Reflection on 26th Annual Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference
Mary Ramacher
Access Department – ILL
SCSU Library
As a result of attending this event, can you identify and explain a few things you can use/apply to your work or practice?
Several of the things I took away from the Keynote speaker were:
That the library needs to not just be welcoming to employees but that it should look welcoming when you first enter the building
To say “yes, and” to show that you understand what someone is saying instead of “no, but” when we can’t do exactly what the patron is asking.
An analysis of personality styles.
Our library had a very ‘sterile’ atmosphere when you first enter the building and a few years ago we put in an electric fireplace and some comfortable seating in the front. It is one of the busiest areas of the library now, which proves the idea of being welcoming. I am looking forward to trying the more positive approach of using ‘yes and’ as opposed to ‘no but’ when helping my patrons. The personality types analysis will be very helpful too when dealing with difficult personalities.
The session on statistics by the Minitex Director was very interesting too. Our library web page will need some work so that its format adjusts to any type of device for ease of use. She also talked about 18-24 year olds reporting ‘digital fatigue’ so our idea that students want everything electronically will need to be reevaluated.
We were also informed of some improvements to WorldShare that I will be using immediately upon returning to work in Interlibrary Loan.
(Shown in order, 1-10. Click to see the book in WorldCat)
ILL reflects the political events of the tumultuous 2016 election season
If you recall from last year’s post, we looked at six years’ worth of data, from 2010 to 2015, and identified four trends. Adding 2016 to the mix didn’t change anything very much, except for one notable observation. Not surprisingly, the top 2016 ILL theme was how closely aligned ILL was with current events. Two of the top ten books requested were political books that reflected what was taking place in the news and popular culture—the US presidential race.*Hillbilly Elegy was published in June 2016 and by the end of July, it had rocketed to the 12th most-requested monograph on the OCLC ILL system. By August, it was firmly entrenched in first place and remains there to this day. America 2020: The Survival Blueprint debuted among top ten titles in May and remained there until after the November election.
WHY
You don’t want to miss it! Our keynote speaker is J. Jeff Kober, President of Performance Journeys and CEO of World Class Benchmarking. Kober’s keynote, “Things I Wish I Could Tell My Librarian,” will offer big-picture insights to improve the experience of your library patrons. Kober previously worked for the Disnety Institute and is the author of “The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney.”
Katie Birch of OCLC and Valerie Horton of Minitex will also speak, and the afternoon will feature four breakout sessions. See the full event listing on Minitex News to get all the details.
Please contact Becky Ringwelski at e-ring@umn.edu or Tammi Halverson at halve186@umn.edu with your questions or comments. Image courtesy of PerformanceJourneys.com.
Interlibrary loan (ILL) has always been one of my favorite library services. My librarian “passion point” is equitable access for all library users, and ILL nicely fills that bill. Here in Minnesota, we enjoy the goodwill of most of our libraries in sharing their collections (not true in all states). I thought this recent blog post by OCLC was interesting on two fronts. It is always interesting to hear OCLC’s take on four ILL trends, but the bonus is that OCLC also shared their most often requested ILL titles! Tip: this years book list is near the top, scroll way down to see the previous years too!
