Welcome to the first 2004 issue of Technically Speaking. This issue is being dedicated to Sandy Herzinger to recognize her as the founding force of TSRT. On behalf of TSRT, I would like to thank Sandy for all of her encouragement and help in getting TSRT started.

This issue also has several articles about budget cuts in technical services. This is a topic we can all relate to as library budgets have been trimmed in recent years.

This is my opportunity to thank a few people who have been willing to hold positions in TSRT. First, thanks to Devra Dragos, and her leadership as TSRT Chair last year and to Charity Martin, who served two terms as treasurer. Also, thanks to Sharon Mason, who served as our liaison to the ALA Council of Regional Groups (CRG) from 1994-2003. We greatly appreciate her willingness to serve in this capacity for all this time. We welcome Margaret Mering as our new CRG Liaison.

Finally, in this issue, there is a registration form for our Spring Meeting. We are very excited to be co-sponsoring a Serial Holdings Workshop with NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group) on Monday, April 26^th, at the Nebraska Library Commission. The workshop is one of the SCCTP (Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program) courses and the trainer will be Mike Wright from the University of Iowa. Some of the items covered in the workshop will be an overview of the MFHD (MARC Format Holdings Record) and fields 001-852, recording holdings, recording publication patterns, recording textual holdings, and workflow/implementation. Due to the co-sponsorship with NASIG, we are able to offer this workshop at a much lower cost than normal. This workshop is limited to 20 participants and we want to give priority to Nebraska participants. To assure Nebraska participants a seat in the workshop, their registrations must be received by March 12^th. More details are available on the registration form. If you have any questions about the workshop, please feel free to contact me.

Corinne Jacox, Creighton Law Library, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178; Phone: 402-280-2283; E-mail: jacox@creighton.edu

From Sharon Mason & Ella Jane Bailey: Ella Jane Bailey and I go back about 25 years with Sandy. As each of us are/were heads of our respective library’s cataloging operations, we had many opportunities to attend meetings, commiserate over trends in our areas, and offer support to one another as we tackled a variety of problems. Sandy always had a very practical approach to problem solving and was never reticent about offering opinions and taking stands on issues. Sandy also served as a role model for both of us. We always appreciated the “recognition” she brought to the University system (and Nebraska) for her leadership in activities in ALA and in the Innovative Users Group. We have many gifted people in Nebraska who are generous with their time and their talents to help others. Sandra Herzinger is one of those people. We wish her the best in her well deserved retirement.

Ella Jane Bailey is Chair of Bibliographic Access, at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Sharon Mason is Head of Cataloging/Serials/Systems Departments at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

From Pat Hughes: The name Sandy Herzinger, and cataloging have been synonymous in the state of Nebraska for many years. I cannot remember an NLA meeting or an important cataloging meeting that Sandy was not a visible presence. She has always had such at positive attitude about the technical services field and has been more than willing to share her knowledge and skills with others. She has presented numerous times at professional meetings and is always willing to do a workshop on authority work, or serve on another committee. I’m sure many librarians throughout the state have attended one of her Authority workshops.

Serving on a committee or an advisory board with her is always a fun experience as well as a rewarding one. During her tenure as President of the NEBASE Advisory Council, she worked with other to conduct a survey on the workshop needs of librarians across the state. This lead to several new workshops being offered by NEBASE.

I’m sure we will all miss Sandy as part of the UNL Library staff, but hope she will still remain a great resource for the technical service field of librarianship in Nebraska. Thanks Sandy!

Pat Hughes is Technical Services Librarian at Perkins Library, Hastings College

A Salute to Sandy Herzinger

Sue Ann Gardner

Though Sandy Herzinger retired from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries last year after nearly 39 years of tireless service in the Cataloging Department, she remains here in our hearts. In her time in the Libraries, she mentored so many of us, and made sure that the department was one of the best in the nation. We are a group known for getting things done, and that was due in large part to Sandy’s forthright, attentive and caring managing of us.

