CCS ANNUAL REPORT
FY 2014-2015
Overview:
Two major events encompassed the 2014-15 Fiscal Year at CCS: 1) The post-migration tumult surrounding Enterprise in Fall 2014 and 2) The transition to a new Executive Director in Spring 2015. On the former, CCS is fortunate to have a strong partnership with SirsiDynix in order to merit such a concerted response in the form of support and resulting restitution. On the latter, it is a pleasure to be on board to serve you.
Statistics related to the use of physical items continue to decrease. With the member libraries handling many of their own electronic resource subscriptions, CCS does not have consolidated statistics for e-resource usage in order to assess whether the gap is fully compensated via e-resources. For an organization that was built and organized to handle the physical item management, this is a point to note as we think about how the nature of CCS should evolve into the future.
Working on the Annual Report for a fiscal year in which I was only party to 1/6 of the year has been a useful exercise to see what kinds of measures and narrative have been used to capture a year for CCS. It is important to take time to reflect in order to learn from the past and then use that to help us improve our future. That said, my primary observation about the annual report process is that to talk about and present an annual summary 6 months into the following fiscal year reflects an organization more concerned with preservation of status quo and gradual movement. This is simply an observation and not a value judgment. The strategic planning process in Winter/Spring 2016 will be telling in how and if we choose to reshape our innate nature into the future. If there is indeed interest in creating a more progressive and cutting edge CCS, then it makes more sense to reflect on the prior fiscal year soon after it ends. That way the annual reflection can serve as a benchmark and springboard from which to launch the initiatives and the plan for the current fiscal year.
Integrated Library System Highlights (SirsiDynix Symphony):
August 2014:
Upgrade to SirsiDynix Symphony 3.4.5.
New Production server for SirsiDynix Symphony 3.4.5.
SMS rollout in conjunction with Enterprise, custom self-registration page.
Fall 2014:
ProPay rollout in Fall 2014.
Problems with fully updating transactions was addressed via fixes through the fiscal year. (finally resolved primarily in Fall 2015).
Setup of new Item Categories 3-5 for use in Enterprise facets.
Throughout Year;
BLUEcloud Analytics (BCA)involved continued evaluation and testing through entire fiscal year; SD delayed rollout of needed components until Fall 2015.
MobileCirc ordered with SirsiDynix credit in Fall 2014, but had few adopters due to initial issues.
Discovery System Highlights (Enterprise):
July 2014-September 2014:
Final configuration of Enterprise and the switch from BC to Enterprise.
BiblioCommons my account problems accelerated the Enterprise go-live for some libraries.
eResourceCentral(eRC) rolled out along with Enterprise.
September 2014 – December 2015:
Difficult and belabored launch of Enterprise.
January 2015:
CCS meeting with SirsiDynix Executives at ALA MidWinter to discuss major issues.
February 2015:
Installed on separate, higher powered server.
Spring 2015:
Alternate User ID’s tested and implemented where needed.
Ongoing:
Problems with the Enterprise delta harvests continue. (New testing underway in January 2016).
Facility and Other Systems:
August 2015 - Finalized painting and re-carpeting of the CCS facility.
April 2015 –Release updated ccslib.org websitevia Consultant.
June 2015 -Implemented new email domain for CCS staff @ccslib.org.
June 2015-August 2015 Implemented Active Directory for CCS staff.
CCS Vendors:
Fall 2014 - Carson Block hired as consultant to assist with new CCS Executive Director recruitment.
Spring 2015 - Renegotiated insurance to lower rate.
Spring 2015 – CCS joined Management Association.
June 2015 – Payroll processing move to ProDatafrom Paychex to address issues and save money.
June 2015 - Ended Public Storage Unit.
June 2015 - SirsiDynix restitution from Enterprise problems finalized.
Continue to work with auditor McClure Inserra for 2 more years to provide consistency during Executive Director transition.
Key CCS Initiatives:
Fall 2014, approved, implemented, and did the retro work for beginning to use Item Categories 3 through 5.The actual implementation for new records was around August/September 2014, and the retro work was undertaken from August-October 2014.
March 2015, Governing Board moves to change the group to system holds embargo from 90 to 30 days starting July 1, 2015
March 2015, Governing Board moves to leave eRead Illinois subscriptions to individual libraries
Database Management Activities:
Joel Hahn moved drivers' license numbers and other data from the Alternate ID field to the License field, normalizing the data in the process. This made it possible for the libraries to use the Alternate ID field to give patrons and staff a limited ability to have logins other than their library barcode number for use with Enterprise.
The Database Management Task Force established a methodologyfor the use of Item Category 4 as well as a process to review any changes needed to the list of terms.
Joel Hahn continues to do central database maintenance for some group procured e-resources.
CCS continued its subscription with MARCIVE for authorities maintenance under the oversight of Virginia Seward.
CCS continued its participation in the NACO and SACO authorities programs.
CCS sent data extracts to The MARC Of Quality for batch setting of OCLC holdings (funded again by a grant); our Database Manager generated project reports and oversaw cleanup based on data analysis.
CCS continued using the RDA Toolkit and preparing for a global switchover from AACR2 to RDA.
