Day: July 20, 2011

Collections Analysis

Posted on by mhemhauser

As many of you know, we currently have access to OCLC’s WorldCat Analysis tool. Several of you have recently asked for peer-to-peer comparisons. Some are available now, and the rest should be available in the next few days. If you are interested in knowing more about this, let me know.

–gail

Available now: Columbia, MIT, Rutgers, Stanford, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Yale.

Coming: Harvard (select libraries), Teachers College, University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt.

New Procedure for e-Resources: URLS added to OskiCat Record Sooner

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

 In an effort to expedite access to electronic resources, the Acquisitions and Catalog Departments have agreed to a new procedure in the electronic resources processing workflow.  The URL link to the OskiCat record will be added at the point the publisher authorizes access.

 Currently the URL for an electronic resource is only available in OskiCat once the resource has been cataloged.  This is the case not only for new materials but for continuing resources that have had title changes.

Under the new procedure, Acquisitions staff will add the URL to the order record at the point the publisher has authorized access.   This means that URL link will be accessible in OskiCat in advance of the completion of the cataloged record.  Once the resource is cataloged the OskiCat record will be uploaded to Melvyl,

It is our hope that, by moving up the point at which a URL is added to the OskiCat record, UCB users will get a jump start on access to these critical online resources.

Cheryl Cook and Lisa Rowlison de Ortiz

Treasures from the Hargrove Music Library

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

The 44th California International Antiquarian Book Fair took place at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco from 11 through 13 February 2011.  The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America invited the Hargrove Music Library to install a special exhibit for the duration of the fair.  Images of most exhibit items can be viewed at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MUSI/sf_book_fair.html.  They are also linked to from the Hargrove Music Library’s collections page at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MUSI/collections.html.

The display of these rarities was made possible by the Library’s Preservation Department, whose conservators (Emily Ramos, Hannah Tashjian, and Erika Lindensmith) conducted physical review of all items to be displayed. They made minor repairs when needed, constructed enclosures to facilitate safe transport, fashioned custom-fitted book cradles, and trained John Shepard and SJSU intern John Smalley in proper installation methods.  The exhibit was enhanced by beautifully formatted captions produced by Aisha Hamilton, the Doe & Moffitt Libraries’ Exhibits and Environmental Graphics Coordinator.

Our congratulations to John Shepard for his leadership in organizing this stellar exhibit and to everyone who helped ensure its success.

 Best, Bernie

Collections Services Defined

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

Since September 2010, I have been working with Collection Development, Scholarly Communications, Licensing, Acquisitions, Cataloging, and Preservation,  and have found it very useful to think of these as a single management entity. This has encouraged me to find the best balance of all our efforts to ensure that we get content to our users in the most direct and efficient manner.

After consultation with my unit heads, Library ADMIN and Collections Council, I have formalized this arrangement. See a new document, Collection Services Defined, which is “filed” on the Collections Services staff-side web.

I welcome any questions or comments you may have about this new arrangement.

Best regards, Bernie

Claude Potts joins the Collections Budget Group

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

Colleagues,

As you know, Elizabeth Byrne will retire on June 29th. I would like to thank Elizabeth for her service on the Collections Budget Group and to the Library as a whole.  We’re all going to miss working with her and look forward to hearing what she’s up to in her new life!

I’m pleased to announce that Claude Potts will join the Collections Budget Group. Claude will be representing the Arts & Humanities Council. Although Claude is also in the International & Area Studies Group, he has been one of the most active participants in the Arts & Humanities Council.

Claude is a respected selector and collaborates with all his colleagues. His broad and interdisciplinary view of collection development will be an asset to the Collections Budget Group. In addition, his experience on the Collections Council since July 2008 will be very helpful.

Please join me in welcoming Claude to the Collections Budget Group.

Best, Bernie

Welcome to the Catalog Dept. Blog

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

Starting this December, we will begin “pushing” targeted department policy and operational announcements to interested staff through a new blog.  Our intended audience is anyone who is affected by changes in our policy and procedures.

We hope to encourage a wide range of management and technical services staff throughout the Library to subscribe.  We will be respectful of your time by being selective in what we post, limiting its length, and trying to identify early in any post who it will most affect.  There will be an opportunity for staff to comment on a post and we would encourage questions of clarification.  Postings that start longer conversations may be moved to a more appropriate venue (Round Table, Tech Services Council, BTECH, etc.).

We hope that you will subscribe to our new Catalog Department blog.

