Hi all

I thought it would be of interest to summarize some of the things LSS has achieved over the past month. I also appreciate and recognize colleagues in other library teams are achieving great things as well and have a lot to do with the list below. So please understand that I do not want in any way to belittle the achievements of everyone else. LSS is traditionally seen as a “backroom” service but I think the following just goes to show how important LSS staff are, and I think their achievements in these extraordinary times deserve mention.

– Over $US32,000 worth of e-books ordered thus far since 28 Feb (over 80% of our total book ordering), many of which are accessible within 24-48 hours of ordering
– 50,000 patron-driven records loaded into the Library Catalogue which are being routinely ordered when customers request them. again these are usually accessible within 24-48 hours of ordering
– Interloan request service up and running, dealing with an increase of requests following the earthquake and achieving great things, under pressure, for the many customers who are desperate to get access to resources and some of whom are very demanding
– the Datasets group has the approved purchase of several e-book collections. These include several Springer e-book collections (in the following priority: Biomedicine and life sciences 2008-2010, Business and economics 2009-2010, Behavioural Sciences 2010, Earth and environmental sciences 2010), the Chemistry CRCnetbase collection, and top titles from Taylor and Francis and Cambridge University Press. Peter H is currently following up on these. Other e-book collections are also being considered and/or investigated for possible purchase
– The ASTM standards online are now available
– We expect to have a subscription to the Fire Code Standards online very shortly
– We have set up a trial of ARTstor which is now underway and being managed by Max
– Set up reports of requested material in inaccessible locations so that decisions can be made about what to retrieve where possible, interloan or order (thanks due to Margaret Adam in particular)
– We have started interloaning or sending files to YBP for re-purchase of titles requested by postgraduates and staff in inaccessible locations which are likely to be out for some time, starting with Law/Commerce. Liaison Librarians will follow up on requests by undergraduates in the first instance and LSS will order/interloan anything that needs to be acquired there. Depending on the availability of other libraries (e.g. EPS, Central) we will then interloan/re-purchase requested material in those locations depending on the timeframe/likelihood of availability of those locations. The situation is being monitored on a daily basis.
– Serials staff have started checking 2011 serials subscriptions to make sure electronic access has been activated. Their proactive approach will help to ensure problems are discovered and corrected before customers discover them
– Through the generosity of many vendors, extensive access to electronic content is available through a number of publishers. E-services and Resource Discovery staff have been working on making these accessible through the Library Web, Catalogue and Summon. For more see http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/earthquake/eresources.shtml
– We are routinely re-purchasing or ordering high demand material in print where electronic is not available. In many cases we can get these straightaway by buying from UBS. The turnaround time from receiving the request to making the item accessible in Restricted Loans can be as little as within a few hours
– We have started processing invoices again as well as sorting through the mail for urgent items
– Deirdre and E-Services have been working on the Serials Solutions records for March and loading these
– Serials, Resource Discovery and E-Service staff are responding to and resolving various access problems to electronic resources
– E-services have been keeping up with the collection changes to make sure Horizon is updated with the correct information
– Planning is going into restarting the RFID project
– Contributing to PRST and the progressive restart of libraries on campus

There are a number of other things I could mention, but all of this is particularly remarkable given LSS has been operating below normal capacity given the current space constraints. I would like to publicly extend my thanks to all LSS staff for the huge effort they are putting in.

Tim Stedman