Tag Archives: Media Collection

Main Circ Task List Review 7/27

Lots of great ideas – thanks!
Morgan will post meeting notes soon. Stay tuned for another meeting invite – but let’s keep the conversation going on the blog.

Here is a summary of some proposed changes.
Checklist updates to follow.
Eliminate date due slips (including thesis slips and the sweep of reserved carrels)
Automate morning paging slip notices
Switch some daily/morning tasks to evening
Switch some daily tasks to weekly
Shift some ILL/NExpress incoming and outgoing cart workflow to ILL staff
Eliminate or reduce paging of local Midd requests (students, staff, faculty on campus retrieve their own open stack materials – a much appreciated service but one we may not be able to provide with current staffing reductions)
Eliminate physical new books display; shift new books “presence” to web; streamline processing for carts from CM and P&P; investigate automated status changes
Opening priority: computers, paging slips, equipment bookings, film screening media

Daily tasks to review next…
Hold shelf/pick-up
Returns processing/hold areas/carts
Equipment – bookings and follow-up; overdues, check-in, re-imaging
Courier bins etc.
Student employee management – hiring, training, scheduling etc.
Info desk support – reserve rooms; guest pw, quick ref, ref referrals. misc facility issues, troubleshooting copy/print, Public Safety
Collections – shelf reading, shelving browsing collections
Circ supplies, forms etc.
Other checklists and routine tasks – weekly, monthly, annually etc.
Cash/credit processing
Schedule opening shifts and Main Circ coverage for fall semester
Review Arm and Mus checklists – what can be adjusted to alleviate the load at Main?

Points to Remember from Circ Training, 6/29/09

Todd asked me to take notes during the training and post them here. I’ll summarize what the presenters talked about and if you have any questions, ask me or comment below.

Maura:
Scheduling – use and refer to the Outlook calendar. If you need a sub, please post to the summer distribution list for one and alert the supervisor who normally works during that shift.
Blog – students should check the blog at the start of every shift – link located on desktops at each Circ desk
Wiki – great for finding procedures and workflows

Kellam:
Equipment – heavily used by Language Schools and sometimes also Bread Loaf during the summer.
–equipment is located at all 3 branches, and items circulate for 4 hours, 1 day, 7 days, or 14 days depending on what they are. Renewals are possible for all items (except faculty/staff laptops) as long as there is still ample supply of the item in question available for other borrowers. However, under no circumstances are loans allowed to be extended for the duration of the summer. In other years we’ve been able to do this, but due to shrinking inventory and budget cuts, we’re sorry but we can’t accommodate summer-long equipment requests anymore.
–don’t turn borrowers away if you don’t have what they need on hand. Check the other two branches to see if their equipment is available. Bring in supervisors to book equipment. Supervisors can also contact Media Services to see if their equipment inventory has what the borrower is looking for.
–when people ask about how to use equipment: direct them to go/equipment (“the greatest thing ever”–Maura) which has instruction manuals in pdf format which can be read online or printed
–remember to check all pieces of equipment at check-in and check-out (ie. read and follow the pop-up messages in every equipment record)
–equipment must be returned to the branch it came from; equipment cannot be transported in the courier bins like books, CDs, and DVDs can.
–new equipment for this summer: flip cams, Hebrew keyboards, portable P.A. systems

Rachel (with input from Kellam on BLSE)
ILL – green or pink bands; green can be taken out of the library, pink must stay in the library. In fact, when a patron returns a pink-band ILL to the desk and leaves without saying anything, it’s best to assume they’re NOT done with the item and it should go back on the hold shelf (assuming it’s due date has not passed).
–ILL can only be renewed by ILL staff intervention
–when checking one out, remember to change the due date in Millennium to what the ILL band says
–ILL can be shipped from Main to Armstrong, but between no other branches
NExpress – blue bands, usually a faster option than a recall or using ILL.
–NExpress can be renewed by a patron through My MidCat twice
–when checking one out, remember to use the due date generated by Millennium, and write it on the blue band
–NExpress can be shipped from Main to Davison (ie. Bread Loaf) and back, but between no other branches

Dan
Guests/Visitors – guests who have borrowing privileges may borrow books & government documents
Guests have access to computers (through the daily “pclab” password).
–they do NOT have privileges to borrow: equipment, movies, lockers & carrels, ILL & NExpress
–guest printing: through print card bought at Wilson Cafe, college Bookstore, or MiddXPress in McCullough. Each branch has 1-2 “guest printing computers” where guests can send print jobs. Guests then use the print release stations like students & faculty do.

Desktop Stats – to be clicked after every patron interaction which does not involve the actual circulating of materials (ie. check-ins, check-outs). Used by staff to document staff and student staff use during all hours we’re open.

Todd (with input from Kellam on BLSE)
Printing for students & faculty – all branches using print release stations – Middlebury username and password (same one used for Webmail, Banner, etc.) NOT the same one used by Bread Loaf students & faculty – they will need to activate their Midd accounts for this. Direct them to go/activate and look them up in Millennium to give them their ID #.
–copying is $.10 for b/w, $.50 for color. Color available in Main and Armstrong.
–Equitrac copy cards bought at “black box” in print rooms. Use $1 to get a card; then more money can be added onto that card.
–Faculty can use a department code (2) and their ID number to charge copies directly to their department.
–please report printer problems to supervisors/Helpdesk in a timely manner

Joseph
Emergency Procedures – please use part of your next shift to read over the Emergency Manual (there’s a copy in each branch). Ask your supervisor if you have questions about what’s in it.
–first aid kits are also available at each branch at the Circ Desk. Additional kits are available in Main at the Info Desk and in the Staff Room.

