Appendix to Minutes of Meeting:
Round Robin of Issues of Importance (major events/developments/concerns) to Local Institutions These reports were distributed over the Big Heads electronic discussion list in the weeks prior to the Orlando annual conference in June 2004.
For the minutes of the Big Heads meeting at Orlando, click on http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~ulcjh/bh62004minutes.html
This compilation was prepared by Judith Hopkins, University at Buffalo
SOME OF THE FOLLOWING LIBRARIES DID *NOT* ISSUE A ROUND ROBIN REPORT.
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Harvard University
Indiana University
Library of Congress
National Agricultural Library
National Library of Medicine
National Agricultural Library
National Library of Medicine
New York Public Library
New York University
Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of California at Berkeley
University of California at Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas at Austin
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Yale University
Budget. In fiscal year 2004-2005 the Library will be required to give 7.5% of our operations budget back to the campus. This is in addition to a loss of 35 positions (including 8 from Technical Services) in the current fiscal year. In an effort to avoid layoffs, the Library has developed a Separation Incentive Plan (SIP) to encourage staff to voluntarily resign or retire. The plan, funded with one-time money, will pay staff with 20 years of service one year's salary or $50,000, whichever amount is less, to resign or retire. The Berkeley Library is the only unit of the University of California making this offer, and we expect it to be very popular. A reorganization of the Library will be discussed over the summer after the departure of the approximately 20 additional staff.
Levels of cataloging. Our pilot project to apply three levels of cataloging to our Germanic backlog has been extended to English, Western European, Slavic and Arabic materials. The three levels of cataloging are
Cataloging electronic resources. The electronic resources jointly licensed by the California Digital Library are cataloged by the Shared Cataloging Project at the University of California San Diego, and records are distributed to the campus libraries. The electronic resources acquired by the individual campuses are cataloged by the holding libraries. Free electronic resources that are of interest to more than one campus may now be referred to the Shared Cataloging Project for cooperative cataloging.
David Banush, head of Bibliographic Control Services in CTS, is the prime mover behind Backstory and will serve as the publication's editor. A number of staff throughout the system have contributed to the articles in the first issue. We expect to publish at least twice a year, in the spring and late fall.
Voice: 607-255-9915
Fax: 607-255-6110
E-mail: ksc10@cornell.edu
http://www.library.cornell.edu/tsweb
******************************
Union Theological Seminary: The Burke Library at UTS becomes part of the
Columbia University Libraries system in July 2004, adding approximately
750,000 volumes to our holdings. In preparation, 330,000 UTS records
were added to our catalog in May. We are currently working to integrate
cataloging and acquisitions into central technical services.
Construction and Renovation: A new Social Work building and library
will open in August (with collections being transferred from the social
sciences library.) Butler Library renovation moves to the 6th floor,
including the Rare Book and Manuscript Library; in preparation, many
archival collections have been moved to offsite storage. A formal
planning process has begun for the construction of a new science
building, including plans to consolidate 6 current science libraries into
a single new facility.
Luna Insight implementation: Luna Insight software was implemented in
May, seeded with a collection of 27,000 Saskia images. Implementation
has been coordinated with the Media Center for Art History, Archeology &
Historic Preservation. In coming months, new collections will be added
by both the Center and the Libraries.
Scanned Tables of Contents: We are beginning to scan tables of
contents for many older journals being sent to offsite storage (beginning
with CJK). The scanned files will be linked from our catalog records and
could potentially be linked to from others' records as well.
E-only for journals: We have now cancelled print subscriptions
for a wide range of scientific and social science journals available
electronically. User reaction has generally been positive.
LOCKSS: We've moved into production on our LOCKSS server, caching all
titles currently available. Together with a dozen other "Big Heads"
libraries, we're involved in a project to test developing LOCKSS
plug-ins for selected free-humanities journals.
Integrating Resource updates: In preparation for a redesign of our web
listings of e-resources, we've revisited and enhanced the catalog
records for about 300 online databases and other integrating resources.
We've found that a high percentage of the records for these titles in
the bibliographic utilities were out of date in some significant
respect.
U-Portal: In the fall, the University will be creating a student
portal using U-Portal software. The Libraries are working with the
Administrative Information Services group to develop a library channel
within the portal.
Round
Robin Report June
2004 Duke
University Libraries Deborah Jakubs,
Director, Collections Services Duke
Converts to LC After numerous
investigations spanning decades, Duke will convert from the Dewey Decimal
Classification System to the LC Classification System. This decision comes after a year-long
feasibility analysis that took into consideration costs, benefits, timing, and
the availability of third-party reclassification services. In April 2004, the project was approved for
implementation. The scope of the project includes the on-site Dewey classified
collection, consisting of 2.3 million volumes.
All major aspects of the project will be outsourced to two vendors. Backstage Library Works (formerly MARC Link
and Access Imagery) will be responsible for validating and assigning LC numbers
to our records, adding item records for some of our serials, and producing
spine labels. Library Associates will
handle re-labeling, sorting, and re-shelving materials in LC. With respect to new title cataloging, we are
assessing shelf space needs in hopes of adding new volumes in LC around the end
of July 2004. The project will take
approximately four years and conclude in the summer of 2008. The Perkins
Project A new building is under construction and a major renovation
of the existing library building is planned for . For more information, see: http://www.lib.duke.edu/perkproj/. Although the new building will include
significant stack space, we are moving 650,000 volumes from the library to the
Library Service Center (LSC) because the stacks are so overcrowded. We recently concluded a staff-wide,
five-phase project to barcode the items that had not circulated in 15+ years
(candidates for offsite), and faculty and other library users have had the
opportunity to review those materials for retention onsite on a title-by-title
basis. ExLibris We expect to go live with Aleph on Collections
Budget The inflationary increase to our collections budget for
2004/2005 budget is just 2% (compared with 4-6% in recent years). We will have to make some significant changes
in our spending patterns in order to pay our serial invoices. The collections budget was dealt an
additional blow by the fact that we will no longer receive “New Initiative”
funding ($117,000 each year for the last three years), which was given by the
university administration to support new programs and new faculty interests,
areas in which we may not have collected extensively in the past. Collections
Budget Audit Collections budget development and utilization are the focus
of a 15-month project to analyze how we request annual increases to our
collections budget (what documentation we provide, what arguments we make, what
data we use, etc.) and how we allocate the funds we do receive. The project involves all the subject
librarians (bibliographers) in the determination of needs. For each field, the SL prepares a document
(according to a standard template) providing information on the history of the
department/program supported, a detailed funding history, anticipated or actual
changes in faculty composition/areas of research and teaching interest, any
consortial commitments, and the required level of collections budget
support. We are including special
collections in this project, and looking at endowed and restricted support as
well as the appropriated budget. We hope to update the field-specific information annually. Monographic
Series Review For the first time, all monographic series on standing order
have been reviewed by the appropriate subject librarian. This will help reduce
costs, since this budget line has been overspent for two years. In addition, by cleaning up many records and
assigning correct fund codes, we will move more accurate information to Aleph. Serials
Cancellation Project We completed the serials cancellation project, which was
initiated in 2002/2003. The final result
was the cancellation of over $300,000. ARL
E-Metrics Project We are submitting 2003/2004 data to the ARL E-Metrics project. A campus-wide group has been formed to
facilitate data gathering. Journals We will be consolidating print journal vendors based on
titles in electronic resources packages for ease when making access changes. We continue to spend time on the record
keeping related to the loss of consortial agreements with Elsevier and
Blackwell. Review of the
Exchanges Program A review of our exchanges program is underway. We are
examining our exchanges with developed countries to determine which libraries could
be encouraged to subscribe to Duke University Press journals (our primary
medium of exchange, for which we pay each year), and the extent to which
alteration of our exchanges will affect the quality of our collections and put
additional demands on our collections budget. We will also develop
recommendations for initiating future exchange agreements.
