Department Highlights

• Since the beginning of the fiscal year through the third week of June, a total of 14470 customer suggestions were received in MSL.  This averages out to 283.73 suggestions per week.  
• Since the beginning of the fiscal year, 31,765 titles and 208,510 items were selected and ordered for the system.  This averages out to about 635 titles and 4170 items per week.
• Since the beginning of July, a total of 810 boxes of withdrawals and gifts were received in MSL.  490 boxes were sent to the booksale, 169 boxes of transfers and 27 boxes of gifts were sent to CAT.
• OCLC’s FirstSearch Resource Sharing (ILL) service is scheduled to be discontinued as of Monday, May 19.  ONLY the Resource Sharing service is being discontinued; the FirstSearch database is not.  Library staff and customers will continue to have access and be able to use FirstSearch to search for materials to be requested through ILL.
• 2,744 new titles were cataloged during May, including 434 e-media titles.
• 20,522 barcode labels were printed in May; 19,107 for new materials and 1,415 for reprocessed materials.
• 2,597 titles new to the collection were received in Cataloging during May.
• In May, 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 6.55 working days of receipt into Cataloging during May.
• Average ratio of copies to titles was 5.09 copies per title for May.
• 981 requests to borrow materials through ILL for MLS customers were received in May.
• 669 materials borrowed through ILL were received and routed to libraries in May.  Materials are not always received during the same month that a request is placed.  During May, 199 of the materials received (30%) were requested in April.  In April, 903 requests were received and a total of 686 of the requested materials were borrowed, for a fill rate of 76%.
• In May, requests to borrow materials for MLS customers were submitted to libraries an average of 1.48 working days after the requests were received in ILL.
• Staff in ILL evaluated 1,584 requests to lend MLS materials to other libraries in May.  959 materials were lent; of these, 864 were requested in May; average fill rate was 50%.
• In April, MLS materials lent to other libraries were returned to ILL an average of 24.28 working days after shipment.  
• In Technical Processing, the average daily run for May was 910 items per day, for a total of 19,108 items. The average for June of 2014 so far is 700 items per day. The processors are current on processing all rush materials and are processing non-rush materials from the run 8 days ago. Study guides and dated materials like continuations are also current.
• During May, TP received a daily average of 45 boxes of materials a day, for a total of 938 boxes.  The daily average in June so far is 47 boxes.  

Materials Selection Update

Library Visits

• During May, Selectors conducted annual library visits to SO and LU.
• During June, visits to AL and BE were made.
• During July. Selectors are scheduled to visit CH and NW

Staffing in MSL

• Since Kim’s departure from MSL, all staff are assisting with activities Kim normally was responsible for.  Janet has been working old purchase orders and monitoring customer suggestions.  Each of the techs have added responsibilities of doing phone orders and checking lists.  
• Janet, Susan and Melissa conducted interviews for the MSL Assistant position.  Kristine Charter was selected and begins her duties in this position on June 23.  Janet would like Kristine to job shadow in TP and CAT when time allows.
• Lessa Keller-Kenton’s last day was June 13th.
• Over 55 people applied for the MSL Technician position, replacing Kristine.  Janet reviewed applications and Elizabeth/HUM is arranging assessment tests for about 11 applicants.  Janet hopes to have about 5 applicants to interview during the first week of July.
• The part-time MSL Tech position will remain vacant until after the ILS launch and we have an opportunity to see what the ILS does to workflow.

Staff Meetings/Workshops

• Melissa attended ILS OPAC Design meetings on 5/20 and 5/27.
• Janet met with Rachel/NW on 5/20 to review collection management processes.
• Lisa attended the Staff Association meeting on 5/22 and is scheduled to attend the meeting on 6/26.
• Janet attended the ILS Acquisitions Design meeting on 6/4.
• Kristine had Jury Duty on 6/9.  
• MSL Staff had lunch at the Art Museum Café on 6/13.  This was a combination staff recognition and going away celebration for Lessa.
• Janet and Melissa met with the Freegal Rep on 6/16.
• Ruby attended a United Way meeting on 6/18.

Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan update

On June 16, Pauline was notified that approximately 10,000 records in the MLS catalog database (roughly 4% of all records) contained duplicated OCLC numbers.  The duplicated numbers were required to be corrected before the records could be converted for TLC.  Thanks to heroic efforts by the Cataloging Technicians, Jill, Margo, Morris, and Paula, the duplicate numbers were corrected by the end of the day on June 20.

As planned, the ILL department transitioned to using OCLC’s new WorldShare ILL application on May 19.  There have been some hiccups with the process, but service has been maintained, as evidenced by the department’s statistics.  The ILL Technicians, Aaron, Alex, Brandon, and Paige, have adapted well and managed the change effectively.

Karin Daugherty, the group’s Materials Services Technician, resigned her position effective June 9.  Everyone is sorry to see her go.  The ILL Technicians met on June 3, and the Cataloging Technicians on June 11, to discuss ways to absorb her functions.  Pauline will open the position at a later date.
Pauline, Mary, and Paula attended an item maintenance design session with TLC on May 16;  Pauline attended a follow up session on June 4.  Pauline and Aaron attended an ILL session on June 5.

Pauline has completed revision of the system’s CarlX index profile, identifying the MARC fields to be indexed in various types of catalog searches; and the display format rules, establishing criteria for searching shortcuts in the staff catalog.

After having improved for a short time, ILL’s service through the Trans-Amigos courier service has deteriorated recently.  During the week of June 16, deliveries were received late in the day, after 4:00 PM, or not at all.  Pauline has been in contact with Amigos and is working to resolve the problem.

Cataloging and Interlibrary Loan staff were recognized on May 28 at the CATskILLs Know-lympics medal ceremonies.  Among the gold medals presented were the MARC Moguls, Borrowing Biathalon, and CO Slalom.  Thanks to Stacy Schrank for serving as master of ceremonies after Bob Costas bowed out due to unexplained issues.
Pauline will be out June 23-July 4 for vacation and to attend ALA.  Both departments will be fully staffed and available to answer questions and provide assistance.

Technical Processing update

• All Baker & Taylor and Ingram accounts continue to be current.  
• The sorter has been fixed. All lights are now functioning properly.  
• TP had a staff meeting on June 3; one of the issues discussed was the annual Staff Appreciation. Staff decided to once again have a luncheon on June 10, food provided by MLS and Alfredo’s Mexican Café. Everyone appeared to enjoy the event and the food.
• TP has stocked up on enough processing supplies to last until the final budget will be approved. The one exception may be DVD cases, depending on how many new DVDs are received and need to be processed during that time period.
• Amigos representative Lynne Craddick toured TP and the sorter room on June 17. She said she was very impressed with MLS’s workflow and set-up at the Service Center.
• Alan was awarded his 20 year service certificate in June. Since he was on vacation, he did not attend the Commission meeting for the presentation of his certificate.
• After Alan’s return from vacation, Cara will be on AVL for a few days. Katie also will be on vacation for a week in June.
• The second Acquisitions design meeting scheduled for May 23rd was rescheduled by TLC for June 4. Both Heidi and Kristin attended.
• All staff in TP has completed their 2nd quarter safety training.
• Kevin Colwell, the SC’s Staff Association rep., is scheduled to attend the next SA meeting on Thursday, June 26, 2:00 p.m., at RE.