I am the back room of a small rural library in Colorado. OK I am
actually a person, but working in a small (did I mention understaffed) library
means my job is all things associated with the back room: cataloging,
accounting, book processing, acquisitions, technology, toilet plunging... Yup.
Jack of all trades.
To make the most of our limited situation, we try a lot of
things. Some succeed, some never take off, some fail miserably, some
revolutionize how we do business. Most of what we try is either Open
source or free (or both). I know what you're thinking, "Quit stalling and
just tell me what works!" I will, I will, trust me. But I am also going to talk
about what hasn't worked... or hasn't fulfilled our expectations.
The over
arching thing I have found is that folks do their job in their own particular
fashion. The organizational system that works for me, won't necessarily work for
you. So, when I started doing some acquisitions at my library, the white slips
of paper in ziplock bags made me want to run away screaming. One ziplock for
requested, one for ordered, one for approved... little slips of paper being put
on my desk... yeah...not a good idea for me! I asked the staff to put the
requests for acquisitions on a wiki. The conversation went something like this,
“A what-i?” “A wiki!” This was back when our library still had cards in drawers
as a catalog and patrons signed their names on cards to check stuff out... In
other words no acquisitions module. Two ILS's later and we still like our wiki
for acquisitions, but only for media (DVDs, music, video games).
So what are the
advantages of a wiki as an acquisitions module and how do we use it? Well, with
a wiki, no little pieces of paper are littered onto my desk, misplaced, lost in
the shuffle or otherwise abused. For me this is essential, but if you are good
with handfuls of paper all over the place, well I could send you our old ziplock
bags if you want. Any staff person can enter the item on the wiki page (the page
itself is nicely organized by media type.) When I order the item, I type the PO#
or cart name next to the title. That way, any staff member can answer the
question, "When is it coming? When is it coming! I ordered it MONTHS ago,... or
was it yesterday?” When the item arrives I put the requester on hold and erase
the entry. Basic. Easy. Key word - organized.
Stay tuned to this blog for
more exciting adventures in free software to 'git-r-done' in
libraryland.
Kieran HixonJohn C. Fremont Library
Florence, CO
NOTE from Sarah Washburn: keep tuned to Kieran's corner of this blog, as he share his Notes From the Back Room tales. If you'd like to hear more straight from Kieran, don't miss his upcoming Free Friday Forum, hosted by BCR: Rocking the Sandbox: Big Ideas from a Little Library.
↧
