[Philip McEldowney UVa Charlottesville, Va 10 Ag 1993 LIS650] OPERATIONS ANALYSIS - PRE-CATALOGING & ROUTING The "sort and search" process for all materials at the University of Virginia Library revolves around two key persons; daily they receive materials (on book trucks, mostly from the Acquisitions Department), sort them, and then distribute them to the appropriate section for cataloging the materials. The materials are recorded in the UVa on-line public cataloging system, VIRGO, and are eventually sent to the stacks, branch libraries, or otherwise made available to the library's customers. In library literature this is often referred to as the "pre- cataloging and routing system" (see citations at the end). For me, this type of process is not too dissimilar to any system outside the library of re-distribution of received materials, though complexity of details might vary. It reminds me of my many youthful days watching a railway freight shutting yard for hours on end, while the yard engines rearranged freight cars, making up new trains for their eventual destinations, side-tracking less- perishable cars for local or delayed destinations (eg fuel), and adding freight cars to express passenger trains for immediate (bananas, mangoes) delivery. It is also not too dissimilar to the way a post-office works in mail distribution to appropriate zip codes or types (Second Class, foreign Air Mail) of mail, or how something like Federal Express works with different types (and prices) of materials for Next-Day or Regular delivery, or how UPS (United Parcel Service) works. Within the Main UVa Library (called Alderman Library), items are received and redistributed for cataloging. This process is centralized for the branch libraries of Fine Arts, Science and Technology, Music, and the business library (Darden Library). [Two UVa libraries have their own and completely separate systems--the Health Science Library and the Law Library, neither of which are included in this analysis.] Any materials, in any formats, which are acquired by the Main and Branch Libraries are processed through this "pre-cat and routing" system at Alderman. It is a hub between ordering/acquisitions and cataloging. Grossly the system may be indicated by this workflow-- According to the supervisor of this process, the main goals or "mission" of this process is to provide as immediate as possible ACCESS to these materials, and to ensure SUPPORT (re-training, hardware, and software) for this goal. Besides the supervisor (who oversees this procedure as well as many others), the front-line workers are: two staff members (L.A.s=Library Assistants; one specializes in doing the Rush requests; the second in the zoo backlog; and everything else including keeping an eye on the OCLC connections and GTO functions), and 3 or more students (who do searching and re- searching functions for current and zoo backlog materials). Additional Cataloging staff assist in routing (1), and in Rush requests (1) on a monthly rotating basis. The Procedure, daily: 1. Book Trucks arrive from Acquisitions (around 9am); most of the materials (90+%) are Green tagged (from Acquisitions, where Bibliographers have had a chance to look at them for 7 days); or tagged with Pink slips (indicating "standing orders" in Serials Acquisitions), or Yellow slips (coming from Branch libraries) 2. Materials are tallied--statistics for totals; and book and non-book formats 3. Materials are routed/distributed-- P - for Provisional records; go to the zoo backlog SAF - any materials with series; go Serials Authority File processing; then to appropriate P,L,M,C locations L - DLC (Library of Congress, District of Columbia) or 'good' copy; go to DLC shelves for copy cataloging M - Member Copy; go to shelves organized by language groups, to check Subject Holdings and catalog C - copy without Call Number; go to C Ranges shelves Red Tagged - go to Rush catalogers and appropriate section; to catalog within 7 days of receipt Non-book formations--go to special cataloger for these materials to be cataloged (This process is usually done within an hour or less, but depends on the number of the materials on the truck each day.) 4. Rush materials are re-searched and cataloged as soon as possible, notifying the branch or customer. Statistics recorded. 5. Ps or Provisional records are made for books which have no other copy, and placed in the zoo; statistics of adds recorded. 