Fuller, 'Three Milestones Achieved', NCSU Libraries Newsletter v18n05 (August 1991)
 
_The NCSU Libraries Newsletter_
Volume 18 no. 5
August 1991
Fuller, Linda, and Walter High
"Three Milestones Achieved"


On Tuesday, June 25, 1991, the NCSU Libraries celebrated 
three milestones in its history.  Library staff finished 
barcoding the branch library collections, shifted the collection 
in the D. H. Hill Library, and completed the BIS monographic 
conversion project.  These three achievements will provide 
long-term benefits to the Libraries and the University.

Beginning in the summer of 1989, crews of library volunteers 
spent a week in each branch library barcoding the collections.  
Next, a core of Access Services and Cataloging staff linked the 
barcodes to the BIS bibliographic records, thereby providing a 
complete inventory of the branch collections.  Circulation 
returns at the main library are also barcoded on a continuing 
basis, with the number of barcoded returns exceeding 250,000.

Plans for the collection shift began in the fall of 1989, when 
Edward Walker and the assistant bookstack supervisors 
measured the total book collection and calculated the number 
of shelves needed to expand each Library of Congress letter.  
The actual collection shift of more than 2 million volumes, 
completed in March 1991, permits the library to utilize its 
shelving space efficiently and simplify the shelving sequence 
throughout the building, making the library easier to use for 
all patrons.  The work would not have been completed so 
smoothly without a hard-working core of bookstack employees 
and volunteers from across the University.  The NCSU Libraries 
extends thanks to all individuals participating in the project.

The Cataloging Department's complete conversion of the 
monograph collection's bibliographic records to machine-
readable format makes this collection the most fully 
accessible of all the collections in the Triangle Research 
Libraries Network (TRLN), not only for local users but for 
users throughout the country.  The fifteen-year project 
required searching, editing, and updating 262,491 records, and 
the total continues to rise as previously lost and missing 
items surface.  Two individuals proved instrumental in seeing 
the project to completion.  Nancy Yu supervised the project 
for six years and finished the process more than a year in 
advance of the expected completion date.  Ella Rogers-Jones 
provided eleven years of stability to the conversion process 
and kept the project moving at a steady pace.  The department 
will now focus its efforts on conversion of serial records.  The 
percentage of converted serials to date exceeds 70 percent.