Sandy used to joke that her favorite number is 13. Someone would invariable ask her “why” whenever she declared this, and she’d reply playfully that it was just to be different, just to poke fun at the old superstition. That is just like Sandy. She is also one of the only (maybe the only) persons to declare love for the glaring orange carpet that graced Love Library’s Link and Technical Services areas for too many years. She likes to gently skewer the platitudes like these that people sometimes like to fall back on, which is her way of saying, “Don’t worry, be happy!” and “Don’t take things so seriously!”

If there was anyone ever born to be a librarian, Sandy is probably it. She said that she knew from an early age that she was bound and determined to become one. She tried teaching for a short while, but she soon found her true calling at a young age. Back in 1961, just after getting her undergraduate degree from Nebraska Wesleyan, Sandy worked as a junior librarian at Love Library. Then the Lincoln native went with her husband, Morelle, to Illinois to get her degree in library science. n 1965, she was hired as an assistant cataloger in the Libraries at UNL. Through 1979, she learned the ropes in cataloging, and then was promoted to chair of the department, a position that she held until she retired in 2003. She was promoted to the rank of professor in 1995, the highest rank awarded to a faculty member.

During her time as Chair of Cataloging at UNL, among her many accomplishments, Sandy saw to the retrospective conversion of the paper catalog to digital format. By the very nature of a retrocon project, some of the cataloging was “quick and dirty,” as they say, but, mostly, the catalogers worked under her direction to create a very high quality tool for anyone accessing the UNL library catalog.

Sandy contributed in many other ways to the library and the profession, as well. She was very active in the American Library Association and in the Nebraska Library Association. In fact, she was one of the founding members of our own group, the Technical Services Round Table, in 1995, a group that provided the first formal outlet for technical services issues in the state.

With this remembrance, we ought to thank her for all the work she has done for us and for the profession. Thank you, Sandy! You’re in our thoughts as you enjoy yourself in your much-deserved retirement!

Sue Ann Gardner is a Cataloger at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

SERIAL HOLDINGS WORKSHOP

sponsored by

NEBRASKA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION TECHNICAL SERVICES ROUND TABLE &

THE NORTH AMERICAN SERIALS INTEREST GROUP

April 26, 2004 8:30-4:30

Nebraska Library Commission (Crane Room)

1200 N Street, Lincoln

Trainer: Mike Wright, University of Iowa, Iowa City

This Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program course provides the basic principles of creating holdings records and publication patterns with a focus on serials. All materials are based on the MARC 21 Format for Holdings Data (MFHD) and ANSI/NISO Z39.71--1999. The course includes background information on why holdings are important and a brief description of the development of the standards and instructions and exercises on creating formatted and free text holdings and publication patterns. The instructions and exercises are system-neutral.

8:00-8:30 Registration (refreshments will be provided)

8:30-12:00 Morning Session

12:00-1:30 Lunch and TSRT Business Meeting

1:30-4:30 Afternoon Session

THE WORKSHOP IS LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS. This workshop is also being offered to libraries in states surrounding Nebraska. Nebraska participants will be given a priority if their registration is received by March 12^th. Nebraska participants can still register after March 12^th, but may not be assured a seat in the workshop.

Registration Deadline:

March 12^th for Nebraska library participants to be assured a seat in the workshop

April 12^th for all participants (registrations accepted in the order received until the workshop is full)

TSRT Serial Holdings Workshop Registration Form

(please print)

Name: ________________________________________________________________________

Institution: _____________________________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________________________

Phone: _____________________________ E-Mail: ____________________________________

I will be attending (check one):

Workshop Only (lunch on your own)

Nebraska Library Association member____ ($50) Non-Nebraska Library Association member ____($60)

Lunch/Business Meeting Only____ ($8)

Workshop & Lunch/Business Meeting

Nebraska Library Association member____ ($58) Non-Nebraska Library Association member

____ ($68)

Lunch will be sandwiches provided by Brown Baggers.

