Staff Focus - Profiling & Selection Executive

Focus On......

This month's Bennett Blurb focuses on Profiling & Selection.  Whether you are a public, academic, specialist or government library, James Bennett can assist with all your collection development needs.  Need support with subject profiles? Opening Day Collections? Spending funds?  In a nutshell, we have the service - and the experience - you need.

One of our most experienced staff is Julie Buckroyd, Profiling & Selection Executive.  She answered some general questions in the Bennett Blurb but she also allowed us to do our own profile of her, here in The Bennett Blog.  How did she get to where she is now? What makes her tick?  Read on and discover for yourself.

Name: Julie Buckroyd
Position: Profiling & Selection Executive

When did you start at James Bennett? 6/6/1994.  D-Day.  (I don't know if that was significant!)

What roles have you had in your 17 years with James Bennett? I started in the Kit area and moved to the Allocation area.  Now all the New Title areas have combined under me!

Describe your job: My role is extremely busy, but very rewarding. Overseeing a team of people and ensuring we have the best coverage of New Titles in all areas and in a timely manner. Making sure that our customer’s profiles are offering them the most appropriate titles. Always looking at the best workflows within the team to make sure that we are covering all the titles that we can and should be.
What do you enjoy most about your job? It is always changing!
Describe James Bennett (as an organisation) in a few words: Dynamic, Local, Knowledgeable 
What would you like customers to know about the work you do? We work hard to ensure full coverage on your profile. We have a great system now that has enabled us to have a better matching and non subject coverage. But the real work happens when the team “find” the first available, or be the first to let you know about a forthcoming best seller. 
What are the challenges you are facing? Local offices of international publishers. Bringing out titles here in Australia months after the US or UK release, and inflating the prices. There have been improvements but we spot every title that doesn't meet our customer's requirements.  And we have to review each and make the best buying decision for our library.
What gets you excited about your day? Waking up! Seriously you can’t make plans about how your day will go, as it will always change.   
What books do you like to read? True crime, crime fiction, and biographies 
Do you have a favourite author?  It changes with every book I read but Jodi Picoult stays there at the top. 
Last book you read? Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell 
Currently reading? The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez. 
On the reading wishlist? Probably Cloudstreet so I can make more sense out of the mini series!

If Customers are considering Profiling & Selection Services what are the things they need to consider?  What they will do with their spare time!  (laughs)  No the main things are: what sort of areas they are interested in. Should I just start with an author profile and build up to a full profile? How much money should I commit to Profiling? Do I need to know expenditure in certain areas ie: Adult Non Fiction, Adult Fiction or just overall expenditure?  There's lots of questions but we can assist them along the way.

And if they have any further questions?  Contact me or their sales representative.  


What staff member would you like to see a Focus On here on the Bennett Blog or in our newsletter service?  Contact Marketing on jbmarketing@bennett.com.au and we'll see what we can do!

Read it! Love it? Add Andrew Nicoll to your James Bennett Profile

Before we tell you about this month's selection for the Read it, Love it, Add it to your Profile service, we'd like to congratulate the publisher.  Quercus (UK) was recently awarded Publisher of the Year at The Bookseller Industry Awards.   The company was co-founded in 2005 by CEO Mark Smith and Wayne Davies and they beat seven other nominated finalists, including industry giant Penguin, to win the prestigious award. Past winners have included Little Brown and Faber & Faber, so they are in great company. 

Now that is out the way, we'd like to introduce you to this month's featured author on the Read it, Love it, Add it to your Profile service - Andrew Nicoll.  His second book, The Love and Death of Caterina has us spellbound. Sebastian Barry calls Nicoll "a life-enhancing storyteller, of stellar wit and intriguing depth...pure gold' and we can see why.  We're hooked!