Preservation The Preservation Department will conduct a survey of the
audiovisual collection, beginning in early July. We anticipate that we'll get
an overall view of the collection, including formats, life expectancy of medium
and format, damage, and availability of replacement versions. The library extended its deferred binding program to the
branch libraries this spring. Since March 2001, we have deferred binding on
nearly 32,000 volumes. Of those, some 4000 have been returned to Preservation
for commercial binding after their first circulation.
From a user’s perspective the system has been very successful. From a technical services client’s
perspective, it has been a difficult process to see productivity and efficiency plummet from
pre-2002 levels, despite some improvements. Poor productivity has not been across the board
however; while some areas continue to struggle, others have regained their earlier capacity.
Progress has been made with the deployment of macros (Macro Express) in quality control and
repetitive tasks have been somewhat reduced, but considerable time has been devoted to developing
and thoroughly testing the macros. We have planned a one-year project to significantly address
backlogs in Harvard College Library Technical Services under the capable leadership of Jane
Ouderkirk.
Between January and
June, eight open librarian jobs have been filled or are currently in the
process of being filled: Head of the Music Library, Personnel Librarian,
Metadata Librarian, Associate Director of Projects & Services (Digital
Library Program), University Electronic Resources Administrator, Director of
Public Services, Life Sciences/Chemistry Librarian, and Political Papers
Specialist. The last four positions listed
represent new library faculty lines. The Metadata
Librarian position, previously located within the Technical Services
Department, was transferred to the Digital Library Program in January. Our approval plan and firm order migration
from Academic Book Center (ABC) to Blackwell’s Book Service (BBS) has been a
difficult one. Migrating from a CIP
approval system to a book-in-hand system resulted in a significant amount of
book duplication. Services available
from ABC and not yet available from BBS have required numerous workflow
adjustments for ordering and accounting staff and extensive revision of subject
profiles by collection managers. We
continue to work with BBS to resolve a variety of issues and migration-related
problems. In order to absorb next year’s inflation rate
and to accommodate the University’s uncharacteristically small increase to
collection funds, the IUB Libraries are targeting up to 10% of their serials
budget for cancellation. This is the
first major serial review and cancellation project in nearly ten years. The positive result is that all subscriptions
are under review not only for the purpose of meeting the financial target but
also for their appropriateness for current academic programs at the university. Serials Solutions MARC records have been most
beneficial in keeping records and holdings up to date in our online catalog. The monthly Serials Solutions bibliographic
record loads have enabled the Serials Cataloging Unit staff to concentrate on
creating access to online titles for which no CONSER record exists. To date, catalogers have authenticated
records in OCLC for titles lacking within the following online
aggregators: National Academy of
Sciences, Wiley Interscience, Walter De Gruyter,
Cambridge Journals, J-STOR, Science Direct, Project Muse, Emerald,
Blackwell/Synergy, Ovid, and ACM Digital Library. As part of a cooperative effort within the
CONSER Program to complete the cataloging of all titles within aggregators,
Indiana University has volunteered to provide authenticated records for the
approximately 100 titles lacking within EBSCO’s Academic Search Premier. The project is currently at the halfway
mark. The Technical Services Programmer/Analyst began
customizing vendor-supplied MARC records according to our local input
specifications. This has greatly
facilitated our ability to batch load large files of free MARC records for
purchased microformat collections and e-resources. A group of audio-visual catalogers worked with
the Department’s programmer/analyst to develop an Access-to-MARC crosswalk for
a large gift collection containing approximately 5,000 16mm films. This was our first attempt at converting
information from an Access database to MARC records. The project has been so successful that
plans are currently underway to use a similar model for the University
Archives’ serial collection. Students
will enter information into prescribed fields within Access and then the
database will later be converted into MARC records and loaded into the online
catalog. We recently contracted with OCLC to purchase
Wade-Giles-to-pinyin conversion records for approximately 68,000 Chinese
language bibliographic records. Providing support for the acquisition and
accessibility of electronic resources continues to be a top priority of the
Libraries. A new University-Electronic
Resources Administrator librarian position was created and hired in April. This position will lead a new initiative
among all eight We continue to struggle with electronic
resource management. Although we are
managing with our current approach, it is not a sustainable system. Paper files of licenses are kept, which
include contact information. Orders for
each resource are placed in the acquisitions module of our library system in
order to track expenditures. New orders
are tracked using an Excel spreadsheet.
Database holdings are kept in an Access file which includes expiration
date information. We are challenged to
integrate print and electronic version orders, particularly when the license
prevents cancellation of print subscriptions.
This summer we will be evaluating electronic resources management system
software currently available in the marketplace.
Personnel
Becky J. Lyon, Deputy Associate Director for Library Operations, is serving as Acting Chief, TSD
pending recruitment of a new Chief, TSD.
Christa F.B. Hoffmann, Head of the Cataloging Section since October
1980, retired on February 27. During her career at NLM, Ms. Hoffmann led the
Cataloging Section into a fully automated environment and played a key role in NLM’s participation in national bibliographic programs,
such as the Cataloging in Publication program, and the Program for Cooperative
Cataloging, a coalition of libraries organized to promote effective cooperative
cataloging by increasing the availability of standard bibliographic records.
Alice E. Jacobs, also Assistant Head of the Section, is serving as
Acting Head of Cataloging, pending the recruitment of the new Chief of TSD. Collection Development Manual
of NLM
Revision of NLM’s Collection Development
Manual is currently underway. Pending
NLM Board of Regents approval of the revision, the manual should be available
in Fall 2004.
A full web version of the manual will be available, facilitating update
of individual sections and including a printable .pdf
version. The web version will contain
links to related resources, such as the NLM Preservation Policy.
NLM Classification NLM published the NLM
Classification 2004 in April 2004. Notably,
the 2004 revision to this online tool was published only nine months after the
previous edition, demonstrating the efficiencies gained in moving this
publication and its maintenance to an online environment. This edition incorporates all 2004 additions and changes to
the schedules and to the index, which has been updated with appropriate MeSH
concepts. New class numbers were added
to reflect changes in the biomedical and related sciences, in MeSH, and in the
literature cataloged. Beginning with
this edition, canceled class numbers appear in normal sequence within the
current schedules for informational purposes.
These canceled numbers appear in square brackets, clearly marked with
the caption: “This number not used”. NLM (Web) Archives and Metadata
Initiative NLM has developed a system to indicate to users which of its Web
documents will be kept permanently available and whether the contents of those
documents could change over time. The NLM Archives became available online in
May 2004, in tandem with the complete redesign of NLM’s Website. In conjunction with the development of the
NLM Archives, NLM implemented a workflow to ensure the creation of metadata by
staff contributors of all NLM electronic resources, including the assignment of
NLM permanence levels to Web documents.
