April round up

My plan is to write regular updates in order to reflect on my learning. Since it has been a few weeks, I thought I'd round up the main news from April in one (very delayed!) post. Must get better at blogging straight away rather than trying to remember things from a while back! April was a busy month...

I attended a presentation given by the British Library on the upcoming changes to their document supply service. It's useful to know what's in store for inter-library loans. They outlined the challenges, both positive and negative, for document supply, and then introduced their new IRMDS (Integrated Request Management Delivery System) which will go live from July-September. Responses will apparently be faster and colour will be standard, which is good news for many library users. The ability to track orders online sounds like good news for us librarians too. The new system will allow the option for end users to search the BL catalogue and request items. This has potential to save users' time as they can instantly make a request remotely if they are searching the BL catalogue from home at a time when the library is closed, for example. Libraries can choose different levels of control, for example the system can be set up so that librarians have to approve/reject all end user requests. It looks as though there will be scope for quite a bit of customisation. For libraries who decide to allow this option, there will be things to work out, such as how to process payments/refunds. Whether or not my library decides to enable the end user request option, I look forward to seeing the other functions when it all goes live.

I've been getting on with the cataloguing practice. This time I'm cataloguing bought books, which already have minimal level bib records and need checking and upgrading. I dug out my notes from my university course and found the bookmark to MARC online, which had been feeling neglected in my favourites list, as a useful reference for when I need reminder. This brought back memories... The cataloguing has been slower than I'd hoped, mainly because the enquiry work side of things has been busy with exams approaching. It's nice to see the library so full of people working hard, let's hope it continues!