serialsblog

Effective today, you will be able to access your problematic claims on Netfiles at:

U:\Divisions\AccServ\TechServ\Procedures\Sections\EPSS

There are four different spreadsheets (O-Type, S-Type, S-TypeOpenOrders, M-Type). In each spreadsheet, you will be able to find a tab with your name at the bottom of the sheet. Every Monday, Kim will collect the problematic claims from her students and will add additional/new problematic claims on each spreadsheet and tab. Kim will send a note to all of you with the link as a reminder.

You can work from these lists and highlight the lines for those items you are able to resolve. Do not delete any of the lines, just highlight them, because that gives a nice visual representation of resolved claims. Once you start working on these regularly, you might be able to suggest some categories of claims that can be handled by students. We can discuss at our monthly meetings.

If you have any questions, please let me or Kim know.

Thanks for your help!

Fariha [via email 11/16/09]

Posted by c-koeh at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blackwell's Book Services, BBS and BBSUK, are going through some financial changes, and they are changing their name to Blackwell North America Inc. (new code: BNA) and Blackwell UK Ltd. (new code: BUK).

The new vendor codes, BNA and BUK, have already been created in Aleph, but please note that the active orders still have the old vendor codes, BBS and BBSUK. That is because the changes are effective with their invoices dated October 1, 2009 onwards and the invoices dated September 30, 2009 and earlier should still be processed under the old vendor codes, BBS and BBSUK. Once we are certain we will not receive any more invoices dated before October 1, 2009, we will ask Michael Johnson to run a macro to change the vendor code on the active orders from BBS and BBSUK to BNA and BUK. That will most likely happen around mid-October. Until that time, if you receive any invoices from Blackwell on your shelf, please forward them to Marie Thayer. Bill, I believe you get some Blackwell invoices together with level 2 full-mark items. Marie and Bill, please follow the instructions below to process Blackwell invoices:

* Invoices dated September 30, 2009 and earlier: Process with the old vendor codes, BBS and BBSUK. Do not make any changes on orders.

* Invoices dated October 1, 2009 onwards: First, change the vendor code on orders from BBS to BNA and BBSUK to BUK. Process the invoices under the new codes, BNA and BUK.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I will contact you again once the vendor code on all active orders has been changed to the new ones by macro.

Thanks,

Yumiko

[From email dated 9/22/09]

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Update from Yumiko 11/4/09:

The vendor code on all of active orders has now been changed to the new ones, BNA and BUK (formerly BBS and BBSUK).

Posted by c-koeh at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the Aug. CCG meeting, the group decided to stop adding cancellation
statements to serial holdings records.

LEO will be removing existing statements, but an exact date for the removal has not been set. Please let processors know that they should not add statements when processing cancellations and that they do not need to remove existing statements.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you,

Cecilia

Posted by at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have been informed by the Magrath Library staff that they will no longer circulating unbound journals. This means that effective today (September 28, 2009) the Item Status in the second tab of the Subscription Record will be 02 "Non circulating" instead of 11 "One Day Loan" as it has in the past. When you create new S-type orders for Magrath journals you will need to make sure you use the correct Item Status.

We will be converting the current Subscription records and item records to the correct status. I will send out notification when that is complete so if you do run into any item records or subscription records with the wrong status you can change it.

Note that this only involves Magrath Library, the other St.Paul campus branch libraries (Forestry Library, EFW Library and the Plant Pathology Library) will continue to circulate their unbound issues. Please contact me if you have any questions.

-Chris Koehler

Posted by c-koeh at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Effective today [08/27/2009], any volumes received on cancelled orders for this YBP Transfer Project should be returned back to the previous vendors. You should work with old vendors to reconfirm our cancellations and make arrangements to return those volumes and deduct the charges.

I also wanted to remind you about a couple of general issues with cancellations.

