(1)------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:42:31 -0400
From: Angela Masden (Regent U.) <amasden_at_regent.edu>
Subject: RE- Approvals and vacation
We have had an approval plan for several years and have worked out a
few things in the areas you mention. Generally, I hold shipments until I
have two to place on bookcases in our Reference Office for our subject
librarians to peruse. Shipments arrive weekly so this gives the librarians
two weeks to check the books. Since summer is the only time people
generally take longer vacations, it's usually not a problem. If they are
not able to check the books in time, they are added to the collection since
the profile has already checked the books to see that they should fit into
our collection. "Errors" have proven to be a very minor part of the budget.
The shelves are identified by fund code with an extra one for items to be
returned. To make the titles easier to identify when pulling them from the
shelves (as to which invoice they belong to), I use colored markers to make
a mark on the removable ends of the multiforms. It may take a few moments
to do this when receiving a shipment, but it will save plenty of time later.
When I set new shipments out, I pull the last two shipments and separate
them by invoice and those to be returned. Then I follow our normal
procedures for creating records in our library database, etc.
I hope this has helped.
Angela Masden
Acquisitions Supervisor
Regent University Library
(2)-------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:30:18 -0400 (EDT)
From: Judith K. Genthner" (Harvard U.) <genthnju_at_gse.harvard.edu>
Subject: RE - Approvals and vacations
Hello from Gutman Library at Harvard Grad. School of Education.
We have a different spin on Approval plans. Our Book Selector makes her
decision based on the Approval Plan slips themselves that Yankee (YBP)
sends us. She usually will be there to look over whatever comes as soon as
I unpack any box! And rarely is a title rejected. Occasionally, she will
flag an order for her to review before marking/cataloging. We generally
have a very small backlog, anyway.
Hope this is helpful.
Sincerely,
Judy Genthner
Monographs Receipts
(3)------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:13:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gen M. Worley (UT-Austin) <g.worley_at_austin.utexas.edu>
Subject: RE - Approvals and vacations
Here at the University of Texas at Austin we have several approval
plans. Our schedule is dictated by our largest approval plan shipments,
which arrive weekly. We have an area near the Acquisitions Department
with shelves where we put the approval books for review. Our subject
librarians have one week to review the books in their area of
responsibility. The subject librarians are responsible for appointing a
substitute reviewer whenever they are on vacation, or cannot make the
weekly deadline.
Glen Worley
Manager, Monograph Acquisitions and Approval Plans
University of Texas Libraries
Voice: (512)495-4149
Fax: (512)495-4410
Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:00:04 -0400
From: Helen Mack (Lehigh U.) <hpm0_at_lehigh.edu>
Subject: RE- Approvals and vacation
Each selector is responsible for one or more funds, so we sort the books
by fund, and put
all books for each selector on the same shelf. Same thing with approval
slips, except that
we stick them in a file box, sorted by selector & then by fund. The
selectors are expected
to retrieve their slips on a regular basis.
In order to deal with more than one invoice at a time, we use
color-coded streamers.
For example, we assign blue streamers to Invoice #1, and each book on
that invoice gets
a blue streamer. Then we assign green streamers to Invoice #2 and put
green streamers in
all those books. Etc., etc., etc. We keep a shelf for all books to
keep, and another shelf
for all books to return.
We try not to allow books to sit for more than a couple of weeks before
we contact the
delinquent selector. If that person is away, then we either have our
Collection Manager review
the books or another selector who has sufficient expertise to get the
job done.
For our firm ordering, we generally have one line per order. However,
with approvals, we get one
invoice per shipment, so we use the Invoice # as the Order ID, and we
enter multiple lines.
We short-pay the invoice by lining through the titles we are returning.
Helen P. Mack, Acquisitions Librarian
Lehigh University, Linderman Library
30 Library Drive
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3067 USA
Phone 610 758-3035 * Fax 610 758-5605
E-mail hpm0_at_lehigh.edu
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:35:37 -0400
From: Barbara Cox (U. of Utah) <barbara.cox_at_utah.edu>
Subject: RE- Approvals and vacation
University of Utah Marriott Library stopped putting up approval books
for examination several years ago. As part of our FASTER Initiative we
worked on making the time between when a book was identified as being
needed for the collection and it being on the shelf as short as
possible. Books had been up for one week in the Coll Dev area. Fewer and
fewer selectors reviewed them, and those who did seldom made decisions
-- e.g. changed location where item was to be sent, identified a
defective copy, etc. Approval books (which are mostly shelf ready
thanks to same initiative) were to be sent directly to new books shelf
where librarians could look at when patrons did.
The cases where a book needs to be tracked down for
special action seem very few compared to the substantial
advantage of getting books to patrons as soon as possible.
It was fun to browse them in CD, but that was hardly sufficient
reason to continue the procedure.
Barbara Cox
Coordinator of Library Selectors
Collection Development Division
1005Z Marriott Library, University of Utah www.lib.utah.edu
(801) 58 7-9167 fax 801-585-7719
US mail: 295 S 1500 E, RM DOCK,
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0860
(6)--------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:16:29 -0400
From: Marsha J. Hamilton" (Ohio State U.) <hamilton.8_at_osu.edu>
Subject: Re: Approvals and vacations
We kept physical approval books on display for one week by general LC
class range.
If a title was not marked as accepted or rejected after one week, staff
referred it to the librarian
responsible for that specific subject area. Our "referral shelves"
displayed these leftover books by
the name of the individual selector for an additional week.
If they did not accept or reject the title after that 2nd week, we had
to make a decision to keep
the books moving. In theory, each librarian was supposed to name a
back-up to do their approval
selection if they were on vacation, leave, etc. In practice, there were
many times we had to track
people down by phone or e-mail to get a decision or find out who was
back-up for an absent person.
It was not uncommon for an invoice to be held up while we waited for a
decision. It was also inconvenient
for some selectors to get to the approval shelves weekly because we have
many departmental/branch libraries
scattered across a large campus. At the peak of our physical approval
program, about 40 selectors were
expected to review approval books each week.
To address those problems, and because we had to move out of our central
library location for a major renovation,
we set up a system of "virtual approvals." Each selector gets a weekly
e-mail link to a file of online notification
slips that match our library approval profile, but are broken down to
only the LC class ranges or inter-disciplinary
subject headings that each selector is interested in seeing. We set
this up with YBP and it has been operating over
2 years. We no longer have a problem with referrals, absent selectors,
etc. On the other hand, selectors have to
take responsibility for marking their online selections. If they
forget, we sometimes have to go back and re-create
the files they missed while they were away.
The more selectors you have, the harder it is to get everyone to review
books on a regular basis. It is a good idea to
have a default policy. For example, if no decision is made within a
certain number of days, someone can be assigned
to make a keep or return decision so that invoices can be cleared.
Marsha J. Hamilton
Associate Professor and Head, Monographs Department
The Ohio State University Libraries
Room 5782
610 Ackerman Road
Columbus, Ohio 43202-4500 USA
(614) 247-7461 - ph.
(614) 292-2015 - fax
hamilton.8_at_osu.edu
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:56:05 -0400
From: Jane Schmidt <jschmidt_at_gwemail.ryerson.ca>
Subject: RE : Approvals and vacations (Thanks)
Hi all,
Thank you very much for the overwhelming response to my question about
the procedures behind approval plan book viewing.
Much appreciated,
Jane
Jane Schmidt (formerly Binksma)
Acquisitions Librarian
Collections Team
Ryerson University Library
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, ON
M5B 2K3
416-979-5000 ex. 4855
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Received on Sun Jul 15 2007 - 19:39:51 EDT