Weekly Report
Date: 5 May 2010
Workgroups(s); Circulation Services – Circulation, Reserves and Stacks
Stats: April monthly stats to follow next week
Highlights:
• General activity levels – end of term madness; libraries busy with students working hard all hours of day and night; papers due; final thesis presentations = big waves of returns; Circ desk activity generally slow, occasional peak/flurry of check-outs; big intermittent waves of returns; Library naming/signage activity in the Main Atrium; fielding and referring requests
• 24/7 and exam hours – going well; training sessions for overnight crew; overnight snacks MUCH appreciated; issues with lighting and doors 1st 2 nights
• User documentation – tweaking web pages to make it easier to find loan periods by borrower; updating links to equipment manuals; updating reserve materials
• Film screening – iii booking system working very well from Circ’s perspective; very occasional small glitches – film booked for requester, not for screener; location code not mms; faculty picking up film in advance of screening when booked for a student screener; booking periods vary (4-hour or 1-day)
• LS and BL – planning and prep; Davison Desk scheduling, staffing changes, meeting
• Yellow cables arrived – loaning out from all 3 circ desks 5/4-18 trial period
• Stats and monthly reports
• NExpress too long reports
• Outlook fixed at Main circ
• Borrower data base updates; proxy, LIS liaisons
• Planning for office space changes
• Goals – sharing on a Google site
• Created circ phone tree – handy walled sized card for emergencies
• Student staffing and schedules – crazy sub activity; many student sub shifts (most filled); fall sign-up at Main; overnight shifts at Main; exam schedules begin 5/10; summer hiring stuff; how to better match activity with student staffing levels?
• Circ staffing – stretched thin to cover cto days; unannounced time approver changes
• Main weekend evenings – steadily active both nights; sweeps conducted on both Fri & Sat.; nothing out of the ordinary
• Sorted and cleaned out unclaimed lost and found at Main
• Reserves – last minute reserves still rolling in; met with Systems to discuss Docutek support; connected about “segue from Segue” project and how it relates to EReserves; continued prep for BL reserves
• Hiring committee – initial interviews scheduled
• Armstrong – ILLiad 8 training; currently running old and new versions during transitional period
• Stacks – transferring microfilm repair to P&P; returns starting to peak; pending office moves
• Loaner equipment – lots of overdue/needed equipment follow-ups, peak activity in booking requests for final presentations, projects; transfer of bookings to available equipment when possible; new media project hard drives have arrived
• Curricular Technology Team – analyzing survey results
• Digital Archives Team – continued on the review of current digital collections, as that’s our one major thing left to complete before the end of May
• Web Team –usability Silverback and Usabilla testing (very cool tools!)
• Circ meeting with RSS workshop – thanks to Alex for presenting; good attendance; Circ and other LIS areas
Challenges
• Busy Friday afternoon
• Unhappy visitor – not able to borrow immediately
• Overdue reserves in high demand
• Inconsistent Circ staff response to overdue issues
• Gathering useful stats
• BL – mileage reimbursement policy; printer/server questions; access to on-line resources; inconsistent practices
• Hourly overdues – had to send additional manual notices; email follow-up
• Music schedule snafu Thursday – Main student covered
• Printer at Music problematic (it seems happier now)
• Equipment – LCD projector in repair – heavy demand; heavy demand for camcorders; vga adapters overdue and returned in cases, and to wrong library; new additions to mac adapters need tags; iPods labels/bags a mess; not enough lcd projectors to go around, and several at Armstrong are overdue; missing and lost, damaged equipment
• Compact shelving in the Armstrong bound periodicals section is sporadically “freezing”; Main compact shelving still out of order
• NExpress – request not checked in properly – no record in system; returns piling up, not always checked/cleared prior to packing/shipping; NExpress too long reports – follow-up on overdue loans
• Concerns about staffing shifts; space changes
• Re-imaged front desk computer needed to have printer installed; not imaged same as others
• General room reservation confusion
• Browsing DVD’s mis-filed in sleeves
• Reserves – mis-shelving peak; 2 missing books
• ADA access/24-hour door issues
• Lights went off 1st 2 nights of 24/7
• Finding Main Library room space for interviews
• Issues with Midcat down evening of 4/28 – not reported/updated to Systems