CAG Minutes, 3/18/98

Meeting: Wednesday March 18, 1998  1:30-3:00 pm, 250 Moffitt

Present: P. Bischof (Recorder); S. Calpestri; D. Fortner; B. Glendenning;
J. Roberts; A. Urbanic (Chair). B. Weil
Ex Officio: J.Spohrer;
Guests: A. Barone; P. Daniels; L. Jones; R. Green

I. Minutes of February 18, 1998 approved.

II. Announcements
Our agenda on April 15 will be devoted to G. Moon, who will discuss NRLF
procedures, and especially the topics of last serial copies in the Northern
region and the individual campus ownerships of such titles. Scott Miller
will also attend. A. Urbanic will be in Chicago, and thus an Acting Chair
will lead this discussion.

III. Technical Services Issues
A. Replacement fund (x funds) procedures. Barclay Ogden and Lynne Jones
participated in an earlier CAG discussion of the various o.p. procedures
for replacement. An outline of this discussion is in the minutes of January
21, 1998. Selectors have expressed an interest in being able to lien o.p.
material, and thus enabled to trace funds more closely than has been the
case heretofore.

R. Green. explained that formerly our PhotoSearch Division, charged with
getting o. p. material including original editions or micro or photoprints,
was a very successful operation. A Search Specialist, Marilyn Ng, carried
out this work, with the help of Xanthippe Phillips, who was transferred to
Conservation in 1995. Subsequently, due to downsizing of this operation, a
one-stage procedure was created. Argosy was designated vendor for the
replacement of domestic books. For foreign materials, various vendors have
been utilized. For serials, a single vendor, Absolute, also is used for
back issues:

Under this new one-stage procedure, if  selectors have not checked several
options, a replacement order will be dropped if first option fails. If
several options have been selected, however, then photoprint or microfilm,
or whatever options were checked, will be pursued.

In the previous several years prior to changing to a one-stage operation,
our filfillment rate ranged between 21-52%, and was usually in the 30 - 50%
range. Marilyn Ng has summarized our success rate in 1996 with Argosy: it
is a 21% fulfillment rate for FY 95/96.  Fot the old PhotoDup Div, the
filfillment was virtually 100% for photoprints. The bibliographic checking
and searching to accomplish this sort of record requires expertise and
training.

As things stand now, when orders are received for materials which are o.p.,
there is no encumbrance made for the funds in INNOPAC, and thus there is no
order created or other modification to the GLADIS record. There IS an order
record created when an item is placed with the vendor for a search.
Nothing, however, is encumbered because fulfillment rate is only 21%. It
goes without saying that it is easier to replace items relatively recently
published. For serials we do have a relatively good possibility to acquire
microfilm as replacements. For searches conducted by Xanthippe Phillips (in
Conservation) the search will continue for an extended period.

CAG requests that R. Green check with Argosy and ask what steps they follow
in attempting to fill orders we place with them. R. Green will place this
information on the web page discussion of replacement procedures.

Transferring a large number of titles always causes a lot of loss. When
Faxon was dropped, for example, Faxon went downhill and let many things
lapse, including its responses to our claims. In the case of Rowcom, a
$5.00 per title service charge is levied upon us, which is particularly
costly since this firm has not been performing well either. R. Green
suggests that we work to consolidate a number of titles with other vendors,
with some of which we already have arrangements. We need to be cognizant
that a decision to cut costs by moving to a particular vendor may actually
result in significant alternative costs in terms of staff time.

In the past fiscal year prepayment to Blackwells resulted in significant
savings, even though this was done rather late in the fiscal year. R. Green
would like to explore other potential arrangements with dealers. CAG
recommends that selectors designate vendors for serials if they know of
vendors who perform well.

With respect to the issue of liening funds, $92.00, the cost of a
photoprint replacement could be used as the lienable figure for
replacements. This could be liened, and then if actual cost were lower,
then that lower figure could replace the higher [estimated] sum. Those
selectors who have already placed orders for replacements will not, of
course, have liens which track those commitments. What we want is a
procedure that gives us a relatively high rate of return at the end of the
process.

We may need a date for an automatic commencement of liening or encumbering
of replacement funds. The Chair will draw up a proposal before CAG's next
meeting for the consideration of the group.

IV. Serials Check-in and training.
The need for this discussion arises from a general concern that receipts
from central technical processing have lagged over the past three months.

Addressing this concern, and other concerns of selectors and public service
units, Pam discussed the impact on binding quotas in light of the failure
of units to receive serials in predictable patterns. Pam reported that
check-in priority is given to Branch, all high-use, ready reference, "comes
bound," CD-ROM, fiche and film, newspaper, large format and mutilated
materials.

To gather information re these several concerns, a Boolean search for
issues not received to complete binding runs for 1997 to date was done. For
titles received in Serials, the search retrieved 5,143 issues recorded as
not received for Main and Branch shelving locations. 3,104 is the number of
delinquent issues for MAIN titles. The next highest results dropped down to
594 missing issues for titles shelved in BIOS, with 226 missing issues for
titles shelved in MATH, and 217 missing issues for titles shelved in CHEM.
For the other branch locations, the number varies from 1-150 missing
issues. Upon further investigation of the categories of these missing
issues, most are received on Exchange and LC Foreign Acquisition Plans.

To cope with the backlogs, 1 FTE was transferred, and is currently being
trained in check-in, students as well as staff from the Copy Cataloging
Unit are assisting with mail opening, and the remaining staff are
concentrating on check-in as well. Claiming activities and the processing
of unsolicited materials have been temporarily suspended until the end of
March. In addition, two students have been hired and are being trained for
check-in and mail opening tasks.

Due to this increase in productivity with check-in statistics rising from
5,778 in January to 9,299 in February, and a concomitant inability to
review material after check-in by higher level staff, the number of errors
has increased. To date, however, Technical Services has only received a few
examples of the problems: (e.g. mislabelling and resultant incorrect
resetting of expected arrival dates for future expected issues).  A. Barone
stressed the need to report such problems (with examples) when they arise
so that they can be resolved immediately.

J.Spohrer commented that the work that is done in the Serials Department is
so crucial to all of our operations that we really cannot afford to have
this kind of thing happen. Firstly, we need a back-up if frontline staff is
not available. Second, should a backlog begin to occur, we need to know
about it promptly. We need information as early as we possibly can have it;
we need to know what to expect, what is being done about the problem, and
what we can tell our users.

P. Daniels reported that currently a three-day processing backlog of opened
mail awaits check-in, as well as a one-day processing backlog of unopened
mail. It is anticipated that by the end of the month, normal production
levels (two-day turnaround time) will have been achieved.

J. Roberts identified an additional problem. Although a title was referred
to the Gifts and Exchange Division as unsolicited, it did have a record in
GLADIS. It may not, however, have had an active record in INNOPAC.

At present, since Pam Daniels anticipates another medical leave, send
problems such as these to A. Barone, until such time as she may send a
message to all selectors and public service units with other arrangements.

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