August 2004
DIVISION-WIDE ACTIVITIES:
August saw
the final wrap up of the Rush Task Force documentation, with the implementation
set for September 1. Mary Ellen Wilson
and Deede Wang, LITS, put the final touches on the TS online purchase request
form, available at:
http://forms.library.vanderbilt.edu/requests/purchaserequest.phtml
Most Cataloging and Authorities team members, as well as staff
from all campus technical processing units, attended a web-based OCLC Connexion
training session. The many
interruptions due to connectivity issues gave all a deeper appreciation for
live training workshops. A couple of
CAT team members were motivated to begin using the new software with mixed
success.
Note: OCLC has announced May 1st of 2005 as the final cut off date
for Passport, and July 1st as the cut off date for CatME.
Karen Pillow, Machelle Keen, Roberta
Winjum, and Sue Davis met to discuss choosing our future library bindery. Sue had put together a preliminary list of
pros and cons. The list led the group
to a unanimous decision that we will need to discuss with both vendors before
publicizing.
The Binding and Marking Task Force submitted their report to
TechForce. On Sept. 1 they meet with TechForce to review the recommendations.
Binding and Marking Task Force members include: Michael Scott, chair, Karen
Pillow, Linda Davis, Debbie Williams, and Machelle Keen.
PERSONNEL ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS:
Don Jones and Jeff Taylor finished cataloging the last of the
special Wachs collection ahead of schedule. Congratulations and thanks! The grand total was 624 titles. Yvonne Boyer has already warned us that
there is a phase two of the project that is waiting in the wings.
Congratulations and thanks, part 2! These
go to Susan Bell, who completed cataloging the Sights/Roller gift collection,
with a few exceptions.
Technical Services hosted new members of
the Walker Management Library staff for orientation tours through the Order
Services, Cataloging and Authorities, and Preservation teams. Pete Wilson also
met with the new Walker librarians to discuss, among other matters, his liaison
responsibilities.
The CAT team threw a surprise celebration for Ann Barnette’s 30
year anniversary with the library. That
is a long time to remain so vital, resourceful and productive!
CATALOGING AND AUTHORITIES:
Summer cataloging workload is showing the effects of the materials
budget cuts of the last couple of years.
New materials have not been as numerous as in previous summers. We have not seen the large microfilm or
other media sets that we were used to seeing at this time of year due to
year-end spending. Fewer new materials
are arriving from OS, but we are seeing many gift materials and have taken the
opportunity to spend time on our many ongoing projects. In addition, we are tackling a large new
shipment of VU theses.
Ann Ercelawn worked on resolving issues with the MARCIt! records
and correcting thresholds in the SFX KnowledgeBase.
Mary Charles Lasater, Yuh-Fen Benda and Jeff Taylor worked on
cataloging more Peabody Ed. D theses.
Mary Charles Lasater began loading the MeSH updated authority
records.
Denise Chavez worked on the authority split files, correcting over
700 headings on bibliographic records.
Linda Davis did an enormous amount of withdrawing, mostly for
Central and Peabody, and continued work on the holdings clean-up and fixing
microfilm bound-withs projects.
Jean Wright completed conversion of a very complicated series for
Government Information. She also took Amy Stewart-Mailhiot on a tour of the
Annex.
Jeff Taylor initiated a review of cataloging issues related to
electronic theses and is in the process of writing up procedures for these
materials.
Ann Ercelawn represented the Web Task Force in a focus group
conducted by University Web Communications as part of this group’s work to
redesign the Vanderbilt home page over the next year.
Statistics:
TS totals: 2888 new titles cataloged.
CAT totals: 1805 new titles cataloged, including 440 original
contributions or national level enhancements to the OCLC database and 985
modified locally
178 titles additional titles recataloged
112 titles reconned
602 titles and an additional 1187 item records withdrawn (wow!).
143,28 new or modified authority records delivered from Marcive.
1190 name, 376 subject, and 80 series headings changed on Acorn
bibliographic records (not part of new cataloging activity)
376 series authority records brought into Acorn
113 authority records deleted
We are still waiting for LITS to extract our series authority
records so that we can send this history file to Marcive in order to be able to
begin getting series authority records as part of our Marcive service.
Copy cataloging:
The "Start here" flag sits near materials received on
8/2.
ORDER
SERVICES:
Ordering in the month of August was very heavy with
rush and reserve orders. Overall receiving has been light, and remains
current. At the end of the month,
Blackwells upgraded their systems, resulting in an unexpected two (rather than
one) weeks of no shipments of approvals or firm orders.
At the
beginning of the month, OS had a training session to prepare everyone for
moving to the Order Wizards in Unicorn (to eliminate the inherent problems of
remaining with the expiring Commands). Monica Sanchez worked with everyone to
help modify toolbars to remove the Order Commands, and replace them with the
appropriate Wizards. Later in the month, Nancy Boggess-Korekach presented a
session for OS on the fine art (and science) of searching using Item Search and
Display (ISAD), to replace the
(probably) expiring Advanced Keyword and Home searches. The team found the presentation extremely
helpful.
Monica
Sanchez, Angel Bruner, and Yan-Xia Zhong started working on the Peabody Thesis
project, but have come across some problems that may require some additional
training from Mary Charles Lasater.
Monica also attended the Connexion Online Training, and believes that
this product looks very promising for Verification.
This
month the serial receivers have worked extremely hard both at the regular
receiving duties and a special project involving the transfer of 146 standing
orders from Ebsco to Franklin Book Company. Because Franklin offers most or all
of the titles transferred at a discount instead of adding a service charge we
expect to see substantial savings.
The Central
cancellations, as well as a handful of cancellations from other divisions,
also took up a large amount of time. It's too soon to say exactly what impact
this will have on serials receiving, but reports indicate that Central cancelled
more than 30% of their active print periodicals.
Statistics:
In the
month of August, OS received and processed:
3408
Serials/Periodicals
868
Approvals
Added to Acorn:
83
SSO's
285
Gifts
702 new
orders placed
980
titles speed cataloged
PRESERVATION:
Statistics for the month of August reflect the hectic nature of
our summer season and the heroic efforts of the team. There are signs that the incoming flow is beginning to slow down,
but the backlogs of summer are still with us.
A large total number of repairs this month is due to a wrapper box order
for the Wachs Collection and a concerted effort by Charlotte Lew and Sue Davis
to make a dent in the large backlog. As
many as possible of the minor repairs were treated.
There are especially high hopes that LINCPlus, a new binding
software offered by SIRSI, will speed up binding processing considerably. At the moment there are some delays with
implementation. Since we know it has
been successfully installed at Rutgers, another SIRSI library, we anticipate
the delays are only temporary.
Sue Davis consulted with a librarian from APSU about preserving a
Dorothy Dix scrapbook. The visit
included a trip to our Special Collections where archives processing questions
were also addressed.
Binding:
882
monographs
78
rebinds
473
periodicals
223
serials
1,656
volumes total
1,193 new Central paperbacks sorted; 481 selected for
immediate binding (40%).
107 monographs rebarcoded
in preparation for binding
409 Acorn records updated as a result of
binding
Marking:
4,224 volumes, including 257 RUSH items
63 miscellaneous additional
items not picked up by our automated report
The team is currently labeling books within a week of receipt.
Repair:
307 volumes repaired with
429 treatments