Printer-Friendly

Stanford University Libraries Redesign Report

Process Change 2

Monographs: Vendor-Assisted Processing

Process Change 2 Exchange data electronically with these same vendors: submit orders directly to their on-line databases and receive electronic bibliographic, holdings, item, and invoice information for all items supplied.

Assumptions

• Qualifying vendors can supply (via electronic files) all information relating to materials shipments: bibliographic (including call number and location), invoicing, and end processing (barcode number) data elements.
• Approximately 40% (8,400) of approval plan monographs can be obtained from vendors who can meet Stanford's requirements for electronic data transfer.
• Approximately one-third (11,200) of 35,000 firm orders currently ordered by slips or "claim on approval" can be ordered and invoiced electronically through approval plans.
• Approximately 12% (4,200) of firm orders can be ordered and invoiced electronically through approval plan vendors.
• Approximately 80% (1,696) of standing orders can be ordered and invoiced electronically through approval plan vendors.
• Approximately 75% of monographs received from qualifying vendors will have complete machine-readable bibliographic records available when items are shipped or received.

Activity / Transactions Eliminated

Pre-order search and order record creation

Electronic search/order transactions for 17,100 firm order and standing order monographs.

Claim on approval:  11,200 transactions
Firm orders:         4,200 transactions
Standing order       1,696 transactions

Payments processing

Electronic invoice creation and line item entry for 15,000 firm order, 6700 standing order and 8,400 approval plan items received and invoiced.

Approval:            8,400 transactions
Firm orders:        15,000 transactions
Standing order       6,700 transactions

Cataloging

Eliminate push-button and copy cataloging for monographs with full bibliographic records at receipt

Push-button          7,850 transactions
Copy                28,350 transactions

New Process Description

This process comes into play when a citation for an order is within the scope (publisher, publication date, format, etc.) of those handled by a qualifying vendor (see Appendix 5). Approval plan materials are selected for us and acquired from the publisher by approval vendors, based on subprofiles by fund or selector. Firm-ordered materials are directed as often as possible to the vendors who can provide shelf-ready materials.

The vendor enables Stanford to search in the vendor's on-line bibliographic database, which includes LC MARC, and to place firm orders through that direct connection. Selectors, selectors' assistants, or central acquisitions staff connect directly to vendor's on-line database and place an order for a title; location, fund, selector, and other local Stanford information is keyed into the vendor's file. No record is put in our local system at this time; however, the vendor provides periodic status reports by selector.

As the vendor's process proceeds, data related to that order, such as price and invoice number, continue to be added to the record. When the book is end-processed by the vendor, the barcode number is added to the record. As a shipment of books is packed, the records for all those books are pulled into a single file which is transmitted to Stanford. At Stanford, and before the shipment arrives, the records for the shipment are added to the local system: bibliographic, holdings, order, item, and invoice.

All SUL cartons go to a single shipping address, but each has the shelving location included on the label; at the SUL mailroom, cartons are sent unopened to the shelving location. When the shipment is opened at the shelving location, staff scan each barcode to call up the item record and perform a quality control check to ensure that books and records match. The system automatically indicates receipt and posts a payment for each book; the status of each book is changed from on order to in process. Staff place the books on the selector review shelf.

Upon review, the selector may designate items for book plating; the book's barcode is scanned to pull up the item, and a barcode representing a donor or an endowed fund is scanned. The sets of data are recorded in a local system for eventual reporting. A selector may reject a book for SUL or may route it to another selector for consideration in another collection (e.g., one science branch to another); barcode scanning mechanisms will be in place to facilitate either transaction. Our studies suggest that deselection for a small percentage of materials at the end of the process will be less expensive overall than the current operation.

Making the strategic change to these vendors for approval plans and for as many direct orders as we can will allow us to acquire over 60% of our materials shelf-ready. For current collecting patterns, the following percentages could be delivered shelf-ready:

• 40% of approval plan monographs
• 33% of firm orders which currently are ordered from approval slips
• 12% of other firm orders
• 80% of standing orders

Observations/Motivation for Change

Many book vendors who offer services via electronic means actually market the ability for a library to go directly into the vendor file to place an order. "Selection slips" can be reviewed on-line, and an order automatically placed without the intermediate transaction of making the order in the local system and dealing with a physical order form. Other firm orders can be handled this way as well. Vendors offer periodic reports on status of orders, by subprofile, so that control is maintained. Querying these vendors' files for status of orders in advance of placing claims is supported by these vendors.

Electronic ordering of appropriate materials from these vendors will eliminate a great deal of duplicate searching in our local system. We keep clear which vendors handle which publishers, and the vendors themselves will control inadvertent duplicates. Should we desire to duplicate a title, the vendors are able to handle that to a large extent. The duplication problem for titles published simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom requires special investigation. Although the current numbers of these duplicates is relatively small, a systematic approach to its resolution is desired.

An increasing number of large vendors are expanding their business plans to include delivery of shelf-ready materials, and a number of libraries, including the Jackson Business Library, attest to the success of the service. The Team saw that all these vendors use LC MARC as well as records from other national bibliographies in their own systems. Some plan to add staff to do upgrades to CIP in their own files. Some plan to offer enhanced records with tables of contents, author affiliation data, etc. At least two of our vendors maintain an LC-based classification system for their profiling for approval plans. Vendor staff actually classify all materials, and these numbers conceivably can be the basis of a full call number for a label; we found the vendors intrigued by the thought that libraries such as Stanford are encouraging them to go the extra step to make a complete call number.

"Selection slips" might still be sent in paper. Alternatively, vendors can send SUL weekly files by selector. Selectors can have these records available on-line, or, the vendor can provide a place within its database for a selector to logon to see selection items.

Among the complexities of receiving shelf-ready materials and the set of requisite data from vendors is that fund assignment on the item level either will be less flexible or will require great expense to adjust after the item has been received. We were encouraged that there are open minds, at both the University level and within the library, on the subject of how we account for our funds, including stewardship issues for endowment funds.

Currently, selectors' input on fund assignment, location, and acceptability of material, for example, occurs at many and varied points in the acquisitions-to-access process, affecting the overall expense of getting the books to the shelves. The proposed plan (for materials from these vendors) takes care of the initial location and fund assignment automatically based on subprofile, yet allows the selectors a final "go or no-go" before the book is sent to the shelves.

In setting up a Review Shelf for each selector at the appropriate library location, we support the selectors' role of keeping from the collection books which should not be taking up shelf space; an added benefit is that selectors may see ALL materials before they are shelved, including firm orders which generally they do not see now.

Required actions

• Create sub-profile by selector with qualifying vendors
• Prepare end-processing profiles with each vendor
• Allocate space for receiving cartons at shelving locations
• Implement endowed fund consolidation
• Investigate options for call number label stock
• Write programs for import of vendor-supplied data
• Write programs to collect and manage stewardship
• Devise fund assignment strategy for rejected books

On to next section
Back to Table of Contents
Back to Tech. Services Redesign Page

Last modified: August 12, 2005