User Services Weekly Report
Date: 6 January 2010
Workgroups(s); Circulation Services – Circulation, Reserves and Stacks
Highlights:
• Happy New Year! Circ staff enjoyed the holiday break and came back rested
• Thanks to Kellam for her help in wrapping up the term prior to the holiday break, and to Steve and Dan for getting things rolling again on the 1st open Sunday after break – the day of the Big Blizzard of 2010
• Winter Term off to a good – and busy – start!
• Lots of unresolved issues from Dec and closed period to resolve – overdue, claims returned, lost, missing, found…
• Bookdrop activity over break – neither back nor front drops overflowing
• New books – huge wave of processing carts of new books prior to break
• User activity – slow return to campus on Sunday due to snow storm – extremely quiet in Main Library; by 10 am on Monday activity bustling again; lots of directional activity; guest borrowers; questions about hours, guest passwords, printer issues, new WT faculty
• Circ mailbox – 137 requests processed 1st day back; following up on overdues/requests from during break
• Preparing for Thesis carrel Monday
• Testing new DVD workflow – bookings enabled in system for reserving DVD’s on Reserve for specific time/date
• Testing self-booking of equipment
• Reserves – reduced staff processing reserves for WT; many pending requests 1st day back/day before 1st day of WT; troubleshooting Eres questions for WT; reserve Q’s for Spring term; reserve processing volume manageable at all desks;
• Hold Shelf inventory
• Loaner Equipment – busy activity; requests for extended loans
• Student employees – many schedule and shift changes due to schedule conflicts, internships, class changes; hiring at Arms; student staff from all branches covering at all desks to fill unexpected gaps; planning for Feb grads celebration; filled out payroll authorization forms for students back from abroad; planning for Spring term schedules
• Staff and schedules – all hands on deck!
• Armstrong: The NExpress, Rapid, and ILL requests are back in full swing.
• Music: lots of re-shelving to be done at Music – student employees busy
• Stacks: Behind the curve on re-shelving
• Web Team – content in Drupal and wiki; assessing use of Basecamp as a pm tool
• Digital Archives Team: discussion on ownership of content versus workflow, beginning to write policy document
• Borrower data base – WT faculty, WT faculty proxy, MIIS students at Midd; guest educator exceptions, retired staff/faculty
Challenges
• Reduced reserve staff for start of term
• Circ and Res mailboxes overflowing
• Room reservations – time-consuming for staff; confusing for users
• 1st day of WT classes – full speed ahead after a long closed period
• Flood of returns resumed – behind the curve on shelving progress; very few Stacks student employees working
• Ripple effects of reduced staffing and anticipated changes
• Zoho stats down
• Paper jams/printer problems
• Lights off before scheduled closing 1st day back
• Unexpected Armstrong schedule gaps
• Misc PS and facility issues
• Peak in false gate alarms