Department Highlights

Materials Selection

• Since the beginning of the fiscal year a total of 10,479 customer suggestions were received in MSL.  This averages out to 276 suggestions per week.  In the first 2 weeks of March nearly 600 suggestions were received.
• Since the beginning of the fiscal year, 22,889 titles and 154,717 items were selected and ordered for the system.  This averages out to 636 titles and 4300 items per week.
• Since the beginning of July, a total of 620 boxes of withdrawals and gifts were received in MSL.  332 boxes were sent to the booksale, 132 boxes of transfers and 18 boxes of gifts were sent to CAT.

Cataloging

• 2,722 new titles were cataloged during February, including 1,137 e-media titles.
• 15,318 barcode labels were printed in February; 13,742 for new materials and 1,576 for reprocessed materials.
• 1,598  titles new to the collection were received in Cataloging during February.
• In February, titles with more reserves waiting than copies purchased at the time of receipt were routed out of Cataloging to Technical Processing within one working day of receipt into Cataloging.
• Titles new to the collection were routed from Cataloging to Technical Processing within 1.17 working days of receipt into Cataloging during February.
• Average ratio of copies to titles was 3.9 copies per title for February.
• Cataloging Technicians have completed printing barcode labels for all transferred materials received from Materials Selection.

Interlibrary Loan

• 992 requests to borrow materials through ILL for MLS customers were received in February.
• 759 materials borrowed through ILL were received and routed to libraries in February.  Materials are not always received during the same month that a request is placed.  During February, 283 of the materials received (37%) were requested in January.  In January, 922 requests were received and a total of 764 of the requested materials were borrowed, for a fill rate of 83%.
• In February, requests to borrow materials for MLS customers were submitted to libraries an average of 1.84 working days after the requests were received in ILL.
• Staff in ILL evaluated 1,662 requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries in February.  976 materials were lent; of these, 858 were requested in February; average fill rate was 52%.
• In January, MLS materials lent to other libraries were returned to ILL an average of 23.15 working days after shipment. 

Technical Processing

• In Technical Processing, the average daily run for February was 687 items per day, for a total of 13,742 items.  The average for March of 2014 so far is 866 items per day.
• The processors are current on processing all rush and non-rush materials, including continuations.  Since their workload is lighter at this time, processors are also helping to reprocess items transferred from one library location to another. In addition, OUT brought five boxes of newly purchased Come Read With Me items to be covered with book wrappers by the end of April.
• During February, TP received a daily average of 49 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 972 boxes.  The daily average in March so far is 47 boxes.

Materials Selection update – Janet Brooks

Library Visits

• Selectors conducted annual visits to DN during February.
• Selectors conducted annual library visits to ED and HR during March.
• They are scheduled to do visits to MC and NP in April.

Meetings/Workshops

• Janet attended portions of the YA services Retreat on March 5.
• Janet and Lisa are planning to attend portions of the Children’s Services Retreat on April 9th.
• Harding Charter Prep student, Khala Crawford job shadowed in Materials Selection on March 19.

Carpet Installation

• Downtown’s carpet installation is well underway.
• Selectors worked closely with DN staff helping with the weeding project before the carpet is installed on the first and second floors.
• Carpet installation in Materials Selection is scheduled for installation the weekend of March 22-23 and should not impact work activities. 
• Staff had to move materials from files and off of bookshelves prior to the installation, so some files may not be readily accessible until installation is completed.

Technical Processing update – Heidi Johnson

• Baker & Taylor’s and Ingram’s accounts continue to be current. 
• Heidi has finished inputting TP’s supply budget for FY15 (acct.# 303); she is still working on some items for the 408 account.
• Heidi has consulted with Cisco-Eagle about converting Technical Processing’s current supply shelves into compact storage to provide more space for storage of processing supplies. Since TP’s move to the SC four years ago, two new branches have been added. Plus, several new AV formats have been added to MLS’s collection, all needing their own special cases and various accessories. Items added since 2010 include items like Books on CD cases in two sizes, Playaway cases, Playaway View cases, power cord adaptors, two new stickers for the new formats, etc. The planned conversion will almost double TP’s current supply storage capacity.  Susan Poole with Cisco-Eagle is to provide a quote for the associated costs within the next week.
• Khala Crawford, a senior at Harding Charter Prep. and a library volunteer, will tour and job shadow in TP and CAT on Friday afternoon. Earlier in the week, Lynda Bahr brought another library volunteer to TP for a short tour and introduction to Big Bin and the automated sorter.
• Heidi had been scheduled to attend the Safety Committee meeting at CT on March 10th. However, the meeting was rescheduled for the following week at a time Heidi was unable to attend. 
• Kevin Colwell, the SC’s Staff Association rep., is to attend the next SA meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 27, 2:00 p.m., at Midwest City.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan update – Pauline Rodriguez-Atkins

• ILL has been struggling with its Trans-Amigos courier service recently.  The driver who had served our system for a long time left his position, and we do not have a reliable replacement yet.  ILL did not receive service for three days (March 17-19), received multiple packages which had been sent out, but were routed back to MLS instead of on to their destinations, and did not receive all expected packages.  Delivery time has varied, often being very late in the afternoon, causing problems for ILL workflow.  Pauline is working with Amigos to resolve the issues and arrange for service at a fairly consistent time that works with our workflow.
• ILL has added the Kansas Library Express to its Trans-Amigos courier group.  The Kansas courier mostly serves small public and school libraries, so will not have a significant impact on ILL’s bottom line.
• ILL is experiencing major problems with transitioning from FirstSearch to OCLC’s new product, WorldShare ILL.  The product is unresponsive, slow, and does not provide features that ILL has relied upon to in its work processes.  Pauline will continue to try to get answers or ideas from OCLC, as well as working toward designing workarounds for the major problems.
• Pauline, Mary, Clyde, and Paula will serve on the Cataloging implementation team to plan for the transition to TLC.
• Cataloging has received its new order of blank labels for barcodes.  Pauline and the Technicians hope that it will be enough to last until it is determined what kind of labels will be needed after the TLC implementation.
• Responsibilities for government documents duties will be shifted somewhat.  Morris will take over state documents; Jill will continue to handle federal documents.
• Jenny and Clyde will attend OLA on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 1-2; Brandon, Tuesday, April 1; Pauline, Wednesday, April 2.  Pauline will be out of the office March 28-April 2.

The next Materials Services Managers’ meeting is scheduled for April 17, 8:30 AM, at the Service Center.  Janet Brooks will chair.