My choice for lunch is:

Circle one: Ham & Swiss Roast Beef & Cheddar Turkey Vegetarian

Circle one: White Wheat

Make checks payable to: Technical Services Round Table

Send registration to: Corinne Jacox, Creighton Law Library, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178

Phone: 402-280-2283 E-mail: jacox@creighton.edu

BUDGETS AND TECHNICAL SERVICES

Budget Cuts and Catalog Departments

Mary Marchio

Two major victims of public library budgets cuts are usually materials and staff. Cuts in these areas can have impacts on catalog departments, which in turn have impacts on public service areas.

Reductions in staff in a catalog department, when not paired with reductions in materials budgets, usually require the department staff to look closely at workflow and to evaluate how cataloging is done. The public service staff may need to adjust their expectations that the department will continue to be able to produce new materials at the same rate, same level of quality and in the same way before reductions in staffing. Clear communication between catalog department and public service staff as to the effect of fewer staff will go a long way to avoid bad feelings and divisions between the service groups. If library administrators decide to purchase vendor-provided cataloging services and eliminate catalog department staff, public service may suffer with the loss of catalogers’ comprehensive knowledge of their library collections, ability to answer questions, make changes to database records, and provide other helpful services.

However, reductions in materials budgets resulting in fewer materials to handle can give catalog department staff the opportunity to clear up backlogs of uncataloged materials, evaluate the need for reclassification projects and undertake them, perform authority cleanup, and learn more about the inner workings of their automated system so that cataloging records can be as useful as possible to customers and public service staff.

If the library staff as a whole is reduced, the realignment of staff may occur. Administrators looking for qualified public service staff in times of budget cuts may look to the catalog department. Moving catalog department staff into public service areas, when it can be done so that little reduction in cataloging service levels occurs, can be beneficial.

Mary Marchio is Manager of Technical Services at Omaha Public Library.

Marked For Use

Sara Martin

The College of Saint Mary Library utilizes a system for tracking in-library use of journals and books that allow staff to more effectively manage the materials budget. The SIRSI online catalog system has a button on its circulation module called “marked for use.” This feature allows circulation staff to wand in the barcode of each item before it is re-shelved. The system keeps statistics on the number of times each title has been scanned for a period of time. This simple tracking system works wonderfully.

However, periodical use proved to be a challenge for the library. We do not circulate the journals and they are not barcoded. We decided to enter one barcode into the system for each journal catalog record. Then the barcode was placed on an index card along with the title of the journal and laminated. Each card was hole punched, and alphabetized. Sections of the cards were gathered onto a large ring and left at the circulation desk. When a journal is used and brought back to the circulation desk, staff locate the corresponding card, scan the barcode “marked for use” and place the journal on the cart to be re-shelved.

Staff were initially a bit hesitant to take on the added labor of tracking the journals. But once the system was put into place, it did not add significantly to staff labor. The benefits of the system in terms of the library budget have been outstanding.

Each summer when the EBSCO renewal period arrives, the Library Director reviews the “marked for use” statistics. The most expensive, little used journal titles are noted. The appropriate faculty Division Chairs are contacted and invited to meet with the Library Director. Faculty are asked to provide rational as to why journal titles with low “marked for use” counts should remain on the journal renewal list. When faculty members indicate they want to retain a title, the Library Director gives them one year to demonstrate a significant increase in use. If at the journal renewal period the following year the statistics have not increased, the journal title is dropped. The faculty are notified of the statistics and decision to cancel the subscription. The only exceptions are journal titles that are required for accreditation purposes.

This “marked for use” strategy has allowed the College of Saint Mary library to save thousands of dollars in unused journal subscriptions. The library has taken those saved dollars and reinvested in new titles that are more appropriate to the curriculum. The faculty are delighted with the new journals, and library staff are happy to see materials in use.

Sara Martin is the former Library Director of the College of Saint Mary and is the incoming Associate Dean of Technical Services and Library Systems for the University of Detroit Mercy.

RFID in Your Books:

The Next Great Wonder, or Invasion of privacy?

