Highlights, 2005/2006
The Acquisitions and Licensing Department worked collaboratively to evaluate workflow and refine processing procedures in Aleph and People Soft. As a department, staff continued use Macro Express to develop macros that perform many of the Aleph repetitive tasks.
Paying Unit
As in 2005, the annual budget allocation remained flat, consisting of
$5,577,676 state appropriation plus $1,000,000 from University of Florida
Administration totaling $6,577,676. The final Library materials budget $7,606,703
was made possible by new funds from the Division of Sponsored Research and
the benefits derived from subscription early discount plans. So even with
an increased allocation for materials this year, this shift, combined with
increased costs, has resulted in a continued decrease in units added to
the collections.
The upward trend in spending for electronic resources and downward trend
in monograph purchases and serials print purchases continued to hold during
2005/06. Electronic resources have become the preferred format of the user
and a front runner in the collection – this year electronic resources
consumed approximately 49% of the budget; 8 new databases and/or serials
title packages were added to the growing collection.
Expenditures for print monographs show continued signs of decreasing --
less than 20% of the budget in 2004/2005 to only 17% of the budget for 2005/2006.
Due to consolidating payment with vendors, the Paying Unit decreased the
total number of invoices processed to 7,324 down to 890 batches. The unit
handles materials invoices from the following units: Monographs, Serials
and Gifts & Exchange Units, as well as Preservation Department and Digital
Library Center.
Serials Unit
The unit received serials in all formats: 54809 pieces (2.0% increase from the 53732 reported in 2004/05). The unit added 35 new serials titles, 8 new electronic resources titles, and cancelled 82 serials titles to the collection. Including Gifts and Exchange serials acquisitions, the current serials subscription tally grew by 50 new titles (addition of 134 and cancellation of 84 titles) and increased the current sum serials subscriptions 18,948. The Serials Unit completed canceling print subscriptions for 342 print Cambridge and Oxford University Press print titles and converted title access to online only (these cancellations were not entered as a “dropped” statistic because the titles remain in the collection in a variant format). The unit continued to refine and streamline print serials check-in with the addition of Macro Express arrival suite and automated call number labeling using Dymo desktop printers.
The unit successfully loaded the annual renewal invoice and all subsequent
invoices as EDI files from UF’s three major serials vendors: EBSCO,
Harrassowitz and Swets. In addition, the Unit incorporated EDI email box
into the workflow and now receives the invoice notifications online from
the vendors in this single place so that it can be monitored by many.
Monographs Unit
The Monographs Unit placed orders for 17523 monographs in all formats and 214 orders for electronic books. The unit received monographs in all formats: 36108 volumes, an 8.5% decreased from 42,083 volumes reported in 2004/05. The workflow for processing the virtual approval plans for YBP and Blackwell changed significantly due to the flat budget situation. Profiled titles are now rejected automatically unless the selector tags the title for purchase. Staff in the unit collaborated with Catalog and Metadata staff to implement Prompt Cat record receipt for YBP and Blackwell monographs and standing orders.
Gifts and Exchange Unit
Gifts and Exchange Unit received 5,962 serials, 2,168 assorted media and 14,069 monographs from gift donors. From those receipts, the unit added 999 serials and 8,413 monographs to the collection.
Smathers Library Bookstore grossed $10,953.16 during 2005/06. The bookstore staff sold online 306 books to gross $8,293.27 in sales for the fiscal year. Together, the bookstore and the online book selling netted a profit of $19,246.43 in sales for deposit in the Florida Foundation Funds.
Gifts and Exchange arranged the logistics and receipt of notable gifts
in 2005/06. Professor Patricia Craddock donated 114 books on literature,
including 3 signed first editions by Harry Crews and one Crews signed manuscript
for the Special Collections. Doris Eberley donated many limited and first
editions of 106 John D. MacDonald novels for Special Collections. Dr. Jason
Dittmer donated 508 vintage and special edition comics to Special Collections.
Ken Treister donated 700 art and architecture books and 700 slide boxes
to Special Collections. Craig Kunaschk donated 525 vintage and special edition
comics to Special Collections. Ray Cooper contributed 1200 books, pamphlets,
prints for Special Collections.
Database Maintenance Unit
Database Maintenance Unit continued focusing their work on reclassifying the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) collections: currently received periodicals, and, high- use monographs and annuals. Through June 2006, 1,213 volumes of HSS currently received periodicals were reclassified. 1,417 of the British Parliament Documents were reclassified. The Unit withdrew 2,803 volumes; transferred 78 volumes among collections; reinstated 16 volumes in the collection.
Personnel
- Hollie Allender resigned from the Serials Unit, February 2006.
- Angela Stewart joined the Serials Unit, July 2005.
- Travis Schaben joined the Serials Unit August 2005.
- Jay Weisse joined the Serials Unit, April 2006.
- Jason Fleming resigned from the Serials Unit to accept the Technical Services Librarian position, November 2005.
- Christy Shorey joined the Serials Unit in a half-time position, May 2006.
- Charles McElroy resigned from his position in Monographs Unit to accept a Librarian position at FCLA, November 2005.
- Paul Lightcap accepted the Archivist position in the Monograph Unit in March 2005.
- Enrico Guybayam joined the Monographs Unit in May 2006.
- Elaine Needelman and Jessica York continue contributing to the Acquisitions and Licensing Department and Cataloging and Metadata Department's monthly staff newsletter, "Four Floors".
