I think I need a holiday!

Hello to all the lovely ILL folk out there on this warm shiny summers day!

My turn to blog and as usual I've sat here all week, thinking what on earth can I blog that will be of interest to such a wide range of ILLers?  We have Public, University, NHS, Private, Government Libraries and I'm sure many other types I've forgotten about represented in FIL.

So, what on earth can I in my Public Library world say to you all? ....well if any of you have any ideas please do get in touch...

So in the meantime, I'll just blog about what's happening to me here today!

I'm sitting in our warehouse of an office, my sun tube above my desk throwing a spotlight on me and with a view to the reserve stacks in front of me, the rest of the office and finally the loading bay (or bomb bay as we like to call it) and the only 'real' outside I can see, which is currently obscured by the library delivery vans loading and unloading.

Whilst I'm blogging this, I'm also dealing with:

• reservations from the public and our libraries
• trying to update our 'training' ipads with all the apps needed for our social media training in the libraries and making sure they are all charged and still working as they should, with no weird 'extras' added by the last library that borrowed them!
• at the same time, setting up 8 new ipads purchased for training in the libraries
• answering emails as they arrive
• dealing with all sorts of queries on the phone from the libraries, the public, other authorities (and it's Friday, the phone is always busy on a Friday)
• updating the library facebook and twitter accounts regularly throughout the day
• checking my list of outstanding reservations to see if I need to buy any more copies to top up the stock we have
• writing up reports and minutes 

and all of this and many other things that I have forgotten at the moment, need to be done before I leave tonight for a weeks annual leave!

So you may ask, why am I mentioning all of these tasks?  Well it got me thinking how many of us in ILL have other tasks either related to reservations or not related in any way passed to us?
How many other Authorities, organisations, Universities etc pile all sorts on to the ILL department even though, like us, they are woefully understaffed but somehow we manage to take on the roles given to us and still offer a great service?  Is this something that only Public libraries are prone to do or does this happen everywhere? Is it just a sign of the times, no money for more staff, so everyone has to take on more?

Another reason of course could be that the numbers of ILL requests are dropping?

With more and more information available on the internet and books quickly and cheaply available through Amazon and even older items available through Amazon marketplace, are people looking elsewhere for their requests? Or is it a case that with all the technology available to us, requesting items through ILL is so much quicker and more efficient that requests no longer take the time they once did.

I'm erring towards the technology speeding up the supply, as I know that is the case here and our customers have even noticed the change. We so far haven't noticed a drop in numbers of requests in fact as we introduce new ways for our customers to interact with us, social media, online everything we are receiving more requests. Good for us and for ILL's future but if the numbers do continue to increase can we still take on the extra tasks expected of us and not let the service we give fail?

I hope so, but just in case, does anybody have a good business case written up for requesting more staff?

Oh well, time to facebook again and the next ipad is fully charged ready for the apps to be added, oh and there are some new requests in that need doing and all on a day when there's only me in the department....I really do think I need that business case now!

Have a good summer and happy ILLing...


Tracey Jackson

FIL Committee
Inter-Library Loans Supervisor