|
Technically Speaking
A Technical Services Newsletter for Nebraska Libraries
Volume 7, number 1, Fall 2004
ISSN 1085-3448
OCLC : TECH SERVICES & ILL
SPECIAL & SCHOOL LIBRARIES
CONTENTS
Message from the Chair
Note from the Editor
TSRT programs at NLA
Announcements
Times they are a-changin’
Using Connexion Browser
Connexion Client
WorldCat Resource Sharing
LRaTs and McGoogan Library
Technical Services in a Special Library
LPS Library Media Technical Services
Revitalizing a Library
Message from the Chair
Corrine Jacox, Creighton University Law Library
Welcome to the fall issue of Technically Speaking.
There is a lot of information covered in this issue and there should be
something of interest to everyone. Many thanks to Christa Burns for
being our guest editor and compiling articles concerning OCLC. There are
many changes in the works for the interfaces we use to connect to OCLC
for both cataloging and interlibrary loan so these articles should be
very informative. Articles concerning technical services in school and
special libraries are also included in this article.
The NLA Annual Conference is not far away – October 6-8 in Grand Island.
TSRT’s sessions are introduced later in this issue. If you are planning
to attend the conference, please be sure to attend the NLA business
meeting on Thursday. The NLA membership will be voting on the proposed
change to NLA’s fiscal year from a calendar year to July 1st through
June 30th.
TSRT’s April 26th Spring Meeting at the
Nebraska Library Commission was a success. Michael Wright, cataloging
librarian from the University of Iowa, gave an all day workshop on
Serial Holdings to 15 participants. This is one of the workshops offered
through the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program (SCCTP). The
workshop was cosponsored by NASIG (North American Serials Interest
Group) who gave TSRT a $750 grant for this workshop through its
Continuing Education Committee. The workshop began with an introduction
to holdings standards. Then, an overview of a MFHD (MARC Format for
Holdings Data) record was covered. The next sessions covered recording
holdings, publication patterns and textual holdings. Participants
learned about pairing the 853/863, 854/864, and 855/865 fields, which
are used for recording the enumeration and chronology of issues and
volumes. Special problems that can occur when entering holdings data
were covered at the end of the day. Next spring’s meeting will be here
before we know it, so if you have any ideas for a topic you would like
to see offered, please let me know.
Note
from the Editor:
There is no volume 6, issue 3. Instead this is an expanded issue. If
anyone is adding this to their serials collection I am sorry for making
life difficult. There was just not enough time to get out two issues
before the annual conference after I got back from maternity leave in
June.
Deirdre Routt
TSRT Programs at the 2004 NLA/NEMA Conference
Jim Shaw
TSRT will sponsor three programs at the NLA/NEMA Conference in Grand
Island in October: Joyce Melvin of UNL Libraries will speak about
Trends and Initiatives in Interlibrary Loan on Thursday, October 7,
from 3:10 - 4 PM, in the Islander 1 Room at the Holiday Inn.
Also on Thursday, from 4:20 - 5:10 PM, a panel on Tending Our Fields:
Weeding Collections to Make Them Stronger will convene in the Walnut
Room of the Riverside Inn. The panelists include Nancy Busch of UNL
Libraries, Mary Griffin of Omaha Public Library, and Mary Helms of
McGoogan Library at UNMC. The NLA College and University Section is
co-sponsoring the panel, and Mary Marchio of Omaha Public Library will
serve as the moderator.
Serving Two Masters: Working in Positions that Cross the Traditional
Boundaries of Public and Technical Services, will be TSRT's second
panel of the conference. It is scheduled for 8 - 8:50 AM on Friday,
October 8, in the Islander 1 Room of the Holiday Inn. Corinne Jacox of
Creighton University Law Library will serve as the moderator, and the
panelists include Jim Bothmer of Creighton University Health Sciences
Library, Deirdre Routt of Omaha Public Library, and Jim Shaw of UNO
Library.
The TSRT annual business meeting is
scheduled for Friday afternoon from 3 PM - 3:50 PM in the Royal Room of
the Holiday Inn. Corinne Jacox will chair the meeting, and the
membership will vote on proposed changes in the TSRT bylaws.
