March 2015
HIGHLIGHTS
TSD newsletter archive
Past issues of this newsletter will be posted in an online archive accessible from the TSD homepage or
directly at this link: http://library.princeton.edu/departments/tsd/tech/newsletters.html
ACQUISITIONS SERVICES
Two new approval plans are now underway : West African Research Association and Cambeiro Brazil
plan. Bob will analyze the copy available for the first shipments so we can determine which unit in TSD is
most appropriate for processing them.
2015 subscriptions are paid with the exception of a few recent Ebsco and Harrassowitz invoices adding
up to about $85,000. These show up as pending expenditures in the Voyager fund records and the
monthly financial reports. Other renewals paid within the last couple of weeks are the Springer Ebooks
package and the NERL Oxford University Press journals package.
Reserve book ordering has been very heavy this semester but is finally slowing down. Tom has had some
challenging situations with special orders from new vendors in the Princeton Prime environment.
Selectors are encouraged to contact him at the earliest possible point when considering buying from
new vendor.
The amount of newly cataloged material going to ReCap is ever growing. Shelf Direct and Binding
Services unit processed 1200 new titles for ReCap in one week.
CATALOGING AND METADATA SERVICES
Arabic Collections Online (ACO) project
ACO is a cooperative project run by NYU with Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, American University of
Beirut and NYU/Abu Dhabi as contributing partners. Partners are providing digitized Arabic books
according to a detailed assessment of copyright for each Arab country. Princeton’s participation began a
year ago with the hire of Muhannad Gorgees in the digital studio, but the project has recently shifted
gears. Muhanad is now working part of his time with CaMS to prepare material for a vendor to digitize.
The first shipment will be sent March 5th. The project can be found online: http://dlib.nyu.edu/aco/
Member copy macro
Keeping up with the processing of available member copy has become more difficult. In our efforts to
improve receipt-to-shelf turnaround time while retaining as much quality control as possible, we are
piloting a macro. The macro evaluates the record to check its encoding level, whether it has subjects
and a full call number, and other details. The goal is to create a tool which allows us to focus our
attention on specific records or specific aspects of a record by pre-sorting member copy.
CIRCULATION SERVICES
Preferred names on TigerCards
Following campus wide changes, Voyager circulation records have now been updated to display
“preferred names”. If a student, staff, or faculty member has registered a preferred name with the
University, the preferred name has replaced the legal name in the circulation record. The patron’s
TigerCard should match the preferred name to enable circulation staff to quickly locate books on our
hold shelves. If the names do not match, patrons will be encouraged to pick up a new TigerCard with
the preferred name. The TigerCard Office will not charge a fee to supply the first card with the
preferred name. Subsequent cards will incur a replacement fee. In accordance with this name change,
ILL office is investigating the best way to incorporate the change in ILLiad system in which user records
are managed independently from Voyager.
E-books for reserve requests
Firestone Reserve unit is now regularly checking E-Book holdings for E-Reserve requests which require a
large amount of copyright royalty. Currently, when the number of pages requested for an E-reserve item
is more than the amount allowed by the Fair use exception, the library tries to pay the copyright royalty
through the Copyright Clearance Center. However, depending on the publishers and/or the size of class,
it is not rare that the royalty goes above $1000.00. Hence an E-book edition with multi-user access
becomes a more reasonable choice. In one case, the royalty asked by publisher was over $4,000.00 but
the E-Book with multi user access option was only $390.00. So far the instructors are welcoming this
approach.
HOLDINGS MANAGEMENT AND SHELVING SERVICES
Sorting room temp location
The Sorting Room and the Shelving Team has moved to A floor temporarily while their final space is
being worked on. We expect to move back to B floor in late summer. Meanwhile the Sorting area can be
found adjacent to the Microforms reading room and the staff room is in A-19-D.
Update on renovation moves
The Swing Space staff is continuously moving books to facilitate the ongoing renovation work. At this
time large parts of B floor are either under construction or is soon to be, making it challenging to
navigate that floor. If you find yourself lost, there is always help, flag anyone of us down, go to the
Bookfinder desk or to the circulation desk for help.
Holdings Management and the Special Projects Team have been busy working with ReCAP transfers and
other related recap problems.