Subject: Acquisition Department Annual Report
FY 1991/92
To: Jennifer Younger, Assistant Director for Technical Services
From: Carol P. Hawks, Head, Acquisition Dept.
Date: July 13, 1993
LIBRARY MATERIALS BUDGET
The most significant budget news received in July 1991 was word of the University's funding of the Library Materials Budget Index for the first time. Early confirmation of this 12.6% increase enabled the Collection Development Officer and the Acquisition Department to move quickly to present possible budget scenarios to the Library Materials Budget Committee. Those allocations were finalized and keyed into INNOVACQ in August. However, based on the premise that collection managers would have at least 40% more to spend in monograph funding, the "1" accounts were opened for deficit spending before the actual allocation of funds. (Those funds with positive balances had already been opened in very early July.) For the Acquisition Department, this represented a major step forward in allowing collection managers to begin ordering earlier in the fiscal year and, thus, stretching the purchasing process over a greater number of months.
INNOVACQ UPGRADE
Extensive work began in the fall on the INNOVACQ upgrade. My attention was focused on the cost issues and which expenses would be covered by OhioLINK and which would be OSUL expenses. Marsha Hamilton focused her attention on the early planning stages of the actual upgrade generating planning documents such as a draft timeline and a draft list of activities to be accomplished. All plans were predicated on the assumption that the three individual INNOVACQ systems in Health Sciences, Law, and University Libraries would be merged into a single UNIX-based system. A UNIVACQ task force was established consisting of Marsha Hamilton (OSUL), Barbara Van Brimmer (HEA), and Carole Hinchcliff (LAW).
In January 1992, the OSU OhioLINK Implementation Committees were established including an Acquisitions/Serials Committee. The UNIVACQ group became a subcommittee of this committee and continued its work.
Once the merger is completed for all three libraries, the INNOVACQ equipment currently resident in Room 036 Main Library can be returned to III. Housing and maintenance of the new system will be provided by University Systems. The merged system will include the bibliographic, order, and check-in records for the three libraries in a single database. Duplicates between the three libraries will not be merged during the load process, but will be merged manually as time permits and once standards governing that process are developed. A user dialing into the system will be able to retrieve order, bibliographic, and check-in records from all three libraries. The University Libraries and Health Sciences Library will continue to communicate with LCS loading on-order and in-process titles.
May brought a very significant and welcome change to our plans for the INNOVACQ system migration. Sandy Weaver of III made a new proposal based on new software just announced for availability in release 8. This new software will enable the Libraries to use separate serials check-in modules for University Libraries, Health Sciences, and Law. The bibliographic record will be a shared record but the order and check-in records will be separate for each library and secured by passwords from use by the other libraries. A corollary to this change is that the fund and vendor tables (as well as some other tables) do not have to be combined.
Since this software will not be available for beta test until the fall, III has proposed (and we accepted that proposal) that University Libraries be migrated as planned in August. HEA and Law would remain on their current systems until the new software is available for test in Fall 1992. This is a welcome change for the three libraries because it provides more time for the completion of the new Law Building and also provides additional time for standardized tables and practices to be developed.
During the University Libraries' migration beginning on August 10, 1992, the INNOVACQ database will be accessible, but frozen from any updates. During May, the department developed a proposal concerning activities which would occur during the two-week down time and those activities which would be suspended. For example, approval display and review by collection managers can continue as usual. However, processing of the actual titles on INNOVACQ and forwarding the material to Cataloging was to be suspended. The most critical activity during this time period is serials check-in. Prior to the freezing of the database on August 7, departmental resources will be marshalled to eliminate all material received for check-in as of that date. Serials check-in will not occur for the subsequent 14 days. It is our intention with this plan to minimize the duplicate work required.
As a corollary to this proposal, collection managers will be given the opportunity to identify 5 critical titles for check-in immediately if received during the migration. All incoming mail will be sorted each day to search for this material. If received, it will be checked-in and forwarded to the location.
ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
Thirteen electronic journal subscriptions were transferred to the department in Nov./Dec. 1991 (from Betty Sawyers) for processing. Jim Whitcomb built order and check-in records for each title and added holdings information for 124 issues. Sheryl Williams began regular processing of the journals in December. The department had been working with Betty Sawyers for a number of months as she worked with Academic Computing to resolve a number of start-up issues about these titles. This new process presented a number of challenges to the department and for RAD and CAD particularly.
LIBRARY INTERNS
Beginning on September 30th, library interns, Debbie Hollis and Jose Ruiz, began their rotation in the Acquisition Department. The interns spent time in each division through early December including working with each staff member and having some hands-on experience with various duties and responsibilities. The rotations were designed to reflect some of the improvements that were considered after the first intern experience with Leta Hendricks in 1989.
