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