Software developers can bring librarians to tears (of joy)!

I recently attended the 2010 ILLiad International Conference in Virginia Beach. There were ILL people a-plenty, and it felt good to talk about ILL-specific things with a crowd who could relate. Kind of made me feel like I'm not alone in my struggles to always improve our ILL functionality and services.

The conference was hosted by Atlas Systems, the company that makes our ILL software, ILLiad, in partnership with OCLC, the library cooperative that provides WorldCat (the largest online library catlog). At the conference, there were a host of sessions to attend. I attended several session on ILLiad version 8, the next update of our software. We are planning an upgrade in the summer and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

Of course there was a bit of mingling, networking, and socializing too. This is where most of the communication happens, where the exchange of ideas can resonate down a big hotel corridor or around a lunch table and where people's passion and commitment to their work really shine. At this year's conference, the buzz was particularly acute due to one thing: ILLiad 8.

During the last day of the conference, we all gathered in a large room to hear an update from Atlas Systems. This is where they share their latest attempts to assuage our complaints about ILLiad functionality. This year, though, they took it to the next level: not only did they listen and fix things, but they actually made a whole new ILLiad that surpassed every ILL librarian's wildest dreams.

The progress and innovation that Atlas has demonstrated in creating a functional piece of library software gives me hope for the future as librarians and software developers continue to collaborate on creating and changing systems to meet our needs.

It was also encouraging to see a number of systems administrators, library web developers, and other Systems/Client Services-type people from other libraries at the ILLiad Conference. They have a different level of engagement with ILLiad, but it is nonetheless valuable (and necessary). Their involvement with the conference (leading sessions, talking with librarians) will aid collaboration within libraries themselves.

In all, it was a breath of fresh air to attend the conference and bring the good news back to Bobst Library, especially after The Great Aleph Crisis of 2009.

The Interlibrary Loan Department will be upgrading to ILLiad Version 8 this summer. Once we're up and running, we will be glad to share with everyone the power and potential it has for helping Access Services as a whole achieve its service goals.

It's so easy being green!

The Interlibrary Loan department was recently asked to participate in a study about ILL "green" practices. The study, conducted by Dennis Massie, the RLG SHARES coordinator for OCLC and California Environmental Associates, a consulting group, hopes to get a snapshot of what Interlibrary Loan departments across the nation are doing to make their day-to-day business more environmentally-friendly.

The concept of a "green" ILL department is still evolving as an idea, considering how much potential there is to overuse resources. In the past, ILL departments everywhere have been unkind to Mother Earth; there are still departments out there that use paper forms for everything. Yet there is a growing interest in using less, not only to save the earth but also because many ILL departments are feeling the economic pressure to cut down and cut back.

For the study, I was asked to describe our current "green" practices. We've taken the typical measures to "green" the department: re-using scrap paper, saving digital files instead of printing, reusing shipping materials (boxes, bubble wrap, etc.), scanning more and photocopying less. Those conducting the study were very interested to hear what we've done so far. They also raised the issue of our shipping practices, something that did not immediately occur to me as a concern for the environment (other than reusing our shipping materials).

So, the study also concerns itself with the "carbon footprint" of our department, the distance our shipments have to travel and how that impacts the environment. To gather this data, I conducted a little study of my own to see how our shipping stats look.

I looked at data for three months (September - November 2009) and here's what I found:

Of the 3,753 packages we shipped in the three-month span,

• 46% of them were sent to the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut)
• 35% are shipped through METRO Courier (the delivery service administered by the Metropolitan Library Council)
• less than 3% go to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or countries overseas

What does this mean? We borrow and lend locally on a very frequent basis; many of our packages don't have to travel far. Nearly half of the books we obtain from other libraries are coming from the tri-state area, resulting in faster service for our patrons and less impact on the environment.

We're starting to think about our "green" practices as extending beyond our paper consumption. The next step is possibly to look at our individual impact on the environment in conjunction with our departmental impact:

• "How come we always seem to run out of plastic water cups when I want a drink? I should really keep a reusable cup at my desk."
  
• "Do I really need a paper bag for my takeout lunch, or can I just carry the container?"
• "What if I just saved my sturdy plastic plate for my one cookie and reused it at the next meeting instead of getting a new plate?"

I wonder if any of you have ever thought about perhaps seemingly unconventional ways to reduce/reuse/recycle in an office environment? Do any of you see a need for a "green" practice in your departments? Is there a workflow or job task that is particularly not "green" and how do you think it could be made more environmentally friendly without sacrificing the quality of work?

One Desk? One Department.

On Tuesday our candidate mentioned some future trends for Access Services and suggested that we were considering merging the Circulation and Reference desks here at Bobst. Although I don't disagree with the utility of this, and certainly think it makes sense in some organizations, we have no plans for merging Circ and Reference here at Bobst. She must have been thinking about our plans to merge the Business & Documents Center with the Science Reference Center, or perhaps she was thinking about another library altogether.

I have been spending a lot of time writing the 2008-2009 annual report lately and I'm struck by how much crossover we have between Access Services units. I'm very proud that it is now impossible to list our accomplishments in terms of individual units as so much of what we have done crosses the boundaries of our units. Great examples of this include:

• Stacks now pulls material for both Reserve and ILL
• Eileen has leadership responsibility for 3 Circ, Reserve and LP in the evenings
• Collaborations between Stacks and Offsite Prep, (setting priorities and reballancing)
• Quick Check machines, which were investigated by Pat, implemented by Sydney and operationalized by Eric.
• LP uses circulation data to determine patron eligibility for lockers and carrels
  

Over the past 5 years we have worked really hard to unify Access Services and this year's annual report is the first opportunity I have had to pause and notice how far we have come. Together we share our successes and together we learn from our mistakes.

So, while we aren't planning to merge Circ and Reference any time soon, we have successfully merged Circ, Reserves, ILL, LP, Stacks and Offsite Prep into an interrelated group of units collectively known as Access Services.