CIRCULATION SUPPORT GROUP

Meeting
2:00 PM; SML 409

Announcements:
No announcements or additions to the agenda made.

Copy Information in Item Record
Joan and Steven sought feedback about how individual circulation departments used copy information provided in the item record. Joan described how copy information had historically been used, but since barcode was now used as the primary means of identifying a specific item, she was interested in determining if departments still relied on copy information for any purpose.
A general discussion about how individual units still found copy information useful:

• In several libraries there were instances where copy information on the label was used identify which copy to pull from the shelf for circulation when only one copy was allowed to circulate.
• In the Music Library copy information is relied upon to identify which copy an individual part of a multi-part item belongs.
• Copy information on the label is useful when there are many copies of an item all shelved together and one has been requested for Eli Express delivery. The group felt that this was the exception however and that practices already in place (such as the ability to relink an item to a callslip request in the callslip daemon, or referring to barcode information on the callslip when pulling the item from the shelf) were an acceptable solution.

The general consensus was that copy information in the item record was not crucial. Additionally the group felt that if copy information could not be omitted from Voyager records and the OPAC indicating a "1" instead of a "0" was preferable.

Action item:
Shawn will investigate if the default for copy information fields can be blank instead of zero.
Marybeth will investigate if this change would have any adverse effect on labeling practices.

Demonstration of New Preservation Technique
Erika Heinen demonstrated use of CoLibri, a device made by an Italian company that allows you to create custom polyethylene book covers. Polyethylene is a stable material that will help protect fragile materials and prevent leather bound books suffering from red rot from discoloring and damaging neighboring materials. Please refer to Addendum 1 for more details.

Preservation Department Policy Proposal
On behalf of Bobbie Pilette (Head, Preservation), Erika presented the Preservation Department's proposal to establish standards that would ensure that materials used in the preparation of library collections for the shelf would not contribute to the deterioration of the collections. Preservation seeks to establish a list of approved materials whose application to books, etc. will not adversely affect an item's condition. Please refer to a copy of Bobbie Pilette's recent e-mail to Yulib attached as addendum 2.
Erika invited members to inform her of materials that are used that are not included on Preservation's current list of approved materials, and to send her examples of such material so that they can be tested for their stability.

Validation Stickers
Dana shared his draft of a letter that can be given to patrons who do not have a current sticker on their University ID but who seek to borrow materials. Sue explained that since Voyager updates patron information fortnightly, it could be used as a resource to confirm if a patron is entitled to privileges. Dana proposed that the letter is a positive way of encouraging such patrons to get validation stickers and decreases the potential for instances where staff deny patrons privileges, thus resulting in poor customer service.

Addendum 1:

Preliminary Selection Guidelines for Treating Books with CoLibri System

Suitable items:

• are fully shelf-prepped (with the exception of the date due pockets) prior to being covered.
• are flexible enough to be turned inside out to get complete cover on.
• have sound board attachment on one or both boards.
• have a sound textblock in not more than two pieces, with each section of textblock attached to a board.
• can be any size, but generally the weaker the item, the smaller it should be.

Other items that are suitable if they meet the above criteria:

• Books with covers that are unique or have artifactual value, e.g. publisher's bindings.
• Books with endsheets that we are reasonably certain should not have a Perfect Pocket™ affixed to them, e.g. those with important information, maps, binding tickets, decorative (paste papers) endsheets.
• Books with leather in a red rot condition.
• Edition bindings, if they are in poor condition and will be damaged by further circulation.

NOTES

Need to determine…

Parameters of appropriate weight and size for volumes

Means of attaching call number and titles to spines that have "interesting" spine linings.

How much additional repair are we going to do? e.g. do we tacket and then put a CoLibri cover on?

DRAFT -- dcm 1/06/04, revised eh 2/11/04

Addendum 2

Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 12:05:49 -0500
From: Roberta Pilette <roberta.pilette@yale.edu>
Subject: preservation needs your input
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Hello,

The Preservation Department is in the midst of drafting a policy that would call for a review of any materials that are to be put into or onto volumes as part of preparing a volume for the shelf. These can include, but are not limited to, such things as: call number labels, beeper or other security tags, bookplates, and reserve or other temporary labels.

We would also like to develop a list of materials now employed in shelf preparation throughout the library system. We are interested in those materials used for regular shelf preparation: call number labels, security beepers, book plates, bar codes; as well as anything else that might be employed. We would also like to know if procedures in your collection or library differ substantially from what we refer to here as regular preparations e.g. no call number labels but paper strips in books with call numbers on them or special security systems would be considered different.

The goal of this survey is not to make things more difficult, but to make available to libraries and collections across the campus information about materials that are chemically stable and otherwise safe for shelf preparations, and to alert library staff to those materials that are not safe to use--whatever that use might be.

If library staff would send to me information on the materials that are being used or have been used in connection with shelf preparation, it would be much appreciated. Please send as much information as possible: the correct and complete product name for the material, vendor or source of product, and any manufacturers' information that may be available [photocopy of the package is fine] and how the product/material is being used or has been used. If you want to send samples of the product/material, that would be helpful. Please send all information and/or samples to my attention: Bobbie Pilette, Preservation Dept, SML.

We hope to develop the initial list fairly quickly and make it available via the web. As new needs are met and new materials added we will update the list.

Thanks for you help.

Bobbie Pilette
roberta.pilette@yale.edu