Technical Services Newsletter June 2005 (Issue 7)

 

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide summary information about activities in the three divisions of Technical Service that may be of interest to the library staff. The newsletter will be issued irregularly via NjP-L, the Library list serve, and archived accessible from a link on the Technical Services web page:

http://infoshare1.princeton.edu/tech/hptsd.html

 

In this issue:

 

Catalog Division:

 

Princeton reunion books: A cataloging project is underway to create brief records for Princeton class reunion books held in Mudd.  Records with basic descriptive data, name and subject entries for the class, and variant title access points are being created from a template by student workers and then reviewed.  Seven boxes of material have brief records and will be given call numbers and sent to Labeling by May 20th.

 

Report from the BIBCO meeting: The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) -- the body responsible for updating the cataloging rules -- has been working on "AACR3", a complete revision of the cataloging rules.  The draft of the first section was released in December, and was not well-received.  It drew a lot of criticism for not being far-sighted, and for clinging to outmoded standards and practices.  At JSC's meeting at the end of April, they responded to these criticisms by abandoning the work they had done so far in favor of a completely new approach.  "Resource Description and Access" (RDA) is the preliminary name for their concept of the new rules which will be a complete restructuring of the concepts behind cataloging designed for a web-based (rather than a card-based) environment.  More information will be released in July.

 
Circulation Division:
 
State of Firestone stacks:
There are currently overflow sections in the following areas of the Firestone Stacks: 
B-BT; CLAS; INDO; PA-PS; G-GN; J-JZ; HM-HX.  
Shifts are underway to alleviate overcrowding in the B-BT; CLAS; INDO; and HM-HX sections. Tech Services staff will  work with
the appropriate selectors to eliminate all overflow areas over the summer. 

Shifting is also underway in the Q and C-CT Library of Congress classification ranges to alleviate the overcrowding in those areas.  
Based upon a recent quality control study, we are pleased to report a 94% shelving accuracy rate for material that has been returned
from circulation or used in house.  The Shelving Unit staff will continually strive to better this figure in our ongoing service improvement efforts.  
 
Firestone reserve and Periodicals Reading Room: The spring term has ended and the staff have begun to release reserve items.
 This is also the time when most items from the periodicals room collections will be prepared for binding. 
 Questions about items not found on the PR shelves may be directed to the staff in Reserves. 
 
Circ desk improves accuracy: In an effort to improve accuracy in discharging  books, Circ staff are now performing a second discharge 
on every item returned to the Circulation Desk.  While this has produced a significant amount of additional work,
it has already resolved a number of patron problems. This should eliminate the possibility of material returning to the shelf
still charged to a patron.  
 
Electronic Resources:
 
Electronic resources management system: We will be implementing Endeavor’s Meridian e-resources management system shortly. 
Princeton, along with the University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University, and the London School of Economics,
 is a development partner with Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. in the creation of this ERM. 
Meridian will be independent from the Voyager system, but will be able to query Voyager and retrieve bibliographic
and acquisitions data for display. Work is currently underway to customize the configuration of the system and load data 
from numerous local sources. The first phase of Meridian is intended primarily for support of “back room functions”
 such as license tracking and acquisition of e-resources. 
A future release, already in the planning stage, will support additional public services functionality. 
The Princeton development team, headed by Marvin Bielawski, includes Rochelle Ballard, Katharine Farrell,
 Patty Gaspari-Bridges, Janet Lute, and Rick Schulz. With assistance from Luisa Paster, the development team 
has outlined a training program for staff that will be rolled out over the summer and early fall.

 

Order Division:

 

Monograph Acquisitions Unit: The ordering hiatus caused by the budget situation has allowed staff in MAU to provide support for numerous other operations in Tech Services. Staff have been assisting their Catalog Division colleagues with approval processing, LC copy cataloging from the Hold, and with ReCAP processing of material from Firestone stacks.

 

Review of exchange program: We have begun review and analysis of material we receive and send on exchange with the intent of developing adequate data to allow selectors to review the relative cost and benefit of our current exchange program. We hope to develop and distribute reports to selectors later in the new fiscal year.