Copy Cataloging Unit

Annual Report - 2004/2005

As in the last fiscal year, change was the operative word again for FY 2005. The Copy Cataloging Unit experienced changes in technology, personnel and workflows that, while largely positive in nature, kept us busy throughout the year. Below are highlights of the changes in and accomplishments of the Copy Cataloging Unit.

Staff and Workflow Changes

Copy Cataloging staff and student assistants made the sometimes painful but ultimately successful transition to full fluency with ALEPH. Copy Cataloging staff (Fern Carlson in particular) helped Gerald Langford create much of the documentation for creation of holdings and item records in ALEPH. Doug Smith, working closely with Winston Harris and Chris Nicolich in the Systems Department and Daniel Cromwell at FCLA, perfected a program (begun in the previous fiscal year) to print call number labels in ALEPH which proved superior to the utility available in ALEPH itself. This spine label printing program can also be used by catalogers to view the way a call number will format before taking an item to the Processing Area.

We are particularly proud of the fact our cataloging statistics for the year. Rather than dropping as we fully expected during the adjustment to ALEPH, the unit’s cataloging statistics actually rose by 8%. See statistics section below.

 

• Two new lines (one Sr. LTA and one LTA) were transferred to Copy Cataloging from the former Serials Cataloging Unit. The Sr. LTA position was filled in by Todd Chisholm in July 2004. Todd came from Serials Cataloging, bringing a great deal of experience to the job. The LTA position was filled by Judy Rummel from Serials Acquisitions in April 2005 who also brought with her much experience with serials. Some new responsibilities accompanied these new positions. Having previously dealt only with monographic material, Copy Cataloging was also given responsibility for doing certain types of serial adds, handling c-sep and analytic material, and some serial copy cataloging. In spite of the extra responsibilities brought by the transfer of the new positions, new possibilities were opened up for changing workflows and job descriptions for both the new as well as established positions.
• Judy Rummel in her position as LTA took over some of the duties previously assigned to the unit’s archivist, Patsy Mongo: the review and distribution of physical processing problems, distribution of material to the other units in Cataloging and review of problem material sent to Cataloging. While this new work flow was only in full implementation for two months, the number of titles (original as well as member copy) cataloged by Patsy has increased considerably (from an average of 86/mo. June through April to an average of 318 for May and June). Judy also has responsibility for ensuring material passes through each stage of physical processing in a timely manner in the Processing Area. She is also responsible for serial adds, shelf-ready analytic material and some DLC cataloging.
• Todd Chisholm has responsibility for DLC and some member copy serial cataloging, retrospective analytics, review and distribution of in-coming serials problem material and cataloging of monographic member copy.
• A slightly higher OPS budget and a high proportion of students with Federal Work Study allowed us to hire a few more students than in previous years. We were able to increase the number of students working on shelf-ready material from YBP and most types of Library of Congress and PCC material. This reduced the amount of on-shelf time for both material to be searched and DLC/PCC material to be cataloged.
• Some of the responsibilities of the unit’s archivist, Patsy Mongo, were transferred to the new LTA position, freeing up her time to focus on cataloging. This resulted immediately in a substantial increase in the number of member copy and original titles cataloged in our unit in May and June 2005.
• A major change began in FY 2005 with the workflow of shelf-ready material. Bibliographic records, holdings and item records were previously checked by student assistants for each title received from the vendor. With the implementation of PromptCat and Bib Notification the unit will be able to forgo record checking, allowing the Monographic Acquisitions Unit to simply check off the invoices and send the material directly to the owning locations. Planning for this change took up a good deal of FY2005. The first PromptCat records were loaded in the last two months of the fiscal year. Copy Cataloging staff and student assistants continue to check records until problems have been eliminated.
• Introduction of MacroExpress as a major ALEPH helping tool began being tested in the unit in June 2005 with some success.

