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
Approval and Copy Cataloging Unit: Following reorganization on May 1, to create a new Approval and Copy Cataloging Unit, a position available notice has been posted soliciting applications for the head of this unit. For more information see http://libweb.princeton.edu/hr/positions/JobHEADACCT.html. For additional information about the profile of this unit see the Catalog Division home page .
Russian Pamphlets Collection: In order to expedite the processing of thousands of small-scale Russian publications, many uniquely held at Princeton, the decision was made to catalog them at the collection level. Approximately 10% of the 6,000 Russian titles that are acquired annually are eligible for cataloging at the collection level. Based on initial selection by the Slavic bibliographer, Nina Shapiro, the pamphlets are divided into categories using a list of forty topics. Topics include poetry (subdivided by male or female poets); history; literature; economics; arts, etc. Titles, subject headings and call numbers are assigned for each topic. Each pamphlet title is listed as an author-title or title entry in the catalog record. Students with Russian language skills do the actual cataloging and prepare a table of contents for each box. Pamphlets are housed in special boxes which hold 20-40 pamphlets each and located in ReCAP. Processing items at the collection level began in summer of 2003. Thus far over 3,000 pamphlets have been cataloged.
Clear Your Desk Campaign: Catalog Division declared May 24-28 a week for clearing up longstanding uncataloged items that have accumulated in the Division. All staff contributed by working on problematic or low-priority material that had been set outside the normal processing stream. Material remaining at the end of the week has been charged, or, if un-barcoded, listed and strategies are being developed to deal with these few remaining problems.
Non-Filing Indicator Cleanup: In preparation for the conversion to Voyager with Unicode, and the related change in non-filing indicators for titles, cleanup of our data is underway. If the data is not fixed, we will lose access to titles that start with an article followed immediately by a diacritic due to differences in how diacritics are stored. The updates do not affect access in our current system. Around 4,000 indicators have been updated so far. While making the changes necessitated by our upcoming Unicode conversion, we are also identifying a significant number of records with incorrect indicators affecting access at present.
Cataloging Users' Group: The most recent Cataloging Users Group meeting focused on serials. Examples of serial title changes were presented, along with the resulting cataloging records. Guidelines were given on how to choose the correct record when adding an item. Some special issues related to recapping serials were discussed. Anyone who still has questions on these topics can contact Amy Kelly or Marie Wange-Connelly of Cat. Unit IV (8-5476). A new idea was suggested--Catalog Division is willing to send staff on branch visits upon request, or on an ongoing basis, to assist with cataloging issues. If you are interested in having cataloging staff visit your location, contact
Joyce Bell or Marie Wange-Connelly.
Fine Hall ReCapping: The work needed to allow the Geosciences collection to move to Fine Hall has been completed.
Circulation DivisionFirestone stacks: 2 carriages of compact shelving have been emptied and the collections shifted to make room for the new exit aisle in the east end of C-Floor. Roughly 6,000 volumes from the Richardson 1600s and 1700s were removed and are being transferred to ReCAP. The now empty compact shelving will be removed in early August, and the exit aisle created. The work is scheduled to be complete by the end of August 2004.
Graduate study rooms: Shelving staff are working with Cat. Unit IV staff and Rebecka Lindau to reorganize the Classics Graduate Study rooms on the third floor of Firestone. Collections are being shifted into more logical groupings. New locations have already begun to appear in the OPAC. The new locations are:
Classics Graduate Study Room: Greek (SCG)
Classics Graduate Study Room: Latin (SCL)
Classics Graduate Study Room: Paleography (SCP)
Classics Graduate Study Room (SC)
Order Division
Visitors: In June we hosted colleagues from Farleigh Dickenson and the College of Saint Elizabeth for an afternoon of discussion. They are new Voyager customers and were interested in talking about acquisitions set up and workflow issues. They were particularly interested EDI ordering and invoicing, and area in which Princeton is acknowledged as a leader.
Management exchange: Heidi Fisher and Carlos Santos are spending time learning about each other's units, staff, and workflow. This is the first of several planned exchanges in Order Division that are aimed at providing greater management breadth and depth within the Division. An additional goal of this exchange is to evaluate the binding module of the Voyager Acquisitions system.
Fiscal close: Voyager fiscal period close ran on July 1. As previously announced there is a new structure to the ledgers for 2005, separating income for the book funds by source: general, special (restricted endowment), and outside department support. For more information see Summary of Ledger and Fund Changes in Voyager. A final adjustment, which will reflect any reconciliation from the fund audit by Jeff Rowlands, is due by the end of July. A second June 2004 funds report will be generated once the final adjustments have been completed.
Binding Policy Task Force: A small task force has been meeting to collect and analyze data about binding policies, practices, needs, and costs. The task force will prepare a report for consideration by the Library Management Group. Members of the group are Fernando Acosta-Rodriguez, Katharine Farrell, Trevor Dawes, Mick LeTourneau, Paula Matthews, and Carlos Santos. A preliminary report is expected in late August
(Submitted by Katharine Farrell)