax machine problem at the vendor’s. This problem appears to have been fixed.
• MLS’s customer service rep. at Demco offered free exhibition passes to anyone from MLS going to ALA. They can be downloaded from their website at Demco.com; go to their listing for ALA under the What’s New section on their home page. No customer or account number is required to register; the deadline for registration is June 5, 2006.
• Heidi is in frequent communication with Baker & Taylor’s accounting firm CFS to try to resolve some of the old accounting issues dating back to 2004 on some accounts. It seems that as documentation on old invoices and credit memos is once again provided to CFS, the new credit rep. is slowly taking off some of these old items. The next statement to be mailed from Baker & Taylor at the end of May will give a better picture just how successful these efforts will have been.
• Heidi attended the X-Change meeting on May 15 at MC and taped several segments for Read About It’s Kids Korner on May 5.
• Caroline Dulworth from Pioneer Library System and some of her coworkers visited TP on May 5. It was very interesting for the processors in TP to talk to PLS’s processor equivalents and compare notes.
• TP’s Basic Processing Workshop was held on May 3 in CH’s . Six students attended the workshop facilitated by Loretta Frantz with the assistance of Dana Phillips. After the workshop, several attendees took the opportunity to visit the dept. and meet staff.
• During the last heavy rain, the ceiling in TP started leaking again close to the book bins for new purchased materials. TP borrowed a tarp from CH to prevent water damage to these new materials caused by a steady drip from the ceiling. Hopefully, the roof can be fixed soon as previously indicated by Maintenance when they replaced the ceiling tiles warped during the last leak.
• One of the non-skid tiles covering the ramp leading from the dept. into the sorting area has developed several cracks. This caused the wheels of a fully loaded booktruck to get stuck and almost spill its heavy load. Since this poses a hazard to staff safety, Heidi has notified Maintenance so they can replace the cracked tile.

Administrative Update - Karen

Karen reminded Pauline and Heidi about the upcoming Finance Committee meeting on May 31, 2006, 3:00 p.m., at the DN library. The Service Center and the budget are issues on the agenda.

The A&P Committee met to discuss some needed policy updates and a recommendation for a 4% market adjustment instead of 3% as originally proposed, final budget permitting. The merit increase would remain at the 0-3% level as originally proposed. (Refer to Commission packet for details)

Karen mentioned some budget changes. Start date for Cataloging’s additional cataloger position has been moved to April 1, 2007; TP’s part-time MSD tech will be approved starting Oct. 1, 2006.

$3.5 millions has been set aside in account 450 (Capital Projects) for the service center budget. Todd is to give a presentation to the Commission for final approval of the land sale as the parking issue seems to have been resolved with the City.

Karen and Janet discussed the issue with the blinds for the Materials Selection office that have been ordered, but yet to be installed.

The Library signed a contract with the City regarding RE’s remodeling project. Selection of an architect can now proceed.

Karen would like to meet with the Cataloging and Technical Processing managers to discuss future department setups. She plans to schedule this meeting at the next MSD managers’ meeting on June 15.

Karen is working on policy updates to reflect recent changes to the gift procedures like revised receipt forms and changes in how donations are made public. She asked Pauline to look over the procedures and see if any changes need to be made to reflect Cataloging procedures.

There will not be any Friends’ materials grants for the next fiscal year.

Periodicals in microfilm format held at libraries other than DN are being reevaluated due to cost and equipment issues.

Additional stickers for the Family Place collection are on order. Once they arrive, some will be forwarded to both CAT and TP for their use on future orders for this collection.

Karen mentioned that whenever managers create statistical reports that reference circulation gains or losses, or other system figures, they should use statistics from the annual report or end of fiscal year numbers.

Additional projects Karen is working on are the Friends’ grant and programming budget with Dana (OUT); she also attended the Friends’ annual meeting.

Miscellaneous

There were no miscellaneous items.

The meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m. The next meeting is scheduled for June 15, 8:00 a.m., at CH. Pauline will chair.