The complete conference schedule and registration information are
available via the Internet at
http://www.papillion.ne.us/~NLA2004/.
Jim Shaw is the Government Documents Librarian at UNO Library and is
the Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect for TSRT.
Announcements
• We bid farewell to Kira Barnes,
webmaster for TSRT since 2001. Kira, for a little while longer, is
Cataloging and Modern Languages Liaison Librarian at UNL’s Love Library.
She will be Cataloging and Metadata Librarian at the Wallace Library at
the Rochester Institute of Technology where she will be doing original,
complex copy cataloging, helping to set cataloging and metadata policies
and doing an hour of reference a week.
• We welcome Rebecca Garcia, a new staff member in the Serials
Department at the McGoogan Library. She is a Library Assistant II, doing
primarily check-in, claims and binding. Rebecca is just out of the Air
Force. Prior to that she was with the Mission (Texas) Public Library as
a cataloger. She and her husband have a two-year-old son, Elijah.
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 January
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’:
OCLC RESOURCE SHARING AND CATALOGING MIGRATION
Christa Burns
It is a very exciting time in the OCLC world. OCLC is
currently in the process of migrating all of their resource sharing and
cataloging services into new interfaces. In the months to come, you’ll
be hearing even more about all of the changes designed to improve your
workflow and service to your users.
Articles in this issue of the Technically Speaking highlight the
enhanced features of the new cataloging and resource sharing interfaces
that you will be using in the future.
All of this is leading up to the retirement of the current interfaces.
OCLC has consulted with librarians as well as its own Members Council,
advisory committees and regional service providers, and has announced
software retirement dates for its current cataloging, resource sharing
and union list services.
And now, here are the dates you've all been waiting for!
May 1, 2005
OCLC will retire:
If you use Passport for ILL,
ILL Web, ILL ME or ILLiad 6.x for interlibrary loan you must migrate to
WorldCat Resource Sharing (presently referred to as the FirstSearch
staff view) or upgrade to OCLC ILLiad 7.0.
June 2005
OCLC will retire Passport for union listing. Those
who use Passport for Union List activities must migrate to Connexion.
July 1, 2005
OCLC will retire CatME, CJK and Arabic.
All users of these interfaces must migrate to Connexion Client.
For up-to-date information about these
changes, check out OCLC's migration web pages:
WorldCat Resource Sharing staff view -
http://www.oclc.org/ill/migration/
Connexion Cataloging Service -
http://www.oclc.org/connexion/migrating/
Christa Burns is OCLC Member
Services Coordinator, NEBASE at the Nebraska Library Commission.
Connexion Client – Why Not?
Mary Jurgens In April
2004 Westside Community Schools switched from cataloging with OCLC
Passport to cataloging with OCLC Connexion Client. Our Media Tech
Services/Central Processing Department catalogs a variety of books and
mixed media materials for our ten elementaries, middle school, and high
school. Realizing that
Passport was ending soon, and that our older Windows 95 workstation was
inadequate, we purchased a new Gateway PC with Windows XP Professional.
Having attended the Connexion Brower class earlier, I assumed that I
would use it for cataloging. However, about the time we were ready for
the switch, I attended a Connexion Client class and realized that it
made a lot of sense, since it is Windows-based and has some Passport
similarities.
The set up and download was
easily done by our tech department, and the Connexion Client tutorial
reinforced much of the information from the Client class. We set up a
“save to file” export for our local Dynix system as we had some firewall
issues.
As I worked with Connexion
Client, I was amazed at how much sense it made, and how easy it was to
work with. Using the keyboard with function keys and Windows commands is
much simpler that all those mouse clicks. Searching is a breeze with
multiple search types, and the search screen can be customized. I also
like the “last search saved” feature. Record editing is easily
accomplished line by line, and the built in label feature is very
convenient. The status bar at the bottom of each record keeps me
apprised of what actions have been taken on the individual record such
as Export, Update, etc.
The “save file” is easy to
use and retrieve (and I really like that you can start over at #1 in the
save file unlike Passport). Connexion Client also has exporting choices
such as “Overwrite” and “Append” which were not available with Passport
and are very useful for times when interruptions occur in the cataloging
process. I have at times used the Help feature, and find it informative,
actually “helpful”, and easy to use.
