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