REVISION OF PRIORITIES
As a result of ongoing vacancies (see personnel resources section), the department developed a revised set of priorities which were discussed with HUDL and MLPS in February and March 1992. The priorities were also published in late January in NewsNotes. The discussion of priorities which occurs later in this report reflects the details of these changes.
COLLECTION MANAGER FORUMS
The department continued the quarterly collection manager forums. The forum continued to be well-attended and productive for both the Acquisition Department and the collection managers. Agenda items included revised procedures for snag processing, the estimated price project, and the elimination of mid-month accounting reports. New services such as the extreme rush ordering option were debuted in this forum.
TOURS AND INFORMATION SESSIONS WITH CATALOGING
In May 1992 at the initiation of the Acquisition Department, a series of tours and information sessions with the Cataloging Department were begun. As the department prepared for various aspects of the merger of the INNOVACQ systems and the larger OhioLINK Project, information on routines and decision-making processes in Cataloging would inform our choices in various areas. Initially, the focus was on the bibliographic searching functions performed in the Monograph Acquisition Division and their subsequent use by the Receiving Division in Acquisition, the Search Section, and the Copy Cataloging Section in Cataloging. Because of the important role the OCLC number plays in the integrated INNOPAC, all of the involved areas were interested in how OCLC records are selected in Acquisition and how they are subsequently used in Cataloging. We hope that these sessions will increase our understanding of the needs and efforts in each department and enable us to make sound decisions for the projects ahead.
DATALINX REPLACEMENT
Due to the increasing capabilities of the Internet, Faxon is moving aggressively to migrate their Datalinx users away from dedicated dumb terminals to PC-based platforms using the Internet. The Acquisition Department negotiated with Faxon to replace the current Datalinx terminal with an IBM-PC, laser printer, and fax machine to facilitate communication with Faxon. In addition to electronic access to the Faxon Datalinx database containing information on serials, Acquisition will be able to send claims online via the system and to send other requests for information via fax. The new equipment was installed in June.
STATUS OF BASIC PRIORITIES
Administrative Area
1. Answer and refer all calls coming into the department
Current throughout the year with the assistance of each division during absences, staff vacancies, and student absences.
2. Open, sort, and distribute mail by 5:00 p.m. of the day it is received; during staff shortages, the mail will be completed no later than 10:00 a.m. the next day
Current throughout the year with an occasional delay as the result of staff and student vacancies. Individual members of the department have stepped in to assist with mail distribution during quarter breaks and other absences.
3. Create, revise and print documents and spreadsheets as requested; rush orders will be given top priority followed by priorities set internally
Current.
4. Collect and proofread timesheets for students and staff; verify that appropriate signatures are included; deliver timesheets to Library Personnel by 10:00 a.m.
Current. The department regularly submitted time sheets to Library Personnel on schedule. Several members of the department serve as backups for this activity in the event the assigned person was absent on Monday morning. In the department head's absence, the time sheets are signed by the acting department head.
5. Order and distribute supplies once a week
Current.
Monograph Acquisition Division
1. Perform pre-order search of order requests within three weeks of receipt
Current status for pre-order search changed from two to three weeks in calendar year 1991 as a result of vacant positions. Since those positions have not be restored, current status has remained at three weeks. Searching was current at the end of each month except during peak periods in mid-October 1991 and late February 1992. Current status was regained rather quickly even during these very high volume times.
2. Vend, input, proof and mail purchase orders within 4 working days of receipt in the order section
Current throughout the year.
3. Review the outstanding monograph order file for claiming once each month
Current throughout the fiscal year, except in January and February due to the loss of the unit order claim specialist. Claiming duties were distributed to other staff and were again current in March. A total of 7,908 claimable items were reviewed with 2,171 claim letters sent. Procedural changes resulted in quicker phone and fax problem resolution. As a result, fewer claim letters needed to be sent.
4. Maintain the weekly approval cycle of pre-display searching, display and removal of titles for processing
Current throughout the year. The very difficult and pressing approval schedule was maintained every week of the fiscal year.
5. Clear invoices for payment within four weeks of initial display on the review shelves
Current throughout the year.
6. Contact Innovative Interfaces within 72 hours with problems identified by departmental staff
Current throughout the year. Response by III on non-priority calls continued to deteriorate from the 24 hour standard of several years ago to 72 hours or more until the first follow-up call. Priority requests, such as equipment problems, were handled quickly and well. A total of 102 problems were logged in FY91/92. Replaced equipment included: 9 Wyse 50 terminals and keyboards; 1 keyboard only; 7 printers, including the system printer; the 9-track tape unit; 1 disk drive; and several modems. Modems were replaced by the Automation Office.
