Re: Follett/B&T thread, but BWI

[Sandra Dews <SandraDews@AOL.COM>]

Hello,

I am the teen services librarian at a public library.  For book selection an=
d=20
ordering, I use BWI's Title Tales, but lately I have been very unhappy with=20
the fill rate.  After making my selections, I copy my carts to the=20
sub-account of a person in my tech services department who does the actual=20
ordering.

Each month I create 1 cart for fiction and 1 for nonfiction.

Sometimes, I might have say 100 books in a cart.  So, I'm sitting, waiting=20
for them to come in and they start to dribble in.  Then, a couple months=20
later, I go through my older carts and find that if I'm lucky, maybe 1/3 of=20
the books actually arrived.  I print off the title list from the cart I=20
compiled and show it to my tech services guy, and he prints out the cart tha=
t=20
got copied to HIS sub-account, and the 2/3's of missing books do not even=20
appear on his list, so of course I didn't get them--they NEVER GOT ORDERED!!=
 =20
What happened to them?  Where did they go?

I find myself ordering the same books over and over trying to get them.  My=20
time is valuable, and I really resent having to re-do work that was already=20
done once, twice, and sometimes three times.  In the meantime, I have parent=
s=20
and kids coming in asking for these titles and other libraries have them so=20
we have to ILL.  So, my circ stats are going down and I look incompetent=20
because I still don't have Brashares Second Summer of the Sisterhood or the=20
latest Confessions of Georgia Nicholson by Rennison.

Also, last year I set up a standing author plan with BWI. I receive my books=
=20
later than anyone else in the entire multi-county shared catalog system, if=20=
I=20
get them at all.  Then, I finally break down and order the books in my=20
monthly cart and then, the next week, they finally come so now I have 6=20
copies of a book I only wanted three of.

Does anyone else use BWI's Title Tales for selection and ordering?  Are you=20
having these same annoying problems?

Sandra Dews
Teen Services Librarian
sandradews@aol.com

"Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge.=A0 In proportion as the Structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened."

From the 1796 Farewell Address of George Washington, 1st President of the
United States
   =20

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