As with any change, some workflow
issues arose, but they were minor, and quickly resolved.
All in all transition
from Passport to Connexion Client was much easier that I thought it
would be. I really like cataloging with Connexion Client and feel it has
made our whole workflow more efficient. I would recommend it to anyone
who wants to use a Windows-based cataloging system.
Now it’s time to learn
about those Macros!
Mary Jurgens is in
Media Tech Services at Westside Community Schools, Omaha, Nebraska.
USING CONNEXION BROWSER
Carol Lechner
University of Nebraska – Lincoln libraries signed on to OCLC in the mid
‘70s, fearful and hesitant about electronic resources. Nevertheless, we
forged ahead and adopted OCLC’s First System. When Passport arrived we
made the transition very smoothly since the basic premises of the online
access didn’t really change, just the “look.”
Migrating to the new Connexion
platform presented some challenges, but because our library had long
used Windows, the “search and click” concept was not that intimidating.
Once the Connexion browser was available, it was accessed on individual
desktops and staff were ready for training. Since we employ so many
staff using OCLC, we requested Connexion training in a group session
conducted here at Love Library. Initially twenty staff members were
introduced to Connexion who then served as resource persons helping the
rest of the staff learn the system. New staff also use the online
tutorial. Sharing information about new “finds” and shortcuts is
standard procedure for our staff. Since we knew Passport was no longer
going to be available, we now routinely train new staff only on
Connexion, and in fact, really discourage use of Passport. Connexion
Client is also available for our staff to use.
Some library staff tele-commute several hours each week, and since
Connexion is accessed via the Internet, staff can now work at their home
computers as easily as they do in the office. Searching is a simple
procedure, all the possible search strategies are available on one
screen. World Cat and the save file are equally accessible. One aspect
that OCLC has not changed is the method of searching. We have staff who
prefer to use derived search keys as well as some who use very
sophisticated searches. Enhanced keyword searching has been a valuable
feature and is also available via the Connexion Client. One of the most
popular features of editing in Connexion is full screen editing.
Changing and adding fields of data is straightforward. Another
particularly popular feature is the easy online access to various OCLC
resources including country and language codes, and the full text of
OCLC Bibliographical Formats and Standards.
Overall we have found
the Connexion Browser uncomplicated to use and easy to learn; and for
those who prefer to use Client, moving from one platform to the other is
as simple as logging on.
Carol Lechner is at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Love Library.
ALL
ABOUT THE WORLDCAT RESOURCE SHARING STAFF VIEW
Christa Burns The
WorldCat Resource Sharing staff view provides a basic interface to
WorldCat Resource Sharing (formerly "OCLC Interlibrary Loan" or "OCLC
ILL") from within the Web-based FirstSearch reference service. All of
the functionality currently existing in the ILL Web interface is now
available. After logging on to the staff view with your OCLC resource
sharing authorization, your staff can use the staff view to:
-
Search for materials using
WorldCat
-
Display holdings and enter
lender strings
-
Enter shipping and billing
information and borrowing notes
-
Send requests for materials
into the WorldCat Resource Sharing system
Accessing the staff
view
To access the staff view, your library needs both an OCLC
resource sharing authorization and a FirstSearch authorization, and they
must be linked. Once linked, you can use your resource sharing
authorization to log on from the FirstSearch login page at
http://firstsearch.oclc.org or from the Staff View link within
FirstSearch.
Instructions for linking authorizations and logging in to the staff view
can be found in the tutorial at
http://www.oclc.org/ill/migration/quickstart_sharing_staffview.pdf
In December 2004, all libraries with a
resource sharing authorization will be able to log into and use the
staff view, regardless of whether or not they have a FirstSearch
account.
MAIN FEATURES
Numerous features of the staff view provide a more personalized
experience for patrons and further improve workflow for resource sharing
staff. These features include:
Multiple holdings display options
The holdings options have expanded to include state, regional, group,
and custom holdings displays, completing full borrowing funtionality.
Also, libraries now can use the Custom Holdings groups they have set up
previously to actually fill requests from preferred lenders.
