Each day, more than 450 new books destined for the 18 campus libraries on the Ithaca campus arrive at the loading dock behind Uris Library to begin a highly organized journey into the library system, a path followed by over 125,000 books each year.

The new arrivals are first transported through an underground tunnel to the sub-basement of Olin Library, where they are unpacked, sorted a bit and sent up to the Library Technical Services (LTS) office on the first floor, where orders are generated and received and books are checked, paid for, cataloged, labeled and stamped. Another LTS office in Mann Library performs similar operations with periodicals.

Incoming books mostly fall into two categories: "Firm orders" that someone at Cornell specifically requested, and "approvals," sent automatically by vendors for the library to accept or reject.

Firm orders are processed immediately. If the book was specifically requested by a user, it is rush ordered through a vendor such as Amazon.com. "It's more labor intensive, but it's the best way to get things quickly," says Scott Wicks, interim assistant university librarian for technical services, who runs LTS. These orders arrive in days, he says, and are also rushed through final processing, which includes notifying the person who requested the book that it is available.

Approvals are sorted by subject and shelved along one wall of the LTS office. At least once a week librarians designated as "selectors" from the various libraries review their subject areas and tag the books they want to keep. According to Wicks, fewer than 4 percent are sent back, because vendors use a profile supplied by Cornell, and "We keep the profile tight," he says.

Each book is checked against its paper or electronic invoice to be sure it is what was ordered, and LTS staff members then create or update the book's record in the library catalog. Selectors place most of their firm orders through a system co-developed by librarians and computer science students working with Bill Arms, professor of computer science. When a book is ordered this way the system automatically creates a catalog record, using information from the vendor or from an international online catalog, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). If another university has already created a record for the book, the entire record can be imported into the Cornell catalog. The Library of Congress also loads its records into OCLC, often including a link to an online table of contents.

Existing records are checked to be sure they meet a certain standard. If the record requires additional information, the book passes to a cataloger who specializes in the particular subject or language area. Authors' names are checked for consistency. If an author's name might be found in various places as John Jones, John J. Jones, J.J. Jones or John Jameson Jones, catalogers ensure that the name appears the same everywhere.

Processors affix a barcode to the item, scan the code into the computer record, then send the book on for final physical processing, mostly by student workers, who paste in a book plate if the item has been purchased with special funds, insert a security strip, label the spine to identify shelf location and finally apply the venerable rubber stamp that says "Property of Cornell University Library."