Annex Workflow Project Working Group

Stakeholder Groups:
University faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students
Hesburgh Libraries staff and faculty, especially those in TRU Services, CSA, and Metadata Services, Central and Administrative Services

Process Owners: Timothy Blewett and Julia Schneider
Cabinet Sponsor: Cheri Smith

Process Description and Scope:

The Annex Transfer Working Group's work will encompass the work of annex transfers from the point of identifying space constraints through the actual transfer of materials and will provide shepherding and seek consultation with all relevant stakeholders throughout the process.

Annex Workflow Working Group:

Team Leads:
Julia Schneider
Timothy Blewett

Members of the Team:
Aaron Bales
Jared Collins

Team Charge: This team stewards the Annex Workflow Process makes strategic decisions and evaluates processes for transferring items from Hesburgh Libraries’ general collections to the Annex using a data-informed approach to identify where we have space constraint issues and projections for areas of growth. This process will involve contributions from subject librarians across all programs, TRU Services, Collection Strategies and Acquisitions Program, Metadata Services Program, Specialized Collections and Services Program, Library Information Technology Program, and Administrative and Central Resources Program in order to operate.

Background: Criteria and a workflow were established in 2014 for annex transfers, based on the work of the Annex Task Force, found in the Report of the Hesburgh Library Tower Planning Task Force. Because space management in the tower and annex transfer process would be better managed with a data-driven approach, we are modifying the workflow to leverage existing relationships and data collection processes. To do this, we must incorporate all aspects of the stacks space management lifecycle.

Working Group Objectives:
--Establish data-driven criteria for annex transfers
--Solidify roles in the process in line with our newly reorganized structure
--Implement a programmatic approach to identify and predict space constraints
--Capture data and store it centrally (both historical and contemporary) to provide team members (particularly SRA librarians) and their stakeholders (subject selectors/liaisons) with the information necessary to make vital decisions regarding collections
--Assess physical bibliographic resources to ensure local records accurately describe their associated items and are linked to the appropriate OCLC master records in an effort to enhance discovery in line with current organizational metadata practice; work with mailroom to ensure regular pickup of materials and maintain service level agreements.
--Demystify the deaccessioning process through sharing information about the processes, workflows, and outcomes of deaccessioning. This will give those who are decisioning materials the power to make informed decisions that are in line with established policies, evidence good stewardship of library resources, and are in the best interest of the libraries' and university's long-term goals.