Still printing

Today we launched an electronic routing system to route electronic journals. From the client's point of view, the change-over is seamless. From the staff point of view, the change-over was anything but. The new process brought up many questions about how things are done, who does those things and why we do the things we do. All good questions, all fodder for next year's project on service review. We also discovered little piles of things "awaiting decision". Mostly the decisions were about what (and how much) do we keep; who needs this material; do we need to continue receiving it. Again, all good questions, but the kind of thing that gets put aside when there are more pressing issues to deal with and then get forgotten. And mixed in with all of that were a few cases where we still receive electronic copy, print it, and then shelve it. So the book trucks aren't totally empty. We are now working our way through the decisions that need to be made. The first one is, again, that we don't print and shelve the result. So a big step forward about routing today, and a small one about printing. Two steps of progress is a good number for a Thursday.

No, no, we're not gone

Today I looked for the short corporate communication that would say that while a quarter of our shelving and a well-used conference room are both disappearing, library services continue as usual. Instead, we got a corporate message that the conference room will be unavailable for the foreseeable future. So I am off to find another avenue of communication to spread the word that even if our footprint has shrunk we are still able to fill the very large shoes that we have always filled. Library Services Continue as Usual!

Going, going, almost gone

Friday was a noisy day, as the movers were in to dismantle shelving and put the pieces in boxes for storage. This has been on the radar for a long time, and on the plan since June, but Friday was the day. Half of the open stacks area is being replaced by offices. It is the right thing, because we are strapped for space, and stacks were not the right use for it, but it is a big change. When the building was built (30 years ago) there were two floors set aside for the library. And when we go in on Monday, we will be down to half a floor of staff space and a quarter of a floor of open stack. Major change.

People have worked hard over the past year to get us to this place. We've been reviewing the collection to be sure that it matches the business needs; we've been making choices to leverage the open web where we can; and we've started to eliminate paper duplication of electronic resources that we subscribe to. It's all part of the strategic plan to enhance the electronic delivery of our services and products. It's a good thing. But we're also looking at the related challenges, and those are not small...

Getting out there

Today is the day! I'm going to start a blog. I have a title, I have a topic, I have a plan...I sit down, log in and find out -- I have no computer access of any kind to anything.

The Luddite in me pops to the surface. This time it's only me. What if it was the whole team? What if it was the whole organization? What if it was the whole world? I have no Internet access; no access to my calendar; no e-mail; no agenda for my next meeting; no idea where the next meeting is.... Approaching panic mode.

Our book trucks are empty, because we are going electronic. What are we doing? What happens when we have no oil, when the grid fails, when the electronic world collapses and the barbarians are at the door?

Right now I take a deep breath, and call IT. I still have a paper and pencil and the IT guy is working behind the scenes to get me back on track.

And in the end, I am reminded of two things:

• Change is hard, and rather scary
• Agility takes a lot of concentration

So here we go.