Category Archives: Operations

– how to
– everyday work
– routine processes

Alma in Practice: Teams Leads of Collections Services

In the Collections Services division, there is a small, but mighty group of staff members who lead and encourage other staff, are an important part of planning and operationalizing workflows, and who do all this while also doing front-line work.  This group is composed of six team leads whose responsibilities span acquisition of print and online resources, managing discovery of and access to that large constellation of resources, and preparation of materials for library shelves.   What better way to end the three-part Alma series than by sharing team leads’ reflections on implementation and go-live.  Two common threads throughout the reflections team leads shared for this post were gratitude for the deepening of relationships within and across teams, as well as the importance of maintaining an iterative mindset as we all try out new workflows and functionality in Alma.

 

Challenges and opportunities are two sides of one coin.  Implementing a new system came with a lot of opportunities, but was not without challenges. Let’s focus on challenges first, and then we will talk about the opportunities that team leads leveraged before and after going live in Alma.  To facilitate going live, the previous system, Aleph, had to sunset on June 10 as described in a previous blog post.  Focusing on what could be done during the space between two systems was a significant pivot from the normal production-oriented approach to work, especially during the month of June when Collections Services is normally sprinting toward the end of Duke’s fiscal year.  Staff with acquisitions responsibilities had to end the financial year much earlier than usual in order to sunset Aleph.  Staff in other departments were also busy trying to wrap up data migration and cleanup projects before Aleph sunsetted.  Focusing on what staff could do, rather than what they could not do was a challenge facing team leads during this pivot point.  Other challenges were present, too, and required team leads to lead through uncertainty.  Notable among these was an  electronic resource migration issue caused by corrupted data.  At one point, it was not clear whether the issue could be addressed systematically (thankfully, it could be), or whether frontline staff were facing an extensive project post go-live.  Alma’s multiple functional options coupled with limits on what could be tested pre-go live also caused uncertainty.  Some decisions on workflows and practices were made immediately before going live in Alma and could really only be tested after the new system came up.  After go-live, it took time to develop clarity on the relationship between downstream and upstream work in the Collections Services lifecycle and to understand more fully how Alma handles certain data types like data about item records for physical resources.  Work, in general, took a little more time to do as team leads and a small group of Alma early users worked to get other staff, including student assistants, up to speed.

Now, on to the rewards side of the coin.  Team leads cited a variety of rewarding experiences pre- and post-go live, many of them closely tied to the challenges that were discussed above.  Staff working on describing resources that are new and unique or distinctive to Duke University Libraries collections were able to leverage the larger ecosystem in which they work.  Because a substantial portion of this work occurs in the OCLC WorldCat system, these staff members were able to continue creating catalog records during the period between Aleph and Alma. Though there were limitations on Alma testing and decision-making prior to going live, a certain amount of training and practice was still possible, and teams made headway on developing workflows, decisions, and documentation.   Team leads noted how nice it was to reap the benefits of training and practice once Alma went live and it was possible to perform daily tasks.  Team leads and other Alma early users were also ready onboard other staff.  It was evident from the ebb and flow of physical materials through Collection Services spaces that operations had successfully resumed– from receiving a recently-ordered resource into our workflows to describing it, to printing the all-important spine label that allows library users to find books on the library shelves.  Check out a recent video from Duke University Libraries that shows how the Littlest Blue Devil finds a book in the stacks.  Teams working with electronic resources were also able to resume daily tasks and work to provide the best user discovery experience for the Libraries’ millions of electronic resources while staff in other library units worked to sync the Books & Media Catalog with Alma.  The biggest reward during this period of planning for go-live, getting up to speed in Alma after going live, and resuming operations was the colleagues we work with every day.  Team leads cited gratitude for their teams, for the generosity of colleagues in answering questions, and for the opportunity to learn more about how different workflows in Collections Services overlap.

