Technical Services Monthly Report

Nov. 2004

TS-WIDE ACTIVITIES:

To help streamline the TS binding processing and in preparation for LINCPlus implementation, the Technical Services Binding/Marking Task Force recommended that all libraries barcode periodicals before sending them to Preservation for binding. In November both Central and Science libraries joined with the other libraries in doing this. This pre-processing will greatly speed up the entire binding process once LINCPlus is fully operational. LINCPlus training is scheduled for early December.

The library's visitor from Kenya, Paul Mwanzilo, spent a day touring various areas of Technical Services. His zeal was appealing. Zora Breeding gave him a tour of CAT and showed him cataloging on an automated system, including a brief overview of OCLC and the barest fundamentals of MARC. Sue Davis showed him Binding, Marking and Book Repair, and Mary Ellen Wilson, Chris Waldrop, Monica Sanchez, and Angel Bruner showed him some of the work of Order Services. At the end of the day, Roberta Winjum took him to the Annex for a tour by Peg Earheart, and then a whirlwind tour through downtown Nashville.

The Cataloging Task Force is wrapping up its work and writing its report.

Susan Bell and Suzanne Bell met with Lee Ann Lannom and Lara Beth Lehman from Peabody to continue working out best procedures for expediting the TN textbook collection.

PERSONNEL ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS:

The addition of Trent Hanner, our temporary staff person, to the Preservation Team has really made a difference in their productivity. His assistance has also been quite valuable in the midst of changing bindery vendors. Welcome and thanks, Trent!

Mary Charles Lasater conducted two days of NACO training for the University of Tenn. and ETSU catalogers in Knoxville.

Sue Davis and Charlotte Lew held another edition of the Introduction to Preservation Concepts workshop on November 18. While the attendance is usually small, the discussions are always lively.

Yuh-Fen Benda, Bryan Kurowski and Jeff Taylor took a tour of the Annex.

Roberta Winjum attended a SPARC meeting on “Institutional Repositories: The Next Stage” in Washington, DC. While there, she presented a poster on “Developing IR Policies with Faculty Input”.

A few staff were able to attend the first two LITS candidate presentations and a few attended Leslie Reynolds farewell party.

Roberta Winjum attended the SLA's Southern Appalachian Chapter program on "Libraries in the Age of 'Amazoogle:' Scanning the Information Landscape".

Ann Ercelawn is expected back half time beginning in Dec.

CATALOGING AND AUTHORITIES:

New material arrived at a steady pace.

Marcive began to supply series authority records and Becky Atack, Mary Charles Lasater, Yuh-Fen Benda, Ann Barnette and Zora Breeding, with email input from Ann Ercelawn, have been working out the myriad of details that this new processing involves. Many thanks to Becky and Mary Charles for their efforts. We think we have most of the kinks worked out.

A large new shipment of VU theses arrived and was processed by Jeff Taylor, Mary Charles and Ann Barnette.

Work continues on Wachs. A few old Peabody theses were processed.

Jeff finished cataloging the large number of Loebs Classical Library books that had accumulated. These are always problematic to catalog and necessitate associated clean-up.

Copy catalogers have been seeing an influx of children's literature in Spanish, prompting Ann Barnette and Yuh-Fen to initiate discussions with Peabody about the best treatment for this material.

Jean Wright completed conversion of the last of the large State Department monographic series. She plans to start a review of other State Department material needing conversion and also to work with some problem series from other agencies.

Statistics:

TS totals: 2414 new titles cataloged.

CAT totals: 1295 new titles cataloged, 183 of which were original contributions or national level enhancements to the OCLC database and 828 were modified locally.

We recataloged an additional 200 titles and reconned 9 titles.

Marcive delivered around 8955 new or modified authority records (including series)

961 name, 676 subject and 170 series headings were changed on Acorn bibliographic records (not part of new cataloging activity).

112 authority records deleted.

Copy Cataloging:

The Start Here flag rests near materials received here on 11/4.

ORDER SERVICES:

Ordering and receiving has been holding steady this month. Shipments of approvals from Blackwell's have returned to normal numbers.

OS continues to work on Wachs materials and the Peabody Theses project.

The Swets renewal invoice has now been fully paid, and the Ebsco renewal invoice is in the process of being sent to us.

John Laraway from Blackwell's visited early in the month, and met with OS staff, and with Mary Beth to discuss some modifications to the Central profile.

OS also gave a brief tour and overview to Mary Beth and Amy Stewart-Mailhiot.

On the last Thursday before Thanksgiving, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving luncheon before taking off the next week for even more turkey and trimmings...

Statistics:

Received and processed

3412 serials and periodicals

1075 approvals

131 SSO's, and 254 gifts added to Acorn

957 new orders placed, including a number of items for Divinity Reserve, and

834 titles speed cataloged

PRESERVATION:

Sue Davis called Heckman Bindery on November 1 to inform them that we were officially canceling our contract. The response was surprisingly low-key, although a return phone call about two weeks later included an exit interview survey. The exit process itself reminded us again why we decided to leave Heckman Bindery.

Our first shipment was sent to Mid Atlantic Bookbindery, our new binding vendor. We are still wrapping up loose ends with Heckman Bindery, including receiving the last few volumes and processing the remaining invoices. Some team members have devoted many hours to planning the transition. MAB has been very responsive and helpful to our planning, including multiple onsite visits.

As part of the environmental monitoring instrument inventory, Sue visited the Annex and recalibrated a couple of old thermohygrographs as well as uploaded the latest PEM data. She also gathered up a couple unused thermohygrographs from there and Special Collections, and began testing them to see if they were still working. The results indicate some instruments have worn out.

Binding:

567 monographs

3 rebinds

414 periodicals

132 serials

1116 volumes total

Machelle Keen sorted 606 new paperback monographs and sent 246 (41%) for

immediate binding.

Sheranda Lee updated 131 Acorn records as a result of binding.

Marking:

4007 items labeled, including

229 RUSH items

163 Level 2 items

131 additional items not caught by the automated report

With Trent Hanner's help, we have whittled down the marking backlog to just a few days.

Repair:

391 items were treated with 456 repairs.

Much of the count comes from a substantial wrapper box order for Central, but items from

Divinity, Peabody, Law, Music, Science, and Special Collections were also treated.

The backlog is down to just under 800, and about 1/2 of that count belongs to the Wachs collection waiting for wrapper boxes. Most of that collection has already been partially processed.