Please join the ALCTS Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group (TSWEIG) at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. 

Date and time: Monday, January 27, 2020 / 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

Location: Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 113-A

We look forward to two presentations on evaluating and streamlining workflows within technical services. We plan to have ample time for Q&A at the end of the session.

Welcome to Your New Job: Streamlining Inherited Workflows & Processes

By Jennifer Eustis, Metadata Librarian, UMass Amherst

Inherited workflows and processes are common. In academic libraries, in particular state institutions like the University of Massachusetts, it takes time to either hire for a position or transfer job duties. There are also situations in which workflows need to be passed to a different person. Whether it’s a new hire or new job duties, the consequences are often the same: new backlogs, missing or non-existent documentation, or workflows that fit a different job or working style. At UMass Amherst, as a new hire in the Metadata Unit, I inherited batch loading responsibilities both for UMass Amherst and the Five College Consortium. Much of the knowledge was lost when the person who had those responsibilities left. Not only did a backlog begin to grow, documentation was limited, and workflows needed to be re-envisioned for a smaller staff. In this presentation, I’d like to address the ways in which the inherited batch loading process and workflows of bibliographic title sets are being streamlined and made more transparent. I’ll cover issues on: how we customized CORAL to reduce the number of spreadsheets to track loads; revamped documentation for both transparency and training; began an evaluation process to illustrate the process to our colleges, especially the liaisons; how this work is being adapted for our consortium batch loads.

The evolving workflow: Moving streaming video acquisitions to a mediated model

By Cara Calabrese, Acquisitions & Access Librarian, Miami University

It’s a common story. Our streaming video PDA was consistently exceeding its budget. We tried to limit spending by decreasing the amount of titles and distributors in our PDA pool as well as educate patrons on cost, but these changes did not create a significant difference. The library could not sustain this level of spending and opted to move to leasing individual titles at the start of the next Fiscal Year. This change in the model of acquisitions meant that current workflows were outmoded, but now there was an opportunity to build in better communication between several departments while creating new workflows and procedures to fit the change. Acquisitions, Cataloging, and Collection Development came together to create and review new workflows for requesting leases, ordering, & communicating what titles need to be added or removed from the catalog. I’ll discuss how we used the tools our library had access too to enhance the request workflow, reduce single points of failure, and increase communication regarding streaming video content. I will also touch on how our workflows have evolved since the advent of the mediate model and what changes we hope to introduce in the future.

Sent on behalf of the TSWEIG Co-Chairs

Jesse A Lambertson, Metadata and Digital Resources Librarian

D'Angelo Law Library - University of Chicago

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Gina Solares

Head of Cataloging and Metadata Management

Gleeson Library - University of San Francisco

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