Circulation
Outstanding Unit
What a whirlwind year for Circulation. This unit was fully operational throughout the pandemic. Not only did the staff continue their routine duties, they also developed and implemented new services, policies and procedures. While the library was closed to the public, Circulation staff monitored the doors to let library employees into the building. They created book quarantine procedures and continued to check in returned material. For students living on campus, Circulation staff went to the stacks and pulled requested material. Staff checked the material out, bagged it and safely handed it off to happy students at the door.
Re-opening the building to the public meant many additional changes for the department. Several new services were implemented. A print release station was created and staffed by Circulation. Staff spent a significant amount of time helping patrons learn this new way of printing. Then another change happened when card readers were installed on printers. This was an excellent change; however, it required additional training and staff had to again teach patrons a new way of printing.
Circulation worked with Dao Gong and Web Services to set up paging for our library materials. Circulation staff created procedures for handling paging requests that came in through the Get it! button, and additional procedures for handling in-person paging requests. This new service required Circulation staff to dedicate a student to page these materials. It also put additional work on the supervisors and Steve Frederick, who had to act as back up or perform additional searches when the student could not find something.
Additionally, Circulation staff are responsible for sending patrons digital files of Course Reserves that are available through Controlled Digital Lending. Patrons are told they will receive the digital file within 15 minutes of making the request, so this requires Circulation staff to continuously monitor the Reserves email account and send files as soon as possible. The staff has done an outstanding job with this very meticulous service.
When the contactless delivery lockers were installed, Circulation had to learn the new system, and set up procedures on how to place items in the lockers. Circulation staff conducts weekly audits of the lockers, returning items to the stacks that were not picked up on time. This has added a significant amount of work to the supervisors’ duties.
Safety and security of the library and our patrons has long been the responsibility of Circulation staff but this year added a new aspect to this duty... mask enforcement. Circulation staff had to approach countless individuals and groups asking them to wear a mask for the safety of those in the library. Sometimes this was an easy task and patrons complied, other times this was a challenge that made the job very difficult for the staff.
Circulation staff also had to adapt procedures to help patrons who were unable to come into the library or those who were too uncomfortable to come into the library. For example, staff worked with patrons on renewing billed material by having the patron send pictures of the items instead of bringing the items in. Staff then checked the material in to remove the bill, and checked it back out to the patron. Another example of this is the way they modified their procedures for community borrower account creation allowing patrons to email their information to the staff instead of coming in.
Finally, as the only open service point in the library, Circulation fields all questions and has been helpful in walking patrons to appointments on locked floors.
This unit has gone above and beyond this year and the staff deserves recognition for their dedication to the library and our patrons.
Circulation
- Stephanie Gibney
- Kate Heflick Tosto
- Sarah McLeod
- Kati Shedd
- Rebecca Turnwald
- Erin Weller