Orphan Barcode Project
Revised May 2013
Goals:
Routinize processing of orphan barcodes for all general collections at ReCAP. Assign primary phases of work to student worker staff. Complete processing 16,911 items by end of December 2015. Ongoing resolution of all orphans barcodes will be routinized by January 2015.
Gains:
Orphan barcodes are lost collections. Fixing orphan barcodes re-establishes access to otherwise irretrievable collections. The improved quality control of ReCAP collections benefits both Columbia users and the wider scholarly community.
In the context of the Discovery to Delivery project, it is highly desirable to maximize bibliographic control. Reducing duplication to prolong the lifespan of ReCAP is a consortium goal.
Routinization of orphans further improves the operational function of ReCAP processing.
Secondary gain is improved accession data for analysis.
Definition:
An orphan barcode is any offsite barcode that is present in the LAS database but not in CLIO/Voyager. There are three types of orphan barcode. Each is defined by timing of when barcode is lost:
- New : barcode not in CLIO at time of accession
- Ex Post Facto : barcode removed/deleted/lost from CLIO after accession
- Retrospective : all existing orphans up to present
Scope:
There are 16,911 orphan barcodes that can be considered general collections.
Attention to orphan barcodes began in November 2008. The high watermark of the orphan population was on November 13, 2008 with 41,555 barcodes (1.40% of ReCAP collections). As of September 14, 2012, that total is reduced to 27,954 (0.74% of ReCAP collections).
Weekly Accession Reports document the number of barcodes at ReCAP that are not currently in CLIO.Orphan barcodes are tallied under category “records not found.” / Accession Report from September 14, 2012
Many of the 27,954 represent records transferred to ReCAP in bulk, intentionally lacking records in CLIO. For example:
7,869 are BS barcodes currently part of the Columbia Historical Corporate Annual Reports project. 3,174 belong to RBML collections. There is routine workflow at both Business Library and RBML to resolve these barcodes. Health Sciences tech services staff have their own project to resolve HR and HS orphans. All of these are considered outside the purview of this project.
The total number of orphans, less special collections, is 16,911.
Groundwork:
An internship project in Spring 2009 was the first project-based attempt to address orphan barcodes. Avery smart barcodes were taken as a sample set. The project yielded documentation used to develop subsequent initiatives.
The first attempt to routinize orphan processing began in Fall 2010. The ReCAP Coordinator and the Head of Technical Services at East Asian Library developed a flowchart and instructions to process EV customer coded orphans. The target set included nearly 3,700 barcodes. Completion is expected in Fall 2012.
Based on the East Asian project, a routinized project was completed for 100-prefix barcodes over Summer/Fall 2011.
In June 2011 new reports were created to monitor both newly accessioned orphans and refreshed lists of retrospective ones. Since then, data shows that 0.35% of all new accessions have been “born orphan.” This amounts to 12.2 new orphans per week.
Data shows that since November 2008 project-based work completes 110.7 orphans per week. Periods of routine maintenance complete 15.5 orphans per week.
Obstacles:
Processing orphans presents many challenges. Chief among them is the diversity of collections at ReCAP. Besides customer code there is nothing that can identify ownership of books by department library. Each sub-collection presents complications stemming from the history of the collection, language, format, classification, and method of processing.
Batch retrievals of orphans must be coordinated with ReCAP staff according to their labor capacity. Since processing depends on having book-in-hand, ReCAP staff is obligated to perform retrieval and re-shelving. A rough metric is that 65 retrievals take one hour of ReCAP staff time to retrieve and a second hour to pack. 50 items can be refilled in one hour. All told an hour of ReCAP staff handling completes work on 19.74 books. 16,911 orphans represents 856.8 hours of ReCAP staff time.
Secondary requests are often necessary to verify holdings. In many cases it is necessary to retrieve a second book from ReCAP to check for duplication or processing errors.
Most CU and CR barcodes are expected to have records present in Voyager. This is unlikely to be the case for CU8 barcodes. Timeline may need to be re-assessed during Phase 6 of Retrospective orphans.
Professional attention is sometimes needed to resolve cataloging issues. An effective plan of action must incorporate technical services stakeholders.
