RSIG MINUTES 10/20/99

PRESENT: Susan Bell, Nancy Boggess-Korekach, Zora Breeding, Peg Earheart, Sylvia Martin, Monica Sanchez, Mary Ellen Wilson

COMPARATIVE STUDY: Sylvia distributed the final document of the procedure that will be used for the comparative study of shelf-ready approvals. There was some discussion about how to compare the quality of in-house vs. outsourced work. Jeff Taylor receives problematic shelf-ready material. (Zora mentioned that most of what he receives is material for which PromptCat found no LC call no.) Becky Atack receives other material with problems. It would be difficult and time consuming to sort out recently acquired approvals, processed in-house, from other material that is returned to RS for fixes.

COMPARATIVE STUDY/SPREADSHEET: Sylvia has been experimenting with filling in the spreadsheet that has been designed for the comparative study. Using PromptCat reports, edit item screens, and logscans, she entered some data on the sheet. The original plan was to select 10 titles from 4 separate shipments to compare. However, there are not always 10 titles in the designated categories available in any one shipment. Therefore she is drawing titles from various shipments. She is also finding that logscans are not always complete. Many logscans do not show material with a final discharge, making it difficult to determine when the material actually was shelved by the home library. ACTION: Sylvia will continue to refine this process while compiling data.

HOLDING CODES: Nancy reported that new holding codes for Government Information and for Divinity have been established. The new Div codes are for non-book material. ACTION: Nancy will be adding these to the Divinity home page.

COPY CATALOGING: Zora mentioned that there is very little copy cataloging coming to cataloging from Baker. Mary Ellen mentioned that OS has a backlog of material due to WorkFlows, GOBI orders, and Curriculum Lab processing. Staff who normally do firm orders are helping with the backlog of serials and periodicals. Mary Ellen noted that plans are underway to fill the vacant position in OS. Several options were discussed for alleviating the present crisis. ACTION: OS staff will discontinue speed cataloging while backlog remains. Material for speed cat will be sent to cataloging for copy cataloging.

TOC: Sylvia announced that files of all monographs cataloged by VU processing centers during the past year have been sent to BNA for analysis as to the number of records that contain TOC. The results of this analysis will help libraries approximate the cost of subscribing to BNA's TOC enrichment service.

OFFLINE RETURN: A test file of 286 records of inventory material has been submitted to OCLC development staff for setup and subsequent production. This process will automatically update our records with the TJC holding symbol. If the test is successful, additional records will be sent for updating by batchload.

994 TAG: Sylvia read a message from PromptCat that stated: "All records output/delivered from PromptCat to your institution will contain the 994 tag." This tag is being added to provisional records that PromptCat will never update. ACTION: Staff need to be alerted that a 994 tag on a PromptCat record does not necessarily mean the record has been updated.

951 TAG: As follow-up to a previous agenda item, Nancy reported that if PromptCat adds only "lu" to the 951 tag for statistics, it will be counted as cataloged by "other". Therefore initials need to be added in order to make it recognizable as PromptCat cataloging. ACTION: Sylvia will ask PromptCat to add "lu;pcat" in the 951 tag of their records.

JUJU+O: Sylvia announced that a new sub-account, JUJU+O, has been established by BNA so that shelf-ready material for the Observatory will have OBSV printed on its labels.

YBP: Mary Ellen reported that the regional rep from YBP had visited on Oct. 19. Mary Ellen and the rep visited with Divinity, Education, Management, and Music staff to further refine their approval profiles. Mary Ellen mentioned that whereas both Div and Mngt were considering moving to shelf-ready approval service, both have decided against it. They feel that RS is doing a good job in providing service to them in that area.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT LAB: Susan reported that there had been a lull in receipt of this grant material, but that it is now back up to speed. Becky Atack is helping her with some of the cataloging responsibilities.

NEXT MEETING: Thurs., 11/4, 2:00, Baker. Please note change in meeting day.