* When you are cancelling an order, by email or Aleph generated form letter, please remember to specifically mention the last volume received so that vendors know not to send anything after that volume. This is especially important for standing orders. Giving the vendor a 12/31/2009 end date for example is not enough information and will result in confusion and duplication. In order to allow you to modify the cancellation letter in Aleph, you need to set your print option to Print Preview, that will bring up the cancellation letter on your screen to allow you to edit before printing the memo. Once the letter is on your screen, you can add the last volume information and be more specific (e.g. The last volume received was v.47 (2009). Please cancel our effective with v.47 (2009). You can also add this information in the Vendor Note field of the order record before hitting the Cancel button if you prefer to do it that way instead of editing the cancellation memo. But editing the memo gives you more flexibility.

* You should not arrive volumes on cancelled orders unless those are the missing/claimed volumes that you expected to receive on the cancelled order. Arrange with vendor to return volumes you did not expect on the order and deduct the charges. Of course there will be times when you can't or don't want to return, e.g. when volume is here before the vendor has received a cancellation (volume was in transit) or the vendor does not allow for return, etc.

* If you are cancelling a print copy of a Print+online subscription, make sure to notify Chris and Yumiko if the title is part of the big publisher packages such as Springer, Elsevier, Wiley/Blackwell, etc. If the print copy is not a big publisher title, you need to make sure you are clear with the vendor as to which format you are cancelling. If we are still keeping the online version, then make sure the vendor knows that we are only cancelling the print and keeping or changing to e-only.

* Use order log to record communications AND actions (e.g. returned dups, asking selector for decision, etc) for all your actions/decisions and communications with vendors and selectors.

Thanks for your help.

Fariha

[Per email from Fariha 8/27/09]

Posted by c-koeh at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of people asked me this morning what to do with the volumes they had received from previous vendors for orders that were cancelled and reordered with YBP.

When you receive volumes on orders that were cancelled with a vendor and reordered through YBP, here is what you should do:

1. Check to make sure the volume is not a missing volume you claimed or expected on the old order, if volume was expected/claimed, process as usual.

2. If the volume was not expected from the previous vendor:

* contact the previous vendor & confirm cancellation of our order
* check GOBI to see if our order has been placed
* If order found in GOBI and GOBI showed that it was shipped
o contact the previous vendor to confirm cancellation and arrange for return (depending on the price of volume, etc).
* If order found in GOBI, but no shipping information was available:
o hold volume and ask Yumiko to check with YBP to see if we can still change the start date.
o Yumiko will handle updating the records if they can change the date and will let you know to process the volume
o if it is too late to change the start date, Yumiko will let you know and
+ you need to contact the previous vendor to confirm our cancellation and arrange for return if needed.
* If the order was not found in GOBI:
o Let Yumiko know that you have received the volume
o Yumiko will ask YBP to change start date and will handle updating of order records
o Hold the volumes until Yumiko confirms with YBP that the order start date can be changed
o Process the volume and pay the invoice if Yumiko says it is OK to do so.

The main points:
1) contact the previous vendor in all cases to confirm cancellation (whether we keep the volume or not),
2) do not process volumes or pay any invoices until you are certain they do not need to be returned.

Let me know if any questions.

Thanks,

Fariha

[From email Fariha sent 8/7/09]

Posted by c-koeh at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There have been postings on the Serialslist listserv that "Newsweek" (bib: 2710030) will no longer be available through agents effective with the end of the current subscriptions. EbscoNet is listing this as 'Must Order Direct' so it's likely more than a rumor.

I've asked Phuoc to confirm with Ebsco and if so, to set up two new direct orders for Wilson and Magrath to start when the current subscriptions lapse. The Wilson subscription will lapse in March 2010 and the Magrath subscription in January 2010. In order to avoid having the publisher combine the two one year renewals into one two year renewal, I've suggested that one subscription have 'Serials Records' in the first line of the address and the other 'Electronic and Print Serials'. Apparently variations in the first line of the address can help avoid the problem of combining multiple subscriptions.

