Reading Room Trainers ILL Questions Blog

• Claire, Sarah, and Tom discussed a problem with scan and deliver re-scans.  Tom will look into this when Claire or Sarah give him some TN #’s.
• Jessica worked through the stack of Lending error print outs from the Lending staff, and found that many students were 1) putting the call number instead of the barcode for HD items, and 2) filling in the call number for non-Widener or HD items and filling them (Lending).  Also, the error tracker options for recording these mistakes are a bit unclear.  Jason suggested we send out a general e-mail addressing these errors, speak to Will N. and Michael T. in person about them, and said he will fix the error tracker when Jessica suggests what changes to make.
• Jason will look into Judaica’s microfilm policies, regarding why they are ending up in the NMRR.
• NMRR refreshers are going well.  Jessica added a place for trainers to mark the completion of these trainings in the training matrix, and Jason cleaned up the training matrix/updated it.
• The alcoves of Judaica machines will be moved to the desks right in front of the RR desk, and those alcoves will be set up for people with disabilities.
• We discussed putting the call number and the barcode in for every item.  Tom suggested that we develop this over the summer to implement in the Fall.
• Q&A blog seems to be working well.  When Tom’s not in, they won’t get answered.  When he is in, he checks it twice a day.  If anything is super time-sensitive, be sure to find someone else who can resolve it.
• If Tom is present when answering a question, trainers are encouraged to put it on the blog anyway as a FYI.
• Jason discussed changes on shiftboard that lets him copy one week and paste it for the next.  This will make things easier, but requires that we check our schedules and enter any changes (he also discussed the need to make sure we make People Soft match shiftboard).
• Tom had a statistics update:  If the client freezes or crashes, the item stays in Request in Processing status.  If we see high numbers in that queue, it reflects a problem.  If we see this queue above 5 in either lending or borrowing, we should look through it and see if any items are hanging out in there for no reason.  These become anomalies in the data.
• Tom also told us that there are some interesting statistics showing that only 1% of lending items enter the Request in Processing status 4 times – which suggests many items are being processed quickly and with little mediation.
• Tom discussed a possible future macro to enter the barcode and call numbers automatically.
• We will incorporate into the training a request that if ILLiad crashes or re-starts while students are working in it, they should try to find it in Request in Processing.  If they cannot, they can move on (but it should be easy to find).
• Borrowing queues are larger this week, but we think that’s just because we are working first in Lending now.  Tom was not concerned about it.
• Christina will work the first half of the summer, and Katie will work the second half.  Sarah and Jessica will be back in the Fall.

There was no agenda for Friday’s meeting

Microfilm Lending:

• Tom mentioned that Wendy will be training students on microfilm lending process (pulling and scanning) to help cover staffing needs.  ILL might be potentially training students next year.

Lending:

• Discussion of Lending– students are making “rookie errors” in ILL Lending processing.
• Jessica suggested it was related to the note recently added to the computers about choosing HD items over the Widener items.  Everyone thought that explained it and Jess was going to fix the notes.
• Discussion of whether or not Lending Error Tracker is effective.  Sarah suggested an ILLida 8 Add-on to sync with the googledoc to track errors.  Tom will work on setting this up.
• In the meantime, Lending staff will place errors in the brown wooden desk by the trainer’s desk.  When in the office, trainers should look at the slips and consult the lending staff if they can’t figure out the error.  Trainers can then check-in with students as needed for their errors .
• Jason Clarke will send the blog link to Nancy as well.

Borrowing:

• Tom gave the ok to accept or process requests for less then $75 dollars.  Anything above should be canceled.  A patron can seek help from collection development if she wants to acquire the item.
• Jason and Claire brought up problems with Shelving in the NMRR.  Students are placing HD items with the ILL ones and vice versa.    Students aren’t following ABC order for shelving ILL film.  Students also still are not checking microfiche box.
• When in the office, trainers should check-in with whoever is upstairs in the NMRR and do a “NMRR” refresher on the film and machines.  Try some role-playing as a patron asking for film and help with the machines, so the student knows what she/he doesn’t know and can be  taught the proper technique.
• ** In “refresher”, make sure students know about the “smaller lens” that is in the lower left drawer of the desk.
  Mention this is lens for the machines and must be returned to the desk, so communicate with the next person, if your shift is over and the patron still has the lens.

KS

Student Sign-in

• How can we make it more efficient?

• Switch to paper?
• Conclusion: give it more time to become a student habit before taking more action

Students searching in ILL: choosing Stacks over HD

• Do students know which to choose?  Should insert more obviously into training

Yenching Requests

• don’t request from Harvard libraries (except those specifically marked on the sheet)
• Changes coming soon, trainers should be attentive

Patrons objecting to Cancellations:

• What’s the proper amount of time and energy to spend?  How should trainers look for items?
• Consensus seems to be OCLC only, non-OCLC only if relatively sure we can find it
• If patron really wants item, they will respond to the cancellation; then we should take it as a call to search more thoroughly
• We should really only be doing secondary searching if that patron can provide more information about the item/where it is held
• Don’t leave things in the queue!
• Should come up with a canned response for asking for more information in the email/telling them why it was canceled

Monograph Series

• Nancy gave some techniques for searching in HOLLIS

Jessica will share lending notes

Students Not Noticing that Non-Circ items are OK for Articles

• draft email (Jessica)
• monitor tags

Blog: Put TN in body of post for questions–can’t copy/paste from title!

Copyright Discussion

• Murky on what to tell patrons about copyright and re-submitting
• In the end: Ask Tom

CF

–New priority for working on queues (for ALL trainers):

• Lending RTS
• Borrowing Conditional
• All other queues

–Claire is working on the email queue, trainers can help when there is nothing of higher priority to work on

–You can save in ILLiad by pressing CTRL+S (the save button disappeared after last update)

–Stanford: delete STF queue–refer to Request Sent queue instead

–Who to ask about what:

• Borrowing: Claire
• Lending: Nancy
• Anything: Tom

–Fax/paper aticles go straight to scanner and ILLiad is updated. If it’s not there, ILL didn’t receive the request. Faxes go directly in the box next to the Ariel scanner.