Present: Members of both councils attended; unfortunately, a sign-up sheet
was not circulated to record individual names.
Guests: Rebecca Green, Jody Bussell, Lupe Ochoa, Jim Gordon, Marilyn Ng,
and Veronica Eaglin
Facilitator: J. Roberts
Recorder: M. Cochran
1. The next AHC meeting is Thursday, March 15, 2001 and Jan Carter will be
the recorder.
2. Discussion of acquisition issues with a panel from Technical Services
Rebecca Green, Order Division Head
Jody Bussell, Payments Unit Head/Order Division
Jim Gordon, INNOPAC Management Unit Head/Order Division
Marilyn Ng, O.P. Unit Head/Order Division
Lupe Ochoa, PromptCat Workleader/Monographic Processing and Cataloging
Division
Veronica Eaglin, Processing Unit Head/Monographic Processing and
Cataloging Division
Rebecca introduced the Technical Service staff and opened the discussion
with an overview of the Order Division. A merger of the old Acquisitions
and Serials departments with the Cataloging Department formed the current
Technical Services department. The Order Division is one of the Divisions
within Technical Services. The Order Division currently has five units:
Ordering, Payments, Out-of-Print, INNOPAC Management, and Course reserves.
Jody Bussell heads the Payments Unit. Two years ago, responsibility for
monographic payments moved from Library Business Services to the Order
Division. On March 1, the Order Division will become a Department of
Record, archiving payment history records and invoices, rather than having
them archived by Campus Disbursements. Invoices are paid by Payments Unit
staff in INNOPAC and invoice data is transmitted electronically to BFS.
Another related function taken on this year as part of the responsibility
of the INNOPAC Management Unit is maintaining collection budget spread
sheets. Jim Gordon heads this unit.
Marilyn Ng heads the Out-of-Print Unit. O.P. acquisitions was formerly
done in the Photo Search Division of the former Acquisitions Department.
Danie Martin was hired to search the web for o.p. material and purchase it
using a procurement card. The procurement card has worked well, and Order
Division is getting another one to purchase in-print material. The
Ordering Unit currently has five staff members, but almost everyone in the
Unit has a split assignment. Marilyn and Jim are part of the Ordering Unit
in addition to their other assignments. Two new staff positions were
requested in the call for new initiatives, one for Payments and one to be
split between Ordering and INNOPAC Management.
Lupe Ochoa and Veronica are part of the Technical Services' Monographic
Processing and Cataloging Division. Veronica heads the MPC Processing Unit
and Lupe is the PromptCat Workleader.
The meeting was a series of questions and answers that focused on the
difficulties caused by PromptCat, INNOPAC, BFS and other technical
services issues: a strong desire for more discussion within Technical
Services of potential problems with adding shelf-ready processing and the
implications for workflow, loading order records into the catalog,
backlogs, duplicates, and payment processes.
Q: Why don't fund balances in INNOPAC match those in the Campus Ledger?
A: The 19900 funds in INNOPAC haven't been precisely reconciled in the
Campus Ledger for a long time. Balances are reasonably close, but getting
them to reconcile exactly will be a time-consuming process. Order
Division has taken on the responsibility for ledger reconciliations within
the last year and we are still cleaning up existing problems.
Q: After orders are placed, how long does it take for them to appear in
Gladis?
A: Records are suppose to load from INNOPAC into Gladis overnight, but
uploads can fail for unknown reasons. Some records do not come from
INNOPAC, but load into Gladis from electronic files as part of the
PromptCat process.
Q: In regards to delays in getting orders placed and backlogs, is there a
way to let us know on a regular basis if there are backlogs?
A: Ordering backlogs are to be expected because of current understaffing.
There are not enough people to stay current. The ideal turn-around-time
for placing orders is a couple of weeks; the current time is 6-8 weeks.