Ideally the publisher will notify us of this change near the end of our subscriptions and include a bill which we can use to renew the subscriptions. We don't know how the publisher will notify us nor how they'll bill us for our renewal, so please be alert for any correspondence coming from Newsweek. If you have questions about it, the paperwork can go to me.

-Chris

Posted by c-koeh at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LaVon in Library Accounting received some invoices from Ebsco for finance charges because several invoices were not paid within 60 days of the invoice date, so Fariha sent the following reminder 6/25/09 via email:

This is a reminder for all of you to please process invoices (especially EBSCO
invoices) as soon as you get them and if there are problems with any of the
titles on the invoices, to follow up on them immediately and document the
problem in the order log. Please place your pending invoices where you can
easily find them and follow up on any pending items on a weekly basis until
resolved.

Thanks for your help!

Fariha

Posted by c-koeh at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After the gift shelf was removed, the gift unit kindly requested to save some of these gift materials. According to them, there are times they may accept gifts. Fariha talked to Karl/Jenna and agreed to have a shelf set up over in their area. They are responsible to maintain the shelf. The gift shelf is located on the right side before entering the former Ref staff room and it has been labeled.

As of today, please place any unsolicited/gift materials on that gift shelf.

[Per email from Kim Tran 6/3/09]

Posted by c-koeh at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Laurie Jedamus:

With the closing of the Reserve/Periodicals service desk, the office door to 65 Wilson may occasionally be locked (if there are no staff in the office). Students delivering the daily newspapers or mail can get into the office area through the side door, which has a keypad lock. Once construction begins, the side door will be inaccessible, but a keypad lock should be installed on the main office door at that time.

Correction 5/26/09: The keypad will not be on the main door. It will be on the side door in the newspaper room. See Kim if you have questions about the location or need the keypad code.

Posted by c-koeh at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congratulations to Amy and her husband Josh on the birth of their son, Finian Evert Nixon!

Somehow, after 24 hours of no sleep and a long labor Amy had the energy to send us this email:

Well, I did it! See info & images on our blog.

Finian Evert Nixon
5/17/09 @ 12:32 am
21 inches
8 lbs (exactly)

http://our-zygote.blogspot.com/

Well, back to resting...well needed 24 hrs of no sleep.

Take care!

Amy

Posted by c-koeh at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two of our check-in students, Cole Sexton and Liz Debeck, are graduating and going out into the big, scary world so they have left the serials department, with Cole's last day being Thursday and Liz's today. We took some time on Thursday to say goodbye to them in person with sandwiches, coconut pound cake and other goodies.

On behalf of the serials staff I would like to thank them for all their hard work, their experience and dedication helped make all of our jobs easier.

Posted by c-koeh at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi,
In order to provide better security for the 160/170 office area, there will be a card reader installed on the door
next week. Today, the 160/170 door is being equipped for the installation. After 10am, the door will
be locked permanently. Staff without keys can access the area through the door by the staff elevator until 4:30pm.
Staff without keys to the 160/170 door who need access after 4:30pm should contact me. An e mail will be sent out next week with further instructions regarding the new card reader and the date
it will be installed.
Any questions, concerns please contact me. 624-6515.
Barb Smith.

Posted by Kim Tran at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just for your information.

Wilson FOM will send someone cleaning the sink in our area some time next week. Per Barb, we should not have to clean the sink and FOM will do it. Also I have requested if they can do it monthly, so we can have a nice and clean sink.

[Per email from Phuoc 3/27/09]

Posted by wilsers at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am sure you already know the new vendor code "UMNLSR" has been created and used. Please remember to change the claim date to 2025 if you are using this code. Also add note "Do not claim" on library note, so these could be given to the processors if it ever shows up on the claim reports. Students noticed with the Serials Records address after they generated the claim memos.

[Per email from Kim 3/26/09]

Posted by wilsers at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)