The protagonist is Chano Valdez, a celebrated writer in his South American country.  He pens not just novels, but works of such astounding quality that he is known as the finest of his generation.Unfortunately he's suffering from writer's block and his latest great work comprises the words ‘The scrawny yellow cat crossed the road’. He’s tried all his usual tricks to get back on track - he’s had a few debates with his trusty colleagues at the university, he’s had an affair with the banker’s wife, nothing will work. Until he meets Caterina. Beautiful, young and one of his biggest fans, she has idolised him since she was a child and he has inspired her to write. Convinced that falling in love with her, spending every minute he can alongside her, moulding her to his world, will unlock something and enable him to write, he pursues her and soon enough, he falls headlong into her arms. But it’s only a matter of time before he murders her.  

This book is a great library read.  Andrew Nicoll's first book - A Good Mayor - sold close to 15,000 copies in Australia and won the the Saltire First Book Award.  It has been translated into 20 languages. 

Naturally we're expecting great things from this second book.  With promotion on the Macquarie Radio Network, reviews and promotion in Woman's Day, Sun Herald, Courier Mail, Hobart Mercury and West Australian, as well as some radio interviews with the author - it will be a popular request in your library.

Make sure you have plenty of copies available for your patrons!  

Of course, to ensure you automatically get his third book, add him to your adult fiction profile today!  You can email jbmarketing@bennett.com.au or contact your local sales representative to set this up.  We'd highly recommend it.

ISBN 9781849164719 | Paperback | 358 pages | RRP $32.99

Bibliographic data: helping customers make informed decisions

Bibliographic data.  It is something so important to our organisation and to our customer base.  We source product information from bibliographic agencies, we process thousands of files from publishers and even our parent company in the US keeps us well informed of what is being published in their part of the world.  And of course, there is book-in-hand. 

Good, solid, and reliable bibliographic data makes our business run smoothly - from order placement to receipt to cataloguing, processing and despatch to our customers.  As Australia's leading library supplier, we expect to receive accurate, timely information on both new releases and backlist titles for our customer base.  It is an important part of our trading relationship and the request should not be a surprise for our many publishing partners.

James Bennett has a database approaching some 10 million titles thanks to the growth in ebooks, formats, and the important role of Print on Demand (POD) in the supply chain (which has resulted in a growth of scanned documents and facsimile editions of varying degrees of quality).  More ISBNs make their way to our database every day and some days there is no stopping it.  We are reliant on this information yet trying to set "protection rules" and "exclusions" can be a headache for all involved.   Our customers for example don't want to know about a "dump bin" or "spinner" that has been given an ISBN to help distribution centres get the right POS materials to the right customer.  We don't want colouring-in books and similar materials.  We work on getting the mix right, but sometimes those ISBNs pass right by us no matter how hard we try to implement solid business rules for data.  

But there is a way our customers can make informed decisions when looking at JBO.  

For some time now we have a simple icon next to the data.   That icon tells our customers the edition listed is the one we are promoting, it's the one we are ordering, that we are selling. The JB icon identifies the product that has been selected for New Titles Services and promoted in the Sales Kits.  Our talented and experienced Profiling & Selection staff work with our publishing partners on the "right" editions to promote. And of course, they also make business decisions based on other factors in the supply chain - availability etc - which would also come with a icon and this brings us back to bibliographic data....

Dirty data is the bane of our lives yet there are still too many people in the book supply chain simply don't "get" how important bibliographic data is. Catalogues are still printed with wrong ISBN, price, binding, and publication date information.  You can almost forgive a printed catalogue or Advanced Information Sheet - they are prepared in advance and changes to the publication process cannot be accommodated in time.  But Electronic files, that's another story.  We have the ability to keep up-to-date with these changes - as long as publishers provide the latest information, even if it's reliant on manual data entry.

We have to interpret book information in a way that produces the best outcome for the customer. That includes websites and ecommerce sites from our many publishers and distributors - where correct title information is essential.  Display the correct information and more than likely you will get the order.  Display the wrong information and you will have additional costs for your business while you work out how to best handle the non-conformances.  Thanks to the internet and ecommerce developments, we believe that what we read on screen is correct and we get disappointed when our expectations are not met.

Whether we are talking bibliographic files or information sourced over the internet, James Bennett staff have to select the most appropriate title so the library gets the correct book (with the correct binding, price and release date) that they ordered for their patrons.  It isn't rocket science, but no matter how the industry tries to improve their service and information sent, there are roadblocks, exclusions, and errors that we have to work with.  But trust those "in the know".  Let our experience guide your selection.

