Behind the scenes at the library (v. 1)

One of the most common misperceptions of librarians is that we pretty much get paid to read all day. The number of people who come in and say, "Gosh, that must be a great job - getting paid to..."

You get the picture. You'll also get a weak smile, probably through gritted teeth.

I would like to ask those people how often they come into a library to find all the staff sitting in chairs reading books, and completely ignoring all entreaties to help them find something until they've just finished this chapter...

Yeah, thought so. Believe me, there's way too much happening at work.

Welcome to the first in the series of Behind the Scenes at the Library.

Have you ever wondered how we choose books for the library? Even WHY? And what manner of little pixie ensures they get to you?

This is the realm of Regional Resources (that's Collections, Acquisitions and Cataloguing). Come in, come in...
Step 1: CHOOSING ITEMS
This belongs to Collections (that's me!) Sometimes it's easy. Through our website, customers request a certain book (or DVD or magazine) we don't have. That request instantly pops up in a special inbox in one of the five areas - South, Central, West, North and Rodney - responsible for the pickup library. One of the collections staff in this area then decides whether to buy the item. Each one of us is responsible for certain subjects.

We also read preview journals put out by our suppliers and library associations, as well as publishers' lists,  newspaper and magazine reviews and online catalogues. We choose what we think will be popular, or something we don't have a lot of.
Our main criterion is that it's recent - usually published or reprinted within the last three years. If we decide not to buy the book you requested, chances are we think the information in it is too old, or not enough people would read it to justify the expense. We try to be careful with your money - we're ratepayers too!

We also get regular reports on titles we don't have enough of, so if there are too many people waiting, we buy more. (The actual ratio is one copy per five requests.) We have to draw the line somewhere, though - we can't buy a Hunger Games or Lee Child for every five people waiting, or we couldn't afford to buy the next James Patterson. How sad.

Step 2: ORDERING ITEMS
Every area has a different system, based on what they did under the old council structure (for now). Basically we have preferred library suppliers whose websites we can check, and all orders are placed electronically. Unfortunately Amazon is not one of these, as they are not set up to deal with libraries - that explains why sometimes you will see a book on Amazon but we still can't buy it. Sorry.

The moment we create the order and allocate each item to a branch, you can see it on the library website. We then attach any requests for customers.

Step 3: RECEIVING ITEMS
Between a week and a month later (depending on availability!) we will receive the orders. The acquisitions teams scan each item and match it up with the invoice, then with the orders on the library database. Some of us get our books covered and labelled before they get here, and others have staff to do it in-house, or send the books out for processing. That can add a week or two to the time from the item's arrival to its dispatch to a branch. If you see IN PROCESSING or BINDERY next to a book record, that's what's happening here. If it's NEWLY RECEIVED, it could well be in...

Step 4: CATALOGUING
After a book is received, the cataloguing team's job is to make sure you can find it on our website - and on our shelves. They make sure every book has a title, an author, the correct ISBN and publication details and relevant subject headings, as well as other stuff like blurbs, the correct Dewey number and genre, and even the right item type. If it's a book, you don't want to be charged DVD rental!

Sometimes it's easy - there's a database of readymade records available for download. Sometimes it's not - if it isn't in the database, or it's in Arabic. Usually even the readymade records need quite a bit of retouching, so it's a time-consuming job, and each and every item we receive has to be checked, and its Dewey location debated. Should it be in psychology or parenting? One week recently, the West alone received 2000 new items, and we only have one full-time cataloguer!

Step 5: DISPATCH
As soon as the items come back from being catalogued, labelled and covered, the acquisitions staff send them out to the branches. Couriers take them to a central drop-off depot. Then the library courier in each area delivers the boxes to their destinations. We aim to have books get from Wellsford to Waiuku within 5 working days, and it's often much quicker. That's a great free service!

Step 6: DESELECTION
When a book reaches a certain age, there are several things that could happen. The collections teams run reports on what's old or what hasn't been taken out. We then decide what to do with each book.

This could be withdrawing the books, (we call this "weeding" the collection), keeping them if they're still OK, or sending them to a branch where they might do better. Or we'll stack them. Stacks are for popular stuff that's a bit tatty to be left on the main shelves, and cannot be re-bought, or for old books that aren't used so often but are special (like NZ material).

Deselection is a sad but necessary part of the life cycle, in order to make room for the new stuff. And it's all for a good cause - most of the books go on our sale tables to make money for new books, or to charities. We even send stuff to countries that need it, such as Samoa after its tsunami.

Generally speaking, paperbacks are weeded within five years, and hardbacks within eight (some might last longer because we can't replace them). If you spill a cup of coffee or lose half your sandwich in a book, the process is of course much quicker.

So please - please - don't read in the bath.
If you have any questions about how - or why - we do things (or if there's another library process you'd like us to explain), ask me.

I'll just be sittin' at my desk, reading my book...