Navigating the Workflows of
Shelf-Ready, Embedded OrderData, and EDI Invoicing
A Comparison of How to Make Vendors’ Unique Online Ordering Systems
Play Nice with Voyager
Felicity Brown
Special Projects Librarian, Pence Law Library
Washington College of Law, American University
Acquisitions at American University
A Brief Summary
Acquisitions Structure
Washington
Research Library
Consortium
Acquisitions
Librarian
Acquisitions
Budgeting
Coordinator
Acquisitions
Searcher
Acquisitions
Receiving
Coordinator
Acquisitions
Searcher
Receiving
Specialist
Processing/Print
Serials Specialist
Transitioning of Vendors
 Blackwell North America
 Was AU’s primary vendor (both approval plan, firms)
 Had started shelf-ready with just our approval plan
 Was bought out by Yankee Book Peddler
 Coutts
 Was AU’s secondary vendor
 Became AU’s primary vendor (took over our approval plan) in 2010
 Set up shelf-ready/EOD/EDI
 Yankee Book Peddler (YBP)
 Currently AU’s secondary vendor
 Started process of setting up shelf-ready/EOD/EDI in 2011
Standardize Whenever Possible
An Opportunity to Clean Up Your Voyager Database
Do we really need all these codes?
 Obsolete codes
 Do the current fund codes meet the current need of the
collection?
 Location codes: does this collection even still exist?
 Ask around
 Just because you have never used a fund or location code,
doesn’t mean someone else isn’t using it
Figure out what codes need special
rules assigned
 Does this fund code get assigned to multiple location codes?
 Do those locations require spine-label prefixes, because
they’re shelved outside the regular stacks?
 In our case:
 Curriculum Materials Center (CMC)
 Reference and Ready Reference
 Music Library
Fund and Location Codes
Bulk Import Profiles
 Standardize the naming schemes of your bulk import profiles
for Voyager. This will:
 Make them easier to recognize
 Create templates for similar processes later
 Figure out where you could possibly use the same profile for
different actions.
 Example:
 File overlays tend to be very similar
 Are they actually the same?
 Can we eliminate the need to create another profile
Bulk Import Profiles
Created in Voyager Web Admin
Documentation
Who does what?
 Streamline your workflow to keep similar tasks with the
same staff person
 Make sure a second person is trained as a backup for every
task, to provide coverage during an absence
 Make sure you map out “who does what when” clearly
 Keep a separate chart for each vendor
 Look for ways you could consolidate (ex. Do you really need
every notification email?)
 Make sure to keep this information up to date.
Document each workflow
 No matter how tedious, document each workflow
 as specifically as possible
 preferably with screenshots (to address different learning styles)
 Some example titles of documentation:
 Using Coutts Oasis with Embedded Order Data (EOD)
 YBP EDI Firm Order/Shelf Ready Receiving Workflow
 What to do if a Purchase Order imported in toVoyager is missing line items
 Get someone else to test your documentation
 Preferably not your most tech-savvy colleague
 If there are holes in your documentation, they’ll ask you questions.
Go back and patch the holes.
An Example of a Workflow Documented
in Detail
The following is a workflow developed to work around an issue
we were having importing records with diacritical marks
and/or long table of contents through the Voyager Web Admin
using bulk import profiles.
Check List
 Once you’re more comfortable with the workflow, it doesn’t
hurt to have a cheat sheet
 Make a short check list of the steps of the workflow.
For example, the workflow above would look like:
Compare # of invoice lines to # records imported through
Voyager Web Admin
Identify any missing titles
Find them using MarcEdit and fix them
Create individual records for missing titles and save them to
desktop
Import through Cataloging module
Add line item to invoice
Communicating with Vendors
• Email trails
•
Good for keeping promises on deliverables because they’re in writing and date
stamped.
• Phone calls
•
Be sure to summarize your “to do” lists at the end of the call, and write them
down, with agreed deadlines
• Site visits
• WebEx
• Screenshots
• Video
• What is their workflow? Who should you submit questions and requests to?
• Who is the expert in what? (Sometimes hard to determine just from Department
and Title)
• Who actually get things done, and in a timely manner? (Identify your experts)
Keep a quick reference guide handy
Coutts
YBP
 Get x document to
 Outstanding issue 1
[person] by [date]
 What’s the status of Issue
y?
 Ask about z for [other staff
member]
 Meet with collection
managers re: use of notes
field
 Outstanding issue 2
 emailed so-and-so on
[date]….promised
response by [later date]
 New issue
 Is this feasible?
 What do we need to do to
start the process?
Sometimes phone and email just
aren’t good enough
 When trying to explain complex problems to a vendor,
screenshots are extremely helpful.
 When all else fails, try video.
In a Perfect World…
Vendors would come up with a ticketing system for requests,
that shows:
• When the task was requested
• Who has claimed the task as something they’re working
on
• What the status of the request is…how far have they
gotten on it, and what’s the next step in the process
This system could be web based, or send email alerts when
there is a status change.
The more customers who ask…the more likely it is to happen.
Asking for Enhancements
The “White Card” Issue
Do not be afraid to ask for
enhancements
 The vendors work for you
 By requesting enhancements, you’re giving them a chance to
improve their product and their marketability
 Do not be afraid to tell them what their competition is doing
for you (or not doing for you)
 If you don’t ask for improvements, you’re just going to
frustrate yourself in the long run
Felicity Brown
Special Projects Librarian, Pence Law Library
Washington College of Law, American University
fbrown@wcl.american.edu