Continuation Acquisition Division
1. Search, process, and vend continuation and serial unit orders within one month of receipt
Current status was changed from one week to one month at the end of December as a result of position vacancies and a dramatic increase in the number of orders. From July through October, all orders were current within the one week time period. Beginning in November, rush orders and continuations remained current; all other unit orders were backlogged. The backlog was cleared by the end of February and all order processing remained current until mid-May when continuation orders were backlogged so the last minute rush of unit orders could be handled before the end of year closing.
2. Review location-generated claims within 2 days
Current throughout the year. Due to the success of the routine claims review cycle, the number of location-generated claims remained low.
3. Spend a minimum of 20 hours per week processing the routine claims working file
Current throughout the year. Claims staff spent an average of 82 hours per month reviewing the claims files. Since January, Faye Yungfleisch, the claims manager, spent more than 60 hours reviewing claims using the INNOVACQ claims program which speeds up the review process by more than 100%.
4. Process priority claims file monthly
Current throughout the year. When the Serials Specialist position became vacant in October, this responsibility was transferred to Faye.
5. Review and acknowledge location-generated subscription questions within two days
With a few irregular exceptions due to staff absences, current status was maintained throughout the year.
6. Process on INNOVACQ and forward title changes to Serials Cataloging within one day
Due to staff vacancies, the time frame for this priority sometimes expanded a few days, but never backlogged significantly.
7. Review and process transfers and within one week
Current throughout the year with one exception. In April, the division fell behind with 9 requests during Cathy Jackson's medical leave. This backlog was planned and expected due to staff shortages.
Receiving Division
1. Record continuation pieces on INNOVACQ within 7 days of receipt
The original turnaround time for continuation processing was 48 hours. This was generally maintained during the first half of 91/92, though Marion Ramage spent time from July to October helping with her previous job duties until Ellen Scherer was hired. In January 1992, Keith Higgs moved to a job in the Continuations Acquisition Division. He was loaned back to the division part time to maintain this priority at 7 days which was revised during the reassessment of department priorities. With this and occasional help from additional staff in Receiving and other divisions, the priority was maintained or improved on during the rest of the year, even during staff leaves for surgery during the spring.
2. Record unit order pieces on INNOVACQ and route within one week
The original goal of processing unit orders within 5 days of receipt was revised to 7 days at mid year. From that point on, the division experienced a good bit of turnover in student personnel, but Ellen Scherer was able to maintain the revised processing goals. Some very capable students were hired in the last few months of the year who remain quite reliable and productive.
3. Check-in all CD-ROM material within 7 days of receipt
The original check-in goal that Kathy Kramer assumed with the CD work was 24 hours after receipt. This work is extremely detailed and the complexities and vagaries of this new format have consumed time Kathy could have used on other duties. However, she maintained this priority despite the effect on other work. When department priorities were reassessed at mid-year to reflect reduced staffing and other realities, the turnaround time was reset at 7 days. This more realistic goal has been met or improved on ever since with less cost to other services.
4. Add holdings to LCS as designated by policy within 2 days after check-in
To maintain current status for processing these continuation items, the number of individuals who know how to process these pieces was expanded. Previously, Bessie Yen had been solely responsible for this work flow. As a result of this cross-training, Kathy Kramer, Ellen Scherer, Keith Higgs and Sheryl Williams were able to maintain the flow during Bessie's recovery from surgery.
Accounting Division
1. Process unit and continuation invoices within one week of receipt
Current throughout the year (invoices without problems). Approval invoices were always given priority because of their age when received in the division. In December and January, a one to two week backlog developed due to illness, the holidays, the interns' visit and assisting in other areas. At the close of the fiscal year, this priority was current.
2. Review and process statements monthly
Statements were reviewed and processed on a regular basis except for the months of December and January. As in number one above, illness, the holidays, the interns' visit and assisting in other area caused this backlog. At the close of the fiscal year, this priority was current.
3. Produce, review, and distribute Accounting Reports on the first of each month
The 1991/92 budget was received in the division from the Collection Development Officer in late August. Allocations were keyed and new funds were built and checked for the first Accounting Reports run on September 11. In October the reports were delayed because INNOVACQ was down to replace a disk. A proposal was made and approved at the Collection Manager's Forum on March 19 to produce Accounting Reports monthly instead of biweekly. The first monthly report was produced in April.
PERSONNEL RESOURCES
General
As a result of the budget reduction this year, the department lost one LMTA1 position permanently (Order Specialist in the Continuation Acquisition Division).
