Good morning! My name is Laurie Hall and I'm currently the Chief of Administrative and Systems Support in the Depository Administration Branch. My responsibility is to coordinate the implementation of ACSIS (Acquisitions, Classification & Shipment Information System) throughout LPS. For those of you who are not familiar with the history of this system, ACSIS is designed as an automated publication tracking system. Its function is to track a publication from the time it is ordered, received, classified, and put on a shipping list, to its distribution to depository libraries.
ACSIS is to be implemented in 3 phases. The implementation of Phase 1 is to include the initial loading of data to create the database of bibliographic, acquisitions, and processing information. Activities to take place in Phase 1 also include the training of staff, analyzing, reviewing and refining all procedures and workflow to accommodate an automated system and the debugging of the software. Phase 1 is meant to be the transition phase both for staff and functions. In some cases, manual functions, i.e. the classification of titles in a manual shelflist, are replaced by automated functions. We anticipate that Phase 1 implementation will be complete in the fall of 1993.
Phase 2 will cover the implementation of a serials control and automated shipping list module of ACSIS. Phase 3 will complete the initial ACSIS plan for the automation of the functions performed by the Micrographics Section.
What can you in the depository community expect to see from ACSIS? Well, you are already seeing some of the byproducts of ACSIS. Procedural changes such as the implementation of the Congressional Shipping List box, the changes in classification policy, the new column called Classification and Cataloging Update in Administrative Notes, the new look of the shipping list, are all changes that are a result of ACSIS. Don't expect perfection immediately. We will still have classification errors, but as our staff continue to work with the system, improvements will be made.
In my role as Chief of Systems Support for the Depository Administration Branch, I am also responsible for DDIS (Depository Distribution Information System). That's the system that maintains all the item selections made by depositories and produces the List of Classes. The DDIS system is an integral part of ACSIS and the implementation of ACSIS highlighted many DDIS system problems that are currently being reviewed by a Superintendent of Documents computer analysis staff member. This is why the March edition of the List of Classes has been delayed. We have cleaned up the March issue in light of classification policy changes and problems in DDIS and we expect to receive the page proofs by the end of next week. Look for the March issue to be out to you by the end of May.
Just a few operational items for your information:
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The Item selection Update will be mailed out to you by May 1 and is due back by July 1, 1993.
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The problem item numbers are being reviewed, with the help of the depository inspectors, to determine what action should be taken. They are reviewing the titles and making suggestions for changes.
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Also with the help of the inspectors and input from depository librarians, we are reviewing format decisions made on several publications, i.e. the Economic Indicators. We have converted some titles back to paper. For more information, see the latest issue of Administrative Notes for changes (v. 14, #9, 4/30/93). We are also making a concentrated effort to try to ship consistent formats for certain titles. I know you get especially perturbed when you get one issue of a periodical in fiche and the next in paper. ACSIS has enabled us to keep better track of the format of previous issues. And we are making every effort to be consistent.
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Also, again with the aid of the inspectors, we are evaluating ephemeral and newsletter item numbers as potential candidates to be discontinued from depository distribution. The inspectors are visiting depository libraries to evaluate specific titles that have not been received in several years and making suggestions concerning items in the program.
For those of you who are taking a tour, please stop by for a quick ACSIS demonstration, and I will be available for questions at the information exchange.
Now, on to Earl Lewter, who is the Chief of the Classification and Control Section in DAB and has been our resident expert on Superintendent of Documents classification since he came to LPS in 1976.
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