Technical Services Monthly Report

Feb. 2005

DIVISION-WIDE ACTIVITIES:

The Cataloging Workflow Task Force met with the TechForce to review their final report. The recommendations and TechForce comments will now go to all TS staff for comments.

Monica Sanchez, Chris Waldrop, and Mary Ellen Wilson participated (with LITS) in a "webinar" along with other libraries to discuss beta-testing the Acquisitions Module of Sirsi's Java client, and subsequently conducted tests. Testing paused for the Sirsi SuperConference, but will continue shortly. Using the Java client will be quite a change for staff, and will require some training.

TS work with the Wachs Collection is progressing well. Don Jones has reviewed more of the Wachs books that are destined for the regular collection and Order Services is working on them. Jeff Taylor is finishing the medium-rare Wachs books. Meanwhile, Preservation is nearing the completion of the Wachs boxing project, although some of the regular collection materials will still require preservation treatment.

PERSONNEL ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS:

Mary Ellen Wilson and Mary Charles Lasater attended the Sirsi SuperConference at the Opryland Hotel. While there, Mary Ellen moderated the Acquisitions Module Sharing Session and Mary Charles gave a presentation on authority work.

Bryan Kurowski worked with CAT through the second week of February before moving on to his new position with Central Collection Development. Good Luck, Bryan!

Trent Hanner was hired for a reference librarian job in Anderson, SC. We wish him the best!

Machelle Keen suffered severe back injuries in a fall, necessitating a multi-week absence.

The LAIII vacancy in CAT is available and we are seeking a permanent replacement. Preservation is seeking to fill the LAII position vacated by Trent with another temporary hire.

A TS-wide pizza lunch celebrated the switch to the new bindery and 10 years of NACO participation.

TS supervisors attended Lisa Shipman's evaluation training session. Zora Breeding, as a member of the PERC committee, reviewed the session at the final PERC meeting.

Some attended the Library-sponsored presentation by Malcolm Getz on the topic of open access.

Don Jones attended the lecture by visiting scholar Dr. Mary Ann Caws, who spoke on "Surrealism Still?" He also enjoyed the reception in Special Collections celebrating the opening of a Pascal Pia Collection exhibition.

Many TS staff attended the brown bag on the implications of Google Worldcat access to our collections.

CATALOGING AND AUTHORITIES:

Zora Breeding worked on updating OCLC logon authorizations in preparation for the switch to OCLC's Connexion client and finalizing the arrangements for the Connexion training on March 29. As of May 1, our many years of working with OCLC's Passport software will come to an end and all cataloging staff here and around the country will use the new Connexion software. Team members are starting to have the software installed and experimenting with using it.

Many Government Information titles are coming through. A programming quirk had these charged for only two weeks, generating many overdue notices on them before we got the problem fixed. Work continued on the Peabody theses projects. Pete Wilson cataloged more of the "medium rare" transfers from Peabody to Special Collections. Pete and Zora Breeding cataloged several boxes of Inventory books.

Mary Charles Lasater worked out a solution to the problem of only the non-circulating Special Collections copy of the Peabody Ed.D.'s appearing in Acorn. Susan Bell taught Peabody's Stephanie Fuson how to create the circulating copy as an added copy.

Regarding the Tennessee Textbook Collection, Susan Bell and Lara Beth Lehman report that the materials in Lara Beth's office are almost finished. Metro should soon choose which Math text will be used, and then processing can begin on the materials that are currently in the basement, making way for the new textbooks for 2006 to arrive in June. According to Lara Beth, processing is on schedule, if not a bit ahead.

Statistics:

2362 new titles cataloged in Tech Services

CAT totals: 1533 new titles cataloged, 233 of which were original contributions or national level enhancements to the OCLC database and 918 were modified locally

173 titles recataloged and 9 titles reconned

823 items withdrawn, 10 reinstated and 20 transferred

4869 new or modified authority records delivered from Marcive.

751 name, 533 subject and 111 series headings changed on Acorn bibliographic records (not part of new cataloging activity)

135 authority records deleted

ORDER SERVICES:

Serials receivers have been working on a project to change funds for a large number of Peabody journals. Debbie Williams has taken over some of the processing of serial claiming while Linda Hand handles many of the rush/Procurement Card orders.

Mary Ellen Wilson and Monica Sanchez met with Dennis Clark and Catherine Gick to discuss procedures for their receipt (and the loading of) PromptCat records for materials that they have ordered from MLSC.

Kathy Brannon from Swets stopped by to touch base with us in the middle of the month.

Statistics:

3111 serials and periodicals, and 814 approvals received and processed, both of which are average monthly numbers for this year.

98 SSO's and 349 gifts added to Acorn

955 requests received

1075 new orders created (including some orders for library direct purchases, explaining the larger number of orders than requests)

831 titles speed cataloged upon receipt

Firm order receiving remains at about the monthly average for the year

PRESERVATION:

Binding:

463 monographs

7 rebinds

526 periodicals

135 serials

1131 volumes total

592 new paperbacks sorted; 392 selected for immediate binding (41%).

20 monographs rebarcoded in preparation for binding

555 Acorn records updated as a result of binding.

Because of Machelle Keen's absence a few monographs were delayed to the bindery, but all periodicals (except for a few problems) were processed on time. LINCPlus had a day or two of hiccups, but is now fixed and functioning once again.

In response to our request MAB will add two additional larger pamphlet binder sizes to their stock. Machelle had earlier discovered that they did not carry sizes large enough to accommodate many music scores. That situation has now been resolved.

Marking:

4740 volumes labeled

192 RUSH items

84 Level 2 items

265 additional items not picked up by the automated report.

RUSH items are labeled 3 times daily and Level 2 items once daily. The regular marking turnaround currently hovers around a week.

Repair:

263 volumes were repaired with 419 treatments.

Much of the total count was part of a large wrapper box shipment for Central, Divinity, and Special Collections materials.

After discussion in Central and OUL a decision was made to withdraw the 8 seriously molded volumes from the 70-volume Voltaire set donated by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt. The restoration estimate given by the Etherington Conservation Center in North Carolina was too steep to contemplate.