One thesaurus, two thesauruses

Here's the new label for RL dictionaries and thesaurii (thanks, Frank).
Reading List dictionaries and thesaurii will have this label and will not have an alpha/letter label.
We heard from most of you that you shelve dictionaries and their relations at the end of the RL section. The label you see here will help to keep them all together.

MCNAUGHTON PIX

MCNAUGHTON & MCNAUGHTON EXPRESS BOOKS ARRIVE

June, 2008
HOT TITLES to float...

Branches will see some holds that have been filled using leased, floating ("McNaughton") copies next week...
AND
Branches will see the first shipments of EXPRESS MC.

What's coming?
MCNAUGHTON is the item type for 3-week, circulating, leased, floating bestsellers.
EXPRESS MC is the item type for 7-DAY EXPRESS books that are
1. leased from McNaughton
2. floating

What does this mean?
Here's what stays the same:
We've bought sets of hot new titles for MCPL's collections. These regular circulating copies do not float. When they stop filling holds, they are for you to keep (or discard) as part of your branch's regular collection.
Here is what's different:
We've also leased sets of the same titles to allow us to fill holds on these titles more quickly. The item type for the leased copies is MCNAUGHTON. This is a floating item type. When the holds have all been filled, you may choose to display & circulate the McNaughton copies that land at your branch.
We have also leased 7-day express copies of hot titles. Unlike other 7-day express copies, these will float.

What do we do when these arrive?
Process the holds for pick-up as usual.
Check in the 7-day express copies and put them on the Library Express shelves.
No other processing should be done.

Why is MCPL doing this?
This is a test.
Leasing more copies of bestsellers is a way we believe we can reduce the holds ratio on many high-demand new titles from 4 holds per copy to 3 holds per copy.
The cost savings comes with the end of the holds queues for these titles. As all holds are filled, the McNaughton copies will start showing up on your returns cart.
Instead of deciding whether to keep, or to move from New Books to the regular collection, and instead of keeping and then weeding multiple copies later, you may simply check them out to discard & send them back to Collection Management. We hope this will speed up filling holds but won't glut the FOL booksales.

Do the leased/McNaughton copies look the same?
Not quite, but almost.
They will have barcodes and date due labels so that you can check them out as usual.
The date due labels for the 3-week loan copies will not have branch names on them.
The 7-day express (EXPRESS MC) copies will have branch names on the date due labels to assist us with sorting the initial distribution.
The McNaughton books will have a green band under the clear jacket. The 7-day express leased copies will have 7-day express labeling.
We will post pictures before Monday.

Should we put them in a separate place?
No. Treat these books as part of the regular or 7-day express collections.

Do we check them out differently?
No.

Are the fines the same for overdues?
Yes.

Do we keep them?
You will keep the purchased copies that have been assigned to your branch--and treat and weed these as usual.
When you are tired of the McNaughton copies (when it begins to seem that they sit more than they circulate) we ask that you check them out to discard (no marking out of labels or barcodes is needed) & send them back to Collection Development/Technical Services. You can do this by putting a hold slip for MCNAUGHTON with a pickup location of Collection Management on the books (or you can put them in a box and mark it MCNAUGHTON return/Collection Management.

More questions? Please ask.

Sign up and start sharing

When you're ready to start using the Shared Reads blog to offer or claim floating item overflow, you'll need to have a Google account. Sign up on Blogger, under "Create your blog now." You don't need to do the steps that create a blog (unless you want to!) Or sign up on Google. It's not too scary.

You'll see the pattern of postings on Shared Reads.

If you'd like to offer some extras:

OFFER: (subject or general description), for example
OFFER: assorted J Disney VHS

If you want to claim them, click "Post a Comment" on that entry. Tell the offerer what you'd like and who and where you are.

When they're gone, the offerer will post:
TAKEN: (subject or general description)

If you branch needs some materials, post:
SEND: (subject or title or general description)

To send materials on to a claiming or requesting branch, check them out to the newly created user account with User ID or User Name "Float Away." (Actually, there are several user accounts Float Away 1, Float Away 2, etc. Use any of them.) Then box or bundle the items, label them for the receiving branch, and send them off to their new temporary homes.

Feel free to participate in the "poaching collection," as well. You all have permission to poach. No MCPLer will be a rotten aristocratic landowner who gets you deported to Australia. Poaching allows you to place item-level holds on titles your branch needs, when those items have not circulated at their current home branch for at least 6 months. If the item is not one of the floating item-types, be sure to edit the owning branch information.

