PROCESSING

Books are mainly shipped to UMLD in blue plastic totes. This offers the books protection  from the stresses and hazards of travel.  The totes also allow the staff to move large quantities of books with a minimum of effort.  A stack of six totes will fill a hand truck (about 150 books). Books are removed from the totes, then placed into boxes according to size.   The boxes are then placed onto book trucks from which the individual books are processed.  A full book truck is equivalent to one shelf in the storage module. UMLD books are shelved via a special numbering system.  MERLIN records still show title,  author, call number and all previous information. However, books in the storage module are found by a unique UMLD bar code placed on the book, and in the MERLIN record, during processing.  Records are updated directly in MERLIN.  We use bar code readers, and electronic scripting, to make the processing of items more efficient, and less susceptible to human error.