TechForce Meeting, 2-19-03

Priority Flags:

We discussed the differences between Notify, Reference, and Priority flags in books. Priority flags are meaningful in OS and CAT, but not for Preservation. If items are for Reference, they are handled differently in Pres, and should be sent through with a Reference flag, but the Priority flag is not needed at this point. Mary Ellen will revise the procedure and this should finish our discussion.

Telecommuting Policy:

It is finalized for now and ready for adding to TS Web pages.

Trip to the Annex—Questions for Peg:

We came up with the following areas of interest for Peg to cover during our Annex visit next week:

The Dewey collection

How the new receipts are shelved

What happens in Acorn to indicate locations of new receipts

The Special Collections archive collections and the space they occupy

Updating OCLC for the Inventory new receipts

How incoming Inventory materials are shelved

What portions of the collection are 100% compressed

A total tour of the building

The HVAC equipment, not to see it, but to hear about its upkeep

We will send this to Peg in advance, and she can add or edit as needed.

Budget Update:

We discussed the value of continuing merit pay increases during the upcoming difficult budget year. The TechForce was unanimous in opposing merit increases. Roberta will discuss this with OUL.

Mission Statement:

We looked at a revised mission statement, which still needs improvement. Sue Davis will work on a revised statement for next time.

INeed:

We discussed the idea of a new procedure to loan out in-process books from Tech Services to patrons with an Immediate Need prior to completing cataloging and labeling. The books could be stamped, barcoded and circulated on a brief record. They would be wrapped with a flag that would indicate they needed cataloging upon return (and they would not have labels for shelving). The flag would instruct patrons to return the book to Circ, and would instruct Circ to return the book to Cataloging. Zora will write up a draft policy for discussion among teams, and later in LMC.

Wet Books:

During a recent storm, rain accidentally got into one of the mailroom cartons and damaged several books. The containers used for mail delivery are standard post office containers covered with a tarp. In a heavy rainstorm with strong winds, it is difficult to protect the materials. James McCullough enlisted Sue Davis’s help immediately to recover the wet materials. As a follow up, Sue researched other, more protective types of containers we might use, and found an acceptable solution, a plastic, lidded box, that is currently used at Harvard. Roberta will ask Norman if the Mail Room might be interested in purchasing containers of this type.

Notices:

As a follow up to a CAG discussion, Sue Davis had asked about more frequent Acorn notices for items charged out to TS staff. The response was unanimous that these are not needed in TS. Sue will pass this decision on to CAG.

Reports:

A message from Roberta sent to TechForce had gone astray, which pointed up the need for Roberta to start forwarding monthly reports from division directors to the TechForce, since Flo no longer has this responsibility. Roberta will also find out what’s happened to monthly reports from the Annex and LITS.

CAT update:

Cataloging projects of the moment include CogNet and Past Masters e-book cataloging, Pia duplicates that the library will be keeping, and defenestrating of some uncataloged items.

PRES update:

Preservation is looking into spine label enhancements in Sirsi with Ann Martin.