Navigating the Mystery of Items Coming From Other Libraries

March 6, 2017March 9, 2017 / Linda / Leave a comment

We hear you! It can be very frustrating when you have requested an item and it is coming from another library and it’s taking forever! It is a very complicated process that many folks have a hard time understanding. We hope this explanation will give you a better understanding about why it takes so long for you to receive your item(s).

The main misconception is that someone here at the Cheshire library gets in their car and drives to another library to get the item. What actually happens is the Connecticut State Library provides a service called deliverIT CT. This is run by the State and paid for from the State’s budget. At this time, libraries do not have to pay for this service. They have 11 drivers/maintainers currently employed. They go to 167 libraries daily, make 848 stops per week, serve 1,546,895 patrons, and move 15,000 items daily.

As you can imagine, this is a huge undertaking and coordinating it all is quite challenging for the State. Here at the library, we cannot tell you what day or time of day we will get our delivery. The delivery schedule is affected by a variety of factors such as vacations, illness, holidays, the weather, and the like. Cheshire gets at least one delivery a week (although we have gone more than a week without any delivery on occasion). When there is no delivery, there is no pick-up of materials going out. The same is true for other libraries. If they don’t have a delivery, their out-going items sit in bins waiting to go out. We can have 15-25 bins waiting to be picked up here on a weekly basis.

When you see the term “in transit” on your account, that doesn’t mean the item is physically moving between libraries or that it will be in our next delivery. It can sit in a bin at a library for many days (or weeks, in some cases). Once the items leave a library, they need to be sorted before heading out to the various libraries. What we have been experiencing here in Cheshire is that the average time to receive requested items is 2-4 weeks. Some come in sooner, some later. We’ll contact you when your item has arrived.

The Difference Between “Available” and “Ready for Pickup”
To also clarify, when you see the term “Available” on your account, that means the item you requested is sitting on a shelf at one of the 30 libraries in our consortium. If you see it is available in Cheshire, your best bet is to come in to get it or call the library to have staff place a hold on Cheshire’s copy. If you place the hold from home, the computer software does not automatically select Cheshire. Your account will say “Ready for pickup” when it is here in Cheshire on our Hold Shelf.

If the item you want is owned by Cheshire but currently checked out, it is quicker to wait for the Cheshire item instead of requesting it from another library. You can call the library or come in person and we will be happy to place a hold specifically on a Cheshire item since this must be done by a staff member.

The State has instituted various guidelines to help reduce the volume of items being transported between libraries. All libraries have been urged to comply with the established guidelines. (Please note, many libraries do not ship DVDs, CDs, or audiobooks – including Cheshire). The State has done an excellent job considering their resources and the volume. Please know that they are doing everything they can to provide equal access to library resources for all Connecticut residents.

Another misconception is that staff can tell you what number you are in line for an item, especially for a book by one of the most popular authors. Unfortunately, our computer software does not have any way to determine where you are on the list.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of what it takes for your item to come from another library. If you need an item for a specific date, you will need to plan ahead. You always have the option of going to a specific library to pick up the item yourself. Just call the library ahead of time and they will set the item aside for you.

4abc340cf5d893ff4bf6ebc17b29c221 Always remember that if you need help locating an item, any of our staff will be happy to assist you.

April 27, 2016 is Administrative Professional Day!!

April 27, 2016April 21, 2016 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Did you know that the last full week of April is Administrative Professionals Week, and the Wednesday of that week is Administrative Professional Day? This is a day, and week, were we should all give the people that do so much behind the scenes a special thanks for all the work they do to make the world run smoothly.

Think about all the moments in your life that have been made easier by the person scheduling an appointment, making phone calls, ordering and managing the supplies, and otherwise making the world go round. Not just the people that do these things for you, or where you might work, but the people that do these things at the companies you do business with. Salespeople, service people, medical professionals, teachers, and so on could get very little done without the wonderful people that do everything in their power to make things run smoothly and frankly make it all look easy.

In honor of these hard working, and generally under-appreciated, people I have gathered up some fiction about the people that have worked as administrative professionals. Included are novels where assistants of different varieties face more work and trouble than anyone should, and still handle it all with style.

Chore Whore: Adventures of a Celebrity Personal Assistant by Heather H. Howard
Reaching her breaking point after being abused by more than twenty celebrities in her work as a professional Hollywood assistant, Corki Brown is dismayed to learn that ending her career is proving more difficult than anticipated.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
A small-town girl fresh out of an Ivy League college lands a job at a prestigious fashion magazine, but wonders if the glamorous perks are worth working for the editor from hell.

The Second Assistant: a Tale From the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder by Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare
A former congressional intern who takes a job as second assistant at The Agency, a powerful Hollywood talent agency, Elizabeth Miller never expected to have to cope with the trials, tribulations, and dirty dealings of the film world, from a Machiavellian assistant and company power struggle to a lecherous producer and ritalin-snorting boss.