In addition, NLM has begun cataloging those NLM resources designated as
“permanent” for inclusion in LocatorPlus and modifying the initial metadata to
include enriched subject and classification tags emanating from the cataloging
process. NLM Bibliographic Products In May 2004, NLM began to include vernacular data for Chinese and
Japanese bibliographic records in Catfile, the MARC
21 product containing cataloging records distributed to licensees. Approximately 2500 records previously
distributed to users only in romanized form have been reissued with the
vernacular data. Note that although
cataloging in the vernacular is not currently possible in Voyager, NLM has been
able to incorporate the Chinese and Japanese characters by performing the
cataloging in OCLC (utilizing OCLC TechPRO or the OCLC CJK software) and
importing the records containing the vernacular into Voyager for future use and
display. These are the candidate records
that have been included in this redistribution. NLM has completed the development of an XML DTD for the bibliographic
records residents in LocatorPlus, NLM’s online public access catalog, and plans
to make its bibliographic products, CatfilePlus and Serfile, available to
licensees as XML products in July 2004. Alternative NLM Catalog Search
Interface under Entrez As an outgrowth of the preparation of the XML DTD for Authorities NLM initiated the development of an XML DTD for authority records for
the names and titles in Voyager that will be used to enrich the cross-reference
structure for the Entrez-based catalog database and to support the exchange of
authority data with other NLM Web-based projects. Wade-Giles to Pinyin Conversion Project Completed With the completion of all manual review and updating of pre-AACR2
Chinese authority records, NLM concluded the final phase of its multi-year
project to convert Wade-Giles romanization of bibliographic and authority
records to the pinyin romanization scheme.
The project, initiated in 2000 along with those of other libraries in
the Improved Access to Free Electronic Journals Phases
II and III of the Free Electronic Access Team (FEAT) project were
implemented. With FEAT II, links were
made available in DOCLINE and Loansome Doc for
articles available free electronically that are identified in PubMed LinkOut, even if the title
is not in PubMed Central. (Phase I included this information for titles
in PubMed Central).
In addition, information was added to LocatorPlus
to inform users when titles (with data in LinkOut ) were available free electronically. FEAT III features include redesign of the “On
Order Processing” pages within DOCLINE and Loansome
Doc to make more prominent the alert that an article is available free
electronically and the addition of an icon next to the links for the free
text. Another new feature is the
capability to search for free (electronic) articles when users input requests
in DOCLINE with search parameters that do not include the PMID. Electronic Resources Management A
project to develop specifications for an electronic resources management system
and to evaluate existing ERM systems was undertaken. The recommendation is for NLM to build a
system in-house, based on the fact that NLM has a well-developed system for
extracting data from the ILS to be used in various other applications,
including DOCLINE and NLM's indexing system. Utilizing this foundation will create the
greatest potential for achieving system integration. DOCLINE Redesign DOCLINE
2.0 included a redesigned interface that is easier to navigate and incorporated
the use of more “plain language” to reduce the amount of NLM-specific
terminology. As a part of this process,
the DOCLINE SERHOLD module is now called Serial Holdings or DOCLINE Serial
Holdings, and DOCUSER is now called Institutions. References to batch update have retained the
SERHOLD designation and the fact sheet will remain unchanged. This policy may be revisited with DOCLINE
3.0, which will incorporate major changes to the Requests and Serial Holdings
modules. ISSNs The
Shared Serials Data team examined how ISSNs for
multiple formats can be recorded and handled within NLM’s
internal systems, and in PubMed processing. Currently, all of these files are only
programmed to handle the display of two ISSN types. Due to NLM’s
“single record” policy, several types of media for the same title might be
described in one bibliographic record.
Each media type will usually have a distinct ISSN. Proposals for a solution to this
multi-faceted problem are still under consideration. 2004 Publications The
2004 List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus
(LJI) and List of Serials Indexed for Online Users (LSI) were
produced. The LJI is available in print
and PDF, and the LSI is available in PDF and XML. ILS: NLM installed Voyager's release 2001.2 in production on ENCompass:
The
Research Libraries contracted with Backstage (formerly MARC Link) to supply
record matches for approximately 135,000 titles in a backlog of mostly foreign
language publications. All have brief order records dating back to when the
Research Libraries used the RLIN acquisitions system. The match rate is
approximately 50%. Backstage will also add item record data to the full records
they deliver and will supply smart barcodes. The titles that do not get enhanced will be slowly fed into the Cataloging Division for
local staff to catalog. We
are in discussions with Casalini to begin supplying records this summer for
Italian publications we purchase. Evelyn
Frangakis was appointed Aaron and Clara Greenhut Rabinowitz Chief of
Preservation and began work on March 22nd. The
Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Division completed a 3 year cooperative mass
deacidification project funded by Construction
on module 4 is underway and scheduled to be completed by summer 2005. Locally,
we are designing a new workflow that will facilitate transfer of newly
processed materials to storage from Technical Services. Selectors are advising
on which categories of materials are appropriate to send to storage
immediately. Recruitments
are underway for an Associate Chief of the Acquisitions Division, CATNYP
Systems Administrator, and Head of Conservation Treatment. The
NYPL website was redesigned and debuted on May 3rd
(http://www.nypl.org/). Some design elements were carried over into the web
opac, CATNYP. Hebrew search and display functionality were added to the CATNYP.
By mid July, CJK search and display functionality will be also be available. This
summer, the III Millennium Acquisitions and Cataloging modules will be
implemented. In
July, the New York Public Library will implement filtering software on all
public and staff PCs throughout the library system in order to comply with
CIPA.
ALCTS Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries Group
I. Search for a new ILS. After an extended evaluation process, we have selected a system and
signed a letter of intent. We hope to have have a signed contract this month and plan a June 2006
implementation.
II. Renovation of Bobst Library. From late March through mid-May, our tech services work
area endured major reconstruction. We were able to relocate 27 cataloging staff to another floor,
but another 12 were nomads, moving several times during the construction work. We are now living
with the dust and noise from demolition work from a neighboring space that will be a renovated for
a group and individual study area and electronic resources center. Over the summer, renovation
work will be done in our first floor reference area, mezzanine reference offices, and A-Level study
areas. Additionally, we will have a larger, much improved preservation work area.
III. Set records. Our Electronic Access Policy Committee has forwarded to tech services a
long list of purchased sets for which analytic cataloging records are available. Every set
requires communication between our database manager and vendor, and then extensive review by
cataloging staff. Tracking progress on cataloging becomes an extension of our efforts to monitor
selection and acquisitions.
IV. Offsite storage. We met our first year's goal of relocating a modest 66,000 volumes 400
archival boxes. We will continue to use a temporary storage facility 60 miles north of us until we
secure our own land next to that facility. So far, our criteria of not circulating within the
past 5 years seems to be working out, but this was for science and social science materials. This
fall we will move out more science journals, older NYU dissertations and low-use humanities titles.
V. Projects. We are working with a funding agency to propose the creation of an "archivist's
toolkit", a suite of software that will help manage archival collections from the point of
consideration for aceptance/purchase through receipt, provneance regis tration, ingest of legacy
data, preservation treatment, inventorying, loaning etc.
VI. Backlogs. We are attacking backlogs with a combination of adjunct professionals and
OCLC's TechPro service for Greek language material.
