SWAN Acquisitions and Cataloging Networking Group

May 7, 2026 10:00 AM–12:00 PM

Warrenville Public Library District

Join the co-chairs for a lively discussion of acquisitions cataloging practices, including materials handling, serials, and a review of cataloging standards. This is an opportunity to learn from colleagues and share effective techniques.This is an in-person meeting.

Notes

SWAN Acquisitions and Cataloging Networking Group Notes

Thursday, May 7, 2026 10:00 AM – Noon

Location: Warrenville Public Library District

28W751 Stafford Pl, Warrenville, IL 60555
Co-Chairs of the group:

Susana Leyva, co-chair, Downers Grove Public Library

MaryKellie Marquez, co-chair, Warrenville Public Library District

Welcome and introductions

We had 27 attendees from a variety of member libraries (including SWAN staff)

Going green

Packing slips are no longer included with Ingram – do you print them? If not, what do you do?

Some libraries use the digital packing list files that they are sent via Ingram. They make a spreadsheet and copy/paste the ISBNs of the items in the shipment. They then scan the ISBNs of the items received. Using a quick “highlight duplicates” rule for cells – they can find items that were not included in the shipment or the packing slip
Some libraries still print these out and plan to continue to do so
Some people said they use the invoice they print for the business office and do a light highlight/check to verify all items invoiced were also received

Receiving materials – DGS uses business card sized cards with title information – printed at time of ordering. What do other libraries do?

Some libraries use the item note (subfield “n”) of the 947 field with Edifact ordering. That adds a note from selectors to the order line in WorkFlows
The downside is it also includes the note in the 947 field of a record, making any notes with patron information (like for holds request) appear in a public portion of the catalog. Avoid that for notes of this nature
There is also a way to get a note field to appear on the item record itself if you use batch import to create your items. Reach out to SWAN for more information if you are interested
Some libraries really limit their use of staff notes except in extreme situations. In those cases, selectors have to have their items in separate carts that are specifically labeled as an item with specific processing notes. In those instances, since it is rare it can be handled outside of creating any sort of checking system for all items ordered
Many tech departments are also moving away from placing patron holds to avoid having this data live in multiple places (online, in the bib record, etc.) – so it would be up to selectors/reference staff to keep that information and place the hold when possible. It would be up to each library to determine the method the use for this and whether the hold is placed at time of ordering or at the time the item is received and processed.

SWAN Expo – Anyone interested in presenting?

SWAN Expo takes place on August 21st at NIU Naperville

A couple session ideas came from this discussion throughout the meeting. (Disclaimer - No session listed here has been officially submitted for consideration/inclusion in SWAN expo at the time of writing these notes)
“You want me to catalog what?” – a roundtable discussion on the most unique things you have had to catalog for your Library of Things collections
It takes a village – a panel discussion of multiple people from various parts of a library talking about the creation of a committee or an internal process for adding new collections. Have representatives from reference, circulation, technical services, marketings, and more to discuss what each department needs to know, what decisions need to be made within each department, and how to successfully launch a new collection with everyone in the know and prepared to do so successfully across the organization

Amazon Acquisitions Demo – Rebecca Bartlett (La Grange Public Library)

Rebecca shared her process of applying grids to items in carts, downloading the MARC files from Amazon, importing them, and loading the orders into WorkFlows. The step-by-step process is in the PowerPoint presentation.
Rebecca also mentioned that all libraries are eligible for a free business account with Amazon (which is required for this process) through ILA

The individuals conducting this ordering process also have to be an administrator role in your organization’s Amazon business account

Rebecca also shared that Amazon is planning to be at ALA and that they have many former Baker & Taylor employees working for them in these efforts. They have multiple updates to the process in mind already, but right now it is pretty basic and only for book materials.

Libraria update to IP address

There is a known issues page for this. If you are still seeing errors and need additional help with this, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Duplicate bib entries in Load Bibs with Order Info report

If you have multiple order lines for the same item in the same order, it will create a second bib record for the title during the Bib Load Order process. If at all possible, please update the quantity of one line rather than adding multiple. Of course, if your funds are different for titles that are purchased for multiple collections, it makes sense to leave them as separate order lines. In those instances, please check to see if multiple bib records are created and submit a merge request to SWAN if so.

Bib Order Import file naming conventions and retention

Please use your library’s 3 letter code before the file name you assign for your Bib Order Import file. This will prevent people from running another library’s file by mistake.
SWAN staff are also going to more proactively clean out the files that have been abandoned after their initial import. One of the ways we will be selecting files for deletion will be whether they include a library’s 3 letter code or not.