1. OVERVIEW OF APPROVAL VENDORS
Approval books are received from the following vendors:
- YBP (Yankee Book Peddler) – Domestic publishers (multi-disciplinary)
- YBP-UK (Yankee Book Peddler UK) – UK publishers (multi-disciplinary)
- Harrassowitz – German language titles (with occasional English or Latin) (primarily fiction, social sciences, religion, history, and philosophy)
- Puvill (Puvill Libros) – Spanish language titles from Spanish publishers (primarily philosophy, literary studies, and medieval history)
- Latinam (Latin American Book Store) – Spanish language titles from Latin American publishers (primarily fiction, literary criticism, linguistics, some political history)
- Abrams – (art and architecture)
- Time Warner – (art and architecture)
- Worldwide – (art and architecture)
- Front – materials in a variety of languages, including scores, sound recordings, and books on music
2. PROCEDURES (BY VENDOR)
At the present time records for YBP and YBP-UK are received in the form of ftp-files, directly from YBP. These procedures are detailed below in sections 3 & 4.
The procedures for the remaining vendors are outlined in sections 5 & 6.
2.1 Vendor Approval slips (ALL vendors)
The vendor slips should always remain with the books, through to the point of actual cataloging.
Slips from all vendors typically include bibliographical, authorial, ISBN, place-of-publication, series, and price information. YBP, YBP-UK, and Latinam also include brief but useful descriptive material, and both YBP and YBP-UK include a suggested call number stem. The descriptive information on slips from Harrassowitz, Puvill, and Front is less fulsome but can also be helpful. Abrams, Time Warner, and Worldwide do not provide vendor slips but receive white flags, supplied by Acquisitions. Both vendor slips and flags often include important notes from CD-Librarians or other catalogers requesting special treatment or attention to location.
3. YBP (Yankee Book Peddler, Yankee)
3.1 New shipment
Notification of a new shipment of titles is received via email from Acquisitions.
This message includes the vendor information (i.e., YBP, YBP-UK, Front, or Mixed Approval (the latter which may include some or all of the remaining vendors)), the invoice date(s), a count of titles and the appropriate return-to-vendor date (for duplicate titles, defectives, and other issues).
The appropriate file is retrieved through the use of standard File Transfer Protocol (ftp), and is stored on the Metadata and Copy Cataloging Unit Team Leader's Filezilla Client, located on the Team Leader's computer desktop.
3.2 Acquisitions workflow
Once Acquisitions personnel have received the physical shipment, the YBP books are tattle-taped and placed on a book cart in loose alphabetical order (all titles beginning with letter ‘A’ together, all titles beginning with letter ‘B’ together, and so on). YBP-UK books are not tattle-taped when received, but they are placed in loose alphabetical order on a book cart.
Large books may be grouped together on the first shelf of the book cart. They do not need to be in alphabetical order.
A label is affixed to the book cart indicating Vendor, Invoice Date, Return Date, Create Date, and Review Date. In the case of 'Mixed Approvals', which may have multiple vendors a variety of invoice dates may appear.
- Invoice Date is roughly the same as the ftp-file date, usually within a day or so (this is supplied by the Acquisitions Approvals Coordinator).
- Return Date is typically four months to the day from the Invoice Date and indicates the time period during which items can reasonably be returned to the Vendor as duplicates, defectives, or other (this is supplied by the Acquisitions Approvals Coordinator)..
- Create Date is the date on which the individual bibliographic records were loaded into Sirsi.(this is supplied by the Metadata and Copy Cataloging Unit Team Leader)
- Review Date is another version of the 'Return Date', spelled out in number of days (i.e: 4 months = 120 days ; 6 months = 180 days) (this is supplied by the Acquisitions Approvals Coordinator)
3.3 Loading Records
The file for each shipment is loaded into Sirsi upon instruction from the Acquisitions Approvals Coordinator, at which time an email is sent out to members of the Acquisitions, Cataloging and Metadata Services, and the Collection Development Department, with specific information regarding the shipment.
Once the import report has been run and completed in Sirsi, the Finished Reports screen is checked to see if Sirsi flagged any titles as possible duplicates. This is done by highlighting the relevant report and clicking the View button. Any titles flagged (and thereby not loaded) are recorded and given to the Copy Cataloger responsible for pulling the book from the book truck and delivering it, with the appropriate salmon-colored flag, to the Acquistions Approvals Coordinator, to be returned to the vendor.
3.4 Title-by-title pre-cataloging
Book trucks are brought over to Cataloging and Metadata Services once they have been unloaded, sorted, and in some cases tattletaped.
The vendor slips are pulled from the books and Sirsi is searched for titles.
YBP records can be identified as follows:
all manner of copy (DLC, CIP, GMC, MC, UKM) have a Sirsi control number based on the OCLC Number, prefixed with a small letter ‘o’.
In instances where no copy could be found, YBP will have provided a provisional record, with a Sirsi control number based on the ISBN, prefixed with a small letter ‘i’.
(The ISBN appears on the vendor slip for all approvals.)
The following note will appear near the bottom of the bib record for all YBP Approvals:
910 __ |aYBP (= YBP-US) ; 910__|aYBP-UK (= YBP-UK) ;
3.5 Duplicates
Duplicates are not only copies of the exact same edition, but can also be items that are exact reprints or facsimiles of the original work. Verify that the original work is not damaged or missing before returning the duplicate item. The title page verso will usually let you know that the book is a reprint and will make it easy to find the exact original work in Sirsi.
