BTECH minutes - 6/4/03

[Judith Weeks <jweeks@library.berkeley.edu>]

BERKELEY TECHNICAL SERVICES DISCUSSION GROUP MEETING MINUTES

Wednesday, June 4, 2003
9:00 AM-11:00 AM
303 Doe Library
Recorder: Jessica Lemieux

Announcements:

Jon Solomon announced that there will be several new updates to the BPM, 
including a document provided by LSO about CJK editing called Outline of 
CJK record edit in GLADIS (which will be in the cataloging section), and a 
printable pdf version of the list of spine abbreviations.

Sheila Wekselbaum brought up 3 announcements. First, PromptCat books are no 
longer coming with call number labels on the verso of the title page.  This 
is because of a deal with Yankee; it was prohibitively expensive to 
continue having them put on two labels.  If the spine label comes off in 
transit, we can wand the barcode in Gladis to pull up the record and get 
the call number.

Second, Analytics are now being done by a pool of people, rather than an 
individual assigned to a particular branch, so we should charge Analytics 
out to CATA, rather than CATA-initials (i.e. CATA-KL).   Do not charge them 
to an individual person.

Third, a discussion about binding after cataloging will need to be brought 
up as an agenda item at the next meeting.  Currently new books that require 
binding are sent out before cataloging, which makes it difficult to 
track.  Sheila and Tonette suggest that cataloging should be done before 
the binding.  A brief discussion ensued about the possible problem of items 
coming back with size changes, and it was suggested that a *nX note could 
be used as a reminder to check for size changes.  Tabled for future discussion.

Agenda:

1. GLADIS Macros / Charis Takaro and Joe Mitola

Library Systems has several macros that can be used in GLADIS.  One of 
these is a label maker; it generates the call number from the GLADIS 
record.  It works with Microsoft Word in a two-part process. The easiest 
way to use the macro is to have your cursor on the v/c you want to produce 
a label for. To do this you need to be logged on to Gladis with an 
authorization that has holdings edit for that location (and if the item has 
a circulation transaction your authorization will need to have circulation 
added).  Otherwise you won't be able to get your cursor on the v/c, but the 
macro will still work, and you'll be prompted for which v/c you need a 
label. You can get to the v/c any way, but scanning the barcode is the 
easiest because if you have the authorization mentioned above, your cursor 
will go directly to the correct v/c.

Then you run the macro to get the label information, and repeat this step 
until you have captured all the labels you want to print.  Then open Word 
and make whatever changes you need to make and print the labels from 
there.  The macro will print the library's spine abbreviation (i.e. MAIN), 
and volume or number information in the v/c, but does not print anything 
found in parentheses in the v/c.  This macro is available for Windows 2000 
on the Library Systems supported systems page under the link to download 
software (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/LSO/GLADIS/GLADISMacros.html. 
Upgrades to this macro are planned by the end of July.

Other GLADIS macros are available on the same page, including one that 
prints full GLADIS records, rather than one screen at a time. This macro 
can page through the record and print it all, or print a range (for 
example, printing v.1-50), or print the first and last pages of a 
record.  It will work on the brief or MARC displays, or both.  Joe also 
drew attention to a macro for OCLC CatME downloads (bundled with the one to 
print Gladis records all on one page), which helps with cutting and pasting 
into GLADIS, translates diacritics, and automatically makes the lines the 
right length for GLADIS.

2. Tracing procedures for Books, Serials, Binding, CONS / Sheila 
Wekselbaum, Michael Meacham, Tonette Mendoza, Gary Quien, Tom Perry-Houts, 
Judith Walker.

Sheila started out the discussion by reading the introduction from the 
section in the BPM about tracers. This can be viewed at 
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/BPM/2b.html.

Michael began by defining the types of tracers he receives.  Lately, he has 
noticed three seeming levels of traces: Rush (patron wants), Non-Rush 
(staff checking on an item) and Cleanup (staff working through old lists or 
records).  Currently all tracers, no matter which of these unofficial 
categories they fall into, are treated as priority work.  Given that a 
single trace can take up to two hours we need to prioritize the traces, 
especially since there have recently been floods of cleanup type tracers, 
which are often older and harder to find.  The BPM states that traces 
should be initiated only for primary clientele, when the material is 
urgently needed and no other material is available to fill their 
needs.  There is no guarantee that the material will be found. An item is 
declared lost in Technical Services after one year from the date the trace 
was started has passed, and at that point it can be replaced with a special 
fund.

With these priorities in mind, nothing is barred from being traced, but 
Michael suggests we should prioritize traces as Rush and 
Non-Rush.  Currently, the procedures for tracing on the BPM are geared 
towards the tracing form, but since staff favor sending an email instead, 
the process is as follows.  First, an email is sent to TraceMon.  Presently 
this account goes to Tonette's mailbox, and she and Michael meet once a 
week to give him the tracer requests. A request has been put in to change 
the account and have it delivered directly to Michael, so that this one 
week delay will be eliminated, but it's not certain when this will 
happen.  Once Michael receives the request, he sends an email to 
acknowledge receipt and will assign or ask about priority. Then he will 
look for the material and respond that they're getting it ready or still 
looking. For high priority items, this message will be sent out within a 
couple of days of the acknowledgement email.

Michael then presented eight points of helpful things that can be done to 
provide him the information he needs for tracing.

1.Please be SURE that the material is not on the shelf in your unit, and if 
you search in Main before sending Michael the tracer, let him know.  He'll 
still search in Main anyway, but would like to know if you've already done it.
2.When sending email to Tracemon indicate priority.
3.Put the first few words of the title or the call number in the subject 
line of the email rather than tracer.
4.Copy and paste relevant Gladis records into email (ie:brief screen, order 
detail, etc.)
5. Include other bib information if it's appropriate, such as series or 
volume information.  Though it may be cataloged individually, series 
information can be very helpful in finding the material, especially if you 
are able to give information about the series, such as size, color or cover 
design.
6.Indicate anything unusual about the volume.  Is it thick or thin, or in 
another language.  Also, this information is helpful in the PI of the 
Q-level record if you make them when you send items for cataloging (i.e. 
Chinese books when the record is in English, microform, portfolio with photos).
7.Put a *nTracer sent (date) in the V/C of the book you are tracing.
8.Don't send more than 5 tracers a week.

Michael concluded by saying if you have special concerns, he would be happy 
to meet with you and try to work out a solution.

There were several suggestions and comments in response to this.  Jon 
Solomon suggested that these new procedures be refined a little and put up 
on the BPM.  There were several questions about what should receive high 
priority. Expensive items may receive high priority even if they have not 
been requested by patrons.  Extremely old items (more than 1-2 years old) 
should be referred to the selector.  If items are charged to CATA, they 
could still be on the shelf but if not charged to CATA it's unlikely that 
they'll be found.

Chikako notified everyone that EAL has no charge account for cataloging, 
and materials sent there for cataloging need a PI in the record so that 
everyone can see that the material is at EAL.  She also noted that EAL has 
a large cataloging backlog.  Tonette suggested that we all need to put 
notes in records and charge things (such as to the bindery), so that there 
will be more information in the record, making materials easier to trace.

Tom and Gary described the procedure for tracing materials sent to 
Conservation and for binding.  Anything addressed to TraceCon goes to both 
of their inboxes, and traces receive the highest priority.  They have an 
extremely streamlined workflow, with only two full-time employees taking 
care of approximately 8000-11000 books per month. About eighty percent of 
this is bindery material.  Since tracers receive such high priority and are 
so disruptive to the normal workflow, they also ask that we be judicious in 
sending traces.  The bindery will rush material if it's needed.  When 
sending a trace they ask that we include as much information as possible, 
such as the bind style and the date it was sent.  We should also look first 
in the GLADIS record for information, as anything sent to Conservation gets 
assessed for treatment and once a treatment is assigned, that information 
is put into the v/c via a macro.  Knowing the binding style can greatly aid 
in tracing an item, since they retain a copy of the binding slips for LC 
and Buckram materials.  Combined with a manual file of orders sent to the 
bindery, this means they can find an order for LC and Buck materials by 
bind style and date and let the bindery know which item needs to be 
rushed.  Unfortunately, Pam and Mylar binds do not have this kind of 
specific accountability and cannot be traced.  Materials sent for 
preservation are somewhat easier to trace because of the note in the v/c, 
but as a last resort they are searched for in the Main stacks, since they 
are sometimes mis-marked. With preservation items, it is also easy to see 
when they left conservation, because they put a discharged from CONS note 
in the v/c.   J. Weeks commented that she has noticed that missing Mylars 
and Pams have often gotten into the wrong workflow, going to CATA instead 
of Marking.  BIOS has started labeling all Mylars before they are sent and 
writing the call number large on the cover of Pams before sending them for 
binding, and this seems to have alleviated the problem.

Jane Kelly, who manages TraceSer, was unable to make it to the meeting, so 
Judith Walker spoke briefly in her stead.   She noted that Jane would 
probably agree with Michael's assessment, and reemphasized the need to 
prioritize.  She also noted that SerCat also has a backlog and they are 
down staff.  Currently priority is being given to reference material, DREF, 
GSSI and then active branch material.  CD-ROMs for serials are not being 
given priority currently, and CD-ROM items should be flagged if they are 
needed quickly.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 AM.