Against the backdrop of generally increasing proficiency in navigating Alma’s interface and options, team leads have many aspirations for the first six months in our new system.  A number of these cluster around best uses of Alma.  Team leads are eager to make the most effective use of  Alma functionality as possible.  They want to maintain an open mind about changing workflows and processes in a way that uses Alma’s built-in functionality to its best advantage.  One team lead described go-live workflows as “Plan A” workflows that will evolve as we use and familiarize ourselves with the system every day.  Alma presents new opportunities for tracking movement of physical items across library locations effectively, using batch processing to update call numbers, leaning further into functionality for reporting and updating sets of data.  It also presents a new opportunity for a truly integrated system that can manage both print and electronic resources. This integrated functionality and how best to leverage the new possibilities for electronic resources management is top of mind.

Threaded throughout all team leads’ challenges, rewarding experiences, and aspirations is the desire to continue building on the communication and teamwork that has marked Alma implementation in Collections Services.

Commercial Binding for Duke University Libraries

Stacks of commercially-bound books for the libraries with different cover colors.1.  How long has DUL been sending materials out to the Commercial Bindery (CB)?  Since everyone who knew the history of binding at Duke University Libraries (DUL) has retired, we had to do a little research to find this answer.  (Thanks to Rebecca Pattillo for finding this information in the University Archives files!)  According to the DUL Newsletter, v.5 no.2, published January 1958, DUL allotted a budget for binding as early as 1953.  The first mention of sending periodicals to the bindery was in 1957.  The Newsletter does not specify a binding company name but I have seen the stamp “Southern Bound” inside the back cover of books from the 1960s.  Evidently DUL sent some books to the Southern Library Bindery in Nashville, TN.  Some other materials were sent to Marking & Repair for in-house binding.  The Newsletter also cited sending monographs to the Joseph Ruzicka Bookbinding Company in 1985.  My former supervisor told me DUL sent books to Heckman in 1986 for a short period of time.  They returned to Ruzicka in 1987.  The company has changed names three times since then, with the current name being The HF Group.  We have trusted our books and other materials in their care since 1987.

2. Is the Bindery and Monograph Maintenance (BAMM) Section on a timeline for preparing materials for bindery?  The Commercial Binding Unit, now called Bindery & Monograph Maintenance (BAMM), is no stranger to meeting strict deadlines.  We used to send out materials every two weeks.  Since binding has decreased significantly in the last fifteen years, the CB set up a four-week turnaround time.  One student worker will be reviewing the returned shipment while the other two students are preparing materials for the next shipment.

3. How can you tell if a DUL resource needs to go to the bindery?  When covers are torn or pages are falling out, materials need to be commercially bound.  Occasionally materials are water damaged or new materials are accidentally sliced during the box opening process.  Sometimes accompanying materials such as posters or maps that are the same size or larger than the book, need a pocket.  These are all examples but not an exhaustive list of items that need to go to the CB.

4. What’s the size of an average bindery shipment, and what kinds of DUL materials are in each shipment? The size of a bindery shipment varies from 200 to 400 items. It depends on several factors: backlogs in Collections Services, special projects like renovations where materials are moving and being reviewed, how many physical books are being used by patrons and being returned, water damaged materials, and new materials that meet certain size criteria set up as guidelines within the Resource Description Department.

5. What happens to a book to get it ready for the bindery? What happens to that book at the bindery? Conservation Services staff pick up materials from Access & Delivery Services and refer them to BAMM at Smith Warehouse.  They get separated onto trucks according to types of material—paperbacks, hardbacks, sets, and serials, which are processed on different lots in ABLE.  Students or staff print new labels, assign new barcodes if needed, and add internal notes in Aleph, if needed. We also bind some new materials—monographs, periodicals, and music scores that are going to the stacks.

When our materials are received at the Commercial Bindery, they go to the check in department first where they create the shop work order according to our shipping record paper work.  They run duplicate code stickers which go on the binding tickets and in the back of the books to match the covers to the books.  They unpack and separate the books, periodicals, digicovers, music scores, etc.  They adhere the stickers and send the books down the assembly line.

A volume is being pressed.
The pressing process at the commercial bindery.

Then the collator checks for trim margins and decides if they should be adhesive bound or sewn. The books get measured and that information is sent to the lettering department.  They pull in our lots from ABLE, stamp the covers, and send them to page attachment.  After that the books are trimmed and the boards are cut.  The covers are matched with the books and they travel to the “casing in” department where the covers are glued to the boards.  The books are placed in the covers and sent to the press.  The final stop is inspection.  The shipping department counts the books and adds any extra charges as needed.  Then the books are boxed and returned to DUL.

