Buley Library

APPENDIX I.
FY2001 Technical Services Assessment Report
Cindy Schofield-Bodt, Head of Technical Services

An assessment of the time involved in the acquisitions and cataloging processes was undertaken and a base time frame within which these processes occur was established. Order records were collected and sorted with particular attention given to order dates, received dates and cataloged dates. The raw data was entered into a spreadsheet for analysis. An examination of the individual records in various groupings indicate some issues that Technical Services Staff should plan to address.

Assessment Summary and Comments:
Acquisitions:

Most of the material ordered is received in the library within 12 weeks (66%).
Orders that are not received within 24 weeks are overwhelmingly not-yet-published or out-of-print materials.
Cancelled items were most likely re-ordered from another vendor.
Orders do not include standing orders for reference materials.
A further examination by vendor may indicate additional patterns.

Cataloging:

Most of the materials received are cataloged within 12 weeks (77%).
Materials cataloged from 13-36 weeks are generally non-DLC or original cataloging projects.
The number of outstanding materials increases as the year progresses and may actually fall within the 16 week or later period.
As the volume of books received increased, the time from receipt to shelves increased.

This time study has the most relevance as it is examined during the middle months of the fiscal year. Without continuous statistics from previous and current activity there is no accountability for items cataloged in the current year but ordered and received previously or left noted as “outstanding” but received later. In addition, a future study should track the ultimate resolution of cancelled orders. Many such orders are reordered and received, some remain unavailable.

Taken as one process from order to shelf there is on average 6 months between time of order and time of availability. Clearly, the staff has the greatest control over the process from receipt to shelf. There is a plan in place to train one additional staff member in copy cataloging. Other strategies for decreasing the cataloging time will be explored in the coming year. The division will use the data gathered to develop a plan for decreasing the amount of time it takes to get materials to the shelves.

Technical Services Asessment: Time from Order to Receipt; Receipt to Catalog

Order Date	Total Orders	Received 4 weeks	Received 8 weeks	Received 12 weeks	Received 16 weeks	Received 20 weeks	Received 24 weeks	Received 28 weeks	Received 32 weeks	Received over 36 weeks	Cancelled	Out-standing
July	242	27	59	99	15	18	1	2		7	8	6
August	826	64	289	201	138	13	26	11	8	17	19	40
September	1169	41	171	694	39	100	15	22	12	21	18	36
October	1217	54	332	257	358	98	24	12	17	21	12	32
November	1169	55	44	569	252	68	31	49	7	22	16	56
December	952	38	270	287	140	37	29	12	10	11	58	60
January	1230	49	483	271	210	78	18	11	22		26	62
February	1129	23	221	408	250	51	30	31			8	107
March	1497	92	241	552	230	123	68				17	174
April	1614	106	432	513	266	92					33	172
May	3071	171	571	1465	343						72	449
June	1351	16	521	526							24	264
Totals	15467	736	3634	5842	2241	678	242	150	76	99	311	1458
Percent of orders received		4.76%	23.50%	38%	14.49%	4.38%	1.56%	1%	0.49%	0.64%	2.01%	9.43%

Received Date	Total Received	Cataloged 4 weeks	Cataloged 8 weeks	Cataloged 12 weeks	Cataloged 16 weeks	Cataloged 20 weeks	Cataloged 24 weeks	Cataloged 28 weeks	Cataloged 32 weeks	Cataloged over 36 weeks		Not cataloged
July	27	3	1	2	1	8	3	2	1	4		2
August	123	4	43	23	25	10	8	3		1		6
September	429	80	205	37	23	63	1	11		7		2
October	441	262	81	8	40	33	6	1	1			9
November	1237	648	274	45	125	97	8	12	8	4		16
December	392	222	123	5	27		6	5				4
January	1374	628	481	148	51	45	6	2	2			11
February	1169	128	545	292	49	100	11	2				42
March	846	72	179	427	32	61	25					50
April	1063	48	269	414	215	60						57
May	1587	133	222	597	574							61
June	1431	87	154	933								257
Totals	10119	2315	2577	2931	1161	477	74	38	12	16		517
Percent Cataloged		22.88%	25.47%	28.97%	11.47%	4.71%	0.73%	0.38%	0.12%	0.16%		5.11%

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