Library managers discussed today how best we communicate with everyone at the moment.  We decided that each library manager will take it in turns to write an update on what their team is doing and I get to kick off  :-).  So it’s a good chance for me to talk about all the great stuff our team is doing and to make up for the cynical tone of my previous post (not all of it is bad/a waste of time!).  Fortunately we are blessed to have a great team of discerning people (I’m trying to avoid the vogue word ‘Agile’ – but it’s applicable as well) to navigate through all of this.

General observation.  Back in the day, we dealt with mostly squeaky clean, straightforward, no shades of grey, low risk stuff.  How that has changed!   Gone are the days when our work was predictable and routine.

Getting to grips with working from home.  This comes up as a common theme in what I’m hearing from our team.  Getting sorted working remotely. Trying to connect to Skype and Zoom conference calls with varying degrees of success (it’s improving!), connections dropping out and remote access issues.  Figuring out how to learn and use Apps.  Well done team for your forbearance on all of this and staying sane.

Catching up. On reading and digesting a plethora of email, tidying up email, pruning and organising, answering email.  Catching up on missed staff forums. Skyping team members checking the phone and sound works, with headsets or via iPads.

Being enterprising.  Two team members report they are taking the opportunity to learn some more phrases in Te Reo, reflecting on our TMP results (good break from the laptop), bringing manuals home with them to learn/revise (well done for having the presence of mind last week to think about this!), visiting IT web pages for advice and ideas using tech, sharing tips and learning with the rest of the team.

General tidyup.  Serials holdings, Horizon records, wiki pages.

Interloans. Keeping up with our usual tasks, contributing to AskLIVE, purchasing where possible, communicating with other libraries, updating licence terms, progressing discussions with RapidILL (more on that to come).

Acquisitions.  Working through the incoming requests, vetting publisher offers and following up to make these discoverable (thanks Resource Discovery team for your help in this too), ordering, receiving eBooks, invoicing, vendor reports and maintenance, cataloguing resources.  Publishers we have prioritised: approaching Standards New Zealand, LexisNexis (well done for getting that content live today), Thomson Reuters, Bridget Williams Books for more NZ content, ProQuest and EBSCO 3 user eBooks to see what can be upgraded to unlimited, getting temporary access to the Economist, Project MUSE, Stuff content in PressReader, Cambridge University Press, matching eBook content with our print high demand collection (working with EBSCO).  Libguide of other publisher offers.  Weighing up decisions and making judgment calls.  Sorting out the chaff and the dross. Risk mitigation.

Research repository and Learn dashboard.  Submissions and uploading theses, scanning requests and keeping a record of scans so we are legally compliant as far as possible (balancing against the need for access so taking some risks).

I am very fortunate to have such a great team and the way you all are all making the most of this extraordinary situation is amazing, dealing with the uncertainty as well as pioneering new territory, with a great attitude and keeping our sense of humour going along the way.