User registration
Users of FirstSearch and the staff view can now log in with a unique
user ID and password that they create. This ID is connected to a
library's FirstSearch account and may be used at any library utilizing
that account.
A registered user can log in under their unique ID at any time in a
FirstSearch or staff view session by clicking the My Account link on the
tab-level navigation.
Registered users are able to save individual search results for later
review. They can save from either a search results screen, or the
Previous Searches screen which indexes all searches performed during the
user's session.
Registered users can also review all of their pending resource sharing
requests in the new My Requests panel. Each request line item displays a
description of the item, the request status for that item (e.g.
Submitted, In Transit, Received) and a pick-up location for the item if
necessary.
Saved conditional notes
Libraries can now create and use conditional notes, textual responses
that resource sharing staff use over and over in request replies.
Batch printing of Request Manager categories
In a new Printing panel within the Request Manager, libraries now can
print all requests from specific categories. At present, 100 requests
can be printed at one time. A future enhancement will permit printing of
more requests.
Limit resource sharing based on WorldCat holdings
In the FirstSearch Administrative Module, libraries can now limit the
display of resource sharing options for materials owned and available
locally, requiring patrons to use those materials.
Improved brief results display in Request Manager
The brief results list shown from a category selection in the Request
Manager now displays more information in a tabled format. The entire
lender string is now displayed, showing the lending library their place
in the lender string order
Constant data
All constant data that was previously entered through the ILL Web
interface, Passport for ILL and ILL ME has now been imported into the
WorldCat Resource Sharing staff view.
Link to Copyright Clearance Center
In the staff view, library staff are able to link directly to the main
Web page of the Copyright Clearance Center from bibliographic records
and resource sharing request workforms. This will assist library staff
in the U.S. with copyright compliance and paying royalty fees.
LEARN MORE
Staff View Tutorial
A new tutorial for using the WorldCat Resource Sharing staff view is
available from the logon screen at http://firstsearch.oclc.org.
Migration Web Page
You will find the most up-to-date information about migrating to the
WorldCat Resource Sharing staff view on the OCLC web site at
http://www.oclc.org/ill/migration/.
Christa Burns is OCLC Member
Services Coordinator, NEBASE at the Nebraska Library Commission.
Library Resources and Technology and McGoogan Library
Sheryl Williams
I first came to McGoogan Library in January of 1979. In
that fiscal year, our in-house bindery bound 4,146 volumes, we checked
in our 3,212 subscriptions, and we cataloged 2,770 volumes. This was all
done by 15 people in the traditional departments of
Acquisitions/Serials, Cataloging, Bindery, and History of Medicine.
Interlibrary Loan department, although not a part of Technical Services,
filled 3,238 requests; this was the first year we had an actual ILL
department had stacks and stacks and shelves and shelves of materials to
be processed. The only automation in the library was LIRS, the inventory
control system tying together the three University of Nebraska campuses.
The in-house bindery was eliminated in
1982 for budgetary reasons sounds of the bindery, on the 8th floor of
the library, had reverberated throughout the library's floors are the
complaints about the HAR-RUMP, HAR-RUMP sound of the sewing machine as
text blocks were over-sewn. Gone also is the nearly continuous access to
volumes in the bindery; today when volumes leave the building for
Houchen Bindery, our users have no access to them until they return none
of our volumes are over-sewn; adhesive binding is our choice.
Today, we call ourselves Library
Resources and Technology (LRaT).We still have Cataloging, Serials, and
Acquisitions departments, History of Medicine department is known as
Special Collections/Archives, and several years ago we added a Systems
Department. We have eleven people in LRaT; departments are much smaller.
Collection Development is done by a library-wide committee; one person
serves as an acquisitions manager. Serials handles the binding as well
as check-in; myself and one other person now do what eight had done in
1982. Last year we checked in just 1,214 titles and bound 2,612 volumes.
Cataloging processed 1,780 volumes, but also cataloged over 700 volumes
for various UNMC departments which have holdings in our catalog. We've
migrated into our fourth automated system, III's Millenium. We are still
located on the 8th floor of McGoogan Library, and have been fortunate to
have the same space as we did in 1979.
