Minutes of April 8, 2008 meeting
- Present:
- Michelle Best, Azon DeChavez, Yasu Denda, Colin Liebtag, Yuhwei Ling, Michael Montalbano, Clotilde Twagiramariya
Via teleconference: Melinda Aviles (Camden), Illiana Bernal (Newark), and Fatima Cunha (Newark)
Agenda
- Mid-year report
- Going electronic: What does it mean
- Budget Outlook
- Other
- IRIS downtime
- Item Types
- Shelf shift
- DISCARD location
- mail delivery
1. Mid-year report
The DTS mid-year report went out mid-March. Some highlights that affect receiving:
- We have gone online-only with a four publishers: Springer, Sage, Cambridge, and Oxford.
- 720 titles have been cancelled in print for those publishers
- 293 Alex
- 263 LSM
- 103 Dana
- 61 Camden
- RUL has gone online because, with the packages, we are able to gain access to more titles at a cost savings.
- If you get an issue for 2008 from Springer, Sage, Cambridge, or Oxford in the mail, please check the serial control if one
exists.
- If no control exists, place the issue in USBE or Absolute box.
- If a control exists:
- If there are predictions and no indication to pull for last-binds, check-in as normal
- If there are no predictions, you may place the issue in the USBE or Absolute box
- Receiving statistics for the Humanities, Sciences, and Dana/Jazz have decreased about 10%.
- The numbers for July 2007 to December 2007 are:
- 13,476 for the Humanities
- 8970 for the Sciences
- 5283 for Dana/Jazz
- 2841 for Camden
- The Serials Team has begun to look into using serial controls to track e-access. – Refer to hand out for details.
- There is a pilot project already started to investigate the feasibility of using controls to track electronic-only titles.
- These controls will be used to if access is available and if a duplicate record exists from batch loads.
- The duplicate records come from Serial Solutions (used to be Ebscoload titles) and they occur when a match cannot be found on
the existing record due to different ISSNs and/or other criteria.
- We are unsure of the impact that this will have down the line because we need an effective way to manage our e-resources due to
the lack of physical material being checked in.
2. Going electronic: What does it mean
- The trend in RUL has been to go online only where possible.
- It is part of Collection Development policy to cancel print subscriptions wherever possible in lieu of the online.
- Obviously, there might be restrictions that might not allow this such as publisher licensing restrictions or costs (some
publishers want RUL to pay three subscriptions).
- Subject restrictions (Music & Art titles)
- The impact upon receiving is a decreased load to receive.
- We have already seen a significant drop in the receiving numbers for the first half of the fiscal year as reported in the DTS
mid-year report.
- As mentioned, the Serials Team is investigating how to best keep track of e-only subscriptions.
- There will be future projects that we will all be involved in due to the potential decreased load on receiving. Some of us have
already been working in various aspects of serials ranging from Bib-cat to claiming/invoices. Those roles might be expanded in the
future.
3. Budget Outlook
- Gracemary reported to Team leaders about the upcoming budget for the libraries in FY2009.
- Worst-case scenario: the libraries budget will be cut 3-7%. Initially thought to be as high as 10%
- This coupled with an expected inflation rate of 7.5% to 10% will result in about a $1.8 to $2 million cut.
- This is, in effect, about a 28% reduction in the budget.
- Ideas being discussed at CDC
- Renegotiate contracts for databases, explore savings through lowering the number of simultaneous users
- Try to eliminate any remaining duplicate print subscriptions
- “The likeliest scenario will be pretty awful cuts in journals and databases.”
4. Other
a) IRIS downtime
- IRIS will be down for maintenance for three days from May 19 to May 21.
- It will be in a read-only mode. You will not be able to enter any information, including checking-in journals. You will only be
able to search and read the records, not modify.
- Systems will be migrating the database to the Oracle system.
- We are unsure of how to handle the downtime yet but details will be forthcoming.
- In the past, we recorded by hand check-ins and then went back to check them in the system after the system came up.
b) Item Type taskforce – refer to handout for details
- RUL will begin using the item type fields to describe the material and its associated circulation functions. (E.g. Periodicals
with a Stacks call number that cannot circulate)
- It will no longer be the same as Current Location and home location.
- The changes or mapping will take place automatically via Systems.
- Impact on receiving will be for items that are direct to shelf will have be setup correctly for the correct item types.
- There will be new holding codes that will help with this
- Due to be implemented in the summer (July/August) in the new fiscal year after the Oracle database migration
- The task of “clean up” will fall to the Technical Services Council Working Group
c) Shelf Shifts
- Because of the cancellations of print titles, LSM is currently undergoing a shelf shift/consolidation. Dana has already
completed such a shift.
- Alex should also undergo a shift as well because they had the most print cancellations.
- Melinda will discuss with Teri McNally the possibility of a shift at Camden.
d) DISCARD location – refer to handout for more details
- As part of Holdings policy and procedures, we should be using the DISCARD location when removing barcodes.
- Do not just delete the barcode. Instead, change the current location of the item being discarded to DISCARD.
- Item will be removed in batches by the systems department.
- This eliminates the worry of deleting an item with orders attached.
e) Late Mail Delivery
- We have noticed the mail delivery has been a little late at Alex and LSM recently.
- Please remember the 24-hour turnaround time we have established for receiving.
- Mail that arrives late in the day is ok to receive on the morning of the next day.
Next Meeting: TBD