6. How long does it take an item to go through the bindery process, from beginning to end? Depending on when we receive books and periodicals, some materials will be added to ABLE within one week, while others will be added up to 4 weeks ahead of time. Usually we unpack, review, and send the returned books out within a week

7. DUL materials come back from the bindery in different solid-colored covers. Is there a reason for each color? Do the cover colors ever change? Periodicals are assigned a cover color when they are set up in ABLE. Ideally that cover color will always be the same so they will match in the stacks.  Formerly we chose from a list of 24 colors.  Since library binding cover materials are in short supply, we now have 8 colors to choose from—black, brown, dark green, maroon, navy, red, royal blue, and tan.  Monograph cover colors are pulled randomly at the CB.  We only assign a cover color for sets—navy blue—so we don’t have to check the stacks for the previous color.  The Music Library also requested blue covers for the Miniature Scores collection and the pocketbooks which house scores and parts.

Cover image of a monograph sent through the bindery process
This monograph was sent through commercial bindery to protect the cover.

8. What’s the most interesting DUL resource that you’ve sent to the bindery? I have seen many interesting books come through for rebinding. Atlases amaze me just because of their size, and the world maps are very colorful and informative.  Some Government Documents are intriguing.  But the one book that stands out in my mind that came through recently for binding was “Afro-Atlantic Histories”.  I chose to send this book for a Digicover, where the original covers are digitized, mounted on boards, and bound with a clear cover.  You can see by the photo this book cover is stunning.  Also, the foredge was a rainbow of primary and secondary color plate sections surrounding the text and art work.  If you would like to see this book, it is displayed at Lilly’s Art Exhibition Catalog Collection.  You can also find more information on the National Gallery of Art webpage

9. Does Conservation play into the bindery workflow? If so, how? Most people don’t know that we also have a brittle books workflow. Conservation Services staff also refer books to BAMM for boxing.  These books are too brittle for rebinding.  We box them to extend their shelf life for patrons’ use for many more years.  We enter the title, author, call number, and measurements in Excel, and send the spread sheet to The HF Group Indiana office.  The books remain on the shelves at Smith.  It saves wear and tear on the books, and we don’t have to worry about them getting lost during shipping.    The HF Group staff member makes the KASEBoxes, acid free clam shell boxes (similar to pizza boxes) that protect materials, and ships them directly to Smith.  Student workers match up the books by the item number printed on the box with the corresponding book on the shelf.  They are double-checked by title and call number.  Then they glue a brittle book label inside each KASEBox to inform the patron how to handle the brittle materials.  The Item Process Status (IPS)  is changed if needed, and the boxes are sent out to the owning library or DUL’s offsite storage facility.

 

 

 

Zhuo Pan, Resident Librarian for Resource Description

Collections Services was pleased to welcome Zhuo Pan (潘倬, Pān Zhuō) on August 14, 2023 as Resident Librarian for Resource Description.  It has been a busy and engaging three months for Zhuo and the Resource Description Department and we are glad Zhuo was here to share them with us.  Zhuo received his Master of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington earlier this year, where he also served as a Library Data Specialist in the UW Libraries.  Zhuo received his Bachelor of Library Science from Wuhan University.  Though new to Duke in Durham, Zhuo is returning to the wider Duke University community.  He worked at Duke Kunshan University Library, both as an intern and as Library Assistant for Technical Services.   In his current position, Zhuo forms one-half of the inaugural cohort of DUL’s Residency Program, which seeks to enable recent graduates of an MLIS or related graduate program to gain experience in a highly specialized area of librarianship.

The cover of 法海寺壁画临本, with images of people in elaborate robes and a background of flowers.
Book cover showcasing figurative art with beautiful fabrics and flowers.

