LIBRARY NOTES
Mark Piel
Shelf Talk
Wednesday, June 1, 1994
The Library is taking steps towards establishing an automated circulation and book ordering system, which should vastly improve services to members and to the public. Inadequacies in our present operations are all too clear. Everyone who borrows books, whether new or older titles, is aware that the staff sometimes has difficulty knowing precisely where an individual book is. Is it signed out? Already flagged as missing? Being reordered? At the bindery? Or under the desk waiting for another's use? Members, as well as Library staff, would like to be able to say both how many volumes a member has out at a particular moment and when they are due for return - neither of which are we able to do now.
Under the proposed new system, the staff will know, without making internal office calls, what books are already on order and when they might arrive. Surely they will not have to write individual postcards about books being available - or overdue; nor file and pull book cards when a wand can be employed instead.
The Library's first step in this direction will be taken on May 30 when we begin an inventory of the collection. Inventory is the process of comparing what the Library thinks it owns with what is actually on the shelf. Results of a partial inventory in 1983-84 suggest that about 5 percent of the collection is permanently missing. The 1994-95 inventory will allow us to correct the card catalogue so that it accurately reflects our holdings; give us the opportunity to replace missing volumes (or make substitutions); and , in the process, save the staff from useless searches. In a few years, bar code labels will link together the holding list and its corresponding volume inventory will be time-consuming and will inconvenience some, but the end results should be well worth the temporary aggravations.
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