Floating Q&A part 3

These appeared as comments under an earlier post:

1.) It appears that cancelled holds should be returned to the "former"library and not stay at the branch. Is this true? Do we need to edit the materials?
Here's an example of something that did not work the way we expected.
Cathy G is working on an answer to this. In the meantime I would suggest that if the item is not going to go on to fill another hold that you check it out to a located items shelf and check it back in--thus capturing it for your branch.

2.) Should each branch have rubber stamps that include "Montgomery County Public Library" and the Monroe street address? Or just the state of MD? We had to stamp all of the new Reading List Books and all we have is a stamp that says "Montgomery County Library". Is this sufficient?
We hoped that branches would not add more processing to these items. The date due label and the barcode indicate the owning library system (though some older barcodes don't show the state). We did not find a compelling reason for reading list books to add an additional ownership stamp. Please tell us if you think that we will lose significant numbers of these items to thieves who somehow can peel off these two labels. In a related note, we do realize that Large Print items, especially those with dust jackets, may need an ownership stamp. It would make sense for all branches to have an ownership stamp.

Dear Library Customer

Dear Library Customer,

Your comments below were submitted to MCPL Ask a Librarian and have been referred to me for a response.

You mention your concerns about our libraries’ decision to have some A/V materials as well as large print books and reading list titles stay at the branch where they are checked in.

Montgomery County Public Libraries’ decision to do this was made in an effort to provide a wider range of browsing choices for our customers, and to reduce time that these particular items are unavailable to library users during transit from one branch to another.

You are concerned that our catalog will show that an item is at one library when it has been checked in and shelved at another. This certainly would be confusing.

Fortunately, our catalog will always indicate the current branch for an available item. You then have the option of calling or visiting that branch, or of placing a hold on the item.

Our county and our library collections are too large to have every item available in a single branch at a given time—placing holds offers you a way to get the books and other materials you want or need if they are not at your home library. This can be especially important for those students who require multiple resources for a research paper.

Our library staff can instruct you on how to place a hold from home, and our staff can also explain to you how to use the catalog to determine the location of an item—please do not hesitate to ask for help.

You may also contact our Ask a Librarian staff at 240-777-0001 for assistance.

Thank you for your interest in Montgomery County Public Libraries.

Montgomery County Public Libraries

From: Amie

Sent: Mon 4/28/2008 8:55 PM

To: MCPL Ask A Librarian

Subject: MCPL Website

Comments Montgomery County Public Libraries

Message submitted: 4/28/2008 8:55:29 PM

The following message was sent:

To whom it may concern,

I think the offerings available from the MCPL system is lovely.

However, I must protest the new circulation policy that leaves materials in the branch where they are returned, regardless of place of origin. It's LUDICROUS. Also, it makes a liar of your catalog system. For example: I am at home and look online for a book via the MCPL web site. The site tells me that the item is being reshelved at the Bethesda branch. I take myself over to the Bethesda branch only to find that, no, the item ISN'T at the Bethesda branch, it's being reshelved wherever it was returned, even though it CAME FROM Bethesda. My item is not only not at the library your web site claims it to be at, but has no reasonable hope of returning there unless I place a hold and request it - a process that can take upwards of of a week.

This can really suck for someone, say, trying to complete a research paper.

This change in the circulation policy was poorly considered and is a disservice to library patrons.

Contact information is:
Library Customer

Floating Q & A part 2

1. Hello! I had a question about what to do with media snags on floating media items that come to our branch that used to belong to another library. Should we handle them at our own branch or should we send it to the original library? Thanks!
Please handle the media snags at your own branch--they now belong to you. Notes on a customer's account should have the branch name where an incomplete item was returned. If you check out snags to a media snags shelf your media snags shelf should have your branch name (e.g. CLARKSBURG MEDIA SNAGS).

2. Why should we write the barcodes on CD discs and DVDs? How many numbers should we write?
Writing 10 digits (3+ nine digits) of the barcode on discs is the most time and money saving way to help identify discs that get separated from their sets. [I realized this in a flash yesterday after I'd (mistakenly, sorry) mentioned that it's efficient to write just the last 4 digits of the barcode]. It really is most efficient to have an entire barcode number, because that takes you directly to the item in question. When we had just one or two copies of an audio book in our branches, we could easily match up separated parts. Now we are looking at dozens of copies in the system, and our collection is well-served by this local processing practice.

3. We are seeing items that we expected to float not floating (and vice versa). What gives—and what should we do about it?
Since items float by their item type, this is an indication that we’ve got erroneous, old or mixed item types in the database.
Possible ways of dealing with these items include:
1. sending items back to their original owner with a note
2. changing the item type: from KIT to CD-BOOK or CD-BOOK-J, for instance

4. Why are we seeing 3-week loan, entertainment VHS videos that don’t float?
When MCPL converted the loan period from one week express to 3 weeks for all VHS titles, the item type did not change from EXPRESS VIDEO to VIDEO.

5. We are seeing items without (labels, barcodes, call numbers) float to us. What should we do?
Please follow the processing guidelines below, and add the appropriate label, barcode, call number, just as if the item in question were yours. Because it is yours, now.

6. Can we still weed the parts of the collection that are now floating?
Yes, yes, yes.

7. Why do we get this message: “Item discharged; needs to be transferred to current library?” What is the current library?
This message appears when a floating item type that has incurred a fine has been checked in—it’s meant to reassure you that the fine did not prevent the item from floating, and the current location is now, in fact, your branch.

Floating begins Monday April 21st

Fellow floating adventurers of MCPL,

Monday, April 21st we will begin to float these ten item types:

CD-BOOK, CD-BOOK-J,
DVD, DVD-J,
LARGETYPE
READLIST
TAPED-BK, TAPED-BK-J
VIDEO, VIDEO-J

When these items are checked in at your branch they will show as "on shelf" and will show as belonging to your branch.

Floating Q&A, part 1 (from April HOS meeting)

1. How will the way that media are labeled in different branches affect the ability of the branches to shelve items? (i.e. what to do with items with labels/stickers that are not used in that branch?)
This will be one of the biggest challenges in handling the "alien" items. The range of local processing is wide. However, because we are floating only a few fairly recognizable formats, it should be possible to identify these items and their intended location without too much confusion.

2. I had a concern over uniform labeling for floating items, but after seeing your most recent email I assume that is an issue being decided soon.
New processing standards

3. When a patron calls to say they returned something that's still on their record, where do we look for it? Just in the branch they say they returned it to, or all branches?
The floating should make this easier, as the place where the item was returned and the owning branch are now the same.

4. Can branches "gift" floating items to another branch if our shelves are overcrowded?
5. Floating Collection: Will there be a way in place to relieve shelf overcrowding and send the items back to their owners?
6. What happens when a customer or staff member orders multiple copies of a book for a book club? When they all are returned to the branch, will it be easy to return them to various branches or will we have to deal with shelving them all on our shelves?
Redistribution can be made via the MCPL Shared Reads blog: http://mcplsharedreads.blogspot.com/

7. Another concern is how floating collection items will be weeded.
Evaluate for condition and weed according to established standards.

8. Will there be talking points for staff - especially for Circ -- I imagine they will get a lot of questions and comments. Perhaps we would like a log to collect reactions so potential problems can be addressed.
The most frequent comments from the public may be surprise that “other branches’” books are on “our” shelves. Talking points include our hope of reducing time in the delivery & making our materials more available to our customers.

9. Do we weed floating collections as if they are part of the Branch collections?
Yes—these items are now part of your branch’s collection.

10. How will some balance in the collection be maintained, will items be weeded at their host libraries (other than for unusable condition), or will some thought be given to the numbers at the owing branch?
MCPL Shared Reads.
We will also be monitoring item stock by branch for these item types, and listening to your observations.

11. How will the likely increase in holds be handled?
Other systems have “turned on” customer placed holds at the same time as floating—we already have an active holds system in place.

12. When the RL starts to "float" are we still going to order our own or will it be ordered centrally?
We will continue to need your expertise in developing the collection & choosing titles for RL

13. Why are the NF DVDs treated differently than the NF books (as far as floating goes)?
Floating is by item type, and we want to test this approach. DVDs gave us a smaller collection to test.