In his position as Resident Librarian, Zhuo describes materials to make discovery possible through the Duke University Libraries Catalog.  His work also contributes new and improved records to WorldCat, which is a catalog of library resources from all parts of the world.  Because catalogers must learn to use subject knowledge across a variety of disciplines and to apply complex international standards when creating catalog entries, gaining expertise is a long-term process and hinges on training and mentoring.  Zhuo brings to his current position experience both with hands-on cataloging at Duke Kunshan University Library, as well as experience with the international set of elements and guidelines for creating metadata for library resources from his position at UW libraries.  It has been gratifying to build on Zhuo’s knowledge and experience by working to describe books awaiting description.  During his first three months, Zhuo acquainted himself with internal workflows, policies, and the tools and documentation that support these.  He also spent significant time assessing and categorizing materials in the Chinese language cataloging queue.  This facilitated a training strategy focused on specific types of description, starting with literature, then transitioning to comics and graphic novels, and moving onto local history.  For a snapshot of Chinese language books cataloged in the last 3 months, check the catalog. Zhuo provided description for over half of new titles added during this period. The Monograph Acquisitions department, where books with records that are complete in WorldCat at the time of receipt are processed, provided description for the remaining  portion.

A black and yellow book cover with text in multiple languages.
This graphically eye-catching cover needs to be cut open (carefully!) in order for the book to be described.

Most recently, Zhuo has worked on books about art and photography.  This is an especially complicated area of description with many special requirements for noting creators and subjects associated with artistic works.  In addition, art and photography books often reflect their discipline, meaning they get artsy with how the physical book is presented.  This adds an extra layer of challenge to describing the physical resource.  Zhuo has come across books that are portfolios with loose plates of images, books with pages that fold out to create larger-format reproductions of photos, and even a book that is sealed in its entirety and needs to be carefully cut open before he can describe it.  Following are some photos of recent art books that Zhuo has encountered.  I particularly enjoyed working on the book that included parallel texts in Chinese and Russian languages with Zhuo since we each got to use our particular linguistic strengths to describe it.  This partnership is just one example of the myriad ways that original catalogers constantly work together to use combined expertise in resource description.  Here is looking forward to many years of working with Zhuo to provide timely and inclusive description of library collections.

A red book standing up on a desk, with the title 苏联人镜头中的新中国 = Новый Китай сквозь объектив Советского человека in black on the cover.
Parallel Chinese and Russian edition of the
photographic works of V.V. Mikosha.

A Day in the Life: Robin LaPasha

White woman with gray hair in a maroon shirt, holding a book about folk dresses.
Robin holding Белорусский народный костюм, available soon at Lilly

Hello. I’m Robin LaPasha, a library associate in the Non-Roman Languages Unit of Duke Libraries’ Monograph Acquisitions Department.

From the start of college at the University of Montana, I was drawn into the hobby of ‘international folk dancing.’ I have been learning East European and Balkan folk music, dance and crafts ever since—songs, tunes, dances (and folk costumes) from Russia west to Poland, and down through the Balkans to the Mediterranean. It led me to switch my major to Russian. After finishing that degree, my spouse and I moved back to the East Coast, to Durham. I got a master’s degree in Russian from UNC-CH, where I also worked as a student assistant in Davis Library. Then I completed a PhD in Russian literature from Duke, after a fall semester of dissertation research in Moscow libraries.

I started working at Duke Libraries in 2001, in the Perkins building, Acquisitions department. I handled a wide variety of languages and materials, but later I worked more specifically with Slavic vendors, setting up Russian and Ukrainian orders and copy cataloging. We moved from Perkins to the Smith building, and Duke’s Slavic collections added a Polish approval plan, and also expanded the original Russian approval plan to also provide Russian fiction, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and some Kazakh and Kyrgyz selections.

Here at the Smith building, I order books at the request of our Librarian for Slavic, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies. As my colleagues do, I select a vendor, and place firm orders for the titles. For approval material, I review the offers from our contracted vendors (along with my selecting librarian), we usually approve (order) most or all of the titles if they are within our plan parameters and budgets, and I pay the invoices. I also communicate directly with the vendors concerning requests and problems (shipping errors, damage, etc.). On the more ordinary levels of cataloging and physical markup of the books, I copy-catalog the books (or send them along for more extensive cataloging), and I train student assistants to apply the labels and markings needed to prepare those books for use in Duke’s libraries.

