The problem of the length of time it takes to process materials is an ongoing issue in our school district. Items have a nine week turn around. The question: "Should we be finding temporary ways to make these available? Or, is it more important that they are catalogued and processed properly? " has been discussed freqently at our library meetings.
I think temporary circulation would work IF one had a library clerk at school who could quickly grab need-to-be-processed materials as he/she had time. In our district we must send the materials to the DRC, so keeping them at school would only slow the process down further. If something is neededd quickly, we simply send a note with the box and an email to say it is coming. We usually get the material back the following week processed. We appreciate this occasional skip the line up process, so no one abuses the offer.
For my own sanity, I need to have materials catalogued and signed out correctly, as little notes and sticky reminders of who has what simply get lost, and if the item was lost, then there is no official record that it was borrowed.
"What strategies can you think of that would allow uncatalogued, newly acquired learning resources to circulate temporarily?"
In an urgent situation, I have wondered about copying the front/back/inside covers of books and sending those in. There is enough information there to create the marc record, and then I could add the bar codes when the marc records are available for downloading.
Or, would this result in more problems than it is worth? What is the situation at your school?
In the long run, for a few urgent items it is worth asking for skip-the-line service. If it is an entire set of materials, then hopefully the unit can be rescheduled/postponed. If not, then worst case scenario is a book or two gets misplaced. I suppose we could keep the books on a cart and count them afterwards, but in a highschool setting there are so many things going on, and so many lack of control variables, that I would probably forget. I would need to assign the counting task to a student helper!
In conclusion, cataloging is one of those jobs that must be done and must be done well. It seems to be a task that is little understood by both librarian students, administrators and trustees. Knowing that our DRC is on the budget cut list, once again, distresses me more this year knowing how complicated their jobs really are. I dread the thought of having to deal with this alone!
Purchasing Options:
Anywhere: Currently this is what I have. I can buy anything I want and send it in for processing. This has been handy for book sales or donations, as I do not even think about processing or its costs.
Follett's Titlewave: I really like the sales reps for Follett and I use Titlewave to analyse my database. They are fabulous to work with and help solve problems. I have yet to purchase anything from them, although I do have a group of potential science purchases saved. I found their huge amount of resources almost overwhelming, and I had 'spent' two years' of budget in a matter of minutes.
U.L.S. sales rep is also very helpful. He brings boxes and boxes of books to one of our meetings each year, as the cost of the ferry etc to Vancouver would not make sense to go there to shop for books. He will bring whatever content area you wish if you prerequest before the meeting. I have not seen any processing done by U.L.S.
CanLit for Kids: I like to use this company, based in Victoria. They are a group of retired librarians who read all the new reviews and create book packages three times a year. They just started offering marc records for free with a full purchase, BUT the DRC staff had to change them somewhat to get them to work in our system. The sales staff are great and will call that at truck is coming up island, if I have forgotten to place my order.
Smart Apple Media: I have used this company twice, but in the end found that their books have not been checked out much at all. They are hardback and great quality, but the content just doesn't seem to fit with my students. I find this sales rep to be too harassing. Perhaps I just need to say no, rather than putting her off month after month! The problem is I spent $1500 with them last year, so they know I will buy hardcover books.
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