Barcoding Procedures

Government Documents Barcoding Procedures

Quick view:

I.    Open envelope and check shipping list numbers

II.   Gather appropriate shipping lists and items

III.  Affix barcodes

IV.  Sorting and distribution of items

V.   Left over barcodes or items

Details:

I. Open the envelope and check shipping list numbers

A.  The barcodes will arrive in a 5”x7” manila envelope, with a return address for Marcive.

B.  Open the envelope and withdraw the folded piece of paper with a plastic bag stapled to it.  The piece of paper will be identical to the email Marcive sent detailing the shipping list numbers, shipping dates, and number of items for that week.  The barcodes themselves will be in the plastic bag.

II.  Gather shipping lists and items

A.  Take the paper from the envelope to the Gov Docs shelves and find the shipping lists given.  You may either gather all shipping lists and items listed at once, or gather (and process) them individually.  If you gather them all at once, be sure not to mix items and shipping lists.

B.  Note that if the shipping list that arrived with the barcodes enumerates a shipping list that is not on the Gov Docs shelves, there are two possibilities:  1-you had to claim the entire shipping list; 2-all titles on the list were serials and the shipping list was recycled.

III.  Affix barcodes

A.  Matching items and barcodes

The easiest way to find an item’s barcode is to consult the shipping list.  Find the title of the item on the shipping list, then look to the column to the left of the title-the Classification (SuDoc) Number column.  The barcodes are in order according to SuDoc number, so you should be able to locate a particular barcode by its SuDoc number quickly.  Once you find the appropriate barcode, confirm that the (partial) title on the barcode matches the title of the item in hand.

B.  Placement of barcodes

Barcodes are placed on the inside of the back cover of most items.  For items without covers, such as soft paper hearings and reports, place the barcode on the back or inside of the last page–wherever it will not cover important information.

For CD-ROMs, DVDs, floppy disks, and kits, place the barcode on a spare piece of waxy paper and place it inside the case.  For maps, see the Maps Processing section.

IV.  Sorting and distribution of barcoded items.

  1. Y1 items
    As of 10/2011 Y1s are treated like serials and will not have barcodes or item records.
  1. Y 4 items

As you affix a barcode, note the SuDoc number; all Y4 numbers will be security stripped and should be placed in a group together.

Y1 SuDoc numbers are never security stripped and should be placed in a group together.

B.  Other SuDoc numbers

If the item is a paper item and does not contain accompanying material (if it does have accompanying material, see below) and the SuDoc number is something other than a Y4 or Y1, it should be stripped with the Y4 pile.

C.  Place all document with a Y4 SuDoc number, and the other materials that should be security stripped on the “New Monographs DOCS” shelf in Physical Processing.

D.  Accompanying materials

Paper items with accompanying material should be placed on the appropriate shelf in Cataloging.

E.  Electronic materials

See the section “Electronic Materials Processing” for what to do after barcoding the item.

V.  Left over barcodes.

If you are finished barcoding a shipment and have barcodes remaining with no matching items, there are a few possibilities.  Note that more than one of the following conditions may apply. If, after reviewing the choices below, you are unsure of the reason for the extra barcode, please ask for help.

A.  The barcodes belong to items that have been claimed.  Staple the barcode(s) to the claim confirmation email until the claim arrives.

B.  The barcodes are for separates which have not yet been processed. Very occasionally the barcodes for separates precede the shipping list. Save the barcodes for processing of separates.

C.  The barcodes belong to ‘serial’ items.  Marcive sends barcodes only for monographic items.  Since, however, our definition of serial does not always match others’ definition, sometimes a barcode will appear for an item Marcive considers a monograph but we consider a serial.  Check your shipping lists for serial titles.  If you find a match, you will need to go into Millennium and access the record associated with that barcode.  If Ellis Library is the only one with a holding for the title (extremely rare), delete the item and add a z(990) note “MU Summon delete” in the bibliographic records.  If there are other holdings for the title, suppress the Ellis item record, then add a z(990) note “MU Summon delete.”

D.  Occasionally, you will have monographic items in a shipment for which no barcodes have arrived.  Check these items in Millennium by title.  If there is no item record there, double check that the item is not considered a serial.  If you can find no serial record, then these are miscellaneous materials that should be sent to Cataloging.