14. How much of the collection will float? These item types account for about 15% of what is in the delivery.

Processing of floating item types

Collection & Item type	Systemwide processing* standard:
	All items: Barcode label Date due label (with or without branch name) New items should be CHECKED IN on arrival at branch Media (CDs & DVDs) also have: Address label MC doughnut label on each disc Pink “LOOK FOR” label for multiple item sets Item barcodes should be added to all discs and inserts at first CHECK IN branch
Reading List READLIST	Alpha label at base of spine
Large Print LARGETYPE	Call number label
Audio Books CD-BOOK	Call number label
Audio Books CD-BOOK-J	Call number label Black on yellow J label just above call number
Non-express DVDs DVD	Call number label
Children’s DVDs DVD-J	Call number label Black on yellow J label at top of spine
High Demand Leased Print (3-week loans) MCNAUGHTON	Call number label on McNaughton band
High Demand Leased Print (7 Day loans) EXPRESS-MC	Call number label on McNaughton band 7 Day Express label
Audio Books TAPED-BK TAPED-BK-J	No new processing
Videos VIDEO VIDEO-J	No new processing
*Before April 21, 2008, local variations in processing for any of these formats might have included: DEMCO genre labels, colored tape (opaque or transparent), alpha or numeric labels. Items with these processing variations will circulate “as is.”

Floating In

Pristine paperbacks recently requested by branches for the Reading List collection have been spotted floating into the warehouse. These early arrivals foretell some 5000 more of their kind.

"The weather was delightful, and our flight wasn't cancelled. Our wiring is just fine, thank you.

"We feel very spiffy in our new MCPL-supplied labels. Our wardrobe is simple, yet it boldly makes the necessary statement. When you see us, we'll be wearing:

1. Our precious MCPL barcodes: 36098


2. Our date-due strips have no branch name stamped on them. We are proud to be in the forefront of the shared collection.


3. And an initial on the bottom of the spine, or, if we're elegantly thin, on the bottom left of our front covers. These initials help the shelvers. Run-of-the-mill paperbacks wear their initials at the top of the spine. Our low-lying initials indicate we're Reading List titles. Always glad to be of help. We're library folks."
   
   
   

Will it float? Will it float?

This post updates the list of floating items categories.

Audio books (in J, in A, in YA, on tape, on CD): yes
Large print: yes
Videos in A & J: yes
Non-express DVDs: yes
J DVDs: yes
Reading List (new item type!): yes

_____________

Book tub: ??

Music CDs: not at this time

Express DVDs: not at this time

Other paperbacks: no (don't try them in the bath*)

Rest of the print collection: not at this time

COMFD printer: no

*Archimedes, we've put a note on your account.

It's a Wonderful Shared Collection

James Stewart as George Bailey:

You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money[1] back in a safe[2]. The money's[3] not here. Your money's[4] in Joe's house[5]...right next to yours[6]. And in the Kennedy house[7], and Mrs. Macklin's house[8], and a hundred[9] others. Why, you're lending them the money[10] to build[11] and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can[12].

1. materials
2. closed stack
3. audio books and large print titles you want [are]
4. requested item
5. Twinbrook Library
6. Rockville Library
7. Fairland Library
8. Damascus Library
9. 20
10. materials they want
11. to read or listen to
12 take care of them until the next person wants to borrow them

Invasion of the alien library materials

A noted author of science fiction and fantasy for young adults speculates on things to come:

Look to the skies! Things are landing! What can these alien things be?

I didn’t ask for them. I didn’t plan for them. How many are coming? Will they take over my world?

But even if they are friendly, is there room for these refugees far from home, crowding our aisles in tattered raiment, shouldering our planned for guests aside as they make rude room for themselves?

Where will they live? How long will they stay? Will they be in and out before I realize it—leaving nary a footprint?

Or will they squat on my shelves forever like unwanted relatives who refuse to take the hint and leave, until I carry them kicking and screaming to another library and dump them in a book drop in the dead of night to be rid of them? [editor's note: No.]

Will they be different—wearing foreign labels? Will they be troublemakers? Will they take space away from our good library materials that have lived here all their lives?

Oh, look! One approaches. Where can I hide? Too late. It sees me.

Wait. It seems to be well dressed and has a smile. It speaks.

“Hello. Hope you don’t mind if I rest here a while? I’ll fit right in. I’m just like anyone, really. Well, maybe a little more attractive to people, actually. Don’t worry. I won’t be here long. Someone will soon take me home. I’m very popular.”

Hmmmm! It’s not so scary after all. It looks just like other materials I’m used to.

It sat down politely on the shelves and fit right in, just like it said it would. Oh, look, someone’s coming along and picking it up. It’s going home with someone already! And she’s still taking along some of our old friends

Humph! I suppose those aliens are all right. A bit full of themselves though.

