Guest Post from Brazoria County Library System, TX.
We all lead busy lives. If you’re anything like us, you could use about 10 extra hours each day just to get things done and not feel like you’re drowning at your desk.
That’s where collectionHQ can offer a life raft. The amount of time and effort we’ve saved cannot be overstated. We used to spend at least two days a month moving items from one branch to another – Is it needed at Branch A? Does Branch B have the rest in the series? Is this author popular at Branch C? Does Branch D need to replace their copy that’s circulated an obscene amount?
Because the staff can now determine when and where to send dead or under-used items throughout our library system, we can use those two days a month to work on other tasks.
But we still need help. Especially in managing our time to better fulfill our duties.
That’s where collectionHQ is now offering supplies to go in the life raft – scheduling!
Administrators of accounts can set up ongoing tasks for staff to perform. Staff receive an email when the assignment is due. The email even has a link which takes staff directly to the report that needs to be run. Simple, friendly, effective.
Scheduling is a great way to manage all the library processes in which collectionHQ serves as a tool.
Our library – Brazoria County Library System – has centralized selection and a weeding schedule.
Because centralized selection has removed some of the more fun duties of the staff at the branches, we use collectionHQ’s fiction and nonfiction replacement reports as opportunities for the branch staff to go “shopping.” Since instituting collectionHQ in 2010, branch staff shop for items monthly. Ideally, we would like them to follow the weeding schedule we have instituted. We can better accomplish this with scheduling.
By reminding staff that they should shop for nonfiction in the 300s, for example, we eliminate the risk that Branch A will send too many fiction titles to Branch B who is trying to replace weeded 300s.
Scheduling will help us get more people in the life raft.
We can also use it for specific tasks. If we want to monitor a display, for example, and see how well those items circulated, we can set up a reminder to check those reports.
Anyone who uses their smartphone to manage their personal or work-related tasks knows how important it is to receive reminders. How many of us have been late to a meeting because we didn’t get that all-too-important reminder?
Scheduling will keep us all in the life raft. Hopefully, with time and patience and collectionHQ, we’ll keep ourselves afloat.
