Access Services Conference - wrapup

Based on initial feedback, conference a success
It was timely and topical
There was only one sponsor this year, but there is hope to get sponsors for the next conference.

26 states and Canada represented.

Access Services Conference - wrapup

Access Services Conference - Give 'Em A Pickle

Give 'Em a Pickle; Customer Service Improvement
Terri Summer, Emporia State University

Give Them The Pickle is a customer service training program.

Sorry folks, Firefox crashed in the middle of this presentation, so I don't have my summary. The presenter was good enough to have made the presentation available via libguides however.

Access Services Conference - Give 'Em A Pickle

Access Services Conference - Library Collections 2.0

Library Collections 2.0: Managing Multimedia Technologies in Academic Libraries
Erica Bodnar
Joey Jones

Survey of technology needs from ARCHE schools.
many circulated laptops, calculators, headphones, etc.

GA Tech: loans digital cameras and other video equipment. They found that they've been reacting to change, rather than

Space, security, and storage are key factors in housing multimedia collections. Need dedicated HVAC systems, dedicated power capacity.

Items are tagged with "metadata." High-use items are kept in close proximity to the circulation desk.

Dedicated staffing for gadgets issues. Periodic training for staff about the equipment - especially when new equipment is added. Dedicated email/listserv for service. All staff, however, are trained on checking out and managing the items. Items are now all circulated through ILS (Voyager), but online patron empowerment features have been disabled. Circulate to GA Tech users only. Equipment is tested before check-out. Circulation policies are reviewed and adjusted based on use.

More outreach is being done to faculty and departments. Meeting with faculty in advance of courses to determine how equipment will be used to enable better training. Additional strategic marketing will also help increase use of the equipment.

GA Tech uses the student technology fees to maintain the equipment. Items are refreshed on a three-year cycle. Student and faculty are consulted before purchases are finalized.

Circulation as a destination.

Agnes Scott College:
Collections donated to the library.
Laptops, camcorders, cameras, projectors, flash drives, 35 mm camera and other equipment. Some items added by the library.
Check out bicycles.
Also has a secure storage closet.
Laptop cart has power supply into which all laptops are plugged at night to be charged. Laptops can also be connected to the network to receive updates overnight while charging.
Items are also tagged with all components. Helps staff and students about all pieces being charged out and for which they are responsible.

No dedicated budget for maintenance. Media Services Department has occasionally replaced items and library, with gift funds, have purchased some small items.

Also review circulation policy for changes based on user need and usage.

Access Services Conference - Library Collections 2.0

Access Services Conference - When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide: Lessons Learned from Merging Two Key Service Points
Mary Carmen Chimato (NCSU Libraries)

Theoretical and actual merging are completely different.

NCSU: 24/5 library
Access Services: circulation, reserves, media, offsite, security, stacks, ILL
50% turnover since 2007

There were 6 service desks within Access Services at NCSU, each with own staff and supervisor.

Are circ and reserves too different to mingle? How much interaction happens now before the merge?

Making the merger work:

• new management structure: not as many supervisors needed. Jobs were restructured. Created day/second shift-weekend/overnight supervisor positions. Staff reported to the supervisor on duty (change in culture)
• new scheduling system: all staff would be required to work some hours at the desk. This effort therefore required some cross training.
• cross training among staff: done over the summer when all staff were together. All staff required to do all the jobs within the merged unit.
• revamped manuals and moved to the web: staff were informed of the start page and the reference points to various processes. Procedures include videos
  
• physical and virtual merged spaces (food helps!)

Two years later:

• reserve processing time has been dramatically reduced because everyone processes reserves.
  
• less silos: no longer an "us vs them" mentality as staff now feel a part of a unified unit.
  
• better communication now exists. With fewer supervisors, they meet regularly and also with associate and department head. There are monthly department meetings with all present. Volunteer from other unit will staff the desk fro the hour during the meeting.
  
