Technical Services

Annual Report, 2001/2002

Goals for 2001/2002:

The teams of Technical Services include Order Services, Cataloging, Preservation, and Resource Services Maintenance. The mission of Resource Services, of which we are a part, is to expedite and enhance information access for the university community. The following were Technical Services’ goals during 2001/2002:

1. Acquire and process library materials efficiently and cost effectively with a turnaround time acceptable to Division Libraries

2.  Maintain awareness of new products, services, and trends in libraries; evaluate existing services and make changes when warranted

3.  Accurately, clearly describe both electronic and paper library materials in the on-line catalog to maximize user access

4. Effectively preserve digital and paper library materials

5. Explore opportunities for cooperation/partnerships with other libraries or vendors

6. Clearly communicate Technical Services activities among Technical Services teams and library wide.

7.  Involve and develop Technical Services staff within their teams and library-wide

Below are summaries of some of the related innovations, projects, and activities in Technical Services in 2001/2002. This is followed by a list of personnel activities, the Technical Services goals for 2002/2003 and selected statistics for the past year.

Innovations:

Technical Services team leaders and the Coordinator of Technical Services participated in a retreat on August to discuss the future of Technical Services. The retreat recommendations included plans for Technical Services to become more proactive in making proposals for improvements, and the establishment of task forces as a way of investigating common issues across team boundaries. The first of these task forces, the Technical Services Workflow Task Force (TSWFTF) was formed to oversee a review of Technical Services workflow.

A Telecommuting Task Force developed a policy and procedure for allowing RS staff to work from home. To date, one Tech Services staff member is telecommuting some hours. With some modifications, this policy is now an option for other staff library-wide.

We automated subscription invoice payment in Acorn for several vendors, including Ebsco and Swets-Blackwell, and worked with the Biomedical Library on automating their Swets-Blackwell invoice.

In addition to prepaying EBSCO, which gives us a 9/10 percent service charge reduction, we also prepaid Harrassowitz, for a $4375 benefit, and Swets-Blackwell, for a 2.05 percent reduction in our service charge.

We stopped receiving UKM records as part of our PromptCat profile. These brief cataloging records were more of a hindrance than a help to catalogers.

Beginning in December, Marcive began keeping a record of the headings that did not match an authority record and sending us a monthly file of matching authority records that have been distributed in the meantime. 

We experimented with using the CatME software, a first step in the preparations for the switch from OCLC’s Passport to Connexion interface.

In June, the decision was made to purchase Serials Solutions’ MARC records for e-journals in selected aggregator databases.

2,384 additional netLibrary records for the second Solinet shared collection were loaded into Acorn.

We began receiving pre-processed Leisure Reading Collection volumes from Ingram.

Heckman Bindery began adding security strips to volumes they bind for us.

Projects and Activities:

The Authorities Unit met their goal of finishing the Split Headings Report (Error 9 list) that they have been working on since conversion to Sirsi.

Binding and Marking eliminated their backlogs via hard work, assistance from other staff, temporarily or permanently reassigning some tasks, and revising or eliminating procedures.

A Technical Services Web Pages Task Force is tackling the task of making our web documentation more user-friendly and effective. Teams have established their own task forces to update and organize their documentation on the web.

An Inventory Reduction Project task force investigated ways to eliminate the cataloging inventory resulted in the decision to send records to OCLC RetroCon Batch for matching against their files.

A Series Processing Task Force studied series workflow and recommended procedural changes to eliminate redundancies and improve efficiency. These are in the process of being implemented.

A Materials Routing Task Force looked at the flow of materials in and out of the Baker Mailroom and made recommendations for improvements, which were implemented.

The Building Access Task Force made recommendations for improvements to access for Resource Services staff in both the Baker Building and GLB.

The first (and most social) of what are intended to be ongoing meetings of Tech Services as a group, the Technical Services "Hawaiian" event in Oct., was a chance for staff to interact with others across our various teams. A second meeting was held in April to discuss the task force concept.

Music materials sent to Flourish for cataloging outsourcing were completed in October.  The Music Library hired music cataloger, Catherine Gick, and the music cataloging work was transferred back to Music.

We began processing the State of Tennessee school textbooks that the Peabody Library has been chosen to receive.

We began a project in association with the other Information Alliance institutions to catalog some pre-1976 State Department materials

Preservation Team members participated in inspecting, surface cleaning, and boxing items from the historic University of Nashville collection.

Preservation Team members consulted with Special Collections about their photo archives digitizing project and other projects.

The responsibility for stamping microfiche was transferred from Preservation to Library Annex in Oct. An analysis and report from Vanderbilt’s Ergonomic Analyst provided guidelines for planning how to create printed labels for microfiche in the future.

Personnel:

New hires: Patti Skipper, Preservation

Departures: Rich Murray, Laurie Power, and Norma Riddick, Cataloging and Authorities; DeWanda Lee, Preservation

Transfers/Promotions: Becky Atack, LA III to LAIV in Cataloging; Bryan Kurowski, Order Services to Cataloging

Honors: Ibtisam Latif and Debbie Williams, 10 years of service, Ann Ercelawn, Laurie Power, and Monica Sanchez, 15 years, Karen Pillow and Norma Riddick, 25 years, Peggy Earheart, 30 years. Machelle Keen and Denise Chavez received porcelain Acorn awards. 

Other: Laurie Power completed her MLS degree from the University of Tennessee in July. 

Goals for 2002/2003:

1.       Acquiring and Processing: Acquire and process library materials efficiently and cost effectively with a turnaround time acceptable to division libraries. Develop more efficient processing when possible. Balance quality and quantity in each team's work, and maintain consistently high performance in both, within a changing environment.

2.       Maintaining ILS: Accurately, clearly describe both electronic and paper library materials in the on-line catalog to maximize user access. Enhance access to the library's collections and resources. Create, maintain, and update appropriate records within the integrated library system and other databases accurately and expeditiously.

3.       Maintaining Collections: Effectively preserve digital and paper library materials. Prepare library materials for addition to the collection in a manner consistent with good preservation practices. Monitor and maintain the condition of library collections.

4.       Library Communication and Cooperation: Clearly communicate Technical Services activities among Technical Services staff and library-wide. Continue to explore ways to develop and strengthen relationships within and across Technical Services teams, working cooperatively to accomplish TS-wide goals. Explore ways to strengthen relationships with customer libraries. Anticipate problems whenever possible, and react promptly to customer questions. Establish and respond to priorities based on customer needs and budgetary realities.

5.       External Cooperation: Explore opportunities for cooperation/partnerships with other libraries or vendors. Participate in national cooperative projects.

6.       Innovation: Maintain awareness of new products, services, and trends in libraries. Evaluate existing services and make changes when warranted. Implement new services as appropriate. Explore ways to improve the functionality and efficiency of the integrated library system. Investigate new ways of processing faster and better.

7.       Staff Development: Involve and develop Technical Services staff within their teams and library-wide. Continue the training of staff in all areas for greater flexibility and integration. Pursue career development and other opportunities for staff as appropriate. Search for better ways to assess our work, including both qualitative and quantitative measures. Participate in and improve the annual evaluation process.

Technical Services Statistics: