Minutes
LAMA SASS Circulation/Access Services Discussion Group (LLAMA-SASS)
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Hilton Anaheim - Oceanside, 8:00-10:00am
Welcome & Introductions by Michelle (Chelle) Batchelor (Chair)
 Norice Lee (Vice-Chair)
 Robyn Huff-Eibl (Secretary)
Announcements
 Paul Sharpe (from University of Missouri - St. Louis) is the editor of Journal of Access
Services. To view a FREE online sample copy, go to:
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/WJAS. JAS, which is a scholarly and peer reviewed
journal published quarterly, is always looking for submissions. Given the nature of
Access Services it doesn't always lend itself to scholarly pursuits but everyone has a story
to tell and your colleagues can benefit from your knowledge and learning. JAS is trying
to bridge the gap with special libraries and public librarians. Please contact Paul if you
have article ideas.
 The 2012 Access Services Conference (4th year) will be held at the Georgia Tech Hotel
and conference Center on November 8-10, 2012 in Atlanta, GA. Please see
http://accessservicesconference.org/. If you have suggestions for speakers please contact
Stella Richardson at Georgia Tech. This is a great conference!
 FEAST (Future & Emerging Access Services Trends) – 2nd year for this program, 4:00pm
today at Convention Center.
 Ann Snowman (Pennsylvania State University) - incoming chair of LLAMA SASS.
She is making committee appointments; 3 appointments available. If interested fill out
the volunteer form online.
 Chelle Batchelor - moderating program - shared collections and Ex Libris will talk about
new cloud based ILS systems at 10:30am in rm 213 AB convention center; many are
looking at new ILS systems right now or in the bid process – good session.
 Minutes and login sheet posted on ALA Connect - in past posted this was locked down
for privacy. Received input to not lock minutes. Attendee list is still posted as private
but minutes are now posted as public for all to access; also sending minutes out to
circplus listserv. When speaking reintroduce yourself to help Secretary keep track in the
minutes; this helps when colleagues want to follow-up. On ALA Connect there is a join
button on right hand side - add as a community and you will become member of this
group as long as you are an ALA member.
Elections
 Chair - commit to being at both conferences and prepare agenda for midwinter and
annual; solicit options on circplus listserv then vote; liaison relationship with
Circulation/Access Services LLAMA SASS Committee - either send committee report or
attend meeting and provide update on this discussion group.
 Open call for volunteers?
 Norice Lee has taken a new position and needs to attend other meetings at this point.
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Robyn Huff-Eibl (University of Arizona) agreed to Chair July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013
Vice-Chair - not much responsibility; support chair as needed and then usually serve
additional year as Chair.
William Weare (IUPUI) agreed to fill Vice-Chair role July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013
Secretary – post minutes to ALA Connect and circplus; provide and gather sign-in sheets
for both meetings.
Denita Hampton (Georgia State) agreed to fill Vice-Chair role July 1, 2012 to June 30,
2013
No other names for these positions. Robyn, William and Denita elected for July 1, 2012
to June 30, 2013
Thank-you Chelle and Norice for serving this past year.
Discussion Topics
The following topics were selected from responses collected through ALA Connect and CircPlus
communication:
Topic #1: Role of Access Services in the Digital Age
Discussion
 Brian Greene thought Circ/Access Services committee was coordinating a program on
this?
 New Mexico State (Norice Lee) looking at ways to restructure and integrate more
collection development with access services, and exploring how units can be more
flexible to tackle ebooks and cloud computing
 Anytime anyplace library as a concept - sharing resources and ebooks with each other;
being accessible to our patrons; book delivery to students
 electronic journals; ebooks and video streaming make it easy for students to not come in
the library
 Transforming the space so it's not recognizable as a library; it's all about the value
proposition; more and more looking like IT centers and not traditional libraries with
separate reference and circ desks; users gets help but doesn't necessarily know who is
providing the service; does it matter as long as they get what they want (ref librarian, circ
staff or IT person helping them)
 Media Scape (http://www.steelcase.eu/en/products/category/deskstables/conference/mediascape/pages/overview.aspx) tables and high end equipment for
students to use; removing shelving to transform space; high end data center/game design/
animation studios; GIS computing - WOW factor
 Building renovation; 2 video studios and editing bays; more group study rooms; add a
cafe; 24x7 study cube not staffed but has wireless for student study; open until midnight
in rest of the library; circulate laptops students can take them into the study cube; liquid
earth partnership with Google digital room? Touchscreen - WOW factor for very small
group (Colorado State University)
 How is training changing for access services staff? Campus IT merged with library and
tech savvy students (Colorado State University)
 U of West FL - smart boards in study rooms etc. Not all staff will pick up technology
easily; as turn over occurs hiring for these tech skills specifically
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U of MN Twin Cities - LYRASIS org talking about future of reference services - and
many are hiring computer science students to assist
Brian Greene (Northeaster University) - couple areas where he sees Access Services
could step up; we provide the service but IT provide the support; reference librarians
embedded out in their departments and access services left managing the building;
inventory management
Chelle (University of Washington Bothell) - has tech staff sitting at desk to assist students
Ann Snowman (Pennsylvania State University) - opened new Knowledge Commons
January 9th 2012; partnered with campus IT and campus media services; library services
also has a presence there; access services not there but they renamed their desk right at
the intersection of this new space (entrance) staffing this desk in the evening; circulating
a lot of equipment; merged circ and reserves; 24x5 we are there when others are not and
have to fill in
What's happening with traditional stuff like circ and shelving? Difference in staffing
now?
Nancy Kress - NCSU - opening new library (Hunt Library) in January - moving towards
an integrated service point (user experience - blend of web and customer service/ IT and
Reference) blended service; mostly routine transactions at this desk; referrals for the
smaller portion of questions needing higher level help; students will have radios
(expensive) but they will rove and we can send students to the customers.
Villanova - opened new addition with remote stacks but accessible to patrons; remote
areas; posting signs so patrons can call the desk for help
University of Arizona using QR codes at all tables in group study rooms; links user to
24X7 (almost) chat service; students get whatever help they need wherever they are at
and don’t have to leave their location.
NCSU - students have name tags/lanyards to help ID them when they are out walking in
the stacks; train students to actively look and see if customers need help/assist if they
look lost. Customer Service Philosophy of being available. Many are stacks questions.
Rooms in the building are hard to find so they help with this. I can't find this file or this
program crashed; basic IT help. Integrated team approach – similar to University of
Arizona; no longer clear silos that differentiate the work; instead just look at what users
want and address it; NCSU does all the triage rather than having the students figure it out.
NCSU can schedule on the bibliographers calendar; by appointment also (not unionized
which makes it easier to do all of this in this organizational structure)
NCSU - break transactions down into 4 transactions (classic circ, tech, ??)
University of Arizona “one service desk concept” - staff that can handle everything,
including IT, reference, circ, billing and ILL; idea of one stop shopping so the first staff a
student encounters can handle almost everything;
University of Arizona discussed 4 new job classifications introduced several years ago;
allows ability to have entry level be at a much higher lever; no unions also make this
structure much easier to implement; UA hiring differently as a result of new job
classifications – allows support for these blended services; including hiring for IT skills
This all makes sense but many institutions are reluctant to want to go to this blended
service - how to people handle this?
U of West FL, due to renovations, had to have reference staff join circ staff so they are
now appreciating the circ staff more; University of Arizona mentioned that you need
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administrative support to do this and need some sort of transition period for staff; look at
the data to help with the transition and training to meet 80% of frequently covered
reference topics/searches
DeskTracker; LibAnalytics; libstats; Gimlet; LibPAS; homegrown systems and also
(excel and word docs) are various software institutions using to collect data; track type of
question and some tracking the actual question; some stopped doing this because it is
hard to track actual question; some do a sampling of the questions; some use clickers;
Springshare LibAnalytics but often there is no subject to categorize the questions so have
turned this off; libstats yes tracking actual question - choose your categories and then
track; LibAnalytics to LibAnswers so we will be tracking the actual questions (U of MD)
DeskTracker with separate logins so reference can use and circ can use and they only
select the appropriate category when recording their stat; moving from DeskTracker to
LibAnalytics and integrating it into one overall stats for organization to see what types of
actual questions are occurring at circ desks – helps with staffing models (University of
Arizona)
(Fairfield university) also doing on call model for reference librarians in the summer; circ
is their main point; starting July 1 with LibAnalytics
Loyola using Gimlet to track - does all the same things as these other products and who
the person is (visitor/student etc.) Using gimlet and spec.coll/ media area/ reserves and
circ etc. Also gives you data per hour and when busiest hours and helps with scheduling
and justifying what level of staff needs to be at the desk during certain periods of time;
also using this to assess staff and answers they are providing.
University of Arizona using LibraryH3lp for chat; discussed how it tracks automatically
and how when their numbers were off they went back and reviewed transactions – easily
counted stats and used transactions for training
Others use Google docs to track questions asked
Topic #2: Customer Service Trends
Discussion
 Previous conversation blurs with this topic
 Sounds like more people are providing IT service support and Information support
 UC San Diego - hiring practices looking for customer service skills rather than library
experience
 Use chat to reach users
 Loyola - reference librarians go to "villages" and rove; go out to meet students
 Maintain calendars for all service points and advertise group rooms all across campus to help
students
 New Mexico State University partnered with counseling center and they have a relaxation
room in the library (heavily used by staff); bio feedback chair and massage chair; outreach to
other library doing chair massages during finals
 Harvard has therapy dog that can be checked out?