Administrative Area
On January 2, 1992, Teri Hagerman, Library Associate 1, accepted a position in the Continuation Acquisition Division. Due to a hiring freeze, Teri continued to assist 50% in the area and Mary Spillman, Account Clerk Supervisor, in the Accounting Division assumed responsibility for managing the Administrative Area. Teri's responsibilities in this area included word processing for the department head and division heads, compiling the monthly departmental statistics spreadsheets, and various assignments from department/division heads. The remainder of the duties were assumed by Mary Spillman and the Administrative Area students or by the divisions as needed.
Administrative student assistance was in transition for most of the last half of the year due to frequent resignations. In January, Bonnie VanSickle, the mail student accepted a position in CAD. Eliza Thio replaced her, but she resigned in April to accept an internship with Ameriflora. She was replaced by Tory Sanderson who graduated in June. Her successor, Jennifer Wair, was able to work with her for two weeks for training. Unfortunately Jennifer was closed out of her courses for Summer Quarter and resigned. Patrick Speelman replaced her and began working at the beginning of June. The
word processing student, Ty Tipsword, did not report to work
at the beginning of Summer Quarter. Pat worked extra hours
to help with the vacancy. Wes Byers, our cleaning student,
resigned after an illness in April. This position remained
vacant the rest of the fiscal year.
Monograph Acquisition Division
Pam Bentley, LMTA1, Claims Specialist and Order Supervisor, resigned in December 1991 to accept a position in the Law Library. In order to compensate for this vacancy, Mike Valinis took on claiming responsibility for the prepay, Research Foundation, rush and non-current files. John Mumaw assumed responsibility for the current file. A procedural change resulted in Mike and John referring suspicious records to the appropriate bibliographic searcher for further research and problem resolution. Supervision of order input students was assumed primarily by Linda Kennedy with support from Karen Lawson and Pete Risley. Input of corrections from the proofreader was done by Linda with assistance from Karen and Pete until March. After March, Pete assumed responsibility for this function.
Continuation Acquisition Division
The division experienced four staff vacancies during the course of this fiscal year: Gifts and Exchange Specialist, Processing Specialist, Order Specialist, and Cataloging Specialist.
The Gifts and Exchange Specialist, an LMTA2, had been vacant for almost three years at the beginning of July. All exchange activities other than daily mail and correspondence had been frozen since January 1990 and remained frozen this year. As the student assistant for exchanges, Synnove Swanson continued her work on the exchange review project over the summer. From September through November, Synnove worked on a temporary contract as the Exchanges Specialist in an LMTA1 position. During these three months, she worked with Jeff Kompier on an inventory of materials in the exchanges area and continued data collection for the exchanges review project. The LMTA2 position was redefined as Exchanges and Subscription Specialist and Teri Hagerman began work in this position on a half-time basis on January 6th. Teri immediately began the next phase of the exchange review project, preparing exchange analyses for collection managers to review. This work continued through the end of the year.
The Processing Specialist, an LMTA1, had been vacant for more than three months at the beginning of July. Jim Whitcomb and Cathy Jackson absorbed the duties for this position until mid-October when Dennis Gordon began work in this position. After five months, Dennis requested a transfer back to the Cataloging Department and resigned as of April 3rd. The position remained vacant through the end of the year; Jim, Cathy, and Faye Yungfleisch each absorbed duties from this position.
The Order Specialist, an LMTA2, became vacant on October 11th when Ellen Scherer resigned to accept a position in the Receiving Division. The Order Specialist responsibilities were shared by Jim, Jeff, Faye, and Trisha Davis until January 6th, when Keith Higgs began half-time in this position. Jim and Trisha continued to assist with continuation orders through the end of the year. Teri worked almost half-time for four weeks in May/June in order to complete the serial unit orders processing before the end of the year closing.
The Cataloging Specialist , an LMTA2, became vacant on June 11th, when Cathy Jackson resigned. Her responsibilities, which included duties from the vacant Processing Specialist position, were absorbed by Jim, Teri and Faye.
Receiving Division
RAD ended the fiscal year with 2 vacant positions: Marion Ramage's LMTA1 serial unit order/snags position from July 29, 1991 and Keith Higgs' LMTA1 continuation check-in position from January 6, 1992.
Marion was transferred to a vacant LMTA1 check-in position within the division which had been vacated by Beth Morgan toward the end of FY 90/91. The serial unit order processing Marion had done was assigned to the unit order supervisor LMTA2 position filled by Ellen Scherer Oct 14, 1991, after being vacant 9 months. The snag resolution work of Marion's former position was moved in large part to the Continuation Acquisition Division. (Ellen does a quick visual review of these pieces after they are identified in Receiving before they are sent to Continuations.) The duplicate work Marion had helped with has been revised. As time permits, the unit order students handle the pieces in a simplified process that sends the pieces to the first continuation location after an invoice problem resolution hold period (6 months rather than a year).
To compensate for Keith's departure, he was loaned back to the division as needed to maintain check-in turnaround time. His time commitment to Receiving varied from 50% to 100% as the mail flow and staff absences dictated. The Accounting and Monograph Acquisition Divisions provided help with check-in work as well. Kathy, Ellen and Sheryl also checked in continuations when the need arose.
Prior to Ellen's hiring, Sheryl maintained those duties: supervising and training students, processing defective items and solving unit order problems. Marion helped with serial unit orders and add to holdings during this time as well. During the year a number of division tasks were revised and Ellen's job responsibilities moved from snags, dups, and add to holdings to more problem solving on units and to assisting Kathy with continuations.
Accounting Division
As has been the pattern for a number of years, the Accounting Division was fortunate not to have any resignations this year. However, this allowed the division to serve as resource personnel for the other divisions when necessary. In September Michael Grimes was reassigned to RAD two hours a day to assist with serial check-in. Although the amount of time varied he continued to assist through the rest of the fiscal year.
From November through February, Kathie Miller spent five hours per week assisting RAD with serial check-in. As mentioned earlier, Mary Spillman took responsibility for managing the Administrative Division in January.
NEW INITIATIVES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Administrative Area
1. A detailed spreadsheet for Trisha Davis was completed reflecting continuation claims activity. The form tracks the number of hours spent claiming and the number of claims sent for each type of title (weekly, quarterly, etc.). Teri Hagerman used Faye Yungfleisch's weekly statistics to calculate monthly totals for each category from January to June 1991.
2. After discussion at the Collection Managers' Forum, it was determined that the publishers' catalog files were rarely used by collection managers. The files were weeded to include only the most recent catalogs. Old editions were discarded. In the future, catalogs will be sent to the appropriate location library upon receipt.
3. Teri spent considerable time working with Synnove Swanson (special project assignment in CAD) on the Exchanges Review sheets. They created forms including the title, price, location, call number, and III purchase number of materials received on exchange from domestic partners.
4. Teri began printing and routing the minutes from OhioLINK committee meetings, received over e-mail, to the Acquisition Department staff.
5. In March it became necessary to establish a schedule for the Macintosh in the Administrative Area so that staff could plan better their work around the time available for them on the computer.
Monograph Acquisition Division
1. Following a cost and availability study and discussion with the collection managers, the British imprints were moved from B.H. Blackwell to Baker & Taylor. Profiles for American and British imprints were revised for all funds and location. As a result of this change, the B.H. Blackwell approval plan was phased out entirely in 1992.
2. A post-Soviet Slavic languages approval plan with Kubon & Sagner was established. New approval plans were also established with Comic Town (for CGA) and with Latin American Book Store (for LAT).
3. Over 87,700 unit order records were purged to prepare for the migration to the UNIX-based INNOVACQ system.
4. Monographic claiming was reorganized to more quickly identify and resolve problems with the vendor and/or publisher and to facilitate receipt especially of serial unit orders.
5. Rush ordering procedures were changed to include phone ordering of all domestic rush orders. An extreme rush procedure was added which includes a search for positive B&T inventory, same day order placement by phone to the publisher or vendor, and second day drop shipment by UPS. Extreme rush processing for overseas titles can include faxing a purchase order to the publisher or vendor and shipment by courier. This is used primarily for closed reserve requests at the collection manager's request. The additional costs for this expedited service are charged to the appropriate subject fund.
6. Procedures were added to phone domestic vendors to negotiate discounts for all in-print titles over $300. This has resulted in substantial savings.
7. A special project with Daphne Hseuh resulted in the cancellation of 651 Chinese orders for non-receipt. 66 orders were cancelled by other collection managers in April as part of the annual outstanding order review project. This project generates lists of orders outstanding over 1 year for review by the appropriate collection manager.
8. Procedures were developed with Serial Cataloging and the CAD to process serial unit orders (received as gifts in the departmental libraries) through the departmental gift process for monographs. Previously, technical services would not accept departmental gifts of one-time serial unit orders for processing. This change has ended that moratorium.
Continuation Acquisition Division
1. The number of order requests handled by CAD increased dramatically this year and affected workflows throughout the division. With the Serials Specialist position filled for the equivalent of only six months FTE, every person in the division was involved in some aspect of order processing. The total number of orders received increased 83%; the total number searched increased 88%! The most dramatic increase occurred in the number of serial unit orders where the number received and searched increased 116%. None of these figures includes the additional 89 unit orders searched and processed via USBE.