• Staff are more willing and open to change.
  
• Scheduling and procedures help with accountability. Everyone knows their role and expectations were clearly set in performance management process. Vision of the department includes providing excellent customer service.
  

Lessons:

• Accurate, performance-based evaluations are important. These should be a true reflection of what's going on.
  
• Assess skills of the staff. Not everyone can can do everything, so tailor tasks to skills.
• Hire for success: look for customer service, library, technology experience.
  
• Prep for change. Be sure "ducks are in a row" before you even suggest the changes
• Don't underestimate the impact of effect of history: "we've always done it this way" or "we tried this before" is not a valid reason not to try something. "Five years ago..." was a long time. Staff should be prepared to give specific information about what the successes or failures were.
  
• Allow managers to manage and lead: empower the staff to do their jobs and do it effectively.
  
• Take risks and have an open mind: NCSU did "trust-falls" and other team building exercises.
  
• Failure is not necessarily bad.

Staff retreats are good opportunities to build camaraderie. Need volunteers to staff service points to have the retreat. Bring HR professional or other consultant to lead the session.

Department now lending technology and media devices.
Summer 2009 budget cuts led to the closure of the media/microform center and the integration of other staff in the unit. Because the personnel management issues had already been addressed, the remaining staff members were less concerned about people "slacking off" without sanction.

New library to be built and will have a welcome desk at which ALL staff will be required to work.

Access Services Conference - When Worlds Collide

Access Services Conference - Course Related Content

Course Related Content: A Management Solution
Bethany Sewell
University of Denver

Traditional reserves: print and physical items
Bookstore: friend or competitor to library for traditional reserve material
Electronic reserves: all the same items as above, with perhaps some copyright restrictions (60% of UD acquisitions budget is now for e-content; about 40% of e-reserve content are now links)
Course Management Systems: often not managed by the library
Other Content: IR, Archives, finding aids, streaming videos, data sets....

The librarian needs to manage all these items and deliver them in ways meaningful to the patrons.

Course Related Content Management System requirements:
Should be a single space for all:
Faculty needs:

• compatibility with other systems
• archiving for re-use
• multi-media support
• direct faculty access
• request tracking

Library staff needs:

• authentication and password protection
• cost concerns
• quality control points
• copyright clearance control
• statistical information
• linking to licensed material
• low maintenance
• scalable
• adequate server space

Student needs:

• ease of use
• web based
• fast
• 24/7 technical support

ILS systems often offer one-stop shopping for library material and has 24/7 support, but not easily compatible with other systems and doesn't meet the faculty needs.
CourseWare (CMS) does have multi-media support and provides direct faculty access, but doesn't manage copyright effectively and not backwards compatible (to ILS and other library resources) and lacks quality control.
Home Grown Systems: can offer what you need, but requires extensive development and maintenance
Electronic Course Pack Vendors (eg. Xanadu): expensive (cost passed on to students) and no single point of access
Vendor Solutions (Docutek Eres and Atlas' Ares): large companies (SirsiDynix purchase of Eres has resulted in degradation of service). Ares is fully customizable and meets the requirements listed above.

Ares promises integration with textbook and course-pack requests (working with bookstore)

OER Commons
Using web 2.0 citation management systems to link to e-reserve content.

A presentation layer to the catalog can allow tagging of the items that are needed on reserve for a course. Items can be searched by the tag: e-content will display and print items may be requested from a partner library.

DU currently using Docutek

Access Services Conference - Course Related Content

Access Services Conference - You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone: Managing Change in User/Access Services With Compassion and Commitment
Mary Evangeliste (Gettysburg College)
Katherine Furlong (Lafayette College)
Maureen O'Brien Dermott (Dickinson College)

Middle Managers in academic libraries.

Team building strategies needed to help with change management. Meetings were held to build cohesion in the unit.

