September 15th, 2009 Brian Herzog
My brother sent me a package via UPS on Thursday, and it arrived on Monday. The neat thing, of course, is that we both could track its progress online (backup link).
It occurred to me that this would be a great feature for a library ILS. Most systems I’ve seen will only give the current status of a request, which is often cryptic to staff and totally indecipherable to patrons (ie, “recieved,” “transit,” “recorded,” “check shelves,” etc).
But sending patrons a link via email or text to track their request step-by-step in plain English could benefit them to no end. Not only would it give them an idea of where their item is and when to expect it, but it would also expose what all is involved in delivering their request to them. But it would be invaluable for staff, too, being able to see all of this information at a glance, for both assisting patrons and troubleshooting the delivery process.
And I bet some patrons would also be please to watch their request be returned to the library of origin after they’re done with it.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this, but I’m definitely going to lobby to include it as a feature if my consortium adopts an open source ILS. And this feature will be exponentially more helpful if, as planned, the entire state moves to that same ILS.
Tags: ill, ils, interlibrary loan, libraries, Library, mail, online, oss, public, track, tracking See Also
Posted under Library, Service, Technology | 4 Comments »
July 3rd, 2008 Brian Herzog
I was sad to read a recent post on Walking Paper, quoting someone who was unhappy with their local library’s interlibrary loan record.
Any bad library experience is a blow, but especially so with interlibrary loan: I personally think the ability to freely lend library items across the country is one of our greatest strengths, and one definite thing that sets us apart from other local groups and for-profit organizations.
And honestly, I always get a bizarre little thrill when someone calls to request a book. I like knowing I can pull a book from the shelf, print a hold slip, and put that book on the hold shelf. Then, another staff member will continue to forward that book on to the patron, be it a local patron or someone in another state. Dorky, I know, but I like that sense of being part of a system.
But back to the comments: unfortunately, everything cited is (or can be) true. Requests can take time to fill. Books do go missing. Most ILSs don’t provide an easy way to communicate problems upstream. Sometimes, the best a local staff person can do is mark their local copy missing and hope the request is filled by another library.
But that shouldn’t be the best we can do. To capitalize on our unique network, and to compete with modern options like NetFlix, any new system (software and people) should be designed to optimize interlibrary loan, not just allow for it. Massachusetts is at least lucky that we have a (mostly-)state-wide catalog, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
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Posted under Library, Service | 2 Comments »
April 26th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Sometimes, a very simple question can be the most satisfying:
The phone rang one morning, and it was a colleague and friend from the Newburyport Library (another library in my consortium). She had checked the catalog and found that Chelmsford had a copy of a book she was looking for on the shelf. She gave me a call number and a page number, and asked if I could fax it over to her.
No problem. The whole process took maybe ten minutes to find the book, copy the page, and send the fax, and we even had a nice little chat.
Later that afternoon, I got the following email message from her:
Brian,
Thanks for the recipe—a patron called and was in the middle of cooking the soup when she realized she didn’t have the whole recipe! The recipe you copied did have the last two steps she was missing so now her family can enjoy a big pot of minestrone tonight. 
Not only did I get to help a friend and fellow librarian, but this simple act provided a positive library experience for a woman and her family thirty miles away.
There is always lots of talk about how important the local library is to its community. Which is true, but as this question shows, individual libraries don’t exist in a vacuum. I think it’s the spirit of networked cooperation between Public Libraries in general (and other types of libraries too) that is our true strength, and that’s what allows us to have a positive impact on the lives of the people in our shared community.
At the risk of being too luddite-preachy, I would also like to point out the technology involved here: an opac, a telephone, a photocopier, and a fax machine. I use Library 2.0 tools all the time, but I like that a lot of good library work can still be done without flickr, Google apps, Wordpress, del.icio.us, Twitter, Facebook, et. al.
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »
