And the Beat Goes On

This past spring has flown by with work devoted to our library system migration: training classes, weeding projects, testing, and data analysis. We are now ready to move from the test database to our "live" database.
One project management tool that has worked very well is our wiki. The Medaille Library Support Sevices wiki now contains information specific to our decisions made regarding best practices and procedures. We have even kept a running to-do list for projects we would like to tackle in the future.
Liz Evans and myself attended the Innovative Users Group meeting in Washington, D.C. in April 2008. Many of the sessions I attended dealt with acquisitions functions. I learned how other libraries have set up their workflows for ordering and receiving materials and I came away with some good ideas to use at Medaille. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to meet other librarians who have been working with Innovative for a long time.
Another venture I have undertaken is to work with a group of librarians here in Western New York in the creation and publication of a new online journal: The Journal of Library Innovation. We have set January 2010 as the date for publication of the premier issue. We too have set up a wiki to manage the work we are undertaking. It is all very interesting and exciting work!

Documenting and Managing Projects

For our migration project, I have committed the Support Services team to documenting our decisions on a wiki. I hope this will prove a worthy task in the future when we (or someone following us) wants to know why or when a decision was made regarding cataloging and ILS management.

I have also asked the two other people in Support Services to provide me with quarterly reports including projects tackled, statistics accumulated, and continuing education opportunities attended. This will provide me with "snapshots" of everyone's work from which to manage priorities and create strategies for accomplishing our mission to provide access to the resources provided by the library.

We have a number of clean up projects to tackle before we send the final bibliographic load to Innovative in June. Reports of lost, missing, and overdue materials have been run and decisions on each title are being made after the shelves are checked for the items. We have incorrectly tagged call numbers to fix. Weeding of the collection is ongoing.

Since we will be implementing electronic serials check-in, we have made the updating of all serials holdings a priority. A new manual check-in procedure was started in the fall. Each print title is being evaluated for retention and correct holdings data is being collected. Once this is complete, a title by title evaluation of the cataloging will begin. Most of our library's cataloging for serial titles has not been updated regularly. Our holdings will be updated on OCLC as the cataloging is updated. Once we have migrated to Innovative, we will add the holdings data in our catalog. This is a very time consuming, labor-intensive project, but one that will add value to our catalog. Once the titles are updated, a regular schedule of title evaluation will be implemented.

A Busy New Year

It has been almost 2 months since my last post, but rest assured, I have been busy. Not only did the usual holiday preparations and festivities consume my time away from work, but I have been busy at work with the beginnings of migrating our library's catalog to Innovative Interfaces Inc.'s Millennium integrated library system (ILS). At Medaille, we are not using a full ILS; we use TLC's catalog and circulation products, but acquisitions is not integrated. We will be using Millennium for acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, and serials check-in. We will be starting our training at the end of January and hope to go live with the catalog and circulation early in June. In the meantime, we in technical services are busy evaluating workflows as they exist with an eye towards making positive changes to keep the library running smoothly.

Serials control is a big issue for us. We are evaluating all serial titles and updating cataloging, which has not been done regularly for some time. Also, tracking and checking-in of serial subscriptions (print and online) has now become a function of technical services, bringing all bibliographic control for serials to the technical services department.

Introduction to Second Life

On November 6, 2007, I attended the Introduction to Second Life demonstration given by Jill Hurst-Wahl of Hurst Associates, Ltd. at WNYLRC. Jill discussed what librarians are doing in Second Life (SL): providing reference and reader advisory services, networking, supporting virtual communities, learning to use virtual space for education. It is possible to use Second Life for free; Jill has been doing this for more than a year now. I attended this class to get a better sense of how librarians can provide different service to patrons via SL and what the benefits of such an endeavor are. I definitely came away with a better sense of what the SL world can provide for librarians.

In Their Face

I just read a blog post by Karen Coombs about re-thinking the approach we librarians take in developing our library websites. I agree with her thoughts. My mission is to make sure the library is visible where our community is looking for information. One of the first things I did was request that the library's website be added as a link in the "Campus Bookmark" section in the College's course management product. Likewise for the Banner site for student and employee services. These were simple first steps to reducing the number of clicks a patron needs to do to get to the library's resources. I hope to work with my colleagues to conduct focus groups to determine how our students and faculty are able not only to use our website, but also to determine how and where they start looking for information. As Karen points out, a product to give consideration to may be LibX. Linking the College Library to the wider Web enivronment is key to easing the patron's ability to discover information.

Change or Die

Pam Sandlian-Smith referred to Change or Die: the three keys to change at work and in life by Alan Deutschman (Los Angeles : Regan, c2007) in her talk at ALA on transformation of staff, so I decided to read it. Why won't people make changes when their lives are at risk? For example, why do most heart attack survivors not make permanent lifestyle changes to insure a longer life? Deutschman believes it is because death is too hard to think about, so it is pushed aside. Doctors don't create relationships with patients that will help the patient reframe how they live to make change viable. Deutschman uses three scenarios to explain the three keys he sees as essential to making lasting change: heart patients, Delaney Street ex-convicts, and Toyota Corporation.

The three keys to change:

1. Relate. Relationship building and community can restore hope to a hopeless situtation. Mentors, partners, or leaders can make you believe you have the ability to change and encourage you to do it.
2. Repeat. You need to learn and practice new skills over time.
3. Reframe. The new relationships will help you look at yourself differently.

In conclusion, Deutschman states that instead of thinking about change as change or die, think about change as change and thrive. In working with staff, I see that this idea can be essential to changing a mindset about trying new services. Change can be positive. A good leader will build goodwill and give staff ownership of their work, giving them the latitude to try new programs or services. As the staff becomes more confident that they will not be undermined, the library will evolve (change). Sandlian-Smith's library has evolved in the past decade from a rules-oriented, underutilized public library to a vibrant community center.

Transforming Your Staff (ALA)

The Transforming Your Staff program at ALA was my favorite program. I found something valid in what each of the speakers had to say. This program was part of the Libraries Transform Communities track and was presented by Maureen Sullivan, Consultant; Tom Galante, Queens Library; Stanley Wilder, University of Rochester; and Pam Sandlian-Smith, West Palm Beach Public Library.