Off the Menu by Stacey Ballis
Alana, the culinary assistant to a Chicago celebrity chef, discovers Southern hospitality after an accidental online connection to a Tennessee native and must decide on her priorities in life.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
A chance encounter with a handsome banker in a Greenwich Village jazz bar on New Year’s Eve 1938 catapults witty Wall Street secretary Katey Kontent into the upper echelons of New York society, where she befriends a shy multi-millionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well, and a single-minded widow.

More fiction featuring stalwart assistants include: Oh! You Pretty Things by Shanna Mahin, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal, Princess Elizabeth’s Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal, The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields, The Haunting of L. by Howard Norman, The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen; translated by William Frost, The Apprentice Lover by Jay Parini, and Margot by Jillian Cantor.

Hidden Treasures in the Library Lobby

December 18, 2015December 19, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

When you walk into the Cheshire Public Library you enter the main floor lobby. This large area is home to CD’s, DVD’s, Audiobooks, adult fiction, and new books. There are also a variety of displays, the public catalogs, the circulation desk, and the Friends book sale and donation area. Most regular visitors to the library are aware of their favorite areas, and browse those areas comfortably. However, like in the children’s room there are some hidden treasures that often get over looked and deserve some attention.

Science Fiction
I have always been a big fan of science fiction and fantasy, and love helping people discover new authors and series to explore. Unfortunately, most people miss our Science Fiction shelving area entirely. As with our mystery books, they are shelved separately from the rest of the fiction. You can see which area any adult (or children’s) book is shelved in by reading the call number. Adult fiction call numbers will all start with where they are shelved; Fiction, Mystery, or Science Fiction. The mysteries are easy to find, since they are shelved right after the regular fiction. However, the Science Fiction materials are shelved on the wall near the fiction between the audiobooks and classic movies.

Graphic Novels
Graphic novels are not just for children and teens. Take for example the popularity of The Walking Dead. Our selection of graphic novels in the lobby is not huge, but it is high quality and well worth taking a look at. Since it is a fairly small collection it might be easy to over look, but it is not hard to find or to browse if you are interested. The collection is housed on the endcap of the New Biography and Nonfiction shelf, facing the windows and DVD’s. If you like what you see, but are looking for even more graphic novels, do not be afraid to explore the large selection in the Teen’s Room!

Categorized DVD’s
Most regular visitors know where to find the DVD’s they enjoy most, and where our Quick Flick, New, regular, and Blu-Ray movies are each shelved. However, there are a few groups of films that are shelved separately. We have labeled these disks and changed their call numbers to match these special areas, but infrequent movie borrowers might not know about these little nooks and crannies. Classic movies are labeled with a red Classics label and are shelved on a slat-wall display on the wall by the fiction books. Comedy movies have an orange Comedy label and shelved in the next slat- wall display. On the same wall, in the build in bookcase between those two slat-wall displays, you can find the television show box sets which have a bright pink TV label on them. If you keep following that wall to the corner you will find the Family Films (with a green label), and in the next bookcase after a window you can find the non-fiction films (classed by number) and the Foreign Films which have a yellow Foreign sticker on them.

Lost And Found
While not a part of our library collection, it is an often asked for and searched for item. Small or valuable items (wallets, phones, jewelry, etc) that have been turned into library staff stay at that service desk for a time and then are tucked away in a safe until claimed. However, items like coats, mittens, notebooks, umbrellas, and so on are kept at the service desk of the area they were found in for a few hours and are then placed in our Lost and Found bin. This is located between the Friend’s donation area and the Audiobook collection.

Do not forget about the variety of ever changing displays. Any of our items that are on these displays can be checked out. If you are still unsure where to find what you are looking for swing by the Circulation desk and we would be glad to help you!

Behind the Scenes at CPL – Circulation

September 23, 2015September 23, 2015 / Louise / Leave a comment

In previous behind-the-scenes posts, we’ve talked about collection development (acquiring materials), and cataloging (preparing acquired materials for the shelf). You might think that the librarian’s job ends once an item is safely on the shelf. Nope, once we own an item, our next task is to get it into your hands! This is the main objective of the Circulation Department, but really everyone on staff, no matter what department, takes part in promoting and maintaining our collection. Let’s take a look at some of the ways we do this:

Shelving. Having a library full of great materials won’t do us any good if people can’t find them. To that end, shelving is critical. Getting items back to the shelf as quickly as possible after they are returned is the main job responsibility of our Pages. They know our shelves inside and out, and keep them in good order. When they are not shelving, you will often find them shelf-reading, going through the shelves to make sure that books are where they should be and in the proper order. With over 100,000 items in our collection, this is no small task!

Highlighting Materials. With so many items on our shelves, browsing through them can be a bit overwhelming! We often highlight smaller sections, whether it be small displays at the ends of the shelves, or larger separations by genre. For example, you probably know that we keep our newer materials separate from the rest of the collection, but did you also know that we separate Mystery and Science Fiction from the rest of Fiction? Or that Romance Paperbacks have their own section? Classics and Comedies are highlighted within the Feature Films DVD section. And don’t forget to check our Staff Picks section for book recommendations from our staff!