Sara Martin

Have your books been RFID? It sounds a little startling, doesn’t it? Actually, RFID refers to the new Radio Frequency ID tags that are increasingly found in warehouses and now libraries. These fascinating little tags can hold barcode information and be placed inside books, journals and multimedia. Tags are read by RFID scanners strategically placed throughout the library.

Scanning books at key sites can save staff labor and be particularly useful for libraries with a small number of staff. Streamlining operations might include, automating the circulation desk so that entire stacks of books could be checked out all in one pass across a scanner. Inventory can take place right in the stacks by passing a scanner in front of a row of books. There’s no need to take even a single book off the shelf. Books are automatically checked back in when they pass by a scanner in the book drop. Even security is enhanced. If a patron takes an item out of the library unprocessed, the alarm goes off and the title of the stolen item automatically displays on the circulation screen. Sound impossible? It’s not. RFID library systems are already on the market, and the cost of the tags has dropped to approximately 10 cents or less.

This will sound like a little piece of heaven to many librarians. So what are the potential problems? The overall system can be quite expensive with multiple scanners, reprocessing entire collections, learning new software, staff time and labor to implement the new system, contracting with vendors to place tags on new book purchases, etc. Even with these barriers, many libraries will decide that the price tag and labor are worth the end result. So what’s up with the privacy issue?

The January 2004 issue of Scientific American, nicely outlines the technical and social issues. With increased use of RFID on products and scanners placed throughout our environment, it will be possible to track consumer use of products from the manufacturer, to warehouse, to store, to their home. Could it be possible to track which library patron checked out what items? In a conversation with a representative from Checkpoint Systems (a vendor currently offering RFID technology to libraries) the answer is no. They use an RFID tag with very limited frequency. The reason? They don’t want to accidentally check out books from other people waiting in line at the circulation desk. Sounds reasonable. But as the technology evolves, will this still be the case?

Let’s go back to the original question. Is RFID technology the next great wonder or an invasion of privacy? I believe, that in many ways, the question is too late. RFID technology is not coming. It’s already here.

Sara Martin is the former Library Director at the College of Saint Mary and is the new Associate Dean of Technical Services and Library Systems at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Announcements

· We bid farewell to Sara Martin, one of the founders of TSRT, as she leaves her position as the Library Director of the College of Saint Mary and becomes the incoming Associate Dean of Technical Services and Library Systems for the University of Detroit Mercy.

· We congratulate, Casey Kralik, TSRT treasurer, on her new position as the Head Librarian at the Milton R. and Pauline S. Abrahams Joslyn Art Museum Library.

· We welcome, Mary K. Bolin, the new Chair of Technical Services at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

· Sharon Mason’s new title, as of July 2003, is Head of Cataloging/Serials/Systems Department at the Calvin T. Ryan Library, University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Please send any announcements for future issues of Technically Speaking to

Deirdre Routt, Omaha Public Library, 215 S 15 St, Omaha, NE 68102 or droutt@omaha.lib.ne.us.

The next issue will be out in July.

Technically Speaking...is published 3 times a year by the Nebraska Library Association,
Technical Services Round Table. Issues are published in Fall, Winter and Spring.
NEWSLETTER EDITORS:

Sharon Mason	Deirdre Routt
Calvin T. Ryan Library, UNK	Omaha Public Library
2508 11th Ave	215 S 15 St
Kearney, NE 68849-2240	Omaha, NE 68102
(308) 865-8585	(402) 444-4800
masons@unk.edu	droutt@omaha.lib.ne.us

TSRT homepage: http://www.nebraskalibraries.org/TSRT/TSRThome.htm

Web Coordinator: Kira Barnes, kbarnes2@unl.edu

This publication is free to current and prospective members of the Round Table. It is not available by subscription.

TSRT Spring Meeting: Serial Holdings Workshop

April 26, 2004 at the Nebraska Library Commission

Message from the Chair

Nebraska Library Commission (Crane Room)

1200 N Street, Lincoln

Marked For Use

Sara Martin