Gap Analysis asks two questions:

• where are you
• where do you want to go

Regular meetings to discuss the the future and where the library should be. Develop themes.
Maintenance requires constant communication.

Applied Strategic Planning.

Sustaining Change
How the way we talk can change the way we work
Immunity to change

Change your own internal processes (how we think, act, behave) is an essential part of effecting change in the organization.
Be more comfortable with conflict

Rule in the library: if you're going to criticize something, you must have a proposed solution.

Access Services Conference - You Are Not Alone

Access Services Conference - Human Touch

Human Touch: The Only Stability in the Ever-Changing "iworld": Cherishing Customer Service
Mou Chakraborty
Sharon Payne
Salisbury University

What has been the impact of technology overload on library services? So many iServices.
Customer Service Excellence - Darlene Weingand
E x X ce / CN + CS = S + P
(E = Excellence; CE = Changing Environment; CN = Customer Needs; CS = Customer Service; S = Survival; P = Prosperity

Customer Service is not a department it is an attitude (paraphrase of title of book by Tom Reilly)
Sam Walton: There is only one boss: the customer.

Scale of customer values: basic services -> expected services -> desired services -> unexpected service. We should aim for the WOW (or unexpected) services.

There are no traffic jams along that extra mile - Roger Staubach

Library markets services using bookmarks. Services include:

• meebo chat: but do more than hand out the bookmark; it should be delivered with some information about the service (available 40 hours per week)
  
• booksales
• direct borrowing service from other libraries in MD. When errors are made, library staff will make a phone call to resolve issues. Walk patrons to the stacks when they need assistance in locating items.
  
• 24-hr turnaround for e-reserves processing

Ask your patrons what they need and provide these items/services. Some of these may be for a cost (flash drives, CD, SD Memory card reader, etc.)

3 levels of community borrowing: 3 for free; unlimited local borrowing; unlimited local plus limited ILL.

Customers don't expect perfection, but do expect a resolution to their problem or an answer to their question.

Be sure to share positive comments with staff. Have a staff appreciation program.

Access Services wiki [restricted access] includes training manual and a section on customer service.

Customer Service also extends to internal customers.
Learning Bytes: internal staff development activities.

Access Services Conference - Human Touch

Access Services Conference - Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap: Building Relationships and Overcoming Copyright Anxieties
Susie Quartey
Brigham Young University

When BYU required faculty to document permission to place items on reserve, the # of items on reserve decreased. The form to document compliance was cumbersome and prone to errors.
Process, in part, led to the creation of the Copyright Licensing Office (1999).
Docutek purchased in 2000.
RMEO (Reserve Material Entered Online) launched in 2001

Ask the faculty about their needs.
Implementation is an iterative process
Market the services
How do Copyright laws and licensing agreements affect use of items for reserve?

RMEO

• allows faculty to track the status of their items
• allows reserve staff to see status of copyright
• reduces instances of human error
• uses open source
• reduced staff in reserve and CLO
• has helped build relationships within the library and also with the faculty
  

Access Services Conference - Bridging the Gap

Access Services Conference - Patron-to-Patron Lending

Gerrit van Dyk
Document Delivery Services Manager
Brigham Young University

Patron-toPatron lending services: an idea.

What does a patron do when a library cannot fill a request for an item? Item could be either too new, too popular, or too specialized (for example).
Options:

• add name to queue;
  
• visit another library;
  
• patron can purchase;
  
• back to ILL; borrow from a friend;
  
• go to the source;
  
• library can purchase another copy.

Patron often reaches a dead-end, and this is one of the places in libraries where the dead-end is often acceptable.

With patron-to-patron borrowing, the library can connect the patron with an available copy of the book. Precedent already exists with sites like:

• bookcrossing.com
• bookmooch
• paperbackswap; and
• goodreads
  

Sites like LibraryThing demonstrate that there many copies of popular items already available widely and this can be used as a source to locate items.

Liabilities

• legal: Are there copyright violations or other legal obstacles?
  
