We only allow one item at a time in the secure reading room. We don’t allow coats, bags etc in this room which must be left in the lockers.
Sometimes if people have requested a huge amount of material (Oliver Sutherland would be a good example) I will leave a trolley with the material directly outside the reading room so that the reader can have easy access to it. They should still only take one item/box at a time into the actual room. This arrangement is the exception rather than the rule.
I have given William Northcroft permission to do his own photocopying from the Northcroft papers.
I have just had a reminder form Interloans- if a student comes to the desk after hours with an interloan wanting it renewed they will have to accept this cannot be done until the next day when we can contact interlaons at Central. Do NOT CKI it in to avoid fines as this creates a lot of confusion and work for the interloans team.
We have turned off the air-conditioner in the photograph store. We have had many problems maintaining this unit over the years and want to see if the photograph store, which after all is underground and well insulated will achieve an acceptable temperature and R/H naturally. We will keep a careful eye on the situation.
A CD for Ann Vernon Griffiths has been placed on the ‘items to be collected’ shelf near the desk. Ann should be arriving sometime on Friday to pick up this item.
I am just curious if many staff in MB actually check this blog? (aside from Jeff and myself). So I am posting this as a pop quiz! MBers please add a comment if you see this so Jeff and I know we are not alone!
Murray and I are refining the way we deal with archival copying requests. We hope this will make the process run a lot smoother.
Two shelves have been set aside in the archives workroom specifically for copying requests (AHO 3d and 3e- labelled ‘copying requests’). Please place any archival copying requests from users, along with the appropriate documentation, on these shelves.
Next to these shelves, on the tall filing cabinet, is a space labelled ‘copying status reports’. I will regularly produce two ‘copying status reports’ one for ordinary photocopying and one for digital copying. The reports will contain a list of all outstanding jobs, based on the physical items that appear on the copying request shelves.
Murray will regularly check the shelves and the copying status reports for material that needs to be processed. Once a job is completed he will tick off the item on the report, and I will update the database accordingly.
The main thing for desk staff to remember is to physically place items on the copying request shelves for processing. This includes both the physical item and the documentation.
We will keep an eye on how things are going and refine the system further if necessary. If you have any feed back please let me know.
I have moved around the vidoes and DVD’s in the Aotearoa room. I have moved the videos down as they do not need much room to grow. I have moved the DVD’s to the first bay where the videos use to start- hopefully this makes them more visable and gets them up off the lower shelves, and gives the collection room for growth. I have also slightly juggled the CD-ROMs and the the CD’s to also get the latest CD’s off the floor which was hopeless for browsing!
The reload station is out of paper – I have e-mailed the copy centre and asked them to come and fix it for us.
The request forms for photocopying and digital copying from archives or photographs have been merged onto one form. It should be fairly self-explanatory but if there are any questions or problems please let me know. The form needs to be checked and approved by the ‘powers that be’, but I think we can use it in the meantime. This form should be read in conjuction with the Price List and Reproduction Charges that Jill e-mailed everyone about yesterday.