2. The timely handling of SINC1 replacement orders generated from the review of third claims was a major accomplishment for this year. In late summer, Ellen Scherer worked out arrangements to fax a list of needed issues to USBE, a serials back issue vendor. Teri agreed to create and maintain a working list of titles and issues to be faxed to USBE on a bi-weekly schedule. Procedures were developed with Accounting and RAD to create only brief INNOVACQ order records for use in receiving and invoicing. After Ellen's departure, Teri took on the entire USBE flow and expanded the processing to include the automatic creation of SINC1 orders for issues not available from USBE. In April, Teri worked with Jennifer Kuehn from the Social Work Library to process a list of back issues specifically for that library to be purchased from their funds. Jennifer was very pleased with the fill rate, the fast turn-around time, and the reasonable costs. Procedures were revised to accommodate additional lists from collection managers and the new service was offered on a limited basis beginning in May. By the end of the year, all missing issues were handled promptly and more than 484 issues were ordered through the USBE flow. 64 issues, or 13% were received. While this is a low fill rate, it represents a large savings in funds and staff time.
3. This was a banner year for claims processing. As a result of 18 months of catch-up and clean-up work, Faye and her students proceeded well beyond the expected schedule for claims review. A new method for gathering the routine claim booleans provided a file that included only active check-in cards and excluded full cards. With the use of the SCODE2 codes to eliminate priority claim titles and other titles that do not need to be claimed, these booleans are now quite focused. By December, all third claims were reviewed for possible subscription lapses and replacement orders. In April, claims staff absorbed the responsibility for handling frequency changes into the normal claims review workflow where frequency changes are often identified and handled. Faye experimented with using the INNOVACQ claims function to review annual and quarterly titles. Although this method limits the capability to clean-up and adjust records, the review time was dramatically reduced and the resulting claim percentages were comparable to the extended claim file review.
4. The Exchange Analysis Project made great strides in six months, particularly in light of the increasing demands on Teri's time. In January, she began preparing the Exchange Partner Data Analysis Sheets (EPDAS) from the records and data that Synnove had collected. Each EPDAS contained a list of all titles either sent or received on exchange, their cost to OSUL, and the price of a paid subscription. A minimum of three EPDAS per week were prepared and distributed to collection managers for review; a total of 46 were sent and reviewed. As retention decisions were made, Teri then researched each title to be retained for availability as a paid subscription. By the end of the year, these exchanges were ready for processing on INNOVACQ.
5. In late fall, a new service was initiated to provide INNOVACQ and LCS bibliographic records for gift serials received in locations. Due to cataloging backlogs, gift serials could not be handled in the normal processing flows. Trisha and Sally Rogers often consulted on urgent requests and allowed the processing of gift titles through the two departments on an exception basis. The Serials Processing Working Group identified this issue as a top priority for action. Using the CAD procedures for handling location-controlled gifts, a new policy was established to allow each collection manager to submit a limited number of gift titles each month for full or partial cataloging. In CAD the procedures flowed smoothly and by the end of the year 150 gift subscriptions had been processed.
6. In addition to the normal comes-with searching, CAD absorbed the sample issues and snags flows and completely eliminated all backlogs! Jim had begun working through the sample issues backlog in late spring 1991, and within the first three months of FY91/92 he had eliminated the backlog and processed more than 300 issues. This new flow sent an average of 55 pieces per month, or 659 pieces for FY91/92, out to collection managers for review. Cathy began spending 4 hours per week processing the snags backlog, establishing procedures and tracking the results of her work. In the spring, all searching efforts were combined. Students were trained to do the searching and staff made the final disposition decisions. In all, 2,620 items were searched; 63% were snags, 11% were comprehensive standing order or depository items, 9% were sample issues, 6% were comes-withs, and the remainder fell into other departmental flows.
7. Jeff Kompier worked for several months with staff at UMI to review outstanding OSUL subscriptions, in particular those for which the division had been making annual payments but had never received film. UMI provided full refunds on those titles which will never be filmed, partial refunds on others for which they can not provide back volumes, and filled the remaining outstanding orders.
8. The process of building new check-in cards when the last box of the current card has been filled has slowly become a major responsibility for CAD. In spring 1990 when CAD agreed to accept this task, no one realized the enormity of the responsibility. In FY90/91, the division began to maintain statistics and was surprised when the monthly average increased to 50 cards. A three month analysis in 1991 revealed this process to be very complex and time-consuming. This year, the number of cards to be built has increased each month to a June 1992 monthly high of 185 cards which took Faye more than 20 hours to handle. An analysis of April-June 1992 revealed that it took more than 70 hours to build 433 cards, an average of almost 10 minutes per card.