6. If time, students select books from the zoo, and re-search them; recording statistics of how many taken out or put back in; the zoo backlog rotates in about 1 year's time 7. If time, staff assist in cataloging other materials (than Rush or Zoo materials); PLUS 8. If time, Basement backlog - xeroxes are made on a portable xerox machine in the basement of the title page and verso; then searched on OCLC for copy, and retrieved from the basement (or not), and routed as above; record statistics taken out and left in the Basement backlog In one way or another, all materials going through this pre- cataloging and routing procedure is entered into VIRGO (the UVA OPAC system) with an identification number as well as a location code, allowing for control over materials at UVa libraries. As far as I can tell from interviews, observations, and scouring the Cataloging Manual (15 Chapters, 25 Appendixes, or 400+? p.) and various statistics forms, this procedure has been streamlined in the last 5 years, is functioning very efficiently, and is constantly under revision to further streamline it in the next 5 years. The "human factors" involved with this procedure also seems very positive. The supervisor appears extremely competent; she is on top of the most recent developments in the areas under her control; keeps Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets of more than all of the statistics she is required to report, or are reported to her (which she can manipulate); is almost always available and open for assistance and for suggestions; and provides conscientious and hands-on training and re-training for her employees. The two staff persons appear conscious of the main goal of their work--to provide as much immediate access to library materials as possible; have enjoyed the empowerment of training and re-training when changes have occurred in proceedures and their responsibilities and status in recent years. They are themselves very immediately accessible to problems within their areas, pleasant (and jovial?, especially!) to work with, open to suggestions and requests, and very willing to implement requests immediately or suggest better alternatives for implementation. Many changes have occurred in the last five years; the most important being 1) going on-line cataloging (VIRGO) and 2) integrating much of the pre-ordering and pre-cataloging (incorporating NOTIS) (Soupiset, 1993). This has meant the purchase and location of new machines and terminals (hardware), new cable connections and re-wiring, new software, enhancement of OCLC (PRSM) and pricing changes from OCLC, training and re-training, shifts in the location of pre-cataloged materials, various projects, and complete changes in the workflow. The staff workers seem to feel more focused in their goals and their priorities, and understand their functions and responsibilities clearly. They attribute much of this to how smoothly the supervisor has planned for and implemented the restructuring of the workflow, provided appropriate hardware and software, and conducted good hands-on training sessions. Four specific areas might be mentioned which have changed dramatically with these changes over the past years: 1) the basement backlog, 2) the zoo backlog, 3) searching, and 4) rush requests. BASEMENT BACKLOG. Some years ago this backlog was in limbo. Though it existed few library staff had time to deal with it, which they did on a very small scale and very haphazardly. Cataloging took it on themselves, in order to try to fulfill the goal of having all materials, which existed in the library, somehow accessible to the customers. They developed a system whereby the pre-catalogers went down and brought up a group of books, processing them through established pre-cataloging and cataloging proceedures. Even this was cumbersome, until a portable xerox machine was purchased, which allowed xeroxing the title and verso pages for searching. Only the books which had copy or warranted provisional records were physically retrieved from the Basement, leaving a small set in new basement back, but accessible with a basement a Virgo record and Basement Code. The Basement backlog is systematically shrinking and coming under greater control. ZOO BACKLOG. Some years ago the zoo backlog was a headache and almost unmanageable; and large. With the help of the Supervisor, the staff and others helped to re-arrange, reduce, and bring the zoo under control. The Supervisor estimates that the zoo becomes a headache when it has 20,000 or more volumes in it. Through systematic efforts and help in projects from others, over the last few years, the zoo has been reduced to 15,000 volumes or so, and maintained at that level. With provisional records and a zoo code, each item can be immediately located. This provides access (at least by title and author, though not usually by subject) to the customers, and makes it possible to locate Rush Requests almost immediately. SEARCHING. ALL items which came to the pre-cataloging unit were searched or re-searched. With the