Arno Kastner
Preparation
for renovation of Main Library Progress continues on the project to transfer
monographs, serials, and microforms out of the Thompson Memorial (Main) Library to the Libraries'
off-site compact storage facility in preparation for a major building renovation scheduled to begin
2005/06. Some cataloged special collections materials also are being sent to the Depository.
Schematic design for the renovated library is underway. The target date for all personnel and
collections to move out of Main Library is summer 2005. Technical Services personnel, along with
many units, will move to a swing space facility recently acquired by the University about two
miles from the library. Technical Services, Preservation, and Information Technology personnel
currently housed in the Main Library will not be returning to the renovated building. They will
remain in the temporary facility an extra year (for 4 years rather than 3) while less extensive
renovation is done to another library building that will be their new home.
Budget Issues
Like many libraries, OSU is looking for ways to adapt to a basically flat budget, devaluation of
the dollar abroad, rising cost of most materials, and shrinking state support for local and
consortium acquisitions, including maintenance of high-cost online resources. Collection
development and technical service personnel developed a multi-part Materials Budget Adjustment
Strategy to address this environment. The Libraries are using the Strategy to meet current needs
while remaining committed to long-range changes in patterns of scholarly communication.
Serials Cancellation Project
Duplicate Monographs Test
Approval Reprofiling to Slow Expenditures
Internal Audit
OCLC Connexion Implementation
Based on the results of a Connexion training test with a small number of staff, we decided to
conduct hands-on training for all Technical Services personnel in house. The in-house training
allows for customization and creates a core group of trainers who remain available to answer
questions and to assist in making a smooth transition to Connexion. The training sessions are
being conducted this month.
Access to Special Collections
New attempts to highlight "Hidden Collections" (outgrowth of ARL's agenda) include linking from
bibliographic records to databases, oral history abstracts, and other forms of deep description.
Staffing
We were very pleased to fill our newly created Metadata Librarian position with an excellent
candidate who began work June 1. This position will support metadata creation for content to be
contributed to the Knowledge Bank, OSU’s institutional repository . It will also support further
implementation of EAD in appropriate special collections.
The head of the Cataloging Dept. has been very successful at recruiting practicum students from the
library school program that is conducted on OSU’s campus by Kent State University. This spring, a
practicum student inventoried and analyzed the materials in the department that are waiting for
problem resolution. She wrote an excellent report that will assist the department head in
allocating resources to handle these materials while managing the additional workload created by
the transfer of many items to the Book Depository in preparation for library renovation. The
student has also resolved some of the problems to help implement her recommendations. We are
please to benefit from the efforts of the practicum students while we provide them with practi cal
experience and exposure to issues faced by a large research library.
Serials Issues: While
the full impact of the print cancellations has yet to be felt, there is already
an appreciable reduction in the number of issues checked-in and processed
(estimated at approximately 6000-7000 issues) At University Park
approximately .3 FTE has been freed up from print processing for other
duties. This is expected to increase this year. Check-in staff is
now shifting from print to electronic resources management. This includes
several large order record creation projects for the large packages and will
eventually include data entry and management in a soon to be acquired
context-sensitive linking product and management of licensing data in Penn
State has participated in the CONSER Publication Pattern Initiative and is now
looking at the possibility of contributing serial cataloging in the future as a
CONSER Associate member. Web Content Management
System: A User-Focused Web Steering Committee has been created to
make decisions regarding the basic architecture of the libraries web pages, and
to develop an RFP for a content management system for our web. The group is
examining how each unit in the libraries manages it’s web content, and from
that is examining contributor requirements, technology requirements,
communication channels, internet information architecture, intranet information
architecture and user interface design. This information will be used to
develop the RFP. Personnel: Nancy Stanley is retiring as Head of Acquisitions on Vendor/ILS
Partnerships: The Libraries are working with EBSCO and SIRSI to develop
EDI capability for periodical invoicing. We are also working with Yankee Book
Peddler and SIRSI to develop an interface between GOBI2 and our ILS. Cataloging Services: We plan to implement PromptCat and full-shelf ready
processing for our Yankee Book Peddler firm order titles by the end of June or
July.
Several years ago the Trustees approved a 10% expansion of
the undergraduate student body. The incoming freshman class will be the first
expanded class and the Library is gearing up to deal with increased numbers of
first year students. We have finally broken ground for the construction of our
first consolidated science library. Completion date is sometime in 2007, but
the prospect of a consolidated library is present in much of our planning now. Our Systems Office has hired a web development specialist
and a digital photographer. We are beginning a search for a digital programmer
as well. In an effort to keep all library staff better informed about
activities in Technical Services we have begun to distribute an online newsletter.
Thus far the publication has been quarterly, but we anticipate picking up the
pace in the fall. It has been very well received by our staff, both within and
without the department. The newsletter is distributed on a local list and
archived on our website. Acquisitions: Following the success of purchased catalog records for our
main English language Italian approval plans, we are beginning to explore the
possibility of purchasing catalog records for monograph titles supplied on
series standing orders. We are also in discussion with several of our Middle
Eastern vendors regarding acquisition of machine readable in process records
for approval plans from that area. Order Division has begun to develop interactive online
tutorials for staff learning to use our integrated library system. A demo of
this is available at:
http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/order/ordoc.html Future plans include developing scenarios that will be
useful to collection development and public services staff who use the
acquisitions and cataloging clients too infrequently to recall all the details. A task force has been formed to undertake a full review of
our current binding practices and develop recommendations for reducing our
expenses. The groups report will be due in August. Cataloging: Effective May 3rd we have reorganized our Catalog Division
to create a new unit: Approvals and Copy Cataloging Unit. Our goal in creating
this unit is to expand the amount of cataloging done on receipt. The
responsibility of this unit will include both acquisitions and cataloging on
receipt approval plan material that arrives with some kind of vendor records.
The new unit draws together staff whose primary responsibilities include
processing high volume approval plans for which we receive online vendor
records and which have a high incidence of cataloging copy on receipt, and
staff whose responsibilities focus on LC and non-LC copy cataloging and
selected original cataloging of titles on receipt and from the Hold. Staff in
this unit were previously assigned to other units in the Catalog Division. We
will be opening a search for permanent unit head shortly. We have appointed Joyce Bell as Catalog Division
Coordinator. She will have primary responsibility for planning and operational
management of the Division. With the arrival of our first full-time electronic resources
cataloguer on April 1, Catalog Division has reorganized the cataloging of all
electronic resources into a single unit. Circulation: Space in the main library, Firestone, continues to be a
serious problem, despite the volume of material that has been moved to our
storage facility. A recent stack shift to accommodate about 3000 new titles
required moving 1,100,000 volumes, just to provide some idea of the magnitude
of the problem. Firestone is also undergoing a security upgrade. The first
phase, now underway, includes the installation new emergency lighting and
signage. The impact on both staff and patrons using the collections is just
beginning to be felt. The current phase of the project should be completed
before our fall term begins. The second phase, the installation of a fire
suppression system, is tentatively scheduled for next summer, and promises to
be even more disruptive. Electronic resources and metadata: Princeton has just become a partner with Endeavour
Information Systems, Inc. in the development of an electronic resources
management system.