• time: How much time and effort is involved in getting this service up and running
• privacy/security: this is an opt-in service
• damage/loss: is item is lot or damaged, the same rules as "traditional" ILL will apply.
  
• borrowing/lending: will there be more borrowers than lenders? What will be the incentive to be a lender?
• opting out: when patrons move or otherwise choose, they can opt out.

Benefits

• Save $7 on borrowing costs and $10 on lending costs (average ILL costs now $27, so there is an actual saving)
• holds at the library decreases
  
• saves on acquisitions costs by not having to purchase as many as would have normally purchased
• good PR for the library

Starting this project:

• be on solid legal footing
• create a database of titles, email and usage data
  
• develop a budget for incentives

Maintenance:

• updates to database (new titles, users, potential lenders; lender statistics; titles no longer needed)

Could this be done in a more public forum? A private craigslist of users who choose to participate.
Should there be a ratings systems on lenders?
This could be great for reserve loans
How can we integrate with other social networking sites that are already prime for a service like this?

Access Services Conference - Patron-to-Patron Lending

Access Services Conference 09 - Keynote

For the next two days, I'll be attending the first Access Services Conference, hosted by the GA Tech Libraries. Although for the past few years I've participated in the Ivies + Access Services Symposium, this is the first national conference designed specifically for access services practitioners. I was a member of the planning group and even though we're just getting underway officially this morning, I am already pleased with the conference. We, when planning, were hoping to have approximately 75 registrants, but our goal was exceeded with over 100 participants. At the opening reception last night, attendees were already wondering if this will be an annual event - this just based on what promises to be a great conference!

We were welcomed to GA Tech by Catherine Murray-Rust, dean of libraries at GA Tech, who provided some context for our meeting and for the work that we do as access services practitioners. Murray-Rust set the stage by reading from a GALILEO strategic planning document describing the impact of the current economic climate on libraries. The increasingly homogeneous collections will have a great impact on access services, as will the Google Book Settlement, increased demand on libraries for services.
We were challenged to think about our role in the academic enterprise
What will our roles be as access services:

• information facilitators and aggregators and information advocates. We will be the ones to explain the impact of the GBS settlement and what that means for our students. All books will not be freely available.
• advocating for users. For example, how will we get the vast amount of public information to the public. Whose interests will we represent?
  

We will need to be valiant stewards of information.

This morning, we heard from keynote speaker, Crit Stuart.
We need to understand who our students are. Take the time to know them.
At ARL, conducted many surveys, two of which centered on libraries as place and on instruction.
Results showed that libraries were not influencing the change; they were merely mimicking what was seen in other places. However, the rationale for the changes wasn't always solid. Solutions must be appropriate to your institution, taking the vision of the institution and the library into account.
Understand your users. Visit the libraries at different times of the day to see how its used. Some issues to be considered:

• Study space vs collection space?
• Quiet space vs group space?
• Where will funds come from?
• How will staff get on board? Engage them in the discovery.
• How to create campus-wide buy-in?
  
• Who are the stakeholders?
• What new skills will be required by the staff?
• What will services look like? Compressed, new, different
• What data have been gathered so far?
  
• Is the vision in sync with the university?
• Where is student learning outcome? What role does the library play?
• Are there student or faculty advisory groups
• Who makes the decisions? Is it only the department heads? Are they the ones really doing the discovery? Discovery should be done by the people closest to those served who will report on findings.
  
• Have any experiments already been conducted? Have they been successful? Pilot programs can be good for learning.
  
• Who are the most innovative faculty on campus? How do we get to know them? Have a weekly lunch at which a question is posed: if you could transform the library, what would you do?
  
• Environmental surveys: why are you here? How do you use? Why don't you use? How can we get you to use?
• How do you introduce the new community members to the library?
• What logical partnerships exist with the library?
  

