Charlie's Angels try harder : coreservices@UKZNLibraries

by Helen Gordon 

Have you ever wondered how an item gets onto the shelf in your library?  Have you ever wondered how access to an electronic database is made possible?  Or are you just happy that the item is available online or on the shelf and loanable?

CoreServices is responsible for ensuring you have access to electronic resources and that the items you have ordered are purchased and made available for you to use. Acquisitions & Cataloguing@CoreServices make every effort to ensure that you the library user can access any item you need.

We at Core Services strive to make library users happy by providing an efficient and friendly service to our colleagues who order the items requested.  Core Services staff (Charlie Molepo runs the show) cater to the needs of all the UKZN libraries. We operate as a centralized team despite being housed in different UKZN libraries. We work to a high standard and hope that this results in satisfied users.

C      You Choose (lecturer, subject librarian, user)

O      We Order (subject librarians select and place orders online, using Symphony our library system, and these selection lists are attended to by Acquisitions@CoreServices). Items are ordered from approved booksellers nationally and internationally.

R       We Receive and Accession (booksellers deliver items to our department every day and our 
            dedicated team unpack the boxes and match the invoices with the items received). Items are 
            accessioned (barcoded) and sent to be catalogued.

E        We use every ounce of Effort, Energy and Enthusiasm

Charlie Molepo with E.G. Malherbe staff.

Pass for payment - invoices are sent to Finance for payment

Catalogue - items are sent to our cataloguers to make sure the records are in order according to International standards using Anglo-American Cataloguing rules, MARC21 and the Dewey Decimal system

Process - catalogued items get labelled and sent to be shelved

Result - a satisfied user when they see their item on the shelf in their library or that online access is available to the electronic resource they need. 

You get to see the book on the shelf or click on a link on your computer - but now you know that there is a whole world of activity behind the scenes...