enormous price rise (and still uncertainty of pricing changes) of OCLC searches in the last years, the library (especially Cataloging) was faced with a possible budget crisis. After the consideration of many options, it was decided not to search everything; but rather to rely on any earlier searching which had been done on an item (in pre-order or other processing), and to only search those items which had not been searched. This has cut down the number of searches in OCLC tremendously (by 60%?), and thus stemmed a budgeting crisis. The implementation of downloading records from OCLC to the local VIRGO system simplified and cut down these searches as well as many other processes. (Earlier a printout of searched and found copy was made, which then was used as a basis for manually inputting the record into VIRGO; a much more cumbersome and time-consuming task for each item.) (The downloading is called GTO, which I, at first, thought was Grand Theft Orders, but really means Generic Transfer Overlay. It is done by the flick of a switch. Neat.) RUSH REQUESTS. Perhaps the greatest change has occurred in this area of customer service. As a result of rearranging the workflow, revising proceedures, installing new equipment with enhanced functions, providing greater location control, and retraining, the staff has been able to handle the 60% increase in rush requests over the last year. Most of these requests used to come from branch libraries, but now more than half are coming directly from the customers. This is likely to continue to increase, as customers become familiar and comfortable with manipulating VIRGO, and as an increase of old (backlogs) and new (on order or in process) items is visible in VIRGO. As the UVa customers also become more familiar with LEO (Library Express Online; a local documentary delivery service, requestable through the email address of 4leo@Virginia.EDU), rush requests are increasing from this service also. The Rush staffer is happy with this greater control, as she used to have to intuitively guess where a rush-request item might be in the library; it was considerably more time consuming than now. A few months ago an email "hot-line" address was established for rush requests (rushcat@Virginia.EDU), which also is likely to increase rush requests in the future. RECOMMENDATIONS It is difficult to suggest changes or improvements in these proceedures, which would drastically increase their efficiency. They appear to be working well and headed in the right directions. Most of the future "improvements" come from the supervisor and two staff workers involved in the proceedures, and were elicited during my interviews and are already under consideration to streamline the work. They arise from the two goals of access and support. ELIMINATE BACKLOGS. These backlogs are already being reduced under the recent changes in proceedures, or at least provisional records are being made to indicate where they are. A library committee (ALTERCAT or Alternative Levels of Cataloging Committee) is already involved in trying to decide how to make backlogged and other materials more accessible to customers (see ALTERCAT Minutes of the May 21, 1993, where the pros and cons of 'alternative levels of cataloging' and 'minimal-level records' were discussed). One way or another these backlogged items will eventually become more accessible to the customers, and the backlogs drastically reduced or eliminated. SPEED-UP or SIMPLIFY PRE-CATALOGING AND CATALOGING PROCEEDURES. Already Personal Computers have been budgeted to replace the (30 or so VIRGO "dumb" terminals in the Cataloging Department, probably at least within a year. At present, searching must be done in the OCLC terminal room, items are downloaded into VIRGO, and then the cataloger must go to a VIRGO terminal to modify the record and catalog the item. With PCs and split-screen software (already available from OCLC and other vendors) the pre-catalogers could do multi-tasks from a single PC at one workstation. The software possibly will NOT be able to be budgeted and purchased until the 1994/1995 fiscal year. One of the staff looked gleefully forward to working from just one work station. The other thought the walking around to the adjacent OCLC terminal room provided a break in routine, which she would sadly miss. One further suggestion concerns STATISTICS. Already with SAS (Statistical Analysis System) programs, many statistics are and can be retrieved from VIRGO. The staff member handling Rush Requests suggested that a SAS program could be run to generate monthly rush statistics. Other statistics from this section, which are now recorded in pencil, might be kept on a spreadsheet with automatic monthly totaling. [See xerox