Behind the Scenes in Technical Services (Part I)
By Tony Wieczorek, Cataloging Librarian

The next time you walk amongst the shelves in the library ask yourself how the books, periodicals, tapes and discs came to be there at all. Someone had to select the titles, then order them, and then make them ready for circulation (e.g., barcode them, label them, reinforce bindings, and repackage when necessary). Their bibliographic records had to be checked and added to the library catalog so they could be properly identified and found. Now imagine all this being done for each item on every shelf.

In your personal library, you make acquisitions based on your personal interests; but consider trying to build and develop a collection that anticipates the interests and needs of an entire community of people. In part, the selection of titles held by the library is based on patron requests; but it is also based on book reviews and recommendations of staff. Collections must be developed and maintained not only for various nonfiction subjects but also for a variety of fiction genres like mystery and romance, science fiction and westerns.

Selections must include a variety of formats. For example, the Video Collection contains fiction and nonfiction holdings in both VHS and DVD format. Consider too that the Audio Collection contains both fiction and nonfiction materials in both cassette and CD formats, and will soon be expanded to include the MP3 format as well.

In addition, we maintain various special collections like the Reference, Business, and Wisconsin collections. And don't forget the variety of magazines and newspapers available here. They too must be chosen and their use monitored so staff can determine the usefulness and community interest to help future selection decisions. Now imagine developing these collections not only for adults but for children and young adults as well.

Another concern is the limited space available to store the collection. In the first 8 months of this year over 19,000 new items were added. Sometimes, in order to make space for new materials various library collections must be reviewed for its usefulness. Materials that are out of date or badly worn or not worth repairing are removed from the shelves and withdrawn. Similarly, multiple copies of titles that were once in high demand can also be removed from the collection to create space. So far this year, over 13,000 volumes have been weeded from the shelves.

As daunting as the task of selection and maintenance of the library collection is, so is the task of ordering and processing. Most of the materials requested can be ordered from one of several major vendors, though some items can only be ordered directly from their publishers. This year, for example, purchases have been made from over 300 suppliers or publishers. That translates into a lot of phone calls, orders and invoices received.

When the two lovely and intelligent people who handle ordering receive requests for materials they first search our catalog to see if the item is already owned either by us or by another of OWLSnet member libraries. An international database is then searched for the item's corresponding bibliographic record and added to our catalog in order to generate a purchase order. If no record is available, a temporary record is created. Spreadsheets are maintained detailing how much of the budget allocated to each collection has been used, and from which funds items are paid. When materials arrive they are then verified against the invoice, given a barcode, and sent either to pre-processing or cataloging.

On average over 2,000 items are ordered from a variety of publishers every month. That number does not include the over $121,000 worth of standing order materials received each year. These materials often lead to calls to publishers over items ordered but not received, damaged or wrongly shipped. In 2003 over 21,000 titles were ordered.

Once an item has been cleared it is checked for holds. If a patron has placed a hold on the item, it is sent to either processing or cataloging immediately so it can be circulated as quickly as possible.

In addition to this, the acquisitions department sorts the mail, manages serial subscriptions, and conducts the labor intensive and physically demanding annual periodical collection shift. Serials can often be a real thorn in the side as publishers frequently change the name of the publication (sometimes slightly and sometimes dramatically), or they fail to send a given month's issue.

And this is only half the story; next time a glimpse into the exciting world of cataloging and processing!