 Circulating bikes/ rent a bike 24hrs; sign waiver of liability and take a helmet with them;
Segway - is it a bike or a mobility device (Dr. requires); is it an ADA thing? Talk with your
university disability service staff to get advice.
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Campus security use Segway and actually bring them in the library - College of Charleston;
UNL also use Segway but they don't like them
Loyola has lockers and also skateboard lockers
worry about power cords and allowing Segway in the library
Virginia Commonwealth circulates bikes
for chat UA uses LibraryH3lp; UW Chelle uses OCLC QuestionPoint; some looking at
Springshare LibChat; some looking at OCLC QuestionPoint
QR codes in states for missing books rather than going to the desk and having to report a
missing book- QR code goes to their form and it will be searched within the next 24hrs.
(New York university) 24hr turnaround and students get an email. How frequently spaced
throughout stacks - not all over the place so you are not bombarded with them but they are
accessible. QR codes for hours/ stacks directory and also in exhibit cases to promote things;
some using them for their group study rooms.
Topic #3: E-Reserves and Content Management Systems
Discussion
 cost savings; worked with blackboard 3 1/2 years now and in every course (U of
Cincinnati); address copyright internally before posting to blackboard
 Some don't want blackboard because of copyright
 William Weare (IUPUI) - abandoned electronic reserves - using Sakai; copyright
outreach with faculty; University of Arizona doing the same with D2L; UC Santa Cruz
does something similar but support staff in offices actually post for faculty
 Paul - U of Houston moved out of eres and lets faculty do it themselves using WebCT;
now at new institution let faculty post to blackboard as well; provide some educational
copyright instruction for faculty; password protect and place in their course reserves
 NM State using DocuTech - only 46 instructors using DocuTech and pushing permanent
link to our resources and don't want to lose this connection
 in catalog links to prof reserves and ???
 Ann - heavily invested in ereserves still and library will accept liability for copyright
 CSU - electronic reserve and ILL staff doing this
 10% is just a guideline if you can prove it is Fair Use - refer to Copyright Genie
http://librarycopyright.net/resources/genie/ (Michael Brewer from University of Arizona)
 Ann Snowman - ARL best practices document make sure you are aware of this resource
http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/codefairuse/index.shtml
 Video Furnace - West FL doing this now for one year - one device platform - platform
agnostic - all material that they own - using lib of congress guidelines; University of
Arizona has been using Video Furnace since 2006
 Brandeis university doing it for several years but have benefit of merged library and IT
staff
 Columbia will just start bringing streaming from swank and alexander street press; clip
will still go to teaching and learning center; 20 hands having library reserve staff
 some place files in repository to help with storage space (U of Denver); pull everything
they are streaming and take media items out of circulation
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Brandeis has guidelines on web; West FL and University of Arizona have info on their
websites regarding this service
lib of congress exemption passed a few years ago - allowed libraries to copy snippets but
not the whole thing - yes this is most everyone's understanding in the room
NM State moving to "Canvas" new learning management system that incorporates more
social media and it is open source
Open Call - other Topics to Discuss?
Discussion
 People Counter products:
 alltag – West FL cost 300 - gives hourly counts etc. and everyone loves it
 People Counter 800 (William)
 3m issue - dust filter or computers too close; technician can come and turn these down if
you have a service contract
 anyone turned their gates off?
 increase of laptops that are making these go off and act differently
 some have guards at gates and invest in helping students when gates go off - students
trying to steal textbooks so this helps; others can't get guards
 Not everyone sold on RFID vs. ROI with costs involved; 6 people have RFID but most
have 3m gates (checkpoint owned by 3M now)
 key part of remodel to move desk away from front doors so staff were not freezing all the
time
 Ann Snowman- a lot of false alarms and invested in newer models of gates
 Competing students who want quiet and those who want social work areas - how do you
handle?
 many of code of conduct documents created to deal with behavior issues in libraries; you
can access these from most library websites
 look at furniture to help with quiet space; divide floors by quiet and loud which can help
 GA paints quiet in different languages on the walls
 make a difference between quiet and silent - silent on their top floor
 University of Arizona has quiet study rooms that you can check out in addition to the
other floors
 in loud areas how loud do you let it get? - some have Starbucks and there is just nothing
you can do - out of hand means you can't hear the person across the desk from you
 UC Merced frames it in terms of rights and responsibilities - well written
 others use security guards that roam and enforce quiet on those floors
 Follett bookstores - vending machine usage?
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