Action Plan
New Orphans
October 2012 forward
Phase 1, October 2012 : Create documentation for processing new orphans
Student staff place Non-CLIO requests for all general collections on the weekly Orphan Barcode Report. Input “new orphan” in request form note field. All items are delivered to “ReCAP Coordinator” at stop code MZ.
Student staff retrieves totes from Shipping and stage for processing at workstation.
Processing new orphans and return to Shipping is same tote used for delivery.
Phase 2, January 2013 : Operational maintenance
Ongoing resolution of new orphan barcodes expected to be assigned to student or support staff, 45 hour per week.
Retrospective Orphans
October 2012-December 2015
Phase 1, October 2012 : Compile an accurate list of retrospective orphan barcodes.
Include data such as customer code, accession date, LAS status, and retrieval date (if Out on Retrieval).
Consider all retrieval dates before November 2008 to be candidates for permanent withdrawal.
Phase 2 : Request all items with asynchronous customer code/barcode prefix
Scope unknown. Permanently withdraw and send to ReCAP as new accessions.
Phase 3-6 will require limited input from professional specialists: Sarah Elman (CJK), Misha Harnick (complex bound-withs), Robert Rendall (serials), Kate Harcourt (original cataloging), potentially others.
Phase 3 : Request all dumb CU-prefix barcodes starting with most recent accession date
10,579 total barcodes. Expected to cover many collections and languages. Sort by monograph/serial, language or alphabet, and condition.
Phase 4 : Request all dumb CR-prefix barcodes starting with most recent accession date
392 total barcodes. Expected to cover many collections and languages. Sort by single item/piece count, monograph/serial, language or alphabet, and condition.
Phase 5 : Request all smart barcodes
CU 1,041 and CR 104. Expected to cover many collections and languages. Sort by monograph/serial, language or alphabet, and condition. Secondary requests are more likely. These can be expected to be more time consuming that dumb barcode resolutions.
Phase 6 : Request all CU8 barcodes
4,597. Expected to be the most time consuming. Likely will require copy cataloging or withdrawal decisions.
Ex Post Facto Orphans
December 2015 forward
Phase 1, December 2015 : Elimination of all retrospective orphans
Phase 2, January 2016 : Creation of Ex Post Facto Orphan report
Split Retrospective report into a) special collections and b) general collections. The general collections report represents Ex Post Facto Orphans.
Phase 3, January 2016 : Operational maintenance
Ongoing resolution of ex post facto orphan barcodes expected to be assigned to student or support staff, 15 minutes per week.
Orphan Barcode Project: Executive Summary
Revised Sept.2012
· Routinize processing of new and retrospective orphans
· Process 16,911 items from general collections by end of December 2015
· Assign primary and secondary phase of processing to student workers
· Coordinate with professional, stakeholder staff to complete tertiary phase: difficult and obscure problems (e.g. Sarah Elman for CJK copy cataloging, Misha Harnick for complex bound-withs, and Kate Harcourt for original cataloging)
Needs
· 520 hours student labor per year
· 7 bays empty shelving in Tier 1 for staging (max 1,750 books)
· 50 blue totes to store excess
· ReCAP staff capacity to retrieve 100 books/week
· To prevent duplicate work, no orphans are processed without informing project staff
Timeline
1. September 2012 : Hire two student worker staff to process orphans for five hours/week each ***COMPLETE***
2. November 2012 : Secure agreement with ReCAP for consistent supply of retrievals ***COMPLETE***
3. December 2012 : Large initial phase of retrievals organized and staged in Butler Tier 1 ***COMPLETE*** [approx. 2,000 staged, resolved: 831]
4. December 21, 2012 : End of world ***INCOMPLETE***
5. January 2013 : New orphans operational maintenance in place.
6. May 2013 : 1,500 orphans resolved ***COMPLETE***
7. September 2013 : 4,000 orphans resolved. Regenerate list of orphans, determine how many are ex post facto orphans.
8. December 2013 : 5,500 orphans resolved.
9. May 2014 : 7,000
10. September 2014 : 9,500
11. December 2014 : 11,000. Regenerate list of orphans, determine how many are ex post facto orphans.
12. January 2015 : Reassess timeline based on experience with CU8 barcodes.
13. May 2015 : 12,500
14. September 2015 : 15,000
15. December 2015 : 16,911. Create Ex Post Facto Orphan report. Operational integration of both New and EPF orphan reports.