A newsletter for patrons of the Galter Health Sciences Library

Fall 2005
New Series #38

Inside this Issue:

Director's Report: Responding to LibQUAL+ Survey Comments

Meet the Staff

The Health SmartLibrary: Better than Ever

Collections: Current and Future Directions

Linking from Databases to Full-text Articles

Computing @ the Library

Library Services: Document Delivery, Hours, and More

Study Space: Meeting the Needs of Groups and Individuals

This Issue

Previous Issues

Credits

Galter Library Web Site

Contact Us

Library Services: Document Delivery, Hours, and More

Kurt Munson, MSLIS, Head, User Services, kmunson@northwestern.edu

Certain library services were singled out for both praise and criticism in the LibQUAL+ survey. We try to address your concerns in the following sections.

Set Interlibrary Loan free!

A number of the comments we received on the LibQual involved interlibrary loan, also know as ILL. These comments break down into three types.

Charging for ILL requests: Users dislike the limit of 20 free ILLs per calendar year. The library is currently reevaluating this policy. We will notify users when the new policy goes into effect.

ILLs in color: Users also voiced concerns about the unavailability of ILL articles in color. Unfortunately, ILL technology has not kept up with the color publication of electronic journals. The ILL software, Ariel, that is used to transmit ILLs did not support color until the most recent version became available in June of this year. Furthermore, the scanners supported by the previous version of Ariel were black and white only. As libraries replace their scanners, color ILLs will become more common and available. However, for the moment, we are dependent upon other libraries’ ability to scan an article in color.

Make the process faster: Turnaround time was also an issue of concern. Users should keep in mind that filling an ILL requires the lending library to pull that item from the shelf, scan it, update the ILL system and ship the item. The staff at Galter tries to have requests processed and forwarded to a lending library within 24 hours of submission. You, our users, can help to speed up the ILL process by providing unique identifiers from MEDLINE or error-free citations. Likewise, it will always take more time to fill requests for unusual titles or for books since books are sent through the U.S. mail instead of electronically.

Improve the Photocopiers and Printers

Users also commented upon the public photocopiers. Specifically, they find them noisy, the quality of copies is wanting and the machines are perceived as frequently out of order. The library staff met with representatives of the company from which we lease the copiers and conveyed these concerns, so improvement in services is expected. We are also reviewing photocopiers in general including new machines. As part of this assessment, we are also reviewing our per page charges for photocopying and printing. We plan to implement new print software in the coming year.

Circulation periods

Users questioned why our loan periods are shorter than those of the main library in Evanston. In general, medical libraries have shorter loan periods than university libraries, in order to keep current health information readily accessible to more users. The book loan period at Galter was doubled last year from 14 to 28 days.

Hours

A number of comments concerned the library’s hours. Library hours are a balance of staffing and use. Library management is constantly reviewing that balance. We also consider the uses of the library, i.e. are users asking for longer hours to access the collections or are they interested in the library as study space? The library is constantly assessing the needs of our users in this area and will keep you posted on the results of our findings.