 

Statistics

 

Three tables are presented representing cataloging statistics for FY2004, FY2005 and the percentage change between the two fiscal years. The overall increase in titles cataloged from FY2004 to Fy2005 was 8%. This increase occurred in spite of the fact that the first half of the year was spent adjusting to a new operating system, ALEPH. Our ability to improve our cataloging statistics is partly attributable to: 1) our hard work and redoubled effort in the face of a significant increase in the number of ETDs, paper theses and member copy material, 2) the fact that the department’s preparation for the transition from NOTIS to ALEPH was well thought out and implemented, thus easing staff fears and ensuring that staff were well prepared, 3) an increase in the number of student assistants working with shelf-ready and DLC/PCC material in particular one very able student assistant, Darya Melnyk, 4) the filling of the LTA position which allowed our archivist to dedicate much more of her time to catalog both member copy and do original monographic cataloging.

 

Increases of over 10 percent in titles cataloged occurred in videos/DVDs, original monographic cataloging (paper theses as well as originals done by out archivist) and ETDs. The number of volume and copy adds to existing records also rose by 10%. The only category that showed no increase was shelf-ready material which remained constant with no change.

 

Two new types of material cataloged for the first time in Copy Cataloging are Serials – adds and new titles—as well as analytics. The fourth table displays statistics for these types of material.

 

 

FY 2004
TYPE OF MATERIAL	Titles	Volumes/Units
DLC	5,578	5,767
Member copy w/call no.	5,727	5,949
Member copy  w/o call no.	1,822	1,859

Shelf-ready	13,713	13,930
Videos	519	521
Adds to Existing (vol & units)		1,946
Original - Monographic	7	7
ETDs	285	285
TOTAL TITLES/VOLS	27,651	30,264

 

FY 2005
TYPE OF MATERIAL	Titles	Volumes/Units
DLC	5,879	6,125
Member copy w/call no.	6,016	6,196
Member copy  w/o call no.	1,862	1,919
Shelf-ready	13,713	13,875
Videos	594	602
Adds to Existing (vol & units)		2,134
Original - Monographic	253	253
ETDs	606	606
TOTAL TITLES/VOLS	29,744	32,576

 

 

PERCENT CHANGE BY TYPE OF MATERIAL                   FROM FY2004 TO FY2005
Type of Material	Titles	Volumes/Units
DLC	+5%	+6%
Member copy w/call no.	+5%	+4%
Member copy  w/o call no.	+2%	+3%
Shelf-ready	0.0%	0.0%
Videos	+14%	+16%
Adds to Existing (vol & units)		+10%
Original - Monographic	+3,514%	+3,514%
ETDs	+112%	+112%
TOTAL TITLES/VOLS	+8%	+8%

 

 

Serials – FY2005	Title	Vols.	Units
Total Serial Titles Cataloged	315	309	192
Adds to Existing Titles		631	261
Analytic Titles	821	866
Total	1,136	1,806	453

 

 

 

Service to the Library:

 

Fern Carlson – Party Committee for the Cataloging and Metadata Department

Fern Carlson – One third FTE working on Nineteenth century children’s literature project for the Baldwin Collection

Doug Smith – Cataloging and Metadata Training Committee

Doug Smith – Library Storage Task Force

 

 

Special Projects in which Copy Cataloging participated during FY2005:

 

Donald Abraham Collection: Collection of material, primarily concerning the Portuguese colonial period in Africa, has been almost completed. This two plus year project has added over 1,500 titles of historical and cultural importance to the library’s Africana Collection.

 

Hausenstein Collection: A collection of mostly German-language material being moved from Rare Books to general collection.

 

Center for European Studies Project: This project began in the last months of the fiscal year providing support for material acquired as part of an on-going grant to fund a European Studies Center at the University of Florida.

 

Architecture and Fine Arts Library Paris Project: Provided support for the searching, cataloging and Physical processing of materials being transferred to the University of Florida’s new Paris Research Center.

 

Prepared by Doug Smith