***Please excuse cross-posting***
Please join the ALCTS Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group 
(TSWEIG) at the 2018 ALA Midwinter in Denver, CO.
Date and time: February 12, 2018 (Monday), 1:00-2:30 PM
Location: Colorado Convention Center, Room 304, Denver, CO
If We Can, You Can!
By Jessalyn Zoom, Library of Congress
The History and Military Science Section responsible for cataloging copyright 
and Electronic Cataloging In Publication monographs at the Library of Congress 
saw steady increase in production in the last three years.  The section staff 
achieved the milestone each year with fewer professional librarians than 
previous years.  The presenter will share her experience of developing 
efficient workflows, utilizing staff's strengths and skill sets, and developing 
staff members and expanding their horizon.  The presenter is convinced that 
becoming a subject expert herself has been helpful to properly guide her staff 
members during the work process and ensure the quality of the work.
Simply visualizing technical services infrastructure using 
draw.io<http://draw.io>
By Gina Solares, University of San Francisco
Our libraries operate within a complex and interconnected technical 
environment. Mapping your technical services infrastructure can help staff see 
how their work is connected and can help you identify areas of weakness or 
inefficiency. I will discuss how Gleeson Library at the University of San 
Francisco used a free online diagram software, draw.io<http://draw.io>, to 
create a simple visual chart of acquisitions, cataloging, and systems 
infrastructure. This chart was then used to highlight budget needs, technical 
challenges, and work dependencies in communication with staff in and outside of 
technical services.
The (workflow) map is not the territory
By Liz Woolcott & Robert Heaton, Utah State University Libraries
Utah State University's Technical Services Division engaged in workflow mapping 
with a set of clear purposes in mind: justify upcoming changes to the 
division's structure, make improvements to processes, and open up communication 
across departments. We successfully engaged staff across the division in 
creating flowcharts of 44 major processes but were less successful in commuting 
those collaborations into an infrastructure for ongoing process improvements. 
The technical work of standardizing symbols, using mapping software, and 
forming cross-department groups was an important aspect of the initiative but 
not the most difficult one. In this process, we had to get vulnerable, looking 
critically at our own communication styles, organizational culture, and unit 
structures, including opening these up to others' critiques. We share some of 
the lessons we learned in relation to bringing the map back to reality, putting 
the resulting documents to work in trainings, refining existing processes, 
making organizational changes, communicating with stakeholders, and evaluating 
current and potential services.
Automation of creating Korean records for orders
By Hyoungbae Lee, Princeton University
Using AutoIt Macro, which is available for free, and Microsoft Excel plugin, 
which is also available for most office environment, I developed a streamlined 
workflow to make the acquisition process of Korean materials easy and 
time-saving. It is important to enter correct bibliographic information for 
each title, even though minimal, at the time of ordering and also helpful for 
user searches while the orders stay pending for 2-3 months. From the 
perspective of technical services, on the other hand, it takes much time and 
effort 1) to collect appropriate bibliographic information, 2) to perform 
romanization according to ALA-LC rules, and 3) to generate MARC records out of 
the gathered information. It is often difficult to obtain both quality and 
efficiency at the same time, but developing an automation tool will be a good 
solution for that goal. The automation tool will include three modules that can 
be done just with a several mouse clicks:  1) a module to collect bibliographic 
information from the web browser into Excel spreadsheet, 2) a module to 
romanize the Korean text in Excel, and 3) a module to convert the Excel 
document into mrc file. Once one decided which book to order, it takes less 
than 10 seconds to have mrc file ready to be imported to cataloging software.
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting!
Lucas and TJ

Co-chairs:
Lucas Mak
Metadata and Catalog Librarian
Michigan State University Libraries
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
TJ Kao
Continuing Resources Metadata Professional
George Washington University
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

----------------------------------
Lucas (Wing Kau) Mak
Metadata and Catalog Librarian
Michigan State University Libraries
366 W. Circle Dr., East Lansing, MI 48824
(517) 884-0822
[email protected]

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