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Columbia has 11 FTE who receive material in the Monographs Processing Services (MPS) division. Eight of the staff members are responsible for the day-to-day receiving of material in the Monographs Acquisitions Services (MAS) department which is divided into two units: the Book in Hand unit (BIH) receives approvals, Collection Direct Accessions (CDAs), and gifts, and the Order & Receiving Unit (OAR) receives firm ordered material. One FTE in the OAR unit is assigned 35% cataloging duties. The three remaining staff members are copy catalogers who are located in Monographs Processing Services-Cataloging and assist with receiving firm order material whenever necessary. Cornell has 12 FTE that are cross-trained to receive, input and fastcast approval and firm order material, and are dispersed throughout Library Technical Services. Both Columbia and Cornell's receiving staff have diverse language skills and expertise which allow them to handle process a wide range of approval material for review, receive firm orders, and fastcat upon receipt. Two major differences in staffing and organization are the inclusion Cornell includes the processing of Chinese-Japanese-Korean-Tibetan (CJKT) material within the their main technical services division at Cornell whereas Columbia's CJKT material is processed separately at C.V. Starr East Asian Library. The other main difference is a lack of a union at Cornell and the unionized staff at Columbia.
Summarize reporting and decision-making structures at Columbia and Cornell.
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Acquisitions and Automated Technical Services (AATS) is directed by Boaz Nadav-Manes, and consists of Copy Cataloging/Inputting, Ordering and Gifts, Receiving and Documents, and Batch Processing and Metadata Management. Procedural decisions are made by the administrative supervisor or coordinator of that unit in consultation with the director of AATS. Policy decisions are made by the director of AATS who consults with one or all of the appropriate unit supervisors or coordinators as needed.
Columbia and Cornell appear to have similar reporting and decision-making structures. At Columbia, MAS is a department with two individual units (BIH and OAR), an OAR Unit Librarian, and a department head, whereas Cornell's AATS is divided into individual Units with supervisors or coordinators.
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Many of the policies, practices and workflows are mirrored at the two institutions. Both Columbia and Cornell receive firm order and approval material; prepare approval material for selector review; utilize vendor records for approval material; utilize EDI for ordering and invoicing; create and enter invoices into Voyager for payment; return defective or incorrectly invoiced approval and firm order material to vendors; and handle special items. While examining discussing the Inventory of All Policies, Practices and Workflows, it became evident apparent to the working group members of the group that a considerable amount of work and hands-on supervision is processed required in the respective both receiving departments at each University and managed by very few supervisors.
Even though the two institutions do similar kinds of work in comparable fashion, there are significant differences in receiving workflows that are unique to each University. A comparison of current job assignments indicates similar tasks and responsibilities at both institutions with two main differences: Cornell's cross-training of staff to fastcat and input upon receipt and Columbia's use of shelf-ready for domestic approval material. There are also differences in what type of material each receiving department handles. Columbia receives a significant number of DVDs and serial back issues, whereas Cornell handles government documents and receives and checks-in current serials. Librarians in MAS approve invoices in Voyager before routing on for processing in the acquisitions accounting department, whereas Cornell's units route pending invoices to their respective accounting department for approval in Voyager. Another significant difference is the lack of a union at Cornell whereas Columbia's support staff are unionized.
Summarize dependencies and limitations inherent in working with other functional units at Columbia and Cornell.
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