Stanford University Libraries Budget,
FY 2005
Collection Deployment Simultaneously, we are
integrating into SULAIR on-campus space about half of the book collections of the Hoover
Institution. Classifications A-C were added in March; D-Z and newspapers are targeted for
thirteen-month project starting this November. We estimate 25,000 bundles of newspapers and
somewhere between 400,000-500,000 selected volumes.
Cataloging & Metadata
Acquisitions
Digital Projects
New Library System:
Budget: Digital Collection Management and Licensing unit: Conservation Lab: UC Libraries ERMS: Shared Print Pilot:
Since January's report, the Technical Services Division
at the University of Illinois continues to move forward,
concentrating on activities that put the needs of our users
first and creating an environment where innovation and
creativity are encouraged. We have a very young division
with 8 untenured faculty out of 11 and their new ideas,
creativity, and energy are wonderful. I'd like to recognize
Maria Porta, Wendy Shelburn, Gail Hueting, K.C. Elhard, Qiang
Jin, Atoma Batoma, Michael Norman, Naun Chew, Jennifer Hain
and Tom Teper, along our research programmer Stephanie Baker,
our Brittle Books coordinator Annette Morris, and the staff
of our division for their hard work during this year of
managment transition in the Division and budget uncertainty
for Illinois and for the University.
Technological Advances
We completed a review of the Blackwell's approval plan and
began implementing Promptcat for both approvals and firm
orders. Thanks to the work of several acquisitions staff,
Junghae Lee from Systems, Naun Chew from Serials Cataloging,
and Kathleen Kluegel and Cindy Ingold, two of our subject
librarians, we were able to transform the way we place
orders. Selectors began using Blackwell's Collection Manager
for order placement. We hope to merge acquisitions and
copy cataloging functions together even more this next year.
This year marked the first year we used the acquisitions
module of Voyager and the first time that acquisitions
functions have been integrated with the other library
functions.
Michael Norman and Wendy Shelburne worked closely with John
Weible in Systems to implement our new online resources
registry. Using weekly feeds from TDnet, and data from
several other sources, we've increased the number of journals
that are accessible to our users by almost fourfold.
National Initiatives
Our participation in national cataloging initiatives keeps
increasing. Just as we've grown in our preservation program,
we are also growing in our cataloging programs. Gail
Hueting, a senior faculty member in the Modern Languages
Library, began a one year appointment in Cataloging so that
she could assist with the training of new catalogers. Her
assistance and expertise has proved to be very valuable.
Qiang Jin has led the library in its quest to be a full NACO
member. Thanks to a grant from the Mellon Foundation, we have
been able to convert over 1 million short bibliographic
records to full bib records in our catalog. We continue to
participate in the CONSER publication plan initiative.
Preservation
Established as a centralized operation only 2.5 years ago,
UIUC's Preservation and Conservation Program has made great
strides in meeting the needs of the institution's
collections. Whether improving existing services such as
library binding, establishing basic services such as
centralized triage operation for damaged materials, or
developing training programs for the Library's personnel, the
program has been making great progress. The last year saw the
following five significant accomplishments:
Lisa German
The Library has been focused on implementing the Aleph integrated library system as the new
Mirlyn, the Library’s online information system which will go live for staff on July 8 and to the
campuses at large on July 12. I say campuses in that the UM-Flint campus as well as the Bentley
Historical Library and the Clements Library for the study of early American history and culture are
part of the implementation which will result in one merged online catalog. The Aleph system
replaces the NOTIS catalog and the Innopac acquisitions system. A number of data clean-up projects
were undertaken in preparation for implementation; among these was the updating of all serial
holdings records. The Library implemented the Ex Libris SFX module in the spring and will implement
MetaLib in September.
The Library is facing a potential 2.5% cut in the FY2005 budget. The Provost asked us to model
this cut on both the operational and the materials budget. In the past the materials budget has
always been protected. Collection development and selectors have cancelled some serial titles in
anticipation of the cuts. We will know if the cuts will be necessary will probably not know before
August as the State has not yet finalized the budget.
Cataloging loaded the Library of Congress resource file offered by Peter Ward. The file is the
first search for copy. They also implemented OCLC CatMe for monograph and serials cataloging which
has led to more efficient workflows. Acquisitions will implement CatMe for acquisitions searching
as well prior to shift to production in Aleph. As a result of these changes we have been able to
reduce the number of telecommunications ports twenty-five percent.
The Library sustained staff cuts in FY2003. As a result we changed our CONSER status from full
member to enhance status. We hope to revisit this decision next year. Most of our NACO
submissions had been as a result of our CONSER work. We are now submitting heads that are
established primarily as part of our special collections cataloging efforts.
Cooperative Access Services implemented the ILLiad Interlibrary Loan Management System for all
services, interlibrary loan, 747-Fast campus delivery service and Michigan Information Transfer
Service fee-based service in 2003. We joined the RAPID project on a pilot basis in January 2004
and will continue it for the next year to assess the value of the service which thus far has
improved turnaround time for document delivery to less than one day for items available from RAPID
participants.
Preservation worked on a number of digitization projects in addition to continuing to use
digitization as the preferred preservation mode for brittle books. Projects included the NEH
Philippines I and II, the Coalition of Library Directors Michigan County Histories and Atlases,
Making of Ann Arbor, and others. These along with the brittle books make up the 21,000 item
General Collection of digitized items that are available to users.
The Library Metadata Specialist provided consultative support to the campus Digital Asset
Management System initiative whereby materials developed by faculty in the dentistry, education,
and psychology are being digitized in support of instruction. This initiative is in conjunction
with IBM and is still in early stages of development as it was only in April that objects were able
to be ingested. We will continue to support the project on a trial basis to determine the role
that the Library should play in such activities.
Technical
Services: We have renamed and reorganized technical services following on a year long planning
process. The new organization is largely function based with allowances for geographic issues and
the efficiencies inherent in cataloging on receipt. The new structure and staffing assignments go
into effect July 1, 2004. We hope the outcome will be greater efficiencies through process
improvement and that the new structure will allow us to survive challenging budget situations and
position us to make strides metadata and project work. We are actively sharing information about
Technical Services activities and accomplishments in the Libraries’ internal e-newsletter via brief
monthly announcements with links to more information on the Technical Services Web site.
Staffing: We eagerly await applications for a new Metadata Librarian position. The job
posting is at
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/employment/openings/job124473.html The position reports to
the Director of Technical Services and will work cooperatively with digital initiatives in other
Departments in the Libraries and on campus. It is a great opportunity for someone to participate
in a defining moment in new directions for the Libraries. We have hand several retirements and are
looking at how to re-deploy those salary lines creatively to advance our goals (efficiencies,
metadata, and projects).
Technology: We have made great strides in a number of areas. Uthink, a blogging
service for the campus, was developed by the Libraries Digital Development Lab and was unveiled in
early April. It has been a great success across campus and is being using internally by the
Libraries, including by Technical Services. The Undergraduate Virtual Library interface should be
ready for fall Semester. SFX implementation is well in hand, and the process for acquiring a
Metasearch tool is well underway.
The Special Collections and Archives units have embarked upon a major EAD project, with the goal of
creating a central repository and search engine for discovering and accessing U of M archival
finding aids. In preparation for the large volume of encoding work, a standard for local finding
aids was developed. This will allow for greater standardization of MARC collection level records,
and facilitate efforts to map EAD tags to MARC tags, for easier data conversion from one standard
to the other.
