Processing Committee

Charter – [Revised October 2001]

Vision statement:

The Processing Committee promotes Processing’s role as Barton experts and problem solvers and as the dynamic link between Public and Collection Services. The committee leads and supports Processing’s efforts to ensure user ease of access to library resources. We continuously work to improve Processing and its contributions to serving the public.

Mission statement:

The Processing Committee, a functional group of Public Services, examines, develops and articulates the role processing staff plays in acquiring, organizing, presenting, and preserving information resources for the MIT Libraries community. To accomplish this, the group:

• Works to improve service to library staff and users by increasing accuracy, timeliness, and user-friendliness of our products and services.
• Participates in decision and policy making system-wide concerning processing issues.
• Anticipates and champions needed changes for local processing.
• Consults and advises within the MIT Libraries concerning processing issues.
• Continues to improve communication between Collection Services and Public Services staff.
• Represents and advocates for the processing staff in the MIT Libraries.
• Develops policies and procedures for our units to ensure consistent practices across units when appropriate and to eliminate duplication of effort.

The Processing Committee will reexamine its mission annually and reassess the Committee’s role in our changing system.

Goals:

As a committee continuing to show our role within the MIT Libraries we will:

Training:

1. Develop a formalized training and orientation program for processing staff in conjunction with trainers from Collection Services and others as appropriate. (Oct-Jan).

· Compile a master list of all pieces of training necessary for processing staff. (Oct-Nov)

· Participate in Open Labs or equivalent training venues (ongoing)

· Offer a forum on MacroExpress for processing via Open Lab (Nov)

2. Advocate for a system wide training program for and with all functional groups (ongoing)

Documentation:

1. Work with Processing Offices and Collection Services to collect and archive Aleph processing documentation that is already available (ongoing)

2. Update web page documentation from Advance to Aleph procedures (ongoing)

Continuing Responsibilities:

1. Continue to publicize the work of the committee and local processing units (ongoing)

2. Continue to determine our responsibilities and decision making areas (ongoing)

Measurement:

1. Investigate a plan for measurement sampling (Jan-Mar 2002)