9. Jeff worked with Ted Reidinger to establish OSUL's participation in the Library of Congress Brazil Program (LC/RIO). Jeff corresponded with the LC program director in Miami to assure all paperwork and orders were received in a timely fashion. Sixteen titles were placed on subscription to begin in 1992 at a considerable cost savings.
10. New processing flows were created to handle electronic journal subscriptions. A unique physical format code was created to identify these titles; bibliographic, order and check-in records were built from printed sample copies of each title.
Receiving Division
1. In January 1992, the OCLC title page photocopy project came to an end. For nine months the division and the department had facilitated this cooperative effort between OSU and OCLC by adjusting check-in and mailing workflows and siphoning off coded title pieces each day for photocopy each evening. This work was never allowed to affect check-in turnaround time. The division also provided work and storage space for the OCLC copy machine and supplies. Some of the department's student employees were hired by OCLC to work on this photocopying process. The check-in records that were coded for inclusion in this project remain coded.
2. The implementation of label printing for continuations was completed in Sept. 1991 with the inclusion of fiche and film. After assessing usage, a reorder of label stock was placed to complete the calendar year. At the end of the fiscal year, Sheryl began working with Law to examine how OSUL and LAW label printing could be merged in the INNOPAC system.
3. Security measures were upgraded by keeping outgoing mail cabinets locked except when being loaded or emptied. Arrangements were also made with the Catalog Dept. to place pieces for Rare and Charvat in the division's locking cart rather than on an open shelf.
4. Quality control measures were initiated on continuation check-in. Kathy spot checked staff production on a rotating basis. This review has occasionally identified fine point training needs. Overall, though, it has confirmed that check-in work is done in a thorough and expeditious way.
5. In December 1991, Sheryl took over the check-in and transfer of electronic journals to the OASIS system. To manage this new publication format, she had to learn how to receive, edit, request files and load to OASIS electronic mail. The format continues to evolve, requiring more attention and development of skills on Sheryl's part and new decisions on retention and handling by administrators.
6. Equipment changes over the year have included loss of one LCS terminal and replacement of two INNOVACQ terminals and two INNOVACQ printers. The Wang computer was moved to RAD at the end of the year to free space for a departmental fax machine and laser printer. It serves as a substitute of sorts for the division's lack of a better computer.
7. RAD collaborated with CAD on processing changes. Kathy helped draft procedures for CD-ROM check-in and later assumed responsibility for the check-in of these continuations. RAD agreed to record receipt of SINC1 (serial replacement) serial unit orders in continuation records. Snag processing was revised as mentioned earlier. The add-to-holdings process was simplified. Short bibliographic records are no longer built for these items or possible comes with pieces. In related work, the routing forms for snags and duplicates were revised, as were the unit order internal statistics forms.
8. Plans were made for maintaining some check-in piece workflow during the migration from INNOVACQ to INNOPAC in late summer, giving collection managers a chance to designate priority continuations to be processed during the two week downtime.
Accounting Division
1. Approximately 12,000 invoices and 3,500 requests for checks to be cut were processed. It took an average of 3-4 weeks to receive checks from Accounts Payable.
2. The humanities money, $165,800.00, was received and divided into approximately 20 funds with the format h"loc"1.
3. In August, Kathie Miller completed a clean-up project on purchase orders in the 200000 range. The majority of the records were titles paid during the original tape load.
4. This was the first year for ordering serials on endowment accounts. Four new funds were built for the Basch and Segall endowments separating unit and continuation funds. Continuation orders were handled separately to avoid potential problems and to facilitate setting aside the appropriate funds from the account at the beginning of each year to cover anticipated serial expenses.
5. Three new approval prepay accounts were established, Comic Town for CGA, Latin American Bookstore for LAT and Kubon and Sagner for EES.
6. In March and April Kathie and Mary Spillman began drafting procedures to streamline problem-solving in handling billed but not received titles, unindicated duplicates and titles received after cancellation. These proposals are currently on hold in light of the reorganization plan for the division taking place in the new fiscal year.
7. Because of staff vacancies, two proposals were made to the collection managers and LMBC. The mid-month accounting report and the annual estimated price project were eliminated. To facilitate elimination of the estimated price project, a one-time project to remove estimated prices and estimated price fields began in May and ended in June.
8. Several meetings were held with representatives from Acquisition, HEA, LAW, the Business Office and Accounts Payable to improve service and working relationships with the Controller's Office. Individual meetings will continue into next year.
9. Along with CAD and RAD in April, the division began looking at monograph titles received because of memberships or corporate standing orders. If they are billed by title, they need to be checked individually by title in for invoice and auditing purposes.