Suggested a read of the Rochester study
Also visit Project Kaleidoscope

Access Services Conference 09 - Keynote

Amazon Gets a Clue for the Kindle

Competition is a great thing!

Beginning in November, Amazon will begin offering free downloads of Kindle for PC, an e-reading application that will allow consumers to download Kindle edition e-books to any PC running Windows 7, Windows XP or Windows Vista and read them on the PC. While the new application will allow Kindle owners to read their previously purchased Kindle titles on their PCs, it will also allow anyone with a PC to buy and download Kindle e-books directly to their PCs.

Read more...

Amazon Gets a Clue for the Kindle

Ex Libris URM Update

On September 22nd and 23rd, members of the Ex Libris URM team were joined by over a dozen staff from our [now FOUR!] Collaborative Development Partners for a Solution Review meeting on cataloging and metadata management in the URM [Unified Resource Management]. Read more

Ex Libris URM Update

Welcome to Yahoo! U.

Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which “going to college” means packing up, getting a dorm room, and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges can’t survive.

Read more here.

Welcome to Yahoo! U.

ALA Annual Conference 2009, e-participation snapshot

The following data was provided by Jenny Levine in ALA's IT operation. It seems electronic participation - of the kind ALA didn't generate solely - was quite a hit at the conference.

The numbers:

· 4,011 Flickr pictures (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=ala2009&w=all)

· A Google Blogsearch says there are about 14,000 posts using the tag ala2009, but that’s not really right (http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=ala2009&btnG=Search+Blogs) because it includes the Flickr pictures, comments on blogs, etc. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to get an exact count. If I had to guess, I’d say that most of the posts are recaps of someone’s conference experience, followed closely by summaries of sessions, and links to presentation materials (in that order). Some samples:

o ALA 2009: A Perspective - http://yolaleah.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/ala-2009-a-perspective/

o ALA 2009 Wrap-Up (Warning: It’s LONG) - http://bedtimebooktalks.blogspot.com/2009/07/ala-2009-wrap-up-warning-its-long.html

o Displaced at ALA Annual - http://wpmuhosting.com/displaced-at-ala-annual

o ALA lesson #2: The Power of Teh Intarwebs - http://notemilybookblog.tumblr.com/post/146623422/ala-lesson-2-the-power-of-teh-intarwebs

· 10,362 tweets using the #ala2009 tag by 1,321 authors (including the ALA Annual account and other ALA units)

o Specific statistics for Twitter:

§ tweets before: 765

§ tweets thu: 680

§ tweets fri: 1380

§ tweets sat: 2390

§ tweets sun: 2250

§ tweets mon: 1725

§ tweets tue: 589

§ tweets after: 583 (7/15-24, although tweets continue to appear so this number will still increase a little)

§ by tag:

· #ala2009 – 8517 (this was the main hashtag that we asked people to use)

· #ala09 - 415

· #alacouncil - 82

· #membership - 39

· #totebag – 265 (an unofficial snark channel)

· #unala2009 – 450 (the unconference)

· #acrl101 - 22

· #ala09_is – 8 (ACRL Instruction Section)

· #ala2prom – 26 (Library 2.0 session)

· #lib2.0 – 118 (Library 2.0 session)

· #ttt2009 – 35 (LITA’s Top Tech Trends)

· #toptech – 43 (LITA’s Top Tech Trends)

· #bigwig2009 – 13

· #clene09 - 10

· #clenets09 - 6

· #godort09 - 3

· #mobile_lib – 50 (WO panel)

· #rusaht – 6 (RUSA Hot Topics session)

o The reason I can give you such specific stats about the tweets is that ALA member Heather Devine offered to create an online Flickr/Twitter tracker for the conference a couple of weeks before the event. She finished it just a couple of days before Annual started, having done most of the work while she was on vacation. You can see it still running at http://www.flexyourinfo.com/projects/ALA2009/, and she’s going to give us the code and database so that we can 1) archive it, and 2) implement this for other conferences in the future. I can’t begin to describe how lucky we are that Heather did this, because there’s no good way to archive tweets right now, and we don’t have the resources to create this ourselves. The site got a lot of notice and a lot of hits during Annual, with Roy Tennant in particular noting it at http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1090000309/post/1110046911.html. I’d like to request that ALA to send Heather a letter of thanks if possible for this herculean and incredibly valuable effort.

o LJ very smartly did a daily recap of what they considered to be the “best” tweets of the day. Reading through them gives an excellent overview of the conference.