Holds and Reserves. Holds and reserves take up a lot of staff time. We get reports twice daily that list items that patrons request – and that list is long! Any requested item that is on the shelf must be searched for, pulled, and trapped for the patron who requested it. If the patron is from Cheshire Library, we then notify them and place their hold(s) on the Hold Shelf in our Lobby. After 5 days, if the item has not been picked up, it gets returned to the shelf, or passed on to the next person on the waiting list. (You might be shocked to know how many people never pick up their holds – we are!)

Holds for Cheshire patrons are only half the story, though. We also receive requests for inter-library loans from other libraries in our consortium. A lot of them! We get and receive dozens of inter-library loan items every day through the state library’s C-Car delivery system. We pull, wrap and pack boxes full of C-Car items every single day!

Mending. When an item gets checked out over and over again, it can get a little worn. Pages get torn or loose, discs get scratched, cases get broken. Whenever possible, we try to fix these problems and get the items back to the shelves. Several of our staff have received training on book mending, and our A/V catalogers use a disc repair machine for troublesome CDs and DVDs.

Weeding. Nothing lasts forever. To keep adding new materials to our shelves, we must remove other materials, called “weeding”. We begin by checking the condition of older items, if they are too worn or need more repair than is practical, we weed them out. If we have multiple copies of a former bestseller, we keep the one in the best condition and weed the rest out. We run circulation reports, telling us which items have not been checked out in a long period of time (years), and weed them out. We’d love to keep every book forever, but shelf space must determine the amount of items we can offer. Many weeded items get added to our semi-annual book sale to benefit the Friends of the Cheshire Public Library, and many items get donated to charity.

Of course, we’re also here to help you to search for items in our catalog, find out the next book in your favorite series, check items out and back in again, and much more. Circulation means keeping our items moving, and it’s part of everyone’s job at Cheshire Library!

(Animated gif images from gosetawatchman.tumblr.com and the University of Mary Washington Book Repair Dept.)

Behind the Scenes at CPL- Children’s Cataloging

July 3, 2015June 25, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / 1 Comment

CPL staffer Louise shared in a recent blog post some of the effort that our staff puts into choosing materials for our collection. some of the effort that our staff puts into choosing materials for our collection. It is an important and challenging task, using our limited funding in the most efficient and useful manner to serve our patrons. However, once those materials are ordered our work has only just begun. It is after the books are ordered that the next round of tasks begin. My focus will be on the cataloging of children’s and young adult print materials, because that is how I (and one other staff member) spend any hours not at a public service desk.

You might think that the tasks for cataloging would only start once the physical books arrive, however we have some preparations to make first. We need to print out all orders and get the catalog records in the computer so that holds can be placed on the material.

When the books do come in we need to check the packing slips and orders against the titles and details of the books in all the boxes. Sometimes Baker & Taylor or other suppliers do make mistakes or materials are damaged or flawed in some way. It is important to catch any of these problems long before labeling and cataloging actually begin.

After we have the books unpacked, checked, and in hand the real fun begins. In the children’s department there are several different categories of books, each of which need different labeling. There are board books, picturebooks, easy readers, easy non fiction, non fiction, graphic novels, juvenile fiction, and young adult materials. Each of these types have several sub categories and a variety of necessary labels, just to keep things interesting.

We sort all the books by type, and decide on the call number, genre, and more will be for each book. Every book will need a spine label with the call number, a barcode, and a RFID tag. They also need to be stamped with the Cheshire Children’s room address stamp and have the call number and barcode written on the interior of the book. Each type of book gets a different set of stickers. Some will need colored stickers over the call number to indicate subject matter, a sticker designating its reading level, awards won or nominated for, or its genre. Rather than giving you a long list of all the stickers, I will just give you a look at a few of the ones I use daily.

Yes, there are many more. This is about half of the regularly used stickers and labels. After all the stickering fun is done there is still more to do. Paperbacks will need to be taped or covered to extend its life in circulation. Some hardcovers will need a cover on its dust jacket as well. Now we need to check the RFID tags in each book and either program them or make sure the correct barcode number is programed onto it.

Now it is time to enter the material into the computer. This can be the quickest part of the job, but also the most important. Small mistakes at this point could make materials nearly impossible to find on the shelf. We need to make sure the call number, barcode, location, and other vital information is all correct in the catalog. If a book is newly published, this is also when it gets a New sticker added to the previous collection of stickers. Then we check in the item and make it available for the first hold, or put it on the shelf for you to check out.

aterials in the children’s and young adult collection keep the new designation for six months. After that they are collected and pass through staff hands again so that the sticker can be removed and the information updated in the computer. You might see me doing this while working at the Children’s Desk. When material are damaged or are sadly in need of removal from the collection we then need to discard the book from our collection. This means more stamping and computer work. If you visit the third floor of the library, you can browse the discarded children’s and young adult materials that are still in good condition. You are welcome to take these home and keep. We hate having to let go of books, even though we have to in order to make room for more, and knowing that someone will use and enjoy them makes it a little easier.