1. How to Move a Mountain
The Preparation and Transfer of One Million Volumes to an Off-Site Storage Facility
Nastia Guimaraes and Jared Collins, University of Notre Dame
NASIG Conference, June 11, 2017

2. Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
3.5 million print volumes
$13 million annual acq budget
Humanities heavy
Master renovation plan
Off-site shared facility

3. Overview of the Project
Environmental scan
Joint library and teaching faculty Task Force report
Administrative organization of the project
Multi-phase approach
Vendor and temp staff

4. Environmental Scan Skype interviews with five libraries
On-site visits to two facilities
Final report
Information about what to avoid and what works well
- home grown IMS
- no duplication

5. Task Force Report and Criteria for Selection
Non-currently received print serials
Monographs with zero circulations and no touches in the last 10 years
Exclusions
A whole call number range
Serial titles duplicated in JSTOR

6. Management of the Project
Strategic Initiative
Full-time Project Manager
Project teams
- Collections Preparation
- Systems (reporting, IMS)
- Annex facility, ILL and Doc Del services

7. Project Logistics Breakdown
2-phase approach (goal: 1 million volumes)
Moving vendor
Temp staff
Volunteers

8. Inventory Management System
Features not available in the vended solution
Interface with the ILS and the ILL/Doc Del request form
Clean design, web interface
Bibliographic info on pull slips
Code available on GitHub:

9. Collections Preparation Team
Hire 6 limited term “processing assistants”
- each new hire paired with an experienced cataloger
Equipment
laptop, mouse, scanner - locked to a three-tiered AV cart
Shared tools and roles
Google Drive and structured teamwork
Matching tasks with individual strengths
assign roles that build upon expertise and comfort

10. Workflow, pt.1 Coordination of work
daily “scrums” to consider problems and coordinate workflows
Item reports and formatting
two types of reports: “with items” and “without items”
five essential sets of information per report
Item prep and tracking
color-coding scheme for tracking prep work on spreadsheets

11. Workflow, pt.2 Pull reports for vendor
easy to read - no more than 20 title rows per page
bulky - divide full report into several parts for ease of use
Global changes
carefully coordinated batch changes to ensure location accuracy
items in-transit to the Annex are coded “temporarily unavailable”

12. Further Considerations
“Low hanging fruit” vs “High hanging fruit”
basic prep work only, primarily barcoding
Division of labor
spreadsheet review of titles with multi-parts by cataloging staff volunteers
Condition review
string, envelopes and scripted batch insertion of condition notes
Hire Jared - catalog maintenance specialist
to handle day-to-day considerations and guide collections prep work

13. Cataloging Problems, pt.1
Uncataloged titles
some titles linked to incorrect bib record
varying editions cataloged as duplicates
Title changes
serial issues linked to wrong bib record
predecessor/successor title issues bound together
OCLC copy numbers in bib record wrong or obsolete
must reconcile to ensure accurate holdings in WorldCat
and to ensure access to appropriate digital copies via HathiTrust

14. Cataloging Problems, pt.2
Unlinked items
item record(s) not linked to a holdings record
if left unlinked, information would not be updated during global changes
Bound-withs
distinct titles bound together with multiple barcodes per single volume
each volume can retain only one barcode at point of ingest
one barcode retained for first title only; other titles linked to first title by LKR in bib record
Partially analyzed titles
serial issues with distinct monographic titles linked to serial record
distinctive bibliographic information and access points “hidden”, limiting discoverability
link monograph bib records to corresponding serial item record with LKR

15. Phase 1, pt.1 Very short, unrealistic timeline
unrealistic six-month timeline to prepare 450,000 items
Inexperienced processing assistants
training needs of new staff and insufficient staffing overall
Figuring out the new process
inaccurate catalog records and associated problematic data
exceptions within the larger categories of the selection criteria

16. Phase 1, pt.2 No review of reports by Collection managers
no time for bibliographers to identify exclusions
result: some titles had to be permanently recalled
Low hanging fruit only
barcoding and limited catalog maintenance
over 200,000 items were barcoded; over 400,000 items were prepped and moved
some items with significant cataloging problems were ingested without remediation

17. Phase 2
More time for barcoding work, training and comprehensive inventory
a reasonable deadline allowed for a comprehensive review of transfer reports
More detailed review of catalog records
all titles were reviewed for acceptable bib, holdings and items information
Lessened division of labor
processing assistants were trained to fix basic cataloging problems during the prep process
More time for Collection managers to review reports
bibliographers were able to identify exclusions prior to transfer

18. Post-ingest Considerations, pt.1
Storage of problem items
temporary storage locations for problem item “rejects”
rejects: problem items that the IMS system or ingest personnel refused to accept
Ingest rejects
- system rejects: two types
“barcode not found”: update barcode on item record or link item to proper bib and holding
“item not marked for Annex”: check to see where item belongs, proceed accordingly

19. Post-ingest Considerations, pt.2
Complex cataloging problems
personnel rejects: a variety of cataloging problems missed during the prep process
Items left behind by the moving vendor
must search for, gather, transfer and ingest at a later date
must sort out what was actually left behind from what is or has been missing
Items to temporarily recall for catalog maintenance
must recall ingested problem items from storage facility for remediation

20. Enduring Commitment, pt.1
Ongoing annual transfers
transition from project mode to enduring commitment mode
yearly transfer goal of 30, ,000 items
Design/refine workflows and test efficiencies
how to most efficiently style book transfers as a daily routine?
design workflow variations and measure variants
No moving vendor to pull and move books
prep staff must now pull books and box them for transfer
other library units must get involved in the full spectrum transfer

21. Enduring Commitment, pt.2
Rely less on Systems for global changes
prep staff can make item and holdings updates as part of their daily routine
Continue working with Systems
to root-out glitches in the IMS and further enhance the product
Continue working with Collection Development
to reduce faculty misconceptions about the true function of off-site storage

22. Lessons Learned Start conversations and preparations early
Hire temp workers
Establish more straightforward criteria for item selection
Have selectors review lists before transfer
Better quality control of the vendor work

23. Positive Results Increased access to materials
Increased catalog accuracy
Increased visibility of cataloging staff value
Increased opportunities for staff cross-training
Better overall preservation conditions for collections at the Annex

24. THANK YOU Nastia Guimaraes Project Management Librarian
426 Hesburgh Library
University of Notre Dame o: e:
Jared Collins
Supervisor of Serials, Holdings and Discovery Quality unit
402AC Hesburgh Library
University of Notre Dame o: e: