Project Workflow

Costs
The Shelf2Life program is designed to minimize the costs for the participants.   Indirect costs include staff time to identify, pull and prepare materials and the shipping costs to send materials to BCR.  BCR and its partners cover the costs to scan the materials, post-process the files and make them available as eBooks.  If the institution decides to locally mount the digitized files, there may be additional costs.

Staff
A Shelf2Life participant designates a primary contact person who works with the Shelf2Life manager to assure the best workflow.  The participant primary contact may need to coordinate the activities of other staff at the institution.

Shipping
It is recommended that the institution establish a regular schedule of shipping materials to BCR, either weekly or biweekly.  This allows the program to be integrated into the institution's normal workflow.  Most organizations have found that they can ship 30-50 titles a week without significant changes to workflow.

The institution should use the carrier method with which they have the best experience.  Current participants use UPS, FedEx and, in Colorado, the Colorado Courier.

Scheduling
The program is designed to minimize the number of days that the books are at BCR.  Once a collection is established, materials are at BCR for less than three-to-four weeks. 

Print on Demand
Generally materials will be available through Amazon and other online booksellers, within eight–ten weeks after being sent to BCR.   

EBooks
Generally access will be available four–five months after being sent to BCR.

Royalties
Royalties for the institution are generated once a book is purchased.  BCR has received royalties from the first month that books have been digitized and for each following month.  BCR receives the royalty 90 days after the actual sale. BCR will automatically deposit royalties into the institutions Shelf2Life account.  The institution can use the funds in any way it wishes, eg., pay an existing bill or, purchase new services, or the institution can opt to receive a check. 

Participant Project Management
When materials are sent to BCR for the Shelf2Life program, they should be charged out through the local ILS.  When materials are returned to the institution, the records in the local ILS should be updated.  Codes for the statuses of “scanned” and “not scanned” should be created and added to either the bibliographic of holdings records for the records returned to the contributor.  If possible, the participant should create codes that can be included in a database query.