Our library customers should trust the icon.  It provides peace of mind and a degree of certainty with their purchase.  If in doubt, always contact your James Bennett Customer Co-ordinator on their direct email or phone, or send us an email at info@bennett.com.au   We want to help you make the most informed purchasing decision.  

The icon is just one of the ways we do that.

_______________________________________________

And if you are a publisher reading this, wondering if you are giving us good data - just ask us!  For specific data enquiries please email and we will do our best to answer your questions.  We also have Guidelines we can send you that covers our requirements for AI title information, images, and electronic bibliographic files.   Email our Publisher Relations & Marketing Communications Manager for your copy.

Library & Information Week

Congratulations to all librarians - this is your week!  

We so love the tagline this year: "We Find Stuff".  It says it all really.  We read somewhere it was considered controversial, which was a little surprising.  Isn't that what you do?!!  You find stuff, you catalogue stuff, you look up stuff, you research stuff, you know stuff!  What an amazing thing you do.

We were reminded of the important role librarians play when we came across a wonderful website recently that had gift ideas for librarians.  No doubt many of our customers will have already discovered it (afterall, you "find stuff"!) but the reason we mention it here is the fun t-shirt and other promotional items they had listed that said "Librarian: the original search engine".  The word itself was often made to look like the Google logo.  Clever.  But true wouldn't you say?!

We also liked "be nice to your librarian, it could mean the difference between a right and wrong answer" and we couldn't help chuckling at "Librarian by Day, Deadly Ninja by Night".  Needless to say, a wide range of materials were on offer and there's many more sayings we could share with you, but we digress.

It's Library & Information Week.  And as Australia's largest and leading library supplier to public, academic, specialist, government and reference libraries, we're celebrating with you.  Afterall, as your support network, don't we help you "find stuff" or at least source the raw materials on your behalf?  We work with thousands of suppliers locally and internationally and sometimes we know what it's like to be finding a needle in a haystack.  But we do it.  You expect it of us.  And together we can put the workflows and systems in place that help you "find stuff" for your patrons every day.

Library and information services are important to us.  And we are here to support your efforts.  Tell us about what you're doing.  If you're on Facebook, Twitter or here on Blogger, link your site to us.  And that goes for our publishing partners too.  We're all in this industry together, let's have some fun, share the joy of reading, spread the word about our products and services, and ensure future generations love books, their libraries and the world in which they live. 

WIN LIBRARY SCIENCE BOOKS THIS WEEK!

For those of you reading this blog during Library and Information Week 23 - 29 May 2011 click on our Facebook page, follow us, and comment on our Library & Information Week post by telling us What Library & Information Week means to you.  The winning entry will receive $200 worth of nominated library science books from Facet Publishing, Libraries Unlimited, ALA, Neal Schuman - thanks to our Inbooks business unit, also proudly supporting Library and Information Week.  The winner will be announced the following week and naturally some conditions apply.  Make sure you let us know what library you are from when you comment and keep an eye on those Facebook feeds for news on this and many more promotions from James Bennett.

Archiving and Recordkeeping

As many of our customers know, we have been representing Library & Information Science presses for many years.  These days they are managed by a separate division, a business unit that specialises in book distribution to the broader trade called Inbooks.  If you are after a library science book, fingers crossed they distribute it and have it in stock at our Brookvale facility.  And of course, James Bennett receives wonderful terms of trade from them which we can pass onto our library customers! 

With Information Awareness Month, the Inbooks team wanted to make sure they were part of the blog particularly when IAM has, according to the website, grown into a collaborative event between various bodies within the records/archiving/information management community including:

•     Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA)
•     Australian Society of Archivists (ASA)
•     National Archives of Australia (NAA)
•     Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA), Institute for Information Management (IIM)
•     Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
•     Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV)

When they read about the first few bodies above, the Inbookers begged me to tell our blog readers about books we have just for those that work in archiving.  Seeing we love books from Facet Publishing, we thought why not!?