Alien items on our shelves

Peeps watching the skies for floating items

Stay tuned

While you are weeding

In my last post I indicated that the items listed on the reports should be weeded, unless you have a good reason to keep them. And with that good reason, all you need to do to retain them is to check them out and check them back in.

For the Reading List titles that appear on your weeding report, however, let me be a little bit clearer. You probably have multiple copies of the titles that appear on your weeding list. I don’t want you to have to examine barcode numbers on the backs of each one to pull a particular item. Many are probably missing anyway. Please look at the list of titles, and consider which titles on your RL shelves are not circulating well. Which do you own too many copies of? And while you’re over there looking at them, which are ratty and worn out? Weed all of these.

Weed before floating

Thanks to Cathy Greulich, the weeding reports for the item types that will begin to float are now in your branch statistics folder.

These item types are: A & J audio books, Large Print, Reading List, non-express DVDs, videos.

To access and print these reports, go to Outlook, then to Public Folders, then to All Public Folders, then to LIB, then to Branch Statistics, then to your branch’s folder.

These reports are organized by item type and are grouped into Adult and Juvenile collection reports.

The reports only include items added in 2006 and before, for which the last activity date was 2006 or before.

These items should be weeded from your collection unless you have a good reason to keep them.

If you want to keep them, get someone to check them out.*

The floating item types will suddenly seem to grow in numbers on your shelves, since these items will no longer go in-transit (and sit in tubs).

Cathy Greulich will provide a report this week on the percentages of each of these item types that are currently in-transit.

If your shelves are 95% full and 10% of the items for the system overall are in transit, you will want to weed vigorously. Weeding items from these lists will make room for new items and will reinvigorate your collection.

Some of the items that appear on your report may be missing. Please just note these for yourself. You do not have to mark these missing.

*Everything that fits our profile for these reports (items added in 2006 or before and no checkouts since 2006) will be deleted from the database in three months.

Delivery dilemma... or disaster?

These books are waiting for homes (if they are new) or to go home (if they are in transit). Please send us your tubs so that we can send some books to you!

BCPL's experience

(from Joseph Eagan)

Dear colleagues:

I wanted to share some information about floating collections at Baltimore Ccounty Public Library. They started to float some materials about eight months ago and began to float all library materials on January 2. So far, some of the results of floating are:

The size of deliveries among the BCPL branches has dropped by approximately one-half - YES, approximately 50% - since floating was implemented. This means an incredible reduction in staff workloads, more materials on the shelves available for circulation and a substantial savings in terms of delivery costs. In the future BCPL may consider two deliveries a day or implementing Saturday deliveries.
The amount of new materials on the shelves - available for circulation - has increased substantially according to anecdotal evidence from library staff. When I visited the Pikesville Library last Saturday, I was simply amazed at the amount of new materials on display, including multiple copies of new fiction. One of the branch managers recently told me, "We need to buy less new popular fiction now .. we can buy more titles and fewer copies." Why? Because the popular materials are either in circulation or on the shelves - not sitting in a tub!
Collections are automatically "freshened" as customers return materials to different branches. Customers now participate in collection management by returning materials to a particular branch.
Floating has positive benefits for the customers and staff workloads but means a whole new way of thinking about collection management. It's no longer a branch collection but a system collection in terms of labeling, weeding, etc.


Joseph

Joseph Eagan
Olney Library Manager

Beginning to float

Beginning on or about March 31^st we will begin to float several parts of MCPL’s shared collection in order to:

• Reduce time in the delivery
• Reduce the number of check-ins for items that travel
• Increase availability
• Reduce processing time for new materials
• Try this innovative approach on a small scale

Reading list, audio books (both J & A), large print, and non-fiction A DVDs will not go “in transit” when they are returned to a branch other than where they originated. These items will show as "on shelf" at the branch where they are checked in (if they don't go on to fill holds).

As a start, I need to know this regarding Reading List books:

We propose to keep the processing to

• A barcode
• A date due label with no branch designation
• A stamp on the top (or for thin books, on a sticker) that says RL—[first initial of main entry] e.g. for Shakespeare the stamp would say RL—S.
• MCPL stamp on the top

Can you live with this level of processing?

You will no longer need to or want to do any local processing on the floating items. Items already in the collection will float with their current stickers and stamps on them.

You will receive a reading list order sheet and instructions in the next several days.

We’re still working on any processing issues related to large print and the media items.