A black, tan and white dog standing in front of yellow flowers
Rokka the Finnish Lapphund, essential moral support

As far as the “days” of my work, I appreciate the camaraderie in Smith. There are many kinds of good things happening, which stretch across our library’s receipts and processing areas. The first situation is obvious in a library context—every few months, someone in Smith opens a newly-arrived box in their normal receipts and finds what turns out to be a visually unusual and interesting book. Immediately we all huddle around for a few minutes to see it; the urge is irresistible. Or, a morning dog visit to the parking lot is declared, and many of us exit Smith bays 9 and 10 for puppy appreciation.

The second kind of a good thing we have in Smith building is that our teams work smoothly and generously across the departments. For example, on behalf of our selecting librarians, we in Non-Roman languages occasionally place orders with our vendors to be received by other teams (such as ERSA) or vice versa, and Resource Description team members help with original cataloging for our rush titles… it is an appreciated sharing of skills and labor across our Smith bays.

Wooden book cart full of Slavic-language books
Just a few of the books that come through Smith

For my own job in particular, although I enjoy both reviewing the orders and processing the boxes of books that follow, I most of all want to get those books ready for transport to their next library destinations—for their next reader.
Our Slavic approval plans begin with Russian, but do not end there. There are multiple vendors, plan agreements, budgets, and languages. The materials have diverse topics in most languages. Those languages are (alphabetically) – Belarusian, Kazakh, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian—and many, many more.

Check out Белорусский народный костюм : крой, вышивка и декоративные швы and thousands more at Duke University Libraries today!

Duke University Libraries (DUL) Residency Program – Information Session

Please join us next week to learn more about these positions and ask questions. We are offering an information session over Zoom where we will share more information about the university, our library, and these residency positions. No registration is needed just click the link at the listed date and time. This is in Eastern Standard Time. Participants can login as anonymous, attendee names only seen by panelists.
Thursday, April 6th at 3:00pm EDT at https://duke.zoom.us/j/95991230185
The Duke University Libraries (DUL) Residency Program will be a threeyear program providing enhanced professional development and mentorship to enable two recent graduates of an MLS or related graduate program to gain experience and expertise in a highly specialized area of librarianship. As a member of the ACRL Diversity Alliance, DUL is launching the Residency Program as part of our organization’s commitment to “diversify and thereby enrich the profession” and “to build an inclusive organizational culture supportive of Black, Indigenous and People of color (BIPOC).” Two Residents will be hired in tandem to create a cohort experience every three years.

This program seeks to provide meaningful work placements in specialized fields of librarianship, aligning the professional goals of residents with the strategic goals of DUL. To this end, the residency program will guarantee professional development funding to Residents to fund travel, conference attendance, presentations, etc. related to skill building and their ongoing career trajectories. Additional professional development will also be offered to residents through both DUL and Dukewide programming. Formal and informal mentorship opportunities will also be provided to Residents. While an offer for regular employment is not guaranteed after the threeyear program, Residents will be placed intentionally with the goal of their positions becoming regular, ranked librarian positions if successful during their threeyear terms. The pilot years of this program (FY 20232026) will begin with recruiting two librarians, a subject specialist in South and Southeast Asian studies and a resource description librarian with a focus on specialized language cataloging.
Resident Librarian for Resource Description
The Resident Librarian for Resource Description works collaboratively with the Original Cataloging Team and with other library colleagues to assist in the creation, management, and configuration of DUL metadata for description. The Resident Librarian will gain experience in applying international cataloging standards to resources in multiple formats and across all subjects in a way that promotes inclusive and effective access, with a focus on a language or languages from the following collecting areas Middle Eastern (e.g., Arabic, Persian, Turkish), East Asian (Chinese, Korean),  Central/South/Southeast Asian languages (e.g., Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Uzbek, Kazakh), or Slavic languages (e.g., Russian, Ukrainian). The resident will gain experience working collaboratively on projects and utilizing opensource tools that support better discovery of library resources.

View the job posting and apply:
https://library.duke.edu/about/jobs/resourcedescriptionresidency

Resident Librarian for South and Southeast Asian Studies

The Resident Librarian for South and Southeast Asia serves as the primary liaison for faculty and users in the interdisciplinary fields of South and Southeast Asian Studies at Duke University. The Resident Librarian develops and manages the collections from and about South and Southeast Asia, and provides specialized reference assistance and instruction. The Resident will gain experience  working collaboratively with library staff, students, and faculty through teaching, research consultations, outreach related to library collections, and other special projects. 