 

 

Catalog Department Priorities

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

The Catalog Department very recently had its staff reduced by 25% due the library-wide hiring freeze and staff participation in the Voluntary Separation Option (VSO).  In response, we have developed new priorities that focus our remaining resources on high priority needs.  These priorities have been presented and discussed at all the Subject Councils, DMAG, Round Table and with the Library Administration.  In the next week or two, we will post a few short blogs on each of our new priorities, listed below. 

 

Cataloging Priorities

 

Priority 1:     Establish a standard and efficient workflow

 

Priority 2a: Maximize patron access to newly received monographs by cataloging as much of this material as possible. 

 

 

Priority 2b: Fix high-priority record problems reported to the Catalog Department

 

Priority 3:   Manage the backlog and find creative means to reduce its size

 

Communication Priorities

 

Priority 1:  Facilitate ongoing and open communications with library staff users of Catalog Department Services to ensure we understand their high-priority needs

 

Priority 2:  Establish targeted communication methodologies to disseminate cataloging policy, priorities and procedural changes to library staff and administration

PromptCat Record Loading Resumes in Two Phases

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

OCLC and their WorldCat Cataloging Partners (suppliers of PromptCat records) made substantial changes to how they generate PromptCat files in late October, 2009.  PromptCat files loaded with slip dates of 10/26/09 or later contained so many problems that we suspended loading the files into Millennium in early December.  OCLC has corrected the problems and regenerated all the files for us.  We plan to resume loading files in a two phase process. 

 

Phase 1:  Starting immediately, PromptCat files that were never loaded into Millennium will be loaded at a rate of about 1 file per day.  After each load, MRU will release the relevant shelf-ready books to the Subject Libraries for processing.  Subject Library books that came from PromptCat which were not shelf-ready will be sent to the Catalog Dept. for further processing.

 

Main PromptCat books will be released for selector review as files are loaded. Lupe Ochoa will send an email to the relevant selectors when materials are ready for review. 

 

Phase 2: Loading the newly regenerated files that correct problems created by the previous PromptCat file loads into Millennium is more problematic.  We are test loading a number of these files on the Millennium training server to see what kind of clean-up we have to undertake when these files are loaded into the production server (e.g., duplicate item records created).  We’ll post more information on the Catalog Dept. blog, as our plans develop for reloading these files.

 

Note: Subject Libraries that are holding books due to errors in the previously loaded files should continue to hold these until we have informed you that we have reloaded all the files in Phase 2.  Please do not send database maintenance requests for these record problems.  You will be able to process these once the corrected records are reloaded.

Cataloging Prio. #1 (of 3): Establish a normal and efficient workflow

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

Priority 1:     Establish a standard and efficient workflow

 

Work restrictions and new procedures required by the Millennium implementation has created substantial backlogs and disrupted many Catalog Department workflows.  Through this period, there were multiple attempts to adjust operations to keep materials moving through the department.  The constant adjusting created new problems and the loss of a “normal” workflow.

 

We have recently made great progress in establishing a new, standard workflow that moves materials through the cataloging process.  The Department is also collecting statistics to understand our capacity to process materials at each point in the workflow.   It is our plan to let this new workflow run for a number of months.  We will then be better able to evaluate our statistics and see what is working and where adjustments are needed.   

Catalog Dept. Operations Update – 1/28/09

Posted on by UC Berkeley Library

Catalog Dept. Update – 1/28/09

 

1) Accompanying Materials

Books with accompanying materials (e.g., CDs, DVDs) are now being cataloged in our standard workflow. 

 

Action: If your unit stores these materials in a separate location or ever withdraws the accompanying material, you will need to follow the procedures found in the “Cataloging” section of AskTico – http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/asktico/

 

2) OCLC PromptCat Problem Update

Acquisitions, Systems and the Catalog Dept. have worked together to verify that OCLC has (finally) corrected all the problems with PromptCat records.  Phase 1 record loads are progressing (see blog of 1/21/10). 

 

Alert:

a)     Selectors who review books should be doing so now in 250 Moffitt.

b)     Subject Libraries are now receiving Phase 1 PromptCat books

 

Acquisitions, Systems and the Catalog Dept. are now working on the Phase 2 record load problems to learn what Millennium clean-up will be needed, as these PromptCat files are loaded.

 

3) Photocopies

FYI – The Catalog Department has developed Millennium procedures for cataloging photocopies of original works and these are now being added to our standard workflow.