ILS and OPAC: We have made significant progress extracting management information, in
post-migration cleanup work and in record import and export. We exported records to the
bibliographic utilities this month and should soon be caught up and on a regular schedule. We
successfully batchloaded DigitalEvans records this past weekend. We have made extensive use of
macros in much of this work. We expect to set up SFXMARCit loads very soon. We are likely to
migrate to version 16 of Aleph this coming winter.
Budget: Our overall budget situation remains uncertain. The Legislature failed to pass any
funding bills this session, and the University of Minnesota has had to once again increase tuition
and make some cuts to balance the budget.
PERSONNEL
Ernestine Potter, Head of Cataloging, is retiring August 31 after 38
years of service.
RECRUITMENT
Recruitment is underway for an Education Bibliographer. A posting for
the Head of Cataloging should follow.
SEARCH FOR INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM
BUDGET
PLANNING PROCESS
RETROSPECTIVE CONVERSION
June 2004 1. Staffing 2.
Special Collections Library: Construction is nearly complete on the Mary and David
Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture and Albert and
Shirley Small Special Collections Library.
Staff and collections will move summer 2004 (http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/newlib/). 3. Digital Library/Fedora Project: The UVa Library is nearing the
launch of its Central Digital Repository based on the Fedora system.
Phase 1 of the Repository was a prototype released for review in summer
2003. Feedback on the functionality and design was used to develop the
functional specifications and priorities for the next release of the
Repository, aka "Phase 2." Collections of digital images of art
and architecture, electronic texts, and electronic finding aids will be
included. The goals for the project include development and refinement of
production workflows for local digital content, online search services,
including a cross-format discovery search and two full-text search indices for
electronic texts and finding aids, and tools for working with the image
collections. Full implementation with an initial set of collections is
set for August. 4. SIRSI Rooms: The
Library began the process of evaluating the SIRSI Rooms
product. Prototypes of Single Search and the Open URL
resolver have been implemented, and the resolver database has been populated. 5. Elsevier: The Library negotiated a very
favorable 5 year license in which we agreed to sustain expenditures with
reasonable price rises over the term of the contract and in return we get
access to all the titles on Science Direct. We did this in collaboration
with six other Universities in the Commonwealth with the negotiating team led
by a UVa law professor who also works as a Special Assistant to our University
Librarian. 6.
Metadata: A Metadata Steering Group (MSG) was
created to approve and maintain metadata standards for the Library's digital
initiatives. MSG accomplishments thus far include: the thorough review of
the UVa Metadata standards (DescMeta and AdminMeta); preliminary review of the
GDMS (General Descriptive Modeling Scheme) element set; mappings from other
international standards to UVa Metadata: the establishment of various UVa
metadata best practices; and the creation of a UVa Library metadata website: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/metadata 7.
Planning Teams: Planning Day 2003 at the 8. Authority Control: 9. Digital Dissertations: In order to better preserve the intellectual heritage of the University, we
are currently working with ProQuest (UMI division) to microfilm then digitize
dissertations produced at UVa from the first one in 1885 up to and including
1929 (~140 dissertations). These will be added to the Digital
Dissertations database. 10. Casalini: Cataloging Services is now receiving Casalini Libri MARC
records. With this change in workflow, titles are now cataloged within
our 4-6 day through-put standard for member cataloging, rather than sitting
20-30 days before cataloging.
BUDGET
DIGITAL ACTIVITIES
VIRTUAL COMMUNITY MUSEUM
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
SPECIAL PROJECTS
We conducted a project to create a set of computing best practices for our
staff, prompted by a spate of security issues and service attacks. We
discovered there was a distinct lack of knowledge about how individual
practices compromised the security of the network. The process of
investigating this problem led to numerous other revelations about
practices, myths, and misconceptions about the use of personal computers.
The initial work was expanded and adopted into other areas of the library.
The new practices have enhanced our security as well as staff skills and
productivity. This summer we will be planning a "clean up your computer
files day," giving staff time to work on their personal computer files,
shared documents, email, and web pages.
Other initiatives included a work flow and budgeting analysis of our marking
activities, a binding needs review, and an overhaul of our scholarly
communications web site.
STAFFING
Joyce Ogburn
Joyce L. Ogburn, Associate Director of the Libraries
Collection Budget:
Shelving Facility:
Pinyin Conversion:
Embedded Order Confirmation Records:
Staff Vacancies:
Miscellaneous:
Finally, the libraries conducted a user survey in the spring using the LibQual+ instrument. The
findings will be reported after training on data interpretation has been received this summer.
Submitted by Richard Reeb
ALA Annual Meeting 2004
Library Budget. The Library was asked to take a 5% decrease
in its general appropriations budget for 2004-05. This year the Library was able to achieve the
cuts without staff layoffs. The
Collections budget was not affected. Process Improvement. The Library has just completed a successful
year-long quality improvement redesign initiative directed at the selection
through acquisitions processes. With the
help of consultants, the Library built a cross-functional non-hierarchical team
first to work through the redesign, and then to
develop an implementation plan. Acquisition Improvements. We are loading embedded order data for most
of our large approval plans and are very pleased with the improvements to the
workflow. Receiving backlogs have
disappeared and the Fiscal Support unit is current with payments. Record Set Loads. We have resumed large record set loads that
were deferred during our first year with Voyager. This includes Serial Solutions records
including updates and deletes and a number of large digital sets. Voyager Unicode Release. We did a thorough evaluation of the Voyager
Unicode release and have decided to implement it during the summer ’05. The
Voyager Unicode release is not a complete implementation of support for
Unicode. As is, it provides limited
improvements to our ability to serve our area collection readers and support
staff working with these collections.
Full Unicode support will not be achieved without the inclusion of the
following three components: 1) Culturally appropriate functionality for the searching,
sorting, and display of non-Roman records. 2) Within the Cataloging client, the
co-location of Roman and non-Roman tags in the MARC record display. 3) Unicode support within the Acquisition
module. Federated Searching. We conducted an evaluation of MetaLib
(ExLibris) and EnCompass (Endeavor) and made a decision to implement MetaLib
beginning with the Medical Library. Establishment of Integrated Access
Council. Following on
strategic planning recommendations, an Integrated Access Council has been
established to provide cross-functional leadership, coordination, and centralized
communication to guide the review, revision, development and implementation of
the action plans for integrated access/digital library developments including
digital preservation initiatives and integrating interfaces. Rescue Repository. A task force was charged to create
a requirements document for a Rescue Repository for the Yale University Library
digital collections. The requirements
include: ingest, storage and backup and retrieval functions, and access control.
The repository will be implemented by the end of the summer 04. Library Systems Office Reorganization. The office has been reorganized to better
support the Integrated Access goals. The new LSO (tentatively renamed
Integrated Library Technology Services) consists of two interlocking teams for
digital library research and planning, and implementation and operations. The
groups will work closely with the Integrated Access Council to establish
priorities for development work based upon the library’s strategic directions. Finding Aids. Joan Swanekamp is leading an effort to
develop a coordinated Finding Aid Program for Yale. The current practice is that the various Yale
Library special collections each create and manage their own Finding Aids. The program requirements will include
development of EAD best practices, training, library systems support,
implementation of a common tool for creating EAD records, and a recommendation
for a decision-making mechanism.
DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Deborah Jakubs (deborah.jakubs@duke.edu)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Jeffrey Horrell (horrell@fas.harvard.edu)
Harvard University
Round Robin Report
Jeffrey Horrell
Associate
Librarian for Collections
June 11, 2004
INDIANA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
From: Mechael D. Charbonneau mgago@indiana.edu Personnel
Local System
IU-Link, a new service based on Ex Libris’ SFX software,
was successfully implemented on March 1st. SIRSI’s Single Search product was recently
selected for federated searching.
The Libraries’ new intranet went live in January. The user interface design and web content
management system were developed locally.
Acquisitions
Cataloging
Access to Electronic Resources
Director of Technical Services & Head, Cataloging Division
Indiana University Libraries
Main Library, Rm. E-350
1320 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-3907
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Becky J. Lyon
lyonb@mail.nlm.nih.gov
ALA Annual Meeting
2004
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY UPDATE, June 2004
From: Cynthia Clark cclark@nypl.org
Administrative
Changes
David Ferriero was selected as the next Andrew W.
Mellon Director of Research Libraries and will begin his appointment on
September 1st. Cataloging
Presevation
ReCAP – Remote
Storage Facility
Recruitments
Systems
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Arno Kastner aak2@nyu.edu
New York University
June 2004
Arno Kastner
Director of Technical Services
Bobst Library
New York University
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
212-998-2477 (Voice)
212-995-4366 (Fax)
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
June 2004
ALA Annual Round Robin
Sally Rogers rogers.19@osu.edu
Another major serials cancellation project (the
third in 3 years) has just been completed to reduce serials expenditures for 2005 by an estimated
$1.1 million. This particular cancellation project included a component that focused on canceling
duplicate copies (e.g., the print copy for titles available electronically). In spite of the
cancellation of more than 5000 titles this year, we anticipate the need for another round of serial
cancellations next year. We have taken the position that we will use strategies other than asking
for more money to fund excessive journal price increases. The University’s Council on Libraries
and Information Technology has drafted a resolution that supports the budget reduction strategies
being used by the Libraries--inc luding serial cancellations in consultation with faculty—as well
as participation in open access initiatives designed to provide scholarly communication
alternatives.
The number of monograph funds at risk of being expended
too early increased over previous years. In addition to cutbacks in approval, firm orders were
addressed with a Duplicate Monographs Test. The change in pre-order searching has staff notify
collection managers if circulating copies of a requested title are held elsewhere in the state,
accessible through OhioLINK. Collection managers may request a copy for OSU, but a reason must be
provided, such as ready reference or high use. Reasons are logged in order records and will be
tabulated at the end of the fiscal year to determine if further savings can be obtained by relying
more heavily on statewide resources.
Non-subject descriptors on our major
domestic approval plan were adjusted to bring in fewer titles. This has been successful in slowing
spending in some subject areas. We plan a limited test of "virtual approvals" this summer, based
on online selection of titles generated by the approval profile without book in hand. This is
being tested to address budget concerns as well as plan for next summer when all personnel and
collections vacate the Main Library for the 3-year renovation project.
The university schedule for internal audits includes the Libraries
materials acquisitions areas this year. These areas have traditionally maintained detailed
procedures and records. It is hoped that the audit may identify areas where streamlining can take
place without affecting quality.
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Round Robin, June 2004
Rosann Bazirjian, Assistant Dean for Technical &
Access Services
rvb9@psulias.psu.edu
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
From: Katharine Farrell kfarrell@princeton.edu
HIGHLIGHTS FOR BIGHEADS
ALA Annual Conference, June, 2004
Princeton Update June 2004
STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 18, 2004
From: Catherine M. Tierney ctierney@stanford.edu
Catherine Tierney, AUL for Technical Services
We will not be taking the anticipated 3-5% budget cut for fiscal 2005, so we have
begun filling open positions that had been held. There will be a salary increase program at the
University this year; there was none for FY2004. Collections budget received 7% increase, partly
in response to the dollar’s poor performance against Euro and British pound. Nevertheless, we are
in midst of another round of serial cancellations, including 10% for STM journals.
Massive efforts are underway to identify and prepare materials to go to remote shelving (SAL3),
the maw of which requires 32,000 items per month. Load staff at SAL3 will increase 50% (from 4 to
6) in September, so ingestion numbers increase to 48,000 per month.
Metadata work is nicely migrating into jobs of Data Control staff,
who are evaluating the descriptive metadata that Apex, the GATT fiche digitization vendor, is
generating. It is first time that line staff are routinely assessing data that is outside the
MARC format. Metadata librarian’s work has expanded beyond developing control of library objects
to that of course management objects (CourseWork and onto Sakai) and faculty projects using Dspace
prototype. East Asia Library has begun its 3-year reconproject for 250,000 titles via Backstage
Library Works.
We have extended cataloging-on-receipt to include DVDs and videos. As of
9/1/04 we will expand our Casalini fast track to include classification numbers and subject
headings.
We are one of four partners in the Archive Ingest & Handling Test (AIHT)
funded by Library of Congress, running until February 2005. The objective is for all four to
analyze and ingest the same objects into our repositories, and then to test the means of describing
and delivering content among ourselves. The content is a fixed collection of objects related to
the events of September 11, 2001.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARIES
HIGHLIGHTS FOR BIGHEADS
ALA annual conference, June 2004
From: Cynthia Shelton, Associate University Librarian, Collections and Technical Services
( cshelton@library.ucla.edu)
As of Wednesday, July 7, UCLA went completely live with our new
system, Endeavor's Voyager. The new system is named the UCLA Library Catalog and the URL for the
OPAC is: http://catalog.library.ucla.edu. We have
had relatively minor problems with functionality and the performance is very good. We continue to
make improvements to the OPAC interface based on usability studies. We are facing some rather large
migration workloads related to serial record linking and addition of predictive patterns. We have
also accumulated backlogs, such as in our OCLC record loads and our receiving of materials. There
is a lot to do in designing new workflows. But there have been very few ugly surprises. Our
implementation team led by Sara Shatford Layne did an amazing job. The collaborative efforts and
hard work of the entire staff have made for a successful implementation.
Last year we responded to a 7.5 percent budget cut in part through
consolidations and centralizations in acquisition and cataloging operations. There is now a single
UCLA Cataloging Center and two main acquisition units: Social Science and Humanities Acquisition
and Sciences Acquisition. The staffs of these units handled extremely well the challenge of
re-organization and centralization while preparing for migration to a new system. This year, the
UCLA Library has received a 2 percent cut. We expect to cut both the collection budget and return
positions to achieve the cut.
We have just created a new unit to
manage licensing, acquisition, and trouble-shooting of electronic resources. One of the main tasks
of the unit will be to continue development of our home-grown electronic resources management
system. Sharon Farb heads the new unit.
I don’t recall if I reported on this in the January round robin.
UCLA established the UCLA Conservation Center in January with the completion of the construction of
our conservation lab and the hiring of a conservator. The lab is funded by a grant and matching
endowment from the Mellon Foundation. It will focus on preserving our highly used materials both in
the stacks and special collections.