The volume of orders is enormous, about 3-4,000 per month. If selectors
suspect orders have been lost, they should call their contact person to
follow up. Mark really important orders RUSH and they will be placed
within a week. The Order Division has been trying to increase staff, but
so far the collections budget has grown faster than we can get new staff
to handle increased ordering and payments.
Carlos praised our colleagues in Technical Processing. We need to offer
support for the technical service staffing issue and ask that more staff
be provided. At present, technical service staff, among their many tasks,
provides thorough checking to avoid ordering duplicates. We have
experienced problems with the campus in having checks sent to the correct
vendor address and having checks held for pickup. The campus is also
understaffed. Even though these problems exist, there should be a constant
effort to work them out and respond to the selectors needs.
Q: Has anyone explored a library checking account for small orders?
A: The procurement card serves this function. Selectors interested in the
procurement card should contact Elise Woods for more information. The
Order Division has a procurement card for out-of-print purchases. A
second card is in the works for in-print items, which require prepayment
or immediate payment. The procurement card is a MasterCard credit card.
The vendor is paid immediately when a procurement card is used, but each
transaction requires extensive paperwork on our end.
Q: Orders that can be place directly with small organizations, agencies,
etc., are frequently sent through vendors. How can selectors request that
the order be sent directly to the organization or agency?
A: The Order Division can vendor-code suppliers so that we can use them
for direct orders. However, they try to use established vendors first if
we think they can handle the order successfully. They will supply vendors
with contact information for suppliers. Their objective is to have the
orders succeed. They do set up suppliers in INNOPAC and BFS for direct
ordering when this is the best or only way to get material. The second
procurement card can help in situations like this. Setting up a domestic
vendor in BFS requires that we find out their Federal Tax ID number, which
can take time.
Mari noted that a request she sent for direct ordering to a small research
group at Harvard U. was sent to a vendor and that caused a long delay in
obtaining the documents. She wondered if there could be a way to
accommodate such special orders. Elizabeth Byrne also expressed the same
need. Many of her orders are to small groups.
Carlos stated that setting up direct ordering has been done with foreign
orders. It can take initiative on the selectors part to find good ongoing
sources of supply. Technical Service staff commented that foreign orders
are no harder to place than domestic orders and foreign vendors do not
need Tax ID numbers.
Phyllis suggested that perhaps we express our dissatisfaction with BFS to
Campus and try to get permission to cut our own checks. It is not certain
that the campus understands the service the library needs.
Q: Yankee does automatic cancellations and we do not know about it, why
is this?
A: Yankee cancels unfilled orders after 18 months. The PromptCat
workleader, Lupe Ochoa, is supposed to receive cancellation notifications,
but does not always get them. Yankee fills 80% of our orders within three
months.
Q: Is there anyway to identify duplicates before they get labeled?
A: As many duplicates as possible are headed off by bibliographic
checking. Due to various factors, some duplicates are not identified until
they are received. PromptCat material from Yankee and Academic cannot be
returned. The Processing Unit and the Order Division staff meet monthly to
discuss record problems, duplicates, claims, etc. The meetings have proved
helpful in solving problems. They are currently looking into the problem
of duplicates.
Q: When will we receive labeled books from Yankee?
A: Technical Services staff is working on resolving potential problems
with this workflow. Once these are resolved, the service can be turned
on. Alan Ritch noted that this process should start in November or
December.
John Roberts thanked the technical service staff for supporting selectors
in their work.
4. Council Liaison Updates
Ceballos: Technical Services Council did not meet.
Byrne: Public Service Council is beginning to look at the Public Service
Policy manual. Some documents are on the web. If anyone has major changes
or ideas for what should be in the manual, send a note to PSC.
5. Suggested topics for future AHC meetings:
John Ceballos to talk about his experience in using the procurement card.
Carlos Delgado to talk about the Cuban Exchange Program.
Teaching Library.
Science Libraries Center for Science Information Literacy.
Dialogue with System's Office staff regarding Melvyl, Innopac, etc.
PEAS group, redesigning the web.
Cataloging Unit staff, copy and original cataloging priorities.