Here's a few titles you must have on your shelves for Information Awareness Month:

The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping: a reader

Things you need to know.  The book is:

- A clearly structured approach to developments in archives and record keeping  
- A timely reader that asks where the discipline has come from and where it must now go to remain professionally relevant in the 21st century.

The changes of the past few decades have occasioned a review of what it is that archives are doing as a discipline. These changes have come from several quarters: interdisciplinary engagement with the notion of the archive; technological developments, not least the advent of Web 2.0; and the information explosion and the growth of several allied disciplines, including records and information management. This timely reader asks where the discipline has come from and where it must now go to remain professionally relevant in the 21st century, by negotiating the complex boundaries and borders of the ‘state of the archive’, in terms of geographical borders and nationalities and disciplinary borders.

The book is divided into four primary sections covering the following key themes:

•     defining archives
•     shaping a discipline
•     Archives 2.0: archives in society,
•     archives in the information age: is there still a role for the archive professional?

This book offers a clearly structured approach to developments in archives and record keeping and will prove an invaluable resource for students following postgraduate training courses in archive administration as well as for archive professionals wishing to refresh and update their understanding of the profession.


ISBN 9781856046664 | Hardback | 256 pages | £49.95  
Log into JBO today for your library price

Archives: principles and practices

An authoritative handbook from an experienced archives professional.  Divided into four main parts addressing the contextual, strategic, operational and practical issues associated with creating an archival institution, the text covers everything the archivist needs to know: establishing principles, policies and procedures; managing day-to-day operations; caring for different types of archival materials; enhancing outreach and public access; and ensuring the growth and sustainability of the institution and its services.

Whether an institution has a collections orientation or whether it is primarily responsible for managing institutional archives in conjunction with an organizational records management programme, those responsible for records and archives management in the establishment and operation of an archival facility need specialist practical guidance.

The key chapters are:

• understanding archives
• the social and cultural context of archives
• the legislative and organizational context of archives
• the professional context of archives management
• the theoretical framework for archives management
• establishing a policy-based framework
• managing resources
• ensuring physical protection
• acquiring archives
• appraisal of archives
• arrangement of archives
• processing archives
• describing archives
• providing reference services
• enhancing access
• ensuring sustainability

The accessible language ensures that the fundamental principles and practices are outlined clearly for novice archivists and non-specialists; and experienced professionals, will find the work of immense value in validating or updating their understanding of archival operations. The issues addressed are relevant to archival practice in all developed English-speaking countries, and concepts in place in different parts of the world are examined in order to provide a global context.

ISBN 9781856046732 | Hardback | 256 pages | £44.95
Log into JBO today for your library price

Customers can request LIS catalogues from the Inbooks marketing team via email by clicking here. 

Read it! Love it? Add Christine Stinson to your James Bennett profile

The first book on the new James Bennett Read it, Love it, Add it to Your Profile service is Christine Stinson's It Takes A Village.  It's also our Book of the Month for May. 

Christine Stinson's second book, it is an absorbing, witty coming-of-age story set in postwar Sydney.  And we loved it.

Published by Pan Macmillan Australia this month, we found it to be very Maeve Binchy-esque in the way it explores community and family.  A perfect read for many of your library patrons.

We're introduced to Sophie Barton when she's eight years old.  It's the spring of 1952 and she's just been told she's a "bastard".  Who is her father and why did her mother never tell anyone who he was?  Sophie is being raised by her reclusive grandfather and a wonderful community of Australian characters, many of whom we'd recognise from our own upbringing.  Compared to today, post-war Australia was a much simpler time - but not for our Sophie.  Life is full of complications.  She gets into all scrapes and along the way she learns about herself, her family, and the agony and ectasy of falling in love.

