It would be useful to have an indication of any new digitisation projects people see as a priority to be worked on in 2009. Work on digitising the pre-2006 theses will continue but we need to decide where else we should concentrate our efforts.
Some projects have been begun but not completed. E.g. The glass-plate negative collection and the copyprint collection.
There are other projects that have been suggested in the past and have not been started – the Logie Collection, the Engineering Library photograph collection, the Leo Bensemann Collection, the Liszt scores, the Ursula Bethell archives, the Karl Popper papers, The Christchurch Teachers College memorabilia collection., the Erskine lectures and History Now.
There are doubtless also new projects that have not yet had project proposals prepared If you wish to propose a new project please fill out a Digitisation Project Proposal form http://camelot.libr.canterbury.ac.nz/projects/Digitization%20Project%20Proposal.doc and forward it to me by 14 March 2009.
In addition to projects, there are some routine things occurring in different parts of the Library like the archive inventories, e-reserves and contributing to the New Zealand Legal Information Institute that are now considered business-as-usual.
Cynthia.

Robin is retiring at the end of January after 39 years’ service with the Library. Please put this time into your diary so that you can share in this special occasion. This will be a catered function.

Some statistics for those of you who are interested in such things. Over the last two years, over 30,000 items have been reclassified from Dewey to LC – nearly 14,500 last year and in excess of 16,000 this year. Also, close to 3,100 historic textbooks were catalogued for the first time, including 479 that involved original cataloguing. A fantastic effort by all concerned. Cynthia.

Robert, Julie and Mary-Louise have been working on reclassifying the former CCE stock. This project comes to an end today as the merger funding has been spent. The project that Alison Whitla and Rachel Goggin have been working on – cataloguing the Education Library’s historic textbook collection – also comes to an end today. We are extremely grateful to these people for their efforts and wish them well for the future. Who knows we may see them back if another project emerges. Cynthia.

New documentary DVDs are being classified as per the new system from today so expect to see them at your branch soon. Cynthia.

The booksale generated around $750 on its first day, which is really great. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to its success – in particular Felicity ,who has led the project, and the Copy Centre Staff who are receiving the payment during the day and Lending staff who take the payment in the evenings. We will clearly need to keep replenishing the tables. Cynthia.

Three new stamps were purchased around mid-year for the Warehouse project and we are now down to one. Could people working in the Warehouse please look out for the other two stamps, please? People have been keeping an eye out for them, so it is likely that they are somewhere out of sight – perhaps carefully put away somewhere, or behind a pile of books. Another possibility is that they have been taken away from the Warehouse. Not being able to account for them represents a serious breach in our security. I will be so pleased to have them returned that I am offering a reward.
In future “Cancelled” stamps will be kept in Collections and people will have to sign for them. Cynthia.

Collection Services are about to commence LC-classifying new DVDs as per the recommendations of the AV Project Group. This will apply to DVDs for all branches excepting Education, who have not yet had an opportunity to discuss what they might do. Cynthia.

There will be a booksale in the Central Library, primarily of books discarded from the Warehouse, commencing on Tuesday 25th November. We realise that there are not many people around to be selling to but there are imperatives for trying to move at least some of the books on before Christmas.
The primary reason for having a sale is sustainability but we are charging a nominal fee of $2 per book in order to recoup some of our costs. The books have been screened to remove the more valuable ones, which will be put out for sale at a later date. The particularly valuable ones are likely to be sold by auction. The books will be located on Level 2 down towards the Copy Centre (CC) and during the day the CC will take the payment. In the evenings Lending staff will collect the money. The books will be desensitised when they are put out so should not set the gates off. That said, if the gates do get set off, perhaps check any booksale books the person might have first. We are thinking of leaving the books out for a couple of weeks and replenishing them as some are sold but will review this at the end of the first week. Cynthia.

I have just been down on Level 1 and was approached by the man who removes the rubbish about some steel book supports (still in their wrapping) that were in the loading bay where the rubbish goes. Fortunately he had the sense to query that they were rubbish. If you are expecting these I suggest you uplift them pronto. It occurred to me that this may be what happened to Tim O’s tattletape … Cynthia.