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Administrative
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Technical Services |
The charge to our task force had three parts, which were associated with the three files that were returned from OCLC RetroCon Batch's search against their database of all the records of the inventory. OCLC also set our TJC holdings symbol on the 9,969 records for which a matching record was found. The three OCLC files consisted of: app. 1,190 DLC records, 8,779 member records, and a report of 2,068 non-matches. The 1,190 DLC records had already been loaded into Acorn prior to the formation of RIP. (It is important to note that the inventory is not stagnant-i.e., material is constantly being requested and therefore moves out of the inventory-and so all of the numbers used throughout this report will be at best approximate. The actual number of DLC books left in the inventory on 8/28/02 was approximately 1,168, for example.)
RIP's charge was to develop and implement procedures for using the DLC file to complete the processing of the inventory books corresponding to it, and to make recommendations about whether and how to use the other files in inventory reduction.
Because the OCLC/DLC file had already been loaded into Acorn, we were able easily to run reports on each library's DLC books in the inventory. These reports indicated that Central had approximately 906 books that could be processed through RIP, Science had 75, Peabody had 29, Divinity had 225, Music had 2, and Management and Special Collections had one book each. A separate RIP charge number (86742) was created for each book leaving the inventory. Two copy catalogers, Jeff Taylor and Bryan Kurowski, have done the majority of the RIP cataloging. We wrote up procedures for our two RIP copy catalogers which covered issues like series review, changing 910 fields back to 035 fields, correct holding locations, and possible preservation decisions. Although it was assumed that much of the RIP DLC cataloging would be similar to current LC copy cataloging, both Jeff and Bryan were encouraged to consult with an original cataloger as needed.
Although the task force initially wanted to make each library's DLC books available to them for review prior to processing, for possible withdrawal or transfer to another library, only Peabody agreed to do this. Susan Bell did the cataloging for their relatively small number of books. The Music DLC books were processed by their cataloger, Catherine Gick, while the Management and Special Collections books were processed by Pete Wilson. Science did not review any of their DLC books, nor did Central, although Mary Beth Blalock consulted with the Central bibliographers prior to making this decision. Divinity decided to begin processing their DLC books early in 2003.
The first RIP shipment from the Annex to RIP catalogers was boxed and sent 09/12/02. The task force agreed that 40 books per week seemed a reasonable number for the annex staff to pull, catalogers to add to their regular cataloging, and marking staff to handle. Weekly shipments of 40 books or less, depending on how many the library had left to be cataloged, have been arriving from the Annex to the RIP catalogers ever since. This will continue until all the DLC books have been processed.
Peg Earheart, Library Annex manager and RIP Task Force member, is maintaining a spreadsheet of the actual numbers of RIP books, broken down by library, as they leave the inventory, and another spreadsheet of RIP books that the libraries decided to withdraw. As of 12/23/02, the urls for the RIP books followed by the RIP withdrawals are:
http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/rs/rip1.xls
http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/rs/rip2.xls
For any additional statistical information and to decide whether these statistics should continue to be maintained, TECHForce should consult with Peg, who has the spreadsheets saved.
With part one underway, the RIP task force next began to address the second part of our charge: "consider the 8,779 member records, and determine what portion of them might be used to complete the cataloging now in Acorn." We were dismayed to discover that we had not instructed OCLC RetroCon Batch to regard lccopycat and PCC records as equivalent to DLC records, even though we do consider them equivalent in our processing. Thus some 851 records of these types were included in the member copy file rather than the DLC file. We were uncertain whether we would be able to separate these records from the other member copy records and load them into Acorn for processing by the RIP copy catalogers. Fortunately, Nancy Boggess-Korekach, Systems Librarian and RIP Task Force member, was able to use a certain Sirsi tool (not originally meant for this purpose!) to separate the lccopycat and PCC records from the other member records in the file.
It is the RIP Task Force's recommendation that ONLY these 851 records within the member copy file be loaded into Acorn. We examined a sample of 100 other member records (not lccopycat or PCC) and compared them with the corresponding records in Acorn, and it was our judgment that loading all of these records would be of limited value and would in some cases result in worse records than we had before. However, any member copy records in that file that contain full call numbers might be considered as candidates for INVD processing at some time in the future, as this type of processing would get them on the shelves and out of the inventory.
In regard to the third part of our charge, involving the list of 2,068 records returned with no matching copy, the RIP Task Force recommends that review of this portion of the inventory not be undertaken at this time. This recommendation is made given current staff levels and workload-the file would take a great deal of staff time to review and the material appears to be of low priority for the libraries.
Briefly, here are the RIP Task Force's recommendations:
1) Continue to process the DLC books (part 1 of the charge) until all of these
are out of the inventory
2) Separate the lccopycat and PCC records from the rest of the member copy records
in that file, load those app. 851 records and process them as the DLC books
were; do not load the remainder of the member copy file, but retain the file
for possible INVD work
3) Retain the file and the printed list of the 2,068 records found to have no
matching copy for the future, when staff levels and workload might permit the
work needed to process these
We will, of course, be available for any questions this report might generate. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to serve on the task force.
RIP Task Force Members
Nancy Boggess-Korekach
Eileen Crawford
Sue Davis
Peg Earheart
Pete Wilson
Susan Bell, chair