The Ohio State University Libraries
Policies and Procedures
Technical Services
OSCAR Database Management
| Document: | Use of IMESSAGE for Collection Management Team (CMT) to track materials during and after processing review for transfer to STX
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| Date: | September 10, 2001
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| Effective: | immediately
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| Created by: | Marsha Hamilton, Head Monographs Dept.,
Nick Felt, Coordinator, Collection Management Team
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This is the proposal, including revisions suggested by Nancy Helmick, Susan Logan, Akua Bandele, and Jim Bracken among others, on behalf of the Collection Management Team (CMT), for a procedure to use IMESSAGE and Staff Notes in the Item Record to track decision-making involved in reviewing materials for transfer to STX from Main and location libraries. As the need to collect data by booleans on CMT data diminishes over time, the IMESSAGE code can be removed by rapid update and the Staff Note will remain as the long term record of action taken.
GOALS:
- tag items for easy collection by boolean for review, rapid updates, and statistics
- allow collection managers and CMT to tag item records to track progression of decision making as titles are reviewed for retention, transfer, withdrawal, record maintenance, or repair
- minimize inconvenience, especially to circ staff, with IMESSAGE's
SPECS:
IMESSAGE is a fixed field in the Item Record. It accepts a one digit, lower case alpha or numeric value. The one character value maps to a display definition up to 14 characters in length. About 2-3% of Item Records in OSCAR currently contain an IMESSAGE value.
Eleven IMESSAGES are currently defined. Some of those are obsolete. It is possible that CMT will treat an item that already has an IMESSAGE value. As shown below, obsolete values could be updated. However, some existing IMESSAGE values should remain because they take precedence over CMT tracking needs. In those rare cases, only the Staff Note would be used to track CMT activity with the item.
Whenever an item is checked in or out, the IMESSAGE definition displays to the operator. The operator must hit the space bar to proceed. Because this is an extra keystroke, this proposal attempts to minimize work for circ staff.
CMT proposes using only numeric IMESSAGE values to distinguish more easily from other uses which are currently all alphas.
PROPOSAL:
| IMESSAGE | * Indicates details are added in Staff Note |
| Code | Definition | For: |
| 1 | LOC GAVE 2 CMT | Location staff can tag items referred to CMT for action |
| 2 | REFER TO CMT | To tag large booleans to be reviewed by collection managers for possible retention, transfer to STX, withdrawal, consolidation, etc. |
| 3 | CMT WRKING ON | * CMT or coordinating dept. is working on item. Details are in Staff Note. Example:
- Sent to CAT to be analyzed. mee 4/1/01
- Sent to Coll. Maintenance for repair. abc 4/1/01
- Consolidating holdings. Piece on CMT shelf. nf 4/1/01
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| 4 | TO STX IF ROOM | Indicates decisions, record maintenance, physical review,and repair are complete. Piece can go to STX with next shipment or as room becomes available. |
| 5-6, 8 | | [not defined at this time] |
| 7 | CMT NOTE | * Indicates presence of long term information stored in Item Record Staff Note. Example:
- Transfer from SEL to EHS to consolidate holdings per XR and MT. raf 4/1/01
- Retain in MAI jb 8/22/01
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| 9 | CMT WTHDRAWN | Indicates piece has been specifically withdrawn by CMT following guidelines for updating OSCAR, OCLC, marking and disposing, etc. Distinguishes this CMT withdrawal from lost, missing, and other withdrawals. |
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Long term, only 9's would remain in IMESSAGE. Since those are withdrawn and can't circulate, they won't generate messages for circ staff to acknowledge. |
| TIMING. | WHEN IMESSAGE VALUE IS UPDATED: |
| Begins as: | Changes to: | When: |
| - | 1 | CM and appropriate depts. refer to CMT to begin review process |
| - | 2 | Large boolean of Items is collected for CM's to review |
| 1 | 3 | CMT begins work on Item referred to it |
| 2 | 3 | CM's final decision made; CMT coordinates action(s) requested |
| 3 | 4 | Requested actions are completed; item is queued for STX |
| 3 | 9 | Withdrawal is coordinated and complete |
| 3 | 7 | Action of than withdrawal or transfer to STX is completed; Item is retained in current location, consolidated, or transferred elsewhere. Item will not be re-collected in future to-do booleans. |
| 4 | 7 | Item has been transferred to STX; retains CM decisions |
| 5-6, 8 | Codes not needed at this time |
| 7 | may remain until major Main renovation/transferring is over. Staff Note in Item Record will remain permanently but code 7, which circ staff must acknowledge, can be removed after transfer project/boolean creation is past. |
EXCEPTIONS:
Some IMESSAGE's contain information that takes precedence over CM and CMT-related tracking. If an IMESSAGE value exists, CM's, CMT, and other departments including ACQ, S/E/R, CAT, SCC, PRES, etc. should NOT change the value but should use only an Item Staff Note. CMT will contact the location to determine if existing IMESSAGE coding is still valid and needed. If IMESSAGE is no longer valid, CMT will update if appropriate.
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