View the job posting and apply:
https://library.duke.edu/about/jobs/southsoutheastasiaresidency

Introducing Collections Services

Duke's blue devil reading a book - the library iconEarlier this year, the Collection Strategy & Development department was added to Technical Services.  After his arrival, Joe Salem, the new Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs, affirmed that this organizational change, which mirrors existing structures at many of Duke’s peer institutions makes strategic sense moving forward. It brings together collection strategy and stewardship around the lifecycle which is now wholly represented in the division. It is important to mark this change to update the framing of collections holistically.

Since its inception, the modern Duke Libraries as part of a comprehensive, research institution grows daily as scholarship continues, formats change, and culture evolves. Our work is supporting the full resource lifecycle which enables a range of scholarly pursuits. The six departments in the division (Collection Strategy & Development, Conservation Services, Continuing Resource Acquisitions, Metadata & Discovery Strategy, Monograph Acquisitions, Resource Description) are responsible for overarching collections stewardship – strategy and analysis, licensing and acquisition, access and description, and preservation to extend the life and reach of Duke University Libraries’ (DUL) collections.

Within this division, it is important to highlight that we are tasked with working across the collections spectrum. We provide support directly or indirectly for nearly all collections-related programs. We support general and special collections, in English and on average over 80 non-English languages. Of course, we support all formats – physical and online. We provide collections management and/or cooperatively work with all Duke affiliated libraries, and we keep DUL’s collections networked through extensive engagement with its many consortia partners.

With these things in mind, I wanted to note two changes that are effective immediately. First, the Continuing Resource Acquisitions department will now be called Electronic Resources & Serials Acquisitions (ERSA) to provide a more overt understanding of that work. And finally, Technical Services is now named Collections Services. It is a good amalgamation of where we’ve been as well as where we are now. Updates to the directory, website pages, org chart, etc., will all be made in the coming weeks.

A Day in the Life: Adam Hudnut-Beumler

A man and woman stand in front of a pale green lake surrounded by rocks and trees.Hello! My name is Adam Hudnut-Beumler, and I am a Serials Management Associate in the Continuing Resource Acquisitions Department. When not at work, I love going to bar trivia, playing sports, binging podcasts and hiking. But how did I get to Duke?

In 2017, I came to Durham right after college to start a PhD in American Religions at Duke’s Graduate Program in Religion. During that time, I got a summer job as a student assistant working in the stacks and at the desk at Lilly Library. Somewhere along the line, I realized I liked contributing to the library more than studying critical theory, so after three years I pivoted my career aspirations to the library. Gratefully, in February 2021 I started as a Serials Management Assistant with CRAD. I am also thankful for the support of the department as I also attend the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science. My coursework allows me to acquire data science skills of use to academic libraries and our patrons.

I began my current responsibilities around the start of May 2022. Placing orders, paying invoices, and handling vendor communication make up the core of my job. I also copy catalog and manage the receipt and labeling of Duke’s Government Documents collection. Working constantly between DUL’s order, subscription, item, and holdings records in our current ILS Aleph, the job also requires a diligent eye to ensure our periodicals and serials data and metadata are correct and up to date for our users. As our department looks to the transition to FOLIO next summer, I attend weekly meetings with my Serials Management Team members to advocate for greater serials and periodicals acquisitions functionality.  Screencap of a spreadsheet describing claimable issues of periodical orders.

Recently, I brought my library school learning into my job for CRAD’s annual subscription renewals review project. Starting with the spreadsheets of our open orders provided by our major vendors, I added a column that lists all past-due issues aligned with each order row. I used the principles of database querying I learned in a course this summer to develop a working knowledge of the Aleph Reporting Center. I created a report of all periodicals with elapsed expected arrival dates, and then read that data as a .csv into a Python script which could combine multiple issues’ data into single lines for each order number. After transforming the data, I read the .csv back into Excel and used the VLOOKUP function to join my claimable issues table to our renewals spreadsheets on the order number. With this data readily available, we can identify our problematic subscriptions at a glance and achieve a thorough claiming of the materials DUL promises to provide its patrons.