UCLA is pleased to be active participants in
identifying/developing a system wide tool for collaborative management of electronic resources,
with a focus on the managing of licensed journals. A taskforce had put out a Request for
Information and will have a report by the end of July.
A pilot completed in January to create a shared print archive of
Elsevier and ACM journal electronic titles proved cost effective and scalable. UCLA serves as the
acquisition and cataloging unit; the Southern Regional Library Facility is the physical location of
the “"dim" archive. We will be moving forward to create a shared print archive of additional
publishers as we negotiate new licenses.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
submitted by Lisa German
lgerman@uiuc.edu
June, 2004
Head of Acquisitions
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801
lgerman@uiuc.edu
phone(217)244-2071
fax (217)244-9004
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Phelix Hanible ( phelix@umich.ed)
Libraries Update
June 2004
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LIBRARIES
Bigheads Round Robin,
June 2004
From: Barbara A. Stelmasik
b-stel@tc.umn.edu
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Robin Fradenburgh
r.fradenburgh@mail.utexas.edu
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN LIBRARIES
ALA Annual Meeting, June 2004
Fred Heath, our new Vice Provost and Director, has been on the job for 10
months now. The general excitement and renewed energy I mentioned in
January is still very apparent amongst the staff. Although it's too
early to expound on Fred's many plans to improve staff salaries, status,
work environment, etc., the knowledge that they are in the works has done
much to elevate staff morale.
After last year's freeze and budget reduction, professional recruitment
has been very active this spring. We hired a new Head of the Fine Arts
Library this month, Laura Schwartz, previously, Art Librarian, in the
Fine Arts Library. Catherine Hamer, Head of Access Services at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa, will start as Document Delivery Librarian,
Sept. 30. We are currently conducting interviews for the Head of Music
Cataloging, which is the first new cataloging position in over 15 years.
Four vendors responded favorably to our RFI process and presented
demonstrations to our staff in April and May. We are now embarking on
the next phase of the process, the RFP, which we hope to submit in the
Fall, pending funding.
The FY2004/2005 budget contains some bright spots. The Provost has
provided $400,000 in recurring funds for the materials budget and there
is a 3% merit pool for staff salary increases.
The strategic management planning process continues. Throughout the
spring various groups have met to discuss our vision, mission, goals and
objectives. Four different sets of stakeholders were identified and
meetings were held for their input. In March, an all campus summit was
held with a cross section of University staff and students, including the
President, Vice Presidents and Deans. Goals and objectives have been
formulated from the results of these meetings. We are currently in the
process of working on the strategy to complete these objectives. Given
we've never done this before, it's been an interesting and sometimes
frustrating exercise. But in the end, the Library should be much better
situated for visibility with the Provost and much needed funding.
We are still on track to finish with retro conversion this Fall. We'll
still have some in-house recon going on and clean-up, but our major
projects should be finished. We're currently finishing up with South
Asian, Middle Eastern, and the Textbook Collection.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LIBRARIES
HIGHLIGHTS FOR BIGHEADS
ALA Annual conference, June 2004
From: Beth Picknally Camden (
bpcamden@virginia.edu
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Joyce Ogburn
jlogburn@u.washington.edu
June 17, 2004
The UW Libraries is please to report that we will be getting an influx of
funding from the university to add to our resources budget. We have many
people to thank for making the case that the libraries is a major
contributor to the success of the research enterprise and that we should be
funded at a level that enables us to provide the numbers and kinds of
resources required.
One the digital front there are numerous activities underway. As members of
the DSpace Federation, we contributed to a project to harvest image metadata
from Contentdm for indexing by Google. The Libraries, in conjunction with
UW visual resources units and slide libraries, were the recipients of a
university grant to acquire digital image collections and make them widely
available throughout our three campuses. This ad hoc partnership will enable
us to move in concert in providing image-based services and eliminate
duplicative efforts and purchasing. Moreover, we will develop joint
standards on image scanning for display and preservation, and anticipate we
will provide a much more broad and diverse set of images than we could
working independently.
Work continues on grants for creating a virtual community museum with tribes
on the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington and participating in the Greater
Western Library Alliance Western Waters project, albeit this is still a slow
process. We are garnering ever more interest from faculty in contributing to
the institutional repository. We are learning more about the practical
issues of selecting material, obtaining permissions, and adding metadata to
incoming materials by asking our librarians to contribute professional
publications and by adding practice documents from our cataloging unit.
The implementation of the Electronic Resources Management module of III is
well underway. The system was brought up recently and we are now in the
process of record clean up.
Endowment funds were used to start new processes that will fund two areas of
need: preservation and scholarly communication. The preservation program
created processes for submitting, reviewing and selecting projects. We also
used money from the sale of our card catalogs to supplement the funding
initially identified. For scholarly communication, the steering committee
for this area funded initiatives, such as Project Euclid or the Public
Library of Science, for up to three years. Previously we may not have
identified and funded initiatives or our selectors struggled to find funds
in the midst of serials cancellations. We hope to continue both programs
now that processes have been established.
Two searches are still in progress - one for an assistant acquisitions
librarian and a librarian to add to our team in Collection Management
Services dealing with electronic resources.
Resources and Collection Management Services
University of Washington
Box 352900
Seattle WA 98195-2900
jlogburn@u.washington.edu
Phone: 206-685-2889
Fax: 206-685-8727
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Richard Reeb
rreeb@library.wisc.edu
ALA Conference 2004
Round Robin Report
In early 2004 campus administration approved one-time funding of $217,500 enabling the libraries to
maintain core research journals especially in the sciences, and to offset some of this year’s
increases for other acquisitions, both print-based and electronic. We also successfully secured
from campus a base budget increase of $400,000 for FY 04/05. Despite this supplemental funding the
strength and purchasing power of the collection budget continues to decline. One clear indication
of this for the current year was that we had to cease the normal processing of invoices on June
3rd, the earliest date in recent memory when the budget was more or less fully expended.
This summer we will gain occupancy of the ground level of the former
Health Sciences Library; it will become an on-campus shelving facility. Compact shelving has been
ordered and is scheduled for installation by fall. A committee is at work identifying categories
of low-use materials that will be likely candidates for transfer. The transfer of volumes into the
facility with an estimated capacity for 335,000 capacity should begin before the end of this year.
This month more than 63,000 Chinese bibliographic records are being converted by OCLC from
Wade-Giles to the Pinyin romanization system. We are also using this record conversion as an
opportunity to add to OCLC our holdings for approximately 11,000 CJK records which had been
cataloged on RLIN until 1991. Cleanup work and other local editing of the records will ensue.
The benefits of full implementation of Embedded Order Confirmation Records (EOCR) for titles
firm-ordered fromYankee are now being realized. The process has had a noticeable impact on the
workload of the Order Unit which is no longer required to transfer titles into the database at the
time of order.
Search committees are underway to review applications to fill two important positions: Head of
Public Services at Memorial Library, and Head of the Acquisitions and Serials Department.
Progress is being made on the implementation of Ex Libris’ SFX and Metalib software. The former
product should be available this summer and the Metalib software is expected for rollout by the
winter semester.
YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Round Robin Update, June 2004
From: Joan Swanekamp
joan.swanekamp@yale.edu
ALCTS Technical Services Directors of Large Research Libraries
Group
Report of Recent Activities at Yale University
Chief Catalog Librarian
Yale University
June 21, 2004