Logistics and documentation Production Statistics Resource Allocation

I have had a lot of concerns about inventory control, statistics, and
treatment resource allocation within collections conservation labs
for a long time now.  Some of these issues may come up at the
upcoming AIC meeting regarding collections conservation or the
collections conservation conference to be held at UC-Berkeley, but I
feel that we all (the DistList) would benefit from sharing the
successes and failures of others before these meetings occur.  It is
especially important to me because here at Princeton we are recasting
the preservation and conservation program and would like to try to
implement what works best.

1)  Inventory Control:  In several of the places I have worked, folks in
the library sometimes think of preservation/conservation as a black
hole, sucking up books and losing them forever.  For some folks their
books never seem to come out of the lab.  What do you do when someone
hands you a list of books they supposedly sent you six months ago, none
of which you recognize by title nor do you have any record that you
treated them or that they even entered the lab?  This is problematical,
especially as we increase the flow of work through our organizations or
the number of staff doing treatments.  The series of questions below
ask: how do you cope with the volume of materials entering the lab for
treatment?  How do you control this inventory, particularly with regard
to patron queries about materials in process in your lab?  Princeton
presently has only an ephemeral vapor temporary inventory record in our
circulation system.  No other paper or electronic record.  Something we
want to change.

    How do you keep track of what items you have in the conservation
    lab?  This includes location within the lab, from various holdings
    areas to folks workbenches.

    Do you use manual or computer system?  What software do you use?

    Do you keep a record of what you have treated or handled, and how is
    this done?

    Do you record when the item has left the lab?

    Does anyone's lab database link with the library's mainframe/OPAC to
    feed treatment work into local/library records?

    Does anyone's database link with the library's mainframe/OPAC to
    strip data out of the official bibliographic record, e.g., author,
    title, imprint, call number, bar code number, to create a local
    database in the lab, by just scanning and without a lot of keying?

    Does anyone have a successful non-cumbersome manual system?

    Does anyone keep track of items boxed for possible future phased
    conservation?

    Does anyone keep track of items which can't be treated now, but
    might be treated in the future?

2)  How do you collect collections conservation treatment
statistics in light of the yearly ARL Preservation statistics?

Several folks have complained to me about this, but cope with it
nonetheless.  Have you had to change your stats sheets to compile ARL
stats?  Or do you extrapolate from current stats sheets?  Princeton  
has filtered treatment statistics through the ARL artifice, levels  
1-3, by ordering (and coding for our point system) the treatments we  
do according to the normal time necessary to complete the treatment.   
We try to follow the ARL instructions by marking only the highest  
level treatment completed per item treated.  How do folks keep track  
of completed collections conservation treatments, period?  It seems  
that we need to be able to share our statistics forms easily with one  
another.  Walter, can you scan our forms and send them out through  
the DistList?  (Stupid question, huh?)

    **** Moderator's comments:  I will be happy to handle anything in
    ascii, but I don't have time to deal with binaries.  There are too
    many different operating systems and user-skill levels.

3)  Does any one use a point system to allocate their treatment
resources among many users?  Do you use a computer to track the system?
Do you forms separate from your treatment stats form(s)?

Thanks, Robert.

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:39
                 Distributed: Sunday, February 16, 1992
                        Message Id: cdl-5-39-009
                                  ***