Electronic reserves--summary

[Marty Tanner Hughes]

I recently posted some questions concerning electronic reserves and 
had several requests to post a summary to the list. A colleague who 
posted the same questions to the ARL-Ereserve listserve has compiled
the following summary of responses from both lists.  Thanks for your 
help.

Marty Tanner Hughes
Asst. Systems Librarian
University of Georgia 
Athens, GA 30602
mthughes at libris.libs.uga.edu

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

Thank you to the folks that have assisted us by answering the
following questions I posted on the list a couple of weeks ago.  I
received 5 replies with full or partial answers and a colleague of
mine who posted these same questions on the web4lib listserv received
4 replies with answers.  One institution was represented on both
listservs so this information is based on responses from 8 libraries.
Also, the following review is a compilation since I did not get
specific permission from the respondents to post individual answers.

1.  Is your system home grown, vendor based (name)?  Approximately how
many items on reserve; % electronically accessed?

4 homegrown and 4 vendor based (3 Docutek and Xerox's XDOD).   The %
of the traditional reserve collection that can be electronically
accessed was reported as 20% for two of the Docutek libraries and 8%
for a homegrown system.

2.  What personnel changes, if any, happened as a result of automating
reserves?  For example, was new staff added, current staff reassigned,
and which departments affected.   How many FTEs are devoted to
electronic reserves/traditional reserves?  Was automating reserves
labor saving or does it duplicate the work of  traditional reserves?

It appears there was either no additional staff added to the Reserves
unit for the project or limited to a few student assistant hours. The
additional planning and/or processing work was absorbed by a
coordinator, supervisor and/or staff.  Exceptions are an additional
half-time programmer for one project and 3 new staff  for another
e-reserve project.

3.  What is your assessment of patron satisfaction?  Are students
finding it easier to get the information they need?  What happens if
the system goes down?  Does it go down often;  for long periods of
time?  What % of faculty  participate in e-reserves?

The predominant feeling is that patron satisfaction is high.  There
was one concern reported about printing and downloading time, however,
it was modified to take into account the time students save remotely
accessing the documents.  For the most part, down time doesn't present
a problem and archival copies are kept to accommodate for it.
However, one library reported that calls do come in from students when
they are not able to get access during down time.  There is a wide
range of faculty participation for different reasons.  For example,
the project is designed to develop by focusing on specific departments
at a time or the project's growth is reflective of faculty awareness.


4.  If you had it to do over again, what would you change?  What
adjustments did you make to your plans as you got into the project?

Although now eliminated, one suggestion concerned being certain that
Acrobat Reader is installed in all machines accessing documents
because the initial images before migrating to pdf were problematic
with clarity and printing speed resulting in difficult first
impressions.  Also, changing vendors and waiting for more advancements
before starting the project were noted.  It appears the Docutek sites
are very satisfied with the product.  Another suggestion is to chose
pilot departments carefully.

Conclusion:  Thank you very much for your help.  We submitted our
report last week and feel that the discussions on this list are
extremely helpful as is Jeff Rosedale's electronic reserves
clearinghouse web site.  So many folks forged the way and are making
it easier for the rest of us.  Thanks, Chris
______________________________________________
Christine Walsh
Circulation Librarian
University of Georgia Libraries
Athens, GA  30602-7412
Phone: 706/542-3256  Fax: 706/542-4144
e-mail:  cwalsh at libris.libs.uga.edu