What's ahead for the LRaTs? Mary
Helms, Associate Director, sees us as becoming even more generalists
than we are; everyone will have to know how to do other jobs is no plan
to add additional staff. Technology will continue to streamline our
work, but the outcome of our work will be even more apparent through
technology. We will make our presence further known by continuing to
catalog departmental libraries into Helix (although we do not add
materials at the item level, and we neither staff nor monitor these
libraries).We will also become even more aggressive managers of our
collection and our space. "Off-site storage is not an appropriate
response" to collection management, Mary insists.
We are an amiable bunch; we work
together well. I cannot praise the LRaTs highly enough for the
assistance they gave to me the first half of this year during a position
vacancy. We rock!
Sheryl Williams is the Head of the Serials Department
at the McGoogan Library, University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha,
Nebraska.
Technical Services in a Special Library
Casey Kralik
As Head Librarian of a small, art library, my duties
include everything from reference and instruction to technical services.
It is this later role that has brought me many challenges,
opportunities, frustrations and rewards over the last nine months. For
this article, I would like to give an overview of what it means to
operate technical services in special library.
First, let me give you a little
background information. My library has over 32,000 volumes focusing on
art, Native Americans and the American West. In addition, we provide
access to several journal, book and auction databases. To keep
everything running smoothly, I found that I must evenly juggle all of my
duties which include ordering, processing, cataloging, and budgeting.
I have gathered some hints for anyone
in a similar situation. For example, learn to break away from focusing
too long on one project. If you give one area attention for too long,
the other areas will undoubtedly suffer. Try to break up large projects
into smaller sections which can be completed in a timely fashion. By
doing this, your efficiency and production will increase. In the end,
you may not have done a day of cataloging (let alone a week) but you
will have several portions of acquisitions, serials, scheduling,
collection development and budgeting done as well.
Lastly, if it is
possible, try to enlist the aid of volunteers. There are many tasks that
do not require library experience that volunteers can help out with and
it will make your day less cumbersome. Sometimes I find that I have worn
myself down by the details so I try to remind myself to look at the
bigger picture. Think about who you are serving and what resources are
being used. In the end, you will have the joy of seeing a patron pick up
a book that you just bought, cataloged and processed and will know your
hard work is being appreciated.
Casey Kralik is head librarian at
the Milton R. & Pauline S. Abrahams Library at the Joslyn Art Museum.
Lincoln Public Schools Library Media Technical Services
Susan Mallum
Lincoln Public Schools Library Media Technical Services,
which was established approximately 40 years ago, is located in the
Lincoln Public Schools District Offices, 59th & O Streets. The purpose
of this central processing system is to ensure that materials are
uniformly cataloged and processed equally for all schools: seven high
schools, 11 middle schools, and 36 elementary schools. By having central
processing available school library staff can better focus their time on
serving students and staff.
In the 2003-2004 school year, the Technical Services staff is excited
about implementing the new Dynix Horizon 7.3 system. The availability of
the Z39.50 will enhance the cataloging process; other new features will
make the cataloging process more accurate and efficient.
Approximately 37,000 print and non-print items were processed through
Technical Services during the August 2003-July, 2004 school year.
Technical Services provides cataloging, materials processing, and other
services for the district. The head cataloguer oversees the cataloging
and does original cataloging. A copy cataloguer does online computer
cataloging for the district utilizing the Z39.50. She also edits MARC
records sent by Brodart and other vendors before importing them into the
Dynix system. A permanent staff of two processors (with extras at peak
times) prepares items for the school library media centers that are
ready to shelve and pre-entered into Dynix Horizon.
The staff in Technical Services also provides the following services:
-
Manage on-line book
orders with Brodart, the LPS major vendor.
-
Expedite all orders
for library books, references, and non-print items.
-
Check and update Dynix
records with the current holdings for each new item received.
-
Create new standard
MARC records.
-
Affix labels, pockets,
identification stamps, barcodes and magnetic strips (for secondary
schools) to all terms.
-
Package and ship
shelf-ready books and materials to all school library media centers.
Library Media
Technical Services is a busy, vibrant place that provides valuable
services for Lincoln Public Schools staff and students.