§ Saturday - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6670399.html

§ Sunday - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6670525.html

§ Monday - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6670879.html

§ Eric Hellman did an analysis of the ala2009 hashtag - http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2009/07/twittering-librarians-confront.html

§ Then there was the interesting, but relatively harmless, appearance of the anonymous alasecrets (http://twitter.com/alasecrets) and alasecrets2009 (http://twitter.com/alasecrets2009) accounts on Twitter. While they were discussed, retweeted, and linked to online, those tweets didn’t spill over very much into the mainstream hashtag, and in fact, it allowed the really nasty stuff to stay out of the ala2009 space, which was good for us. One media blog picked up on it and noted it at http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2009/07/13/library-conference-secret-twitter-feed-proves-librarians-sexy-stern/, but that was about it. Someone shut down the original alasecrets account when it devolved into sex talk, but others had saved the tweets and posted them at http://www.scribd.com/doc/17344326/Library, and the alasecrets2009 account took over where the other one left off. LJ did an interview with the anonymous originator of both accounts at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6671858.html.

· According to Boopsie, more than 1500 people downloaded their ALA2009 application (http://boopsieinc.blogspot.com/2009/07/thank-you-ala-2009.html). I’m unclear if this figure includes people like me who accessed it on the web (Deidre, maybe you can get some clarification on that?) It garnered a lot of praise online, with a couple of people tweeting that it helped them find a session when they didn’t know where it was.

· There are also a ton of great videos on YouTube from the conference, including several of the book cart drill teams and a wonderful fake fight between Neil Gaiman and James Kennedy for the Newbery Award (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAvkmkFIf24).

ALA Annual Conference 2009, e-participation snapshot

Google Voice

There was some buzz recently about the introduction of Google Voice, a service providing a single number that can manage all your calling and SMS needs. One needs an invitation to get a Google Voice number and I finally received mine yesterday. I would list the number here but since I don't normally share my number with people I don't know, if you want to know the number, just ask me.

I've been playing with it yesterday and today. All seems good so far. Calls are free (well, as long as your cell plan has sufficient minutes or if you have an unlimited plan) within the US and the service provides low international rates (which I haven't yet tried because I'm not sure how this will work with the cell pone charges). So far, I have calls routed to home and cell. I have not yet had the calls routed to my office.

Of course, there is seamless integration with your Google contacts, so if you have telephone numbers there, you can place calls directly from your computer. You will get a telephone call, then be connected to the person with whom you'd like to speak. If the person has caller ID, your Google Voice number is the one that will be displayed for them. Very cool.

GV provides a voicemail transcription service. Voicemail transcription isn't the best, but to be fair, I didn't ask folks in my greeting to s-p-e-a-k c-l-e-a-r-l-y when leaving a message. As with any voice recognition program, there isn't 100% accuracy, but in the test messages I received, there was greater than 80, perhaps 85% accuracy in the transcription. Not bad, I would say.

I'm not sure how many of you will remember MCI One (which I had, I dunno, about 15 years ago). This service would provide you with one number that would ring wherever you wanted it to - home, cell, office, pager. I thought this was so great at the time (it was!) and if MCI didn't have such horrible customer services practices at the time they would certainly have kept me as a customer.

I'll give the Google Voice a chance to convince me that this is the only number I should give to folks when I'm sharing a telephone number.

Try it!