"Sophie wasn't sure why catching a husband was so important but a lot of grown-up people seemed to think that it was.  Just the other week she'd heard Mick's mother and Mrs Salter talking about how Shirley Harris was out to catch herself one.  The two ladies had been standing on the footpath outside of Mick's house; they didn't see Sophie but she'd been able to hear them from Grandpa's front porch.  Shirley Harris was the new girl Mr and Mrs Carmichael had hired to help them in their chemist shop.  Sophie had seen her when she went in to pick up some things for Mrs Hogan and she'd thought Shirley Harris was beautiful, almost as beautiful as Angela Dimarco, Luc's older sister.  But Sophie's neighbours didn't seem to think much of Shirley Harris at all."

We shouldn't give too much away but you'll enjoy reading about Sophie, Mick, Mrs Hogan, Luc and all the wonderful characters that Christine Stinson brings to life in this book - you'll have to experience that pleasure all for yourself. 

In a time when experiences are shared around the kitchen table, over the back fence or up at the corner shop, Sophie learns that life is rarely simple, love is always complicated and sometimes it takes more than blood ties to make a family.

Check out a copy at your local library today.

About Christine Stinson

Christine is a former language teacher who has been making up stories for as long as she can remember.  Her first novel Getting Even with Fran, was also published by Pan Macmillan Australia.  She is currently working on her third novel, Epiphany and lives in Pymble, Sydney.  You can find out more about Christine Stinson on her website: http://www.christinestinson.com/

Read it Love it Add it to Your Profile

We'd like to add Christine Stinson to the profiles of all libraries using our Profiling & Selection Services. Make sure you've got a copy of It Takes a Village on order through James Bennett and then contact jbmarketing@bennett.com.au to add Christine to your profiled orders.  We'll ensure all future books from this talented author are then sent to you on publication.

It Takes A Village 

ISBN 9781405040273

ARP $32.99 - usual library discounts apply

Order your copies today on JBO, contact your Customer Co-ordinator on (02) 8988 5000, fax your order to (02) 8988 5090 or email info@bennett.com.au 

Managing Information Services - emphasising a sustainable future

The latest edition of Jo Bryson's highly regarded Managing Information Services is about to publish in the UK and we're pretty excited about it.  Not only is it a good book, the timing for Information Awareness Month couldn't be better!

The third edition of Managing Information Services has been thoroughly revised with an emphasis on managing for a sustainable future.  We are all aware that libraries and information services are facing uncertain times.  How do you tackle the challenges of planning and managing change?  Future-proof for tomorrow?  Lead the transformation to a sustainable future?  Published by Ashgate, the book also addresses the integration of information services including librarianship, records management and ICT.

A comprehensive and detailed reference on the key management topics for information service managers, it really is a must have book. 

Rather than supply the typical author bio, why don't you check out Jo's LinkedIn profile by clicking here.

And then once you've done that email jbmarketing@bennett.com.au and say in 25 words or less why you think you should have a copy of this book.  Ashgate has kindly offered one for Bennett Blog readers so think how this book can help you in your professional career and enter now.  We'll review the responses on the 10th June 2011 so tell your colleagues and enter now.

Of course, make sure you've got a copy on order anyway! 

ISBN 9781409406945 - hardcover
ISBN 9781409406969 - paperback
Login to JBO today to see your library price or contact your Customer Co-ordinator on (02) 8988 5000


Contents: Preface; Part I Management Influences in a Changing Landscape: Managing in an uncertain world; Strategic influences. Part II Strategy and Planning: Strategic planning: positioning for a sustainable future; Attracting and retaining talented people in challenging times; Ensuring value for money and enabling a cost-sustainable future; Knowledge and information management – a key to survival; Strategic technology and asset management – a smarter approach. Part III Leadership and Innovation: Leadership; Utilizing a values-driven culture for sustainability; Innovation and creativity; Engaging change in positioning for the future; Group dynamics and team building; Effective negotiation and conflict management; Managing the political arena; Policy making; Personal communication and networking; Managing yourself and others in challenging times. Part IV Governance and Social Responsibility: Ensuring good corporate governance; Using authority and influence; Encouraging transparency; Managing for sustainability; Managing risk; Sustaining trust and continued operations; Evaluating benefits and performance. Part V Customer and Market Focus: Competitive strategies; Corporate image and communications; Ensuring service quality. Part VI Success and Sustainability: Bringing it all together. Index.