If a duplicate record is found a salmon-colored slip is placed in the book, with notes as needed. The Order Number should be written on the slip if the duplicate is a firm book. If it the duplicate is part of a standing order, then write the Standing Order Notification with Order Number on the salmon slip. If the duplicate is an approval book, then write the Title Control Number on the slip. The slip is also initialed by the Cataloger.
Vendor slips should always remain with the book, up to and including returning them to Acquisitions.
The book, vendor slip and salmon-colored slip are given to the Acquisitions Approvals Coordinator for review and decision.
Delete the duplicate record before handing the book over to Acquisitions.
Note: Take special care when dealing with the possibility of dual US/UK publications (i.e., identical books but with different publishers, ISBNs, minor differences in title, inversion of authors’ names, etc.).
3.6 Series verification
If title is part of a series, series is checked in Sirsi to verify it is not on Standing Order. Check the Series title in the Series Title List Approval spreadsheet. This is in located in the Cataloging/Approvals Serials Titles folder on the Departments Network Drive. (Whenever any Copy Cataloger creates a new Standing Order, the title needs to added to the spreadsheet.)
3.7 Provisional records
If the book has a provisional record, OCLC will be searched for better copy and, if found, a new record will be imported to overlay the provisional. (The Sirsi control number needs to be changed prior to running the overlay report).
3.8 Vendor slips & disposition of books following pre-cataloging
Mark all vendor slips with DLC, GMC, or MC.
MC books are placed on book trucks destined for the Senior Copy Catalogers' area ; incomplete sets go to the Original Monograph/Special Formats Cataloger ; ‘no-copy/provisionals’ are set aside for future re-searching in OCLC (which is done once a month), and DLC and GMC books remain in the Copy Catalogers' area, kept in the Approval queue by date order.
3.9 OCLC Holdings
OCLC holdings are automatically updated by YBP 30 days after the shipment’s invoice date.
Therefore, in cases where a cataloger chooses to use an OCLC record that is different from the one provided by YBP, holdings should be deleted from the original record and updated for the preferred selection.
When a book has been cataloged, vendor approval slips may be tossed.
4. YBP U.K. (Yankee Book Peddler U.K.)
YBP-UK approval titles are supplied by YBP via the same ftp procedure as YBP-US approvals.
All loading and pre-cat steps are the same as for YBP-US (see above).
The following note will appear near the bottom of the bib record for all YBP U.K. Approvals:
910 __ |aYBP-UK
5. Harrassowitz, Puvill, Latinam, Abrams, Time Warner, and Worldwide
Unlike YBP and YBP-UK, these vendors do not provide records (records will only be in Sirsi if there is a duplicate item).
5.1 Duplicates
When searching Sirsi for duplicate titles use the standard author/title combination search.
Note: Take special care when dealing with the possibility of dual publications (i.e., identical books but with different publishers, ISBNs, minor differences in title, inversion of authors’ names, etc.).
5.2 Series
Like YBP and YBP-UK approvals, all series should also be searched in order to avoid duplicating titles to be received through Standing Orders. Use the Serials Titles List Approvals spreadsheet.
5.3 Importing records from OCLC
Search OCLC for records and import using the approvalfondren template report in Sirsi.
5.4 Harrassowitz and Puvill records
Harrassowitz and Puvill create their own OCLC records:
040 __ OHX|cOHX and 040 __ PL#|bspa|cPL#
These records are typically provisional in character and books with such copy are treated as no-copy and delivered to the Original Catalogers after 3 months on the “No-Copy” book trucks without better copy being found. If better copy is found in OCLC before the end of 3 months, the new copy is overlaid in Sirsi and the books are distributed to either the Copy Catalogers (for DLC and GMC books) or the Senior Copy Catalogers (for MC books).
5.5 Provisional records
Create provisional records when no record is found in OCLC.
5.6 Vendor slips
Mark all vendor slips with DLC, GMC, MC or '0' for provisional records and place slips back into books.
5.7 Tattletaping
Mixed approval books are NOT tattletaped in Acquisitions before being delivered to Cataloging and Metadata Services. Tattletaping is done either by appropriate Cataloger(s) or by students, if available, and is only done once all titles have been checked in Sirsi for duplicates and new records have been brought into Sirsi.
5.8 Distribution of books
After tattletaping, place DLC, and GMC books on the book trucks for cataloging by the Copy Catalogers, and all MC books on the book trucks destined for the Senior Copy Catalogers' area.
6. Front Approval (Music Scores)
Scores received on the Front approval plan are placed on a designated shelf in Acquisitions by the Receiving Clerk. The designated Senior Metadata Assistant then downloads the specific invoice from the Front website to create provisional records in Sirsi for scores and books. The items are taken from the shelf and are pre-cataloged After the items have been pre-cataloged, they are sorted into LC/GMC copies and MC/No-Copies copies. The MC and No-Copy are delivered to the Music Catalog Librarian who incorporates the items into his own workflow. The LC and GMC copies are cataloged by the Senior Metadata Assistant.
Sound recordings received on the Front approval plan are delivered to the appropriate Metadata Assistant after provisional records are created in Sirsi by uploading the Front invoice. The items are then pre-cataloged. Items with good member copy are kept and cataloged by the Metadata Assistant. Items with member copy or no copy are kept by the Metadata Assistant and searched for six months. Items that have not been upgraded to good member copy are then delivered to the Music Catalog Librarian