2014 Charleston Conference Saturday, Nov 8, 11:45 AM

1. Shelf Ready Doesn’t Always
Mean Ready for the Shelf
IMPLEMENTING A CHECKLIST FOR
SHELF-READY APPROVALS

2. American University and Shelf-Ready Approvals
 Background on American University
 Blackwell’s – Started Shelf-Ready Approvals, continued with
Coutts/Ingram
 WorldCat Cataloging Partners for MARC Records
 Acquisitions Staff receives titles, routes to Cataloging
 There must be a quicker way to get titles to the shelf

3. The Idea
 Do all books need Cataloging?
 Acquisitions staff already handling books and checking for pre-processing
 Extend the position duties to verify MARC record against a cataloging
checklist
 Books can be routed directly to Cataloging

4. The Specifics
 Physical check of books
 Damage
 Physical processing has been completed (stamps, strips, barcodes,
bookplates, spine labels)
 Bibliographic data check
 Encoding level
 Dates
 Title/Variant titles
 Call numbers
 Local cataloging practices and other information
 Name adjustments

5. Categories After Check
 Books that did not pass the “Copy Cataloging” checklist and need to be
routed to Cataloging for additional work.
 Books that bypass Cataloging but need additional processing, such as
new spine labels or book plates.
 Books that bypass Cataloging and need no additional processing, which
can go straight to Circulation to be shelved.

6. Route to Cataloging
 Books with no 6xx fields
 Mismatched information
 Books with numbers, symbols, etc. in title
 Folios, Reference books, music, children’s materials, multiple volumes,
etc.
 National literatures
 Any edition beyond 1st
 Books lacking 505 field

7. Issues with Books
 Duplicate records / books provided by vendor
 “Short records”
 Diacritical issues
 Multiple 505’s: “Bad” TOC information in 500 as well as “good TOC”
information in the 505 in the same record.
 Duplicate 520’s
 Poor quality spine labeling
 Spine label not generated from holdings

8. Challenges / Issues to Consider
 Separate workflow for approvals and firms
 Not all books will fit this workflow
 Shelf ready process as a whole has increased challenges such as call
number/spine label issues.
 Need to actively collaborate with other units such as Circulation and
Acquisitions to solve problems
 Requires significant time investment upfront for training and proofing.
Ongoing spot checking is a must
 Communication with your vendor is important

9. The Results
 2009: 24% of Approvals bypassed Cataloging
 For the past five years, this percentage has risen 10% each year.
 2014: 60% of Approvals expected to bypass Cataloging
 2013: Total number of approval books was 7816 (4700 routed to
Circulation)

10. Vendor Relations
 Lots and lots of work!
 TOC issues
 Diacritics
 Short Records
 Spine Labels
 Why oh why won’t Coutts and OCLC work together?

11. Acquisitions/Cataloging Lovefest
 More Collaboration
 Move to storage project
 Ebook cataloging
 Cross-training
 Moving off-site

12. Thank You
Further questions?
Ask Us!
Stacey Marien, Acquisitions Librarian
smarien@american.edu
Alayne Mundt, Resource Description Librarian
mundt@american.edu