Check-In workflow not based on alphabet -Summary Ann Doyle 20 Jul 2001 02:11 UTC
Subject: Summary: Getting away from letter of alphabet check-in Thanks to everyone who took the time and made the effort to respond to my questions. It's been a week now and I don't think I'm going to get any more responses, so here's the summary. Respondents: 11 self-selected SERIALST subscribers (one person reported on two experiences, so the number of scenarios is actually 12) (1.) How do you organize check-in assignments? 5 Students check in everything. No specialties. Problems routed to staff. 1 Divided by Vendor &/or Library(location). 2 Divided by format. 2 Available individual (did not designate student or staff). No specialties. 1 Students do �easy,� and refer problems to staff, who also do �hard.� 1 Divided by topic/publisher. (2.) How do the mail people know where to route/how to sort the pieces? 6 No sorting. Pieces sorted/routed to locations as checked in as necessary. 1 Mail �sorted� into 10� piles (maintained so they don�t fall over). 1 Pieces needing check-in (on serials module) divided from rest of mail. 1 Staff sorts pieces into �easy� or �hard� check-in. 1 Staff rotate mail duty, know complete cycle. Whoever did the mail did newspapers. 2 Not indicated. Miscellaneous excerpts: �Once in an online environment we found it inefficient to alphabetize titles �Ever since we got rid of the [Kardex] wheels the system has been: as mail is opened � piles are made � Individuals then take any pile and check each item in. When done, they take another pile, until there are no more piles.� �Having the same person or people doing the entire process from receiving the mail to checking in and claiming works well.� �We have re-organized within the department so that there is more cross-training of daily tasks � in response to increased staff turnover�� �It was very hard to train everyone to be able to check-in all types of materials under that system [by letter of alphabet], but we had strong resistance from staff when we tried to abolish it.� �We did have some bumps at the beginning, trying to make sure everyone had something of an equal number of titles to work with.� It worked well because the � individuals [doing check-in] � alternated weeks of sorting the mail. Each knew the rules.� �We do not use the alphabetical method until the materials have already been checked in and sorted [for shelving].� �We have surveyed all of our branch libraries (we have 12) to tell us their most popular/in demand titles. Then as the students are opening the mail they sort those titles out into the express basket. These issues are checked in first and we try to deliver them inside our building � the same day.� ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ann S. Doyle Serials Acquisitions Librarian Young Library Serials V: 859-257-0500 x2132 University of Kentucky Libraries F: 859-257-0508 Lexington KY 40506-0456 E: asdoyl2@pop.uky.edu