sample of monthly stats at end] RUSH REQUESTS - improvements in the distant FUTURE (or maybe sooner than you think) Eventually rush requests might be generated automatically by the academic library system, using an enhanced, customized information-identification and referral system such as DOCLINE (Dutcher, Dec. 1989). Such a system would have a databank which listed the top 5 (for eg) topics or subjects each customer was interested in or doing research on. As materials were added to the library, and if 10 or so customers were interested in the subjects of an item, an automatic rush request would be sent to the staff member. After it was rush cataloged an automatic notification would be sent out on email to the customers. Such notifications of recently-cataloged rush and other library materials might be generated daily, weekly, or monthly (determined by the customer). (Compuserve has provided a similar customized notification system to its "executive" subscribers, which scans newspapers and other materials overnight, and provides a list of the items, and the items themselves, the next morning.) This would be a pro-active or anticipatory information delivery system. CITATIONS/READINGS: ALTERCAT Minutes, May 12, 1993, University of Virginia library.gopher. Dunkle, Clare B., "Unpublished secrets: research for problem solving in technical services (Preorder/Precat Discussion Group panel at ALA Midwinter 1992), Library Acquisitions, v. 16 (Winter 1992): p. 424-6. Dutcher, Gale A., "DOCLINE: A National Automated Interlibrary Loan Request Routing and Referral System," Information Technology & Libraries, v. 8: no. 4 (Dec. 1989): p. 359-370. Gerving, Joan, "Put Information to Work for You," Association Management, v. 41: no. 2 (Feb. 1989): p. 174-178. Goldberg, Tyler Miller, "A report on the RTSD Pre-order and Pre- cataloging Bibliographic Search Discussion Group, June 26, 1984," Library Acquisitions, v. 8: no. 4 (1984): p. 263-5. Soupiset, Kathryn A., "Highlights of the ALCTS Preorder/Precat Discussion Group (at the 1992 ALA Conference)," Library Acquisitions, v. 17 (Spring 1993): p. 98-100. Half of this article is a presentation by Beth Camden, Head of Copy Cataloging at the University of Virginia, titled "Reducing OCLC Costs." She describes changes at the UVa from 1989 through 1991 as the library went on-line, implemented NOTIS, and GTO, especially in the workflow for both Acquisitions and Cataloging. Through these changes the number of searches on OCLC was reduced. "Of particular interest was an example of the routing flag. . . ." [See example xerox at end.] Thorburn, Colleen, "MRDF: machine-readable data files: pre- cataloging decisions at the University of Florida (to provide model research library approaches)," Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, v. 10: no. 4 (1990): p. 69-88. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY These are recommendations of changes, connected with the proceedures of the personnel involved in the pre-cataloging, routing, filling rush requests, and managing the backlogs, which may be considered to further in the future the twin goals of this section - to provide customer ACCESS to information materials, and ensure SUPPORT to library personnel in these activities. 1. ELIMINATE BACKLOGS as much as possible, whether it be in the 'zoo,' basement, or other areas. Implement the recommendations of the ALTERCAT committee to ensure customer access to all materials in the library, whether listed in VIRGO, or browsable in the stacks, or both. 2. SPEED-UP PRE-CATALOGING (and Cataloging). Replace "dumb" VIRGO terminals with Personal Computers in the Cataloging Department, examine software for split-screen and multi-tasking, and implement such a system on the PCs. This will cut down time of having to go (physically right now) from one terminal (OCLC) to another (VIRGO). 3. STATISTICS. Look into using SAS programs, spreadsheets, or other methods to keep track of and manipulate daily, monthly, and annual statistics. Replace some of the present manual recording of statistics. 4. OCLC COSTS. Keep an eye on the costs and numbers of OCLC searches, trying to anticipate and plan for OCLC price changes. 5. DEVELOP AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED RUSH REQUESTS. As part of a future automatic, pro-active, and individually customized information delivery system, the library electronic system would automatically 'flag' a newly ordered or cataloged item, which was known to be of interest to several of the academical village's customers, and send an email request to 'rushcat' for processing, with notification to the appropriate customers. 6. TRAINING. Provide adequate training for library personnel during any of these transitions.