Bio-Med Library Access Services Blog

Hi everyone, I'm creating a checklist of all of the basic functions performed by the Circulation Desk staff with the intention of using this information to assist in training new students and also as a way for new students to be able to track their own training progress. Take a look at the following list and try to think of any other tasks, responsibilities or other information that new hires ought to know. Post your ideas as a comment, or at the very least, your initials so that I know you've read this.

Please speak up - you're such valuable resources and come up with such creative ideas!!

***Updated***Circulation Desk Worker Checklist

Thanks,
Emily

Posted by Emily Reimer at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

As an opener on 3rd floor, I would appreciate it if the people at night would scan the left over books from ill, and complete the photocopy requests forms (purple sheet) or scan and send forms (yellow). The photocopy requests are especially important because sometimes the patron comes in right away in the morning and either I haven't had time to finish the photocopies or I never noticed them because they were not placed by the copier.

Also, if there is a special note on the photocopy requests, such as the patron only wanted so many pages, either write a note on the stack or make sure that they write what pages they want (example: pages 1255-1267). If they just state "9" pages, it could be possible that they miscounted and so I scan to the end of the article like we do for Eeverything else (which proved to be a problem today).

Finally, for scan and send forms, if they are going to pay by cash, count the pages (you count them because they don't always remember that you need to add one when you subtract the page numbers) and have them pay right away. The articles get scanned and emailed, and if they haven't paid, an extra invoice has to be sent out. (Emily- correct me if I'm wrong.)

Thanks, Tiffanie

This is Emily -- We can also charge Scan & Send requests via CUFS; make sure you enter the CUFS charge into the system after scanning. Bring all S&S forms into the ILL Office when completed. If we've left for the day, put the form AND the slips on my chair. Thanks!

Posted by Tiffanie Clark at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some of you have noticed (and some of you probably WILL notice in the near future) that Aleph has been freezing in the midst of checking out or checking in items. We discovered yesterday that this is a bug that has to do with the ILL GUI version of Aleph. (At Bio-Med, we currently don't use Aleph ILL; we're still using ILLiad to circulate ILL loans.)

Aleph does manage to check the item in or out, but then it sees a prior associated ILL record, gets confused, and gives up. If this happens to you, click the box in the lower left corner of the screen (looks like this: ) to break the connection, check out any other items the patron may yet need to have checked out and then double-check to ensure that the problem item was, in fact, checked out.

Let me know if this happens to you, so we can keep track of any more occurrences. Post a comment to the blog or send me an email at ereimer@umn.edu.

Thanks for your help!
Emily

Posted by Emily Reimer at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's important to know how to respond in emergency situations. Attached are a series of safety questions that we would like all staff members to be able to answer. Please download the attached file, and either insert your answers and email the file to ereimer@umn.edu, or respond to me in person. Download file Thanks! Emily

Posted by Emily Reimer at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you ever wondered how your cat spent his day?

Posted by Emily Reimer at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Sunday, June 10 through Saturday, June 16, we will be keeping track of patron inquiries at the Circulation desks (both in person and by phone). The sheets will be placed at each desk. Please make sure to mark the appropriate category whenever a patron approaches the desk or calls on the phone -- make sure you mark how the request was made (in person or by phone) AND the type of inquiry (Circ question, Directional, etc.) .

Notes on the categories:

Checkout -- please mark down when you check books out to someone, not questions about checkouts (those can go under "Circ Question")
Other -- please make a note as to what the transaction was
Referral -- use this for when you refer someone somewhere else (to reference, ILL, BIS, Copy Center, etc.) even over the phone
Prints/Copies -- please mark down when you sell prints/copies to someone

If you have any questions, just ask a supervisor... Thanks! Emily

Posted by Emily Reimer at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi everyone, I just wanted to check in to see how 24/7 Access is going. We initially had some issues to work out -- have they been resolved? Do you have suggestions for improving our procedures? Also, and importantly, we need to work together with the security monitors to make sure that the building is safe and supervised. There has been feedback that the monitors haven't been here on a couple of occasions when Circ staff have arrived. Please inform me or another supervisor immediately (by email is fine) if a security monitor is not present when you arrive in the morning.

Please post your initials to the blog to indicate you've read this post. Even better, give me some feedback!

Thanks for your great work,
Emily

Posted by Emily Reimer at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)