Comings and Goings

Comings and Goings

Here at the Albert Sloman Library we have just said our goodbyes to our Librarian, who has retired after having been at this library for 33 years and seen it through numerous changes, internally and externally. We are currently having a new extension built on to the library which will give us more room for more books, so hopefully more lending on the part of the ILL team. This got me thinking as we all wait with anticipation the announcement of who is to be the successor for the Librarian about how things have changed, even in the 12 years that I have been working in the field of Inter lending.

Whilst it is certainly not the case everywhere, we have noticed a drop in the overall number of items requested by our readers, although we have seen an increase in requests for items which are more unusual and sometimes more difficult to obtain. We have seen the implementation of electronic requesting and electronic delivery, which means that some readers can gain access to documents they need without ever having to leave the comfort of their homes.

Recent, and might I say long overdue, changes to copyright legislation have made our lives easier but busier as we can now fill, and receive more requests than before, which is great for our readers and great for our income, so a win-win situation all round.

I do sometimes think that Inter-lending is seen as a kind of ‘add-on’ service for the main library as a whole. I am hopeful that our merit will be noted by the new Librarian in time. Our users certainly seem to like us and our service, they even sometimes mention us in their list of ‘thank-yous’ which is always gratifying.

It would be great to hear the views of others who work in Inter lending about what things have changed in their workplace or maybe about something strange or unusual that they have been asked for etc. If you would like a guest Blog spot we would really like to hear from you.

For now, let’s see what the next twelve years bring – hopefully a finished extension.