STAFF RESOURCES |
1. Reports
AUL/TAS
H. Hemmasi reported on the redesign of space within TAS to accommodate building
a new office for the head of cataloging.
J. Boyle, H. Hemmasi, R. Toyama, and M. Gaunt attended the 2nd Information Sciences Council Workshop which included reports from Rutgers scholars who are involved interdisciplinary research. The Council is one of the university strategic planning groups. Marianne, who is also a member of the Council, gave a report on the Libraries' support for research and our digital initiatives.
Hemmasi and Boyle co-convened a meeting to discuss the Libraries' role in supporting the development and archiving of online journal endeavors. The Libraries are currently involved in two project: the However Project and the Undergraduate Journal and may work on other projects. The However project (originally begun as a print journal of women's poetry) has digitized their back files and have requested permission to put their back files and current issues on a Library server. A group of Library faculty and administrators continue to discuss the implications of this request and are working together to develop policies for this and similar requests that may arise in the future.
The Undergraduate Journal is an endeavor which will consist of approximately 50 undergraduate student projects that will be mounted on a Library web page. This project will provide students with the opportunity to gain experience in research. Students are required to do a poster session and presentation and the information may be distributed in a variety of formats. J. Boyle is working with Greg Herzog to facilitate the Undergraduate Journal.
H. Hemmasi reported that Catherine Geddis submitted a comprehensive training plan proposal to Cabinet. A planning committee of representatives from all areas of the Libraries will be appointed to review the proposal and offer suggestions for how to proceed.
J. Boyle has requested that the Government Documents Special Interest Group consider reconvening to discuss what issues are of current interest and need to be addressed.
H. Hemmasi reported that SACOPS discussed the questions forwarded to them from the January SACOTAS meeting regarding whether to catalog full-text and full-image electronic journals or also ejournals that provide only abstracts. SACOPS agreed that journals that are full-image or full-text should be cataloged and that if the item has only abstracts, a URL should not be added to the record for the print journal. There was no agreement on how to deal with titles that may have a combination of full-text and abstracts, such as Pro-Quest. The current practices decided on a case-by-case basis. Further discussion is needed on these issues.
H. Hemmasi is working with Bob Sewell to provide an estimate replacement processing costs. Risk Management has asked Bob to do a review of the potential cost of replacing collections if there were a disaster.
Acquisitions
Acquisitions is continuing to work with Blackwell to initiate electronic
ordering. They are currently working on acquisition invoicing procedures.
Cataloging
LTI has been selected as our authority control vendor. RU will proceed to
negotiate the specific terms of authority control processing with the
expectation that authority records and bibliographic records with corrected
headings will be loaded into IRIS this summer.
R. Dyer spoke with the manager of customer services at Sirsi while at ALA on
Monday. She discussed problems with Workflows, specifically: printing,
cut/copy and paste, stacking of screens, and fuller screen display for edit
items. Judith had no suggestions for improvements as Workflows functions now.
This was a disappointing meeting especially since Sirsi had been given a list
in advance of the specific items.
Follow-up training for Cataloging Workflows is scheduled for several days in
February. [This subsequently was postponed to March.] The training is intended
mostly for staff and librarians who catalog. The follow-up training will be
hands-on and will only cover the cataloging functions in Workflows. As with
all LIS training, any additional documentation that is produced for this
training will appear on the Unicorn Training web page.
Systems
M. Witteman and M. Page went to a lengthy demonstration of the new serials
wizards in Workflows. They were very impressed.
There are 2 open lines in systems which they are trying to fill as quickly as
possible.
Providing technical support for VALE is time-consuming but has brought
many rewards to the VALE group and to Rutgers.
Memory will be upgraded on the public computers as soon as possible. All
computers will be tested for Y2K compliance. Those that have been tested will
get a temporary sticker that says "Y2K OK."
Mark and Bob are working on Sirsi reports. If you have any problems contact
them before trying alternative methods. Authentication software is in place.
Remote users must have their barcode and pin numbers and go through the
authentication process step by step for it to work.
The batch load of cataloged records into RLIN and OCLC has not been
accomplished yet. It is being tested and we anticipate that we will begin
uploading records in the very near future.
2. Cataloging Record Error Report Form
Discussed the new IRIS online error form. R. Marker reported that they have
received 8 reports since it went into effect. The call number on the form
links it to the specific record to be corrected. Database Management will be
the first unit to review the reports. The group agreed that if a library unit
needs to make corrections, that should be communicated in the usual way (phone,
campus mail, email) and DBM should be responsible for closing out the error
report file. They are working out standard replies to be sent to people who
wish them and also working out reports which need to be generated and what
constitutes the record being considered done. The Cataloging Dept. will
continue to refine procedures and bring a draft to the next SACOTAS meeting.
3. Holdings Statements in IRIS
H. Hemmasi noted that when there is no 930 on IRIS for serial records you
cannot tell which volumes an individual library owns. Systems was asked to run
a report to find out which serial records have an item record but no 930 tag.
If individual units don't have the staff or expertise to add 930s they should
contact Hemmasi who will help arrange for assistance with this project.
4. Review of Strategies for Technical and Automated Services
A draft of the Strategics for Technical and Automated Services for the Five
Year Plan examined and discussed by those present. Hemmasi requested that the
review be distributed to staff in the units for additional comments and
suggestions for the text.
5. JSTOR
A. Montanaro reported that no new journal titles will be added in this phase.
New titles will be added by discipline in the future. JSTOR provided a chart
which lists issues that they are currently missing. They are asking libraries
to check their back issues for duplicate items and send them to replace their
missing back issues. Ann will provide B. Sewell with the information and Bob
will have the responsibility of coordinating the effort.
6. Next Meeting
Hemmasi will e-mail everyone on the date of the next meeting. If it is
agreeable it will be Tuesday, March 2. It this is not good the next meeting
will be April 1st.