On Wednesday, October 19, 2011, I travelled from South Bend to the University of Chicago with seven of my library colleagues. We took a Professional Development Committee sponsored trip to visit the Regenstein Library and the Mansueto Library, with the purpose of sharing information and touring the new library repository with automatic retrieval system.
We met with David Larsen, head of Access Services for Regenstein Library at the first floor security entrance. The lobby had undergone recent renovation and had simple yet welcoming leather seating clustered on area rugs on the original flooring. The information desk had an LED display which beckoned visitors with a warm, yet simple and to the point, “Questions Wanted” advertisement. Likewise, placement of the new IT collaboration for patron tech support was behind a service desk labeled with the catchy ‘TechBar’ moniker.
During our introductory meeting with key library staff, we received a print copy of the Fall 2001 edition of Libra (LIBrary Reports and Announcements) which featured the dedication of the Mansueto Library. The photos are stunning, yet even on a rainy day pictures do not do justice for the lighting and overall feeling within the new building. The dome houses the grand reading room and 2/3 of the preservation and conservation services. The dome itself tops the five story automatic retrieval system repository. Online requests are fulfilled within a target 15 minute timeframe. A full-time technician has been hired to maintain the robotic crane system, and the compact storage throughout several locations of the campus library system.
Following a brief break for lunch, we convened for a show and tell in which Eric and Rick shared work on the Catholic portal and the digital repository, respectively, and David Bietila from Chicago shared work on their year long pilot of the Ebsco Discovery Service instance which is locally called “Articles Plus”: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/db/articlesplus.html Access is restricted to campus users. Reviews seem mixed at this time.
We broke into small groups following the show and tell. At this time I met with Scott Perry, Acquisitions Budget, Vendor Relations and Gifts-in-Kind. He was helpful in providing a tour, an overview of policies and procedures and discussion of their twice a year sale. Their acceptance policy is comparatively more stringent, processing and the sale is managed by student workers (typically graduate students), and the unit functions well with specific, uniform decision making-guidelines for adds to and rejects from the collection, supported by pre-sale selector review of declined / withdrawn materials designated to the sale. They do not at this time use services such as Better World Books for disposal as the majority (if not all) materials are picked up by patrons and booksellers in their semi-annual sale.