The Catalogers Technical Group began using several MARC fields created for use with RDA to populate a new "Material Type" column in Workflows hit lists that largely replaces the "format" aspect of the GMD, and also allow patrons to limit searches by videogame platform and by movies' country of production. Retrospective work to add these fields to existing records was chiefly undertaken by the Database Manager, except for the Country of Production field, which is chiefly being handled by the catalogers.
Key Membership Activities:
Exec. Committee/Personnel Committee interview prospective CCS Executive Directors, Jan-Mar 2015
Kate Hall, new Executive Director at Northbrook, January 2015
Christopher Holly, new Executive Director at CCS, April 2015
Stephen Bero, appointed Executive Director at Algonquin, April 2015
Susan Lempke, appointed Executive Director at Niles, May 2015
Database Management Task Force resolution of how to use Item Category 4
Listening Tour meetings with each member library by Christopher Holly, April – June 2015
September 2014, Algonquin moves to fines free, which involves evaluation of related processes
Key Training and Professional Activities:
Consortial COSUGI Fall 2014 – Richard Shurman
ALA Midwinter 2015 – Richard Shurman
March 16, 2015 Enterprise Rooms Customization Workshop – led by Jonathan Padilla, Joel Hahn
March 19-20, 2015 BCA training for CCS staff
COSUGI Annual 2015, Portland, OR – Richard Shurman, Joel Hahn, Jonathan Padilla, Bob Barth
Computers in Libraries Spring 2015 – Bob Barth
May 2015 SLUI meeting at Schaumburg Library - Richard Shurman, Christopher Holly, Joel Hahn
June 2, 2015Circulation Tables Workshop at Niles for CCS membership – led by Richard Shurman
Statistics
CATEGORY / FISCAL YEAR 2014-2015 / FISCAL YEAR 2013-2014 / CHANGE# (%)
MARC Records / 1,160,619 / 1,154,284 / +6,335 (+0.55%)
Authority Records / 847,340 / 821,697 / +25,643 (+3.12%)
Item Records / 5,630,921 / 5,686,580 / -55,659 (-0.98%)
User Records / 608,808 / 649,235 / -40,427 (-6.23%)
Checkouts/Renewals / 14,160,956 / 14,769,616 / -608,660 (-4.12%)
Holds Place Online / 1,717,411 / 1,917,837 / -200,426 (-10.45%)
Holds in Workflows / 453,865 / 458,702 / -4,837 (-1.05%)
Holds in iBistro / 26,459 / 30,999 / -4,540 (-14.65%)
Holds in Enterprise/BC / 1,237,087 / 1,428,136 / -191,049 (-13.38%)
Holds By Range
Group / 983,502 / 1,183,203 / -199,701 (-16.88%)
Library / 62,088 / 64,474 / -2,386 (-3.70%)
System / 671,821 / 670,160 / +1,661 (+0.25%)
ILL Sent by CCS Libs / 580,538 / 620,708 / -40,170 (-6.47%)
NACO and Marcive Statistics:
Task / Fiscal Year 2014-2015 / Fiscal Year 2013-2014New Names Added / 417 / 216
Names Changed / 1059 / 188
New Series Added / 37 / 64
Series Changed / 30 / 27
New Subject Headings / 0 / 6
Changed Subject Headings / 0 / 3
Bib records for Auth processing / 53,169 / 66,188
Bib records updated via Notification Service / 51,298 / 52,372
E-Resource Statistics:
Vendor / Fiscal Year 2014-2015 / Fiscal Year 2013-2014My Media Mall / 2,721 / 6,541
NSDC / 1,172 / 2,190
TOTAL TITLES ADDED / 3,893 / 9,335
Help Desk Statistics:
Type of Help Desk / Fiscal Year 2014-2015 / Fiscal Year 2013-2014WonderDesk (CCS) / 1,837 closed / 1,939 opened / 1,259 closed / 1,354 opened
Client Care (SirsiDynix) / 207 closed / 252 opened / 98 closed / 107 opened
Notes: Fiscal Year is July – June. The checkoutsdo not include in-house checkouts to Discard, Repair, etc. Circulation totals continue to show adecline; we suspect the exclusion of e-book downloads from that total and changingservice patterns are a factor. E-book additions are down, which could also reflect other library specific (non-consortial) options for procuring e-resources. The holds by rangefigures continue to reflect the new emphasis on users placing them directly and on fillingholds within the Group level rather than System as of June, 2010. The ILL volume heldfairly steady, with monthly fluctuations over and under the previous year. NACO activityagain reflected our waiting for RDA and needing new training. MyMediaMall and NSDCOverdrive titles added include eBooks, eAudiobooks.
Looking forward:
Writing this 6 months into the following fiscal year, I am excited by the number of improvements and modernization changes that we have already made in 2015-2016. We will continue to work on and add to these initiatives in the remainder of the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Of course, these will be noted in that annual report.
The strategic planning is about to kickoff in January 2016, and its gleanings will help inform how we measure our success into the future. The results of this process may have implications on the presentation and range of data included within the annual reports going forward. All in all, CCS is on a solid modernization path with a reinvigorated sense of progress as we finish out the last six months of the 2015-2016 fiscal year.