Update on new serials workflow for Lamont (and implications for us)

As you know, Widener Serials Services assumed responsibility for the ordering and check-in of Lamont periodicals as of May 10. Danielle and Jon are working with Jean Lenville (Widener Library's Head of Serials) to write up formal procedures. The Serials shift is being framed as a pilot to run through 2007.

A few points of procedure have been distilled below, in case questions arise for you or come your way from patrons. The full draft of new procedures is also linked from the Reference Manual (under "HCL and Lamont Library Policies").
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1. Newspapers: Newspapers will still be delivered the "old" way each morning, at the same time, and from the same company (Wellington News). Widener will manage the order and handle payment and 625 will do the (minimal) cataloging needed.

In the short term (i.e., until we move to Level One), Reference will continue to put the newspapers out each morning. This will cease to be our work as of September 10.

In the meantime, Heather is working with Administration on an alternative site (and alternative method of displaying) dailies. Also to be handed off: the Monday morning ritual of weeding back issues of newspapers. Presumably, Access Services will inherit this task.
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2. Duplicate subscriptions : with the exception of the Chronicle of Higher Education, we will no longer maintain any double subscriptions. Widener Serials Services relies on claims. Replacement copies for missing issues may end up being supplied from some Quad Library serial titles (which are not retained).However, the decision on procedure has not been made.
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3. Delivery and procedures for current periodicals: new issues of journal and magazines will arrive between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. each workday in black bins (to distinguish them from their gray intra-library cousins). These bins will be brought to the truck barn. Access Services will take care of putting these items on the Cafe shelves each day shortly after they are delivered.
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4. Serials with missing pages or in need of repair : Lynn WD will continue to care for these items during the times she is scheduled to work on site in Lamont. Our former practice was to deliver these items to Tech Services. Starting on June 1st, these items should be put on the bindery shelf just behind the Access Services counter. This shelf is also where books in need of repair will continue to be collected.
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5. Shelving: currently, this work is performed jointly by Reference and Access Services. During the day, our student shelver puts out new issues, makes a sweep of the Cafe, and reshelves items found on the tables there. Access Services makes at least one sweep in the overnight hours and may also be doing so at another point in the day.

My understanding is that we will no longer be responsible for re-shelving any issues of periodicals, even while we are still on Level Three. The switchover of responsibility has not happened yet; this will be negotiated when Linda returns from England. Given that Colleen will be on vacation all through June, however, and that Katie will be graduating, we can certainly pitch in on the work through the summer.
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6. Weeding of the periodicals: Currently, Colleen -- with Katie's help -- has been responsible for weeding at regular intervals. Colleen works from a list generated by Tech Services that identifies which items we retain and which we don't; this list also identifies how many issues to bind (or discard). By long-standing arrangement, we send one or two titles on to Cabot when we weed them; one or two others go to Widener to round out their holdings as "library of record."

What happens after June 1, however, is still to be determined. My impression is that Access Services is willing to take on this responsibility, unless it becomes clear that Colleen should continue pulling limited retention titles, as she is familiar with procedures already. More will follow.
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7. Chain of command: Jean Lenville is the primary contact for Serials Services issues we have; her backup in Widener is Sandy Murphy. For everyday-type problems -- if you encounter (or learn from a patron about) missing issues, for example -- they're the people to seek out by phone or email.

In Lamont, Jon is the primary contact and Linda is his backup. Alert them both if something catastrophic happens (a subscription ceases -- or stops arriving altogether, a catalog record has egregious errors, etc.). Jon will liaise with Serials Services to address the problems; in his absence, Linda will do so.

Linda is the primary contact for serials issues at the Quad Library, although it is doubtful we'll hear about Quad problems before she does.