Cambrai has joined their Mid-Murray colleagues as part of the consortium today. Their collections are now searchable in the Mid-Murray Enterprise site here.
A small piece of Australian social history is bound up in the name of the town of Cambrai. It was one of many German named towns whose names were changed during and after WWI to be more "patriotic" and to remove many German names from the Australian map. Because of the amount of German settlement in South Australia there were many name changes here. Cambrai was originally called Rhine Villa, but was renamed after a WWI battle.
An extensive list of name changes in Australia can be found here. Some towns such as Hahndorf & Lobethal had their original names reinstated, while others have continued to use their changed names.
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Friday, 6 June 2014
Interesting performance stats
Staff at PLS continue to extract data from the system to help us to understand how customers are using the system, with the aim of improving system performance for both staff and customers.
I have just been provided with a report which looks at holds performance at a very high level. For this financial year to date customers have placed 1,943,010 holds. Of these, 1,537,134 (79.1%) have been filled. So what about the other 20%+?
Customers chose to cancel 234,845 (12.1%) of all holds placed. I'm curious to know more about what these holds were & why they were cancelled, but we don't have that data. I am pleased that this number of holds were cancelled on the basis that we would not have shipped most of these items - saving courier costs. Of course, if a hold is cancelled after an item has been shipped we still do all the work associated with fulfilling a "live" hold.
The number of items which have expired on the shelf - i.e. arrived at the library but were not collected is 171,031 (8.8%). From my recollection of discussions about this topic in libraries, this figure doesn't seem too bad. However it does mean that lots of work was done by staff and our couriers only to have this effort go to waste. If would be good if we could reduce the number of items which are reserved but not collected. If any libraries have run a demonstrably successful program in the past about reducing the number of uncollected holds we'd love to hear from you.
As further stats become available I'll share them with you.
I have just been provided with a report which looks at holds performance at a very high level. For this financial year to date customers have placed 1,943,010 holds. Of these, 1,537,134 (79.1%) have been filled. So what about the other 20%+?
Customers chose to cancel 234,845 (12.1%) of all holds placed. I'm curious to know more about what these holds were & why they were cancelled, but we don't have that data. I am pleased that this number of holds were cancelled on the basis that we would not have shipped most of these items - saving courier costs. Of course, if a hold is cancelled after an item has been shipped we still do all the work associated with fulfilling a "live" hold.
The number of items which have expired on the shelf - i.e. arrived at the library but were not collected is 171,031 (8.8%). From my recollection of discussions about this topic in libraries, this figure doesn't seem too bad. However it does mean that lots of work was done by staff and our couriers only to have this effort go to waste. If would be good if we could reduce the number of items which are reserved but not collected. If any libraries have run a demonstrably successful program in the past about reducing the number of uncollected holds we'd love to hear from you.
As further stats become available I'll share them with you.
Swan Reach goes live
Yesterday the team at the Swan Reach library joined the consortium. They are part of the Mid-Murray council, so share the Enterprise site with the other libraries in their council area. These other libraries are Mannum, Morgan & Cambrai.
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| School students getting ready for the formalities |
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| The celebratory cake was well received |
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| Principal Kylie Eggers, Lyal Mutton from PLS, Mid Murray mayor Dave Burgess Sue Isted of PLS and Library Manager Leanne Griffiths celebrate. |
Friday, 30 May 2014
The amazing TROVE
I've added a new blog to "My blog list" on the left hand side margin of this blog. I should have done it ages ago as I am a total Trove fan. I think it is one of the truly great contributions that libraries have made to Australian society - for researchers, historians, people curious about their town, family, personal interest or whatever.
The catalyst for adding a link to the Trove blog is a post by Tim Sherratt called The news in a word. Please click through and read about Tim's philosophy and how it gets played out in this example. This, along with other work by Tim shows that Trove is more than a great portal - it is a platform to build things on - to steal Tim's comment from the blog & various other talks he has done about Trove.
Make sure you look at the output of this "news in a word" project here.
Tim's post shows just how libraries' digital collections are contributing to the digital humanities & will hopefully inspire others to build other interrogation tools / foci to exploit the riches of the NLA collection. The question is, how many other libraries are also working towards making their collections as accessible and usable? Hopefully others are not just watching what the National Library is doing with Trove, but striving to follow its example.
You may choose to follow the Trove Blog, or when you visit this site check out the brief updates under the Trove link & visit whenever you see something of interest. Either way - I hope like me & if you're not already, that you become a Trove fan & spread the word about how great it is & what its potential is!
The catalyst for adding a link to the Trove blog is a post by Tim Sherratt called The news in a word. Please click through