Susan Mallum is in Library Media Technical Services at the Lincoln
Public Schools.
Revitalizing a library
Deirdre Routt
Two years ago, I was not sure what to expect when I
answered a call for volunteers to help with the library at the Henry
Doorly Zoo. The library has been used by zoo staff and volunteers for
years. It consists of about 760 monographs with some serials in the form
of journals and annual reports. It could do with some weeding and
serious collection development. The collection has been cataloged (in
some fashion), and most of the books are represented on
author-title-subject cards. Books have been checked out using a card
system. They have been borrowed and returned more or less on the honor
system as often there has not been anyone in the library.
One thing I did not expect was that there would be a number of qualified
and eager volunteers, ready to tackle reorganizing, revitalizing and
automating the small zoo library. The volunteers (known as the HDZ Media
Specialists) who work on the library have a variety of experiences, some
have worked in libraries and some have expertise in database management
and digital. However, all are dedicated to making the library work.
We began our work by undertaking a survey to find out what the zoo staff
and volunteers wanted and expected from the library. Besides having a
collection that could be checked out, the library is used by staff to
check e-mail. Some of the additional things that they wanted included
considering relocating the library, using the inter-office mail to loan
and return materials, making sure that library would be staffed and
having more journals.
In order to get the library functioning again, we began by doing an
inventory of the books in the library itself. We matched the
author-title cards with the books on the shelves. However, there was not
always an appropriate card for each book. Many books were missing and
many books are still in staff offices in various places around the zoo.
During the inventory we marked title cards (where possible, and used
author cards if not), marked the books, and placed dots on them so we
would know what we had and what had been done. We also kept a log so
each volunteer would know where the last person had left off. This
inventory was completed last September. The inventory of the books in
the staff offices is being completed.
Recently we have begun to automate the collection. After considering
various library software packages and our available funds, we decided to
use a MS Access database for the catalog. We do not have funds to use
OCLC, although there are hopes that we will use OCLC CatExpress at some
stage in the future. The Access database has been designed to follow
AACR2R and MARC, although we do not use MARC coding. We are trying to
follow OCLC guidelines so if we have access in the future we will not
have to redo everything.
In order to make life easier, we decided to use the Library of Congress
as our main source for records. We have developed a method of printing
out the relevant records from LC and then entering them into the Access
database as a way to use volunteers with varying skill levels
(particularly those who are not familiar with library operations). This
allows us to have some volunteers doing the searching and printing out
the records and other volunteers with more experience, doing the data
entry. This part of the project is still in the early stages. There are
wrinkles to iron out, such as punctuation, how to deal with multiple
authors and so on. We have also worked out how to mark print outs and
books n so we know when there are problems and what has been completed.
We will be working on the data entry for a while to yet and continue to
refine the process as we see how it is working.
Meanwhile the digitalization of the collection has just begun. The plan
is to digitalize the zoo’s collection of print and slide images.
Information on each image will be entered. Both the digitalization and
data entry aspects of the library need plenty of volunteers. If anyone
has any interest in volunteering to work on any aspect of the HDZ
library you can contact me or Ginger Noel, the Volunteer Manager at the
Henry Doorly Zoo, (402)738-6901 or by email:
volunteers@omahazoo.com.
Deirdre Routt is a librarian at the Omaha
Public Library.
From the Archives
“Vice-Chair/Chair Elect Sara Martin recapped
the programs that TSRT has sponsored or co-sponsored:
Demystifying Format Integration, co-sponsored by NLC, held at
NLC, 8/22/94
The Changing Face of Resource Sharing, co-sponsored by NLC,
Platte River State Park, 5/10/95
Exploring the Information Jungle and Fishing for New Ideas, Metro
CC and Doorly Zoo, 9/29/95
Creative Ideas in Nebraska Technical Services, program at NLA
Annual Conference, Kearney, 10/26/95”
From the Minutes of the TSRT Business Meeting, 10/26/95
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 EDITOR:
Deirdre Routt, Omaha Public Library, 215 S 15 St., Omaha, NE 68102
(402) 444-4800 or droutt@omaha.lib.ne.us
TSRT homepage:
http://www.nebraskalibraries.org/TSRT/index.html
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.
|
