Opening Day Collections

1
Opening Day Collections

• Presentation to CLA Delegates
• June 14, 2006

2
Introduction

• Start-to-finish how-to information on planning
  for and executing a large-scale collection
  project using the selection services of an
  outside agency.
• With a new branch it is unlikely that there will
  be staff hired in time to do selection and
  existing staff will find it difficult to add to
  their workload, so outsourcing the selection of
  the opening day collections makes the most sense
  for the library.

3
Oshawa Public Libraries

• Largest library system in Ontario between Toronto
  and Ottawa
• Largest library in Durham Region which includes
  Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Clarington, Scugog and
  Uxbridge
• Serves a customer base of 150,000

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• 3 branches with a total of 385,486 items
• 48,157 items added in 2005
• New branch opened April 18, 2006 with 41,000
  items
• Facility has capacity for 60,000 items

5
Timeline

• Manager of Branch Services October 2004
• New branch scheduled to open August 2005
• New branch to open with a staff complement of 15
  FTE and 40,000 items

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Legends Centre Branch

• Partner in a recreational complex
• 4 ice pads
• Fitness Centre
• Gymnasium
• Seniors Centre
• Pool
• Library!

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• Branch hours closely mirror the recreational
  complex.
• Open the most extended hours of any in the OPL
  system
• Monday Friday 9am - 9pm
• Saturday Sunday 9am - 6pm

8
Materials Budget

• 800,000 capital funds
• 110,000 Operating budget 2005
• Invoices were submitted and paid weekly
  throughout the project.

9

• Items charged to Materials Budget included
• Storage
• A/V Cases
• Processing charges

10
Original Allocations

• Books 75 600,000
• DVDs 6 48,000
• CDs (Music) 5 40,000
• Books on Tape (CD) 6 48,000
• Reference 8 64,000

11
RFP

• RFP issued December 2004 decision January 2005
• Established Library staff contacts for selection
  issues, IT, Processing and Technical Services.

12
Planning

• Ideally, at least a year is needed from the first
  planning meeting to the opening of the library to
  fulfill the collection requirements for a
  medium-sized library of 40,000 items.
• With the ARP model the library has to trust that
  high quality, appropriate selections are being
  made. In order to ensure this, advance planning,
  good profiles and open lines of communication are
  important.

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• Separate budget amounts were established for all
  collections.
• Regular reporting of progress - monthly meetings
  to discuss budgets, collections, schedule,
  overall progress, etc.

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Selection

• The Library completed a demographic study of the
  community in 2004 and shared the results with the
  vendor.
• An on-going dialogue was established about what
  types of materials were to be included/excluded
  in each collection, collection strengths and
  focus.
• Manager of Branch Services checked invoices
  periodically to monitor selection.

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• Knowledge of collection size and profiles within
  other branches of the system as well as the space
  plan and the vision for the new library helped
  determine these quantities.
• More detailed budget breakdowns were required for
  several collections including Dewey ranges, both
  Adult and Juvenile, Adult fiction genres, Music
  categories, etc.

16

• Identified all collections and established
  whether they were to be the vendors
  responsibility or not. Examples include local
  history collections, multilingual collections,
  French materials, materials for the visually
  impaired, etc.

17

• Established guidelines for abridged vs.
  unabridged for audio books edited vs. explicit
  for Music CDs widescreen vs. full screen for
  DVDs.
• Established quotas for fiction genres for regular
  print, large print, mass market and audio book
  collections.

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• Subscription services (periodicals, electronic
  databases) remained the responsibility of the
  library.
• Government Documents acquired through the
  depository program were also not selected by the
  vendor.
• Determined library preferences re. binding types
  for fiction, non-fiction, childrens fiction,
  childrens non-fiction, picture books, easy
  readers, etc.

19
Duplicate Detection

• We established a cut-off date for selection.
  This is especially important if library staff is
  ordering pre-published material at the same time
  as the vendor is ordering.
• To avoid duplication of the new collection with
  existing OPL collections, Oshawa sent an ISBN
  file to LSC against which all selections were run
  and filtered out.

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• A duplicate detection program can be turned on to
  filter out library holdings from the new
  selections.
• If the vendor and the library are both ordering
  materials for the project, then the duplicate
  detection program can be set to catch duplicate
  orders within the same account.

21
Technical Services Department

• OPL orders, catalogues and processes all of its
  own material with the exception of a small number
  of A/V titles.