Steve
Mozio – new texting reference service, implemented at the end of spring semester. Text to # 66746 from any cell phone. Start your message with “midd” and then type your reference question. Reference librarians (or perhaps Circ or Helpdesk staff) will respond via text to your phone.

Is that it? Whew!

Media Screenings Info for Circ

This is a brief reminder of the major points I covered during Circ student training on June 25.

1. Screenings students have messages in their Mill records saying they can take Media out of the library.
2. The Film Screenings binder (updated daily by supervisors) is located on the front desk to the right of the pillar; student Screeners will use this binder to tell you what media they need.
3. Screenings materials do NOT get checked out to borrowers on the day they’re being screened, only screening students (or in rare cases, the professor).
4. Always ask screening students if they need a Projectionist Key (located in the key drawer).
5. Professors are responsible for A) giving Reserves media to be screened beforehand, or submitting a list of media from our collection; B) reserving a room for the screening through the Scheduling Office; C) getting a screener assigned by emailing/calling Helpdesk.
6. If professors/TAs/bilinguals appear in person (or call) with a problem (most usually “We’re in room X for a screening but no one’s here with the movie”) hand the issue to the supervisor on duty.

Any questions, please ask me. Thanks!
Steve

No – we do not repair personal DVD’s

FYI – message from Joseph Watson in Preservation and Processing (P&P):
Hi,
We recently had a request to send some personally owned DVDs through the repair machine and that prompted Terry and me to weigh the pros and cons of offering that service to the community. We have decided that we will not accept DVDs from individuals and that we will only treat items owned by Middlebury College.

If we did decide to offer that service, in order to make it cost neutral, we’d have to charge for staff time, wear and tear on the machine, and supplies used. We don’t want to get into that because we really can’t afford to devote staff resources to non-essential work, especially work that doesn’t directly benefit the College.

The good news is, Video King does do this… they charge $3 per DVD. If anyone asks about such a service, please explain that we only treat items owned by Middlebury College and refer them to the retail establishment downtown.

Thanks!
-Joseph

tracking requests for today’s media screenings

i just made a quick chart where we all can track ( with a check) how many requests we get during the day for an item on the screening schedule for today.  we all should now be aware that screenings for today are NOT to be checked to anyone but the screener.  This is to insure the item is actually here  and cleaned and scanned and available when needed for the scheduled class screening.  So help us out and make a check for each request which we have to refuse

Films for Scheduled Screenings

A quick reminder that Circ will continue the trial work flow for setting aside films that are scheduled for Media Services screening support.

To summarize:
Films that are scheduled to be screened by Media Services staff will be set aside the morning of the screening by Circ staff – after cleaning, repairing (if needed) and verifying availability.
On the day of a scheduled screening, films may not be borrowed prior to the screening.
Students may borrow films after a screening, or on any day prior to the day of the scheduled screening, and regular reserve loan guidelines apply.

This only applies to films that are listed in the daily Media Services screening schedule. Films are listed in the daily film screening schedule only when a faculty member requests that Media Services staff provide technical support to a class screening.
If a faculty member has a film on reserve and will be screening the film themselves, we do not set aside the films.
Remember – you can adjust due dates and loan policies for the faculty who placed the film on reserve for their course. If a film is on reserve for more than one course, we cannot adjust loan period.

There were no problems noted with this change during Winter Term, and initial feedback from our students employees at the front desk has been positive.

It is important that we document all feedback regarding this change. Pass on all comments.

Please stress to film screeners – at the time of check-out – the importance of returning films immediately after a screening so that they are available to students who may have missed the scheduled screening.

Thanks for your support. Please pass along all questions and concerns.
Elin

Shelf reading media collection

one thing i have noticed is that there are some items behind the circ desk which do not begin the string of call letters with the word MEDIA.  if an item does not have MEDIA as the first entry in call # sequence, scan the item to verify its true location. There are many items that look as if they should live behind the desk but actually they belong in the stacks and the only way to verfity is to scan the item.  So always look for the word MEDIA.

Browsing DVD tips

Hey everyone. I’ve been doing a shelf-read of the Browsing DVDs this week. There weren’t many errors I found, but the few I did were, as Elin would say, “very creative,” so I wanted to mention a few things to keep in mind when shelving Browsing DVDs.

1. If a DVD is not inside the case, do NOT check it in. Rather, give it to a supervisor on duty and they will email the patron who had the movie and ask them to return the DVD.

2. Make sure it’s actually a Browsing DVD – it will say “Browsing Media” on the cover of the case. A few of the discs in the Browsing section actually belonged to DVDs in the Media Collection.

3. When you put away a disc, please check to make sure the sleeve is in call # order in the bin. Look a couple sleeves before and after it to confirm.

4. A number of our Browsing movies have multiple discs. Please make sure, when checking them in or out, that you can account for every disc a set should have.

Thanks for your continued efforts! Enjoy your winter break!