10. The Blackwell annual invoice tape was once again successfully run in November. Unfortunately, there were problems with the Faxon and Swets tapes. From August to October, the division tested the Faxon tape. First, it was discovered that INNOVACQ did not have enough work space for a tape this large. Four separate tapes were requested from Faxon, but on trying to load these it was discovered that the work space had been deleted when the disk failed on INNOVACQ. Once this was corrected, the fatal discovery was made -- that the service charges were not added to the individual titles but were divided proportionately among all the titles on the invoice. Since this is not acceptable, the invoice was keyed manually. In March, the Swets tape was tested, but information was discovered in incorrect fields and the tape would not run. This invoice was also keyed manually.
11. The Friends Office instituted a new automated procedure this year for reporting designated gifts. In April the division received 4 months worth to add to the INNOVACQ records. Reports are to be sent every month in the future.
12. In preparation for fiscal close, Kathie claimed invoices for 116 titles received but not billed by May. Everyone in the division made a concentrated effort to process as much as possible before fiscal close on June 12. Mary also visited each division's meeting to review dates and the limited use of INNOVACQ for fiscal year end. The books were reopened on June 26.
GOALS FOR 1992/93
Each division has primary goals related to their basic services such as processing of firm order and serial order requests, receipt and check-in of monograph and serials titles, and invoice processing and check distribution. These basic goals are reflected in the priorities section and are regularly met with a few exceptions due usually to high volume or staff vacancies. In addition, the entire department strives to provide quality service and prompt problem resolution.
The goals which follow represent new initiatives or enhancements that the Department hopes to pursue in the coming fiscal year.
Administrative Area
(see Accounting Division)
Monograph Acquisition Division
1. Implement Enhancements to the INNOPAC Acquisitions System
a. Migrate the OSUL INNOVACQ to the UNIX/DEC INNOPAC
b. Merge the OSUL, HEA, and Law databases
c. Standardize and document shared record areas and procedures
d. Implement the statewide standards for order record coding
e. Implement a non-paper method for archiving INNOVACQ records.
2. Reorganize the Monograph Acquisition Division
a. Based on position vacancies for Pam Bentley and Linda Kennedy, implement a reorganization of responsibilities among current staff
b. Rewrite all staff job descriptions
c. Cross train staff on primary and back up responsibilities
d. Reorganize equipment and workstations
e. Document new procedures and produce crib sheets for routine tasks
f. Evaluate effectiveness of reorganization after 6 months and make changes as needed.
3. Study Potential Automation Enhancements
a. Investigate services such as Blackwell On-Line, a BIP+ interface to INNOPAC, downloading from OCLC, etc. to facilitate ordering and receipt of unit orders
b. Implement new systems and procedures, as appropriate.
Continuation Acquisition Division
1. Review division processing flows in light of departmental reorganization and CAD staffing vacancies; revise division priorities and reassign job responsibilities as needed; revise position descriptions.
2. Integrate Linda Kennedy and Michael Grimes into division workflows and daily routines.
3. Adapt Order Section processing to involve Michael's expertise and responsibilities.
4. Adapt workflows as needed to handle the ordering, first issue processing, and subscription management of the potentially 500+ new continuation orders to be generated with special funding in fall 1992.
5. Revise CAD procedures as needed to adapt to changes in INNOVACQ processing due to:
a. migration to new hardware,
b. new system software releases,
c. integration of Law and Health Sciences databases, and
d. statewide coding standards.
6. Revise policy for handling title changes on INNOVACQ to reflect successive entry cataloging decisions on LCS; initiate changes to procedures after system migration.
7. Complete project to add OCLC numbers to INNOVACQ serial records in preparation for database integration; continue to add OCLC numbers through normal processing flows.
8. Continue exchange partner review project; establish policies and procedures for:
a. cancellation of exchange agreements,
b. transfer of exchange titles to paid subscriptions, and
c. creation of master exchange records on INNOVACQ.
Receiving Division
1. Merge LAW label printing operations with OSUL Acquisitions.
2. Integrate Kathie's accounting activities and related problem solving into RAD according to the August 1992 ACQ reorganization.
3. Participate in further development of INNOPAC / OhioLINK; adjust procedures and update system records accordingly.
4. Regain full continuation check-in staffing with concurrent return to 48 hour turnaround time.
5. Continue to develop the computer skills of division supervisory staff.
Accounting Division
1. Combine effectively the Accounting Division with the Administrative Area to form the Financial Planning and Administrative Division; complete a physical move as well as combining organizational workflow, cross-training and reporting lines.
2. Develop procedures to assist in tracking funding and expenditures from other sources and problem resolution.
3. Prepare for OhioLINK and how it relates to the division and accounting functions using the new INNOVACQ system.
4. Learn word processing and spreadsheets using the Macintosh and the IBM (for Mary).