Fixed book blocks

An institution — here the library advisory service — lends a particular pre-assembled selection of items to another library — here the parish library (KÖB) — to supplement its stock.

Characteristics

• A block is put together by the advisory service on a particular theme, for example early reading, historical novels or National Socialism, and is given a sequential number: Fb and three digits, for example Fb 123.
• The book blocks are managed in the advisory service through one borrower account per block in the library system.
• The library system should be able to export the data to a data carrier in the MAB format described here. All items on loan to the parish library are always exported together.
• The library system should be able to print a corresponding list of the items for the parish library, sorted by due date and filing word, showing at least the due date, filing word, title, barcode/accession/identification number and notation.
• As a rule the loan period cannot be extended.
• Blocks pass from one parish library to the next for about five years. Titles are lost over those five years; the advisory service updates the file.
• Where a block is not ordered, it stays in the parish library for the time being — a form of extension.
• Reservations on supplementary stock in the supplementary library are possible.
• Supplementary stock of the supplementary library must not be passed on from one parish library to another; it must always go back to the supplementary library first.
• Exchange: a library orders or reserves the block from the advisory service. Six weeks before the exchange date the lending library and the ordering library are informed by the advisory service of the addresses and the forthcoming dispatch date.
• The lending library collects all the titles of the block and sends it on the due date (October or April) to the ordering library, together with a list of the titles marked as included, to follow, or lost.
• Titles are usually missing at the time of dispatch; they are sent on afterwards.
• A fair number of titles are lost. The advisory service updates the file.
• Borrowers should be able to search the library's own item data and the book block stock at the same time.
• Statistics: book block stock is not counted as part of the parish library's stock.
• Statistics: book block stock is counted for the parish library as "loans of supplementary stock by the parish library".
• Statistics: loans of book block stock are counted as loans for the parish library.

What the library system in the parish library should do

• Read the file created by the advisory service, in the format described here, into the library's system.
• Print a list of the block stock held in the parish library, on demand and by the parish library itself. The list holds all bibliographic details, the book block number, the barcode number, the accession number, the identification number, the date of loan and the due date. The parish library chooses the sort order itself: by barcode/accession/identification number, by notation, or by filing word (author or title).
• The parish library can delete titles of the supplementary stock in its own system, for example when a title is lost.
• Send an automatic reminder to borrowers about 14 days before the dispatch date.
• A list of the books that have been chased or are still outstanding: notation, filing word, title, borrower number, borrower's surname and given name, telephone number and date of the reminder, ordered by borrower number.

Workflow in the library

• When new block stock items are shelved, the data of the items newly received is loaded into the parish library's system from the data carrier supplied. Items arriving later or lost can be marked accordingly by the parish library.
• When items are returned, the titles are marked as returned by hand in the parish library's system as they are packed up for return to the supplementary library.
• The book blocks are sent, with a printed list of titles and with the advisory service's original book block file in the format described here on a data carrier — possibly also available by e-mail or as a download from the advisory service's website — to the library named by the advisory service.