I feel blessed to work with such a talented team. Our department head, Virginia, and our team leaders, Bethany and Abby, promote open collaboration and communication. We always have each other’s backs in CRAD. The other great thing about working in Technical Services broadly and CRAD in particular is the breadth of materials and areas of the library our work touches. Digital and print, humanities and sciences, East and West Campus,all corners of Duke University Libraries and its offerings intersect with CRAD. Getting to know colleagues across DUL divisions is an added bonus of that variety. With that variety comes a lot of complexity, and the job forces you to have a good memory for DUL’s many codes and abbreviations. SMT work takes you across Aleph modules—Acquisitions, Cataloging, and even Circulation regularly—and requires learning of multiple vendor websites, Caiasoft for LSC records, and external programs like WinSCP and OCLC Connexion. It is work that turns you into a jack of all trades (and master of some). Using those skills to work with colleagues in other TS departments is always a treat—Smith Solidarity! No one does it quite like TS.

 

TRLN Annual Meeting Report

This year the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) annual meeting was held on July 11th and 12th, and some of our very own staff presented.
Below, please find summaries and slides for two of the presentations we were proud to give and watch!

Integrating FOLIO into ERM workflows at Duke University Libraries (presentation slides)

Continuing Resource Acquisitions colleagues Bethany Blankemeyer, Virginia Martin, and Abby Wickes presented on integrating FOLIO into existing e-resource management (ERM) workflows at Duke University Libraries. The presentation kicked off with an overview of the FOLIO library management system and the workflow improvements the department has experienced after implementing the Licenses and Organizations apps in 2020. Because DUL did not have an ERM system before implementing these FOLIO apps, the department benefited right away from centralized places to manage this data. The department uses the Licenses app to store data about e-resource license agreements, and the Organizations app stores information about providers and vendors the library works with (which had previously been tracked in a variety of spreadsheets.) The structured records for Licenses and related documents make it much easier keep track of information about them, including related Organizations and Amendments, term start and end dates, and various coded terms such as inclusion of confidentiality or ADA language. The department has incorporated these apps into existing Trello workflows to ensure the FOLIO records are kept up to date. In the near future the CRA department also expects to implement the eUsage and Agreements apps, which will also provide workflow efficiencies. Currently the department supports routine and ad hoc cost per use analysis by manually gathering COUNTER reports for major content providers on a quarterly basis. When the eUsage app is implemented, the majority of the usage stats will be gathered automatically and more frequently via SUSHI, which will be much less work. The Agreements app has functionality unique to FOLIO; it’s a place to store information about deals that also acts as a connecting hub for many different components of provider and vendor relationship information, such as relationships between licenses, holdings, and Acquisitions apps. DUL is planning a full FOLIO implementation in July 2023, at which point apps including Orders, Receiving, Invoices, and Finance will replace the current Aleph ILS. This will be a big change, but some benefits include a cleaner, more modern user interface, templates for order creation, improvements exporting acquisitions data, and more robust options for moving POs between instances. Overall, the department is looking forward to having acquisitions and e-resource management data in one system.

Change Management – A Microcosm (presentation slides)

The Monograph Acquisitions Transition Team (Stephen Conrad, Bronwyn Cox, Sara Biondi and Fouzia El Gargouri in absentia) with Bill Verner and Natalie Sommerville reflected on the process of change in libraries, and how their experience ingesting and adapting to a new workflow might translate to a larger stage.
In January 2021, physical processing workflows from one department were relocated into Monograph Acquisitions. In order to facilitate this reorganization, planning was done by the heads of the original and destination departments, and a transition team convened to learn the workflows, describe them in documentation, and train their peers in executing them with a minimum of disruption or dissatisfaction.
This was a successful change for the department; it originated with a clear destination, grew out of a strong sense of established trust in Monograph Acquisitions, fundamentally empowered staff to guide the change on their own, and was fully supported beginning to end by management. These strategies, and others that were based in deep respect for the expertise and knowledge of staff were crucial, and shed a little light on how larger-scale challenges and changes might be managed successfully across the library.