22

• For this project
• For adult material and childrens A/V LSC
  provided a MARC record and processing

23

• For childrens material, LSC supplied the
  material unprocessed and a MARC record. Because
  we use a system of truncated Dewey developed
  in-house and have five different reading levels
  for childrens material, we did not feel that an
  outside source could handle the processing of
  childrens material. We wanted to ensure that
  childrens material was handled consistently
  across the system.

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• The vendor was very accommodating of OPL
  processing requirements, including our practice
  of assigning fiction genres and our unique music
  classification system.
• LSC accessed the OPL catalogue over the Internet
  to determine how we treated a particular series
  (e.g. mystery or general fiction).

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Processing

• For all adult and A/V materials, processing was
  done to specification by LSC. Items were
  shelf-ready when they were sent to the library
  and needed no further finishing.
• Additional physical processing steps that can be
  done include linking, RFID tagging, security,
  and custom call number assignment for collections
  such as music CDs.
• Samples of each format were processed and sent to
  the Library for approval.

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Fixed Price Processing Plan

• A set price was determined for all the processing
  for the project and was paid in three
  installments. If a Fixed Priced Processing Plan
  was not entered into, then processing would have
  been paid on a per-item basis.

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• The cost of the Fixed Price Formula Plan is based
  on a formula that factors in all the material
  formats, the number of units projected for each
  format and the number of processing steps for
  each format.

28
Sorting

• OPL chose the Fine Sort option offered by LSC
  a detailed shelf-list sort within each
  collection.
• The collection was fully sorted and stored in
  archival shelf-length boxes that housed the
  collection in shelf-list order.
• These boxes were transported into the branch by
  movers, opened and immediately shelved.

29
Storage

• Sorting and storage options were worked out at
  the beginning of the project. As soon as
  materials were processed and invoiced, they were
  put into storage.
• The OPL collection was stored at LSCs warehouse
  while the branch was under construction. The
  Library was welcome at any time to inspect the
  stock.
• A detailed floor plan of the library was supplied
  so that collections were stored in the order that
  made the most sense upon delivery to the library.

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Delivery

• Once the building was turned over to the library
  and the opening date was firm, moving the
  collections in was scheduled and planned.
• Delivery of the collections followed the
  installation of the shelving so that materials
  did not congest the floor space while the
  shelving installation was completed.

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• Details were worked out with regard to the size
  of the receiving/dock area of the library and the
  manner in which the skids of boxes were
  offloaded.
• Staff from LSC were in attendance to direct the
  movers and the shelving.
• Library staff were present to sort and shelve the
  childrens materials

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Project Completion

• After the collections were moved to the branch,
  every item was checked in.
• OPL decided to suppress the holds on the new
  collection for a period of time to allow walk-in
  users maximum choice.
• Follow-on shipments of materials continued to
  arrive at the library on a schedule mutually
  established until everything was delivered.

33

• Budget updates were sent to the library until the
  project was officially closed.
• Plans were made for selection to turn over from
  LSC to the library staff to prevent ordering of
  duplicates.

34
Assumptions Tested

• Backlist hardcover fiction would be available
  through normal acquisitions channels.
• Creative measures were taken to acquire backlist
  hardcover fiction in "like new" condition through
  the use of used book vendors.

35

• Multiple copies would not be selected for this
  branch.
• Identified genres where this could be
  accommodated.

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• High quality of collection was validated by
  customer demand for titles.
• OPAC display should be suppressed months before
  opening.

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• The construction project would stay on schedule.
• Flexibility is necessary on all fronts.
• Accept that many things are out of your control.

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• Library staff could handle processing for
  childrens collection.
• Very labour intensive, hired contract staff

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• Manual check-in of every item would be tedious
  and time-consuming.
• Provided an accurate inventory
• Check-in was shorter than we anticipated

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• In conclusion, a new branch breathes life into
  the whole Library system. OPL reserves are at an
  all-time high and circulation figures continue to
  climb.
• Outsourcing the selection allowed us to focus on
  staffing, training, and branch design.

41
Contact Information

• Nancy Porteous
• Customer Services Manager
• Library Services Centre
• 1-800-265-3360, ext. 639
• nporteous_at_lsc.on.ca
• Ellen Stroud
• Manager, Branch Services
• Oshawa Public Libraries
• 905-579-6111, ext. 254
• estroud_at_oshawalibrary.on.ca