Google Voice

ALA: Stacks Management

Innovations in Library Stacks Management: See presentations in ALA Connect

Nancy Kress, UNLV
Shelve more with less - with Lean

Started the Lean concepts at U. Chicago, but works with large or small libraries.
Problem: Books circulate and are returned at the very same time when students are unavailable to shelve them. YOu can introduce rolling due dates and take other measures, but it is the user that detemines our processes.

Lean (pioneered by Toyota) to create efficiency and add value for the customer.
Value is defined as anything the customer is willing to pay for.

Do more with less, but less what? Less:
correction: any form of mistakes or errors
waiting: work process has stopped (i.e. email messages piling up while we're here)
inventory: again email example.
excessive motion: excess people
transportation: excess supplies.

How is lean applicable to libraries. See the supermarket analogy. Just-in-time marketing. What are all the steps involved in getting the watermelon to you from the time the seed was planted? But what is important to you as the customer is that the

Lean:

• Specify value by specific service or product. Service provided for which the customer is willing to pay. Product - book. Right time: now, on the shelf where the catalog says it is: Right Price: Free.
  Wasteful Shelving Activities: correction (checking for errors). Shelve it right the first time. Spend more energy shelving the item up front. and sample the items to see if they are shelved correctly.
  
• Identify value stream: activities required to provide the product or service. use process mapping to identify all the steps in the process.
  Wasteful shelving activity: Sorting the books. These don't help get the books to the shelves in order. UNLV cut shelving time by 20 hours
  Wasteful shelving activity:
  
• make value flow: completion of tasks along the value stream with no delays or stoppage. Objective is to get the book back to the shelf. As the book travels to truck to sorting, etc., it goes to places where there is no oversight.
  Wasteful shelving activity: moving carts. Get an assembly line. Is the department laid out in such a way that they can get from return to shelf with minimal traffic. Do a spaghetti map: use a string to see how long that distance is. How can you shorten the distance?
  
• Let customer pull value: The customer identifies the product or service they need and gets it when they need it. Don't produce something until the customer asks for it. Customer is the trigger for movement (when they ask for the book you get it, as is reserve, paging, remote storage - move away from browsing)
  Wasteful Shelving Activity: inventory - any form of batch processing. A full book cart is considered a batch. Determine how many items can be shelved in an hour and only put that many items on the cart. Reduce doubling efforts as books won't have to be returned to "sorting"
  
• Perfection: the complete elimination of any activity along the value stream that don't add value.

Simple, yet counter-intuitive (to libraries) ideas can help save a lot of time. Started only with a stop-watch. Did five runs to test process and saw changes to be made immediately.


Donna Resetar, Valparaiso University
Automatic Storage and Stack Arrangement at Valparaiso University
Largest university chapel in the country?

Students wanted periodicals shelved together. Christopher Center opened in 1997.
300,000 volumes in the ASRS; 300,000 volumes in open stacks.
ASRS server links barcode with bin number. Item can go back to differnet bin when returned.
Bound periodicals prior to 2003 are in ASRS; serial sets, census publications, older reference sets.
Keep monographs on open shelves.
Doubled capacity with relatively same footprint as older building.
Current and bound periodicals on the shelves together in call number order.
Now half-height shelving in reference; photos of liaison librarian in the relevant section of the reference collection.
ASRS items reshelved once overnight.


Johnny Weyand, Widener Library, Harvard University
Wayfinding Assessment

Wayfinding should includePleasant interactions, be efficient, natural, and empowering.

Maps are good, but not enough. Neither are signs.

Signs should be:
concise
clear: full sentences take longer to process; use simple language and avoid jargon
color: naturally captivating
consistent: use similar patterns everywhere
current: change at least annually
contrasting: font size will help process information
cost-effective

design matters: get feedback. someone with empathy should be involved in the design process.

Listen to feedback.
Watch patrons navigate, especially at major decision points.
ask patrons questions.

ALA: Stacks Management