Library -United State Postal Services /USPS Mail Sorting

The mail is delivered to us every day, Monday thru Friday when the University is open.  We sort the mail going to the different departments in the Library and to the mail boxes of staff in the Technical Services area.  After sorting the mail we deliver the mail to each department and take any mail they have going out to another department in the library, to US mail, and to Campus mail.

SORTING:   Take each piece of mail, one piece at a time.  Read the Address and then place it into the appropriate box provided.  Most of the mail is addressed to Serials.  The largest cart - grey in color with four shelves is set aside just for Serials.  We have bins with Library department names and the names of the people working in that department.  We also have a wall rack that has several slots named for the people who work in the Technical Services area.  That would be:  Accounting & Receiving (A&R), Acquisitions, and Bibliographic & Metadata Services (BMS), staff people.  We also have three bins set aside marked:  Honors College, US Mail and Campus Mail.

MYSTERY MAIL:  Mail that does not give a department name or a person's name will need to be opened in hope of getting more information to help get this mail sorted to the correct and final destination.  For example Government Documents will go to Reference.  Magazines usually belong to Serials; a letter containing a check may belong to Circulation, Interlibrary Loan, or Special Collections.  Book catalogs would go to Robin Moskal the Head of Collection Management.  Notices and flyers will always go to Library Administration.  We also have a list of, Standing Orders that will help us to identify those as much as possible.   Some mail comes to us in error and should go back to Campus Mail.   These are just a few examples.  When the mail is not clearly addressed we make an informed guess.  Remember it does come back if we guess incorrectly.

DELIVERING MAIL:   We then deliver the mail going to Administration, Circulation, Library Information Technology Services, Library Media, Reference and Special Collections.   We use a book truck to carry these six bins.  Going to the Reference department first, we drop off their mail in the bin they provide and take the mail going out.  We do this for Circulation next, and then Special Collections in that order.  These departments are on the first floor.  Then up to the second floor to drop off mail for Library Media and picking up the mail they have going out.  For Library information Technology Services we only drop off their mail.  Lastly we take Library Administration their mail and pick up any mail they have going out.

FINAL SORTING:  The department mail bins are placed back to their places and all mail we received from other departments going out is then sorted to the correct bin.  For example:  US Mail, department mail bins and the mail for the Technical Service area mail slots, and the Campus mail.  

*Note: The empty mail bins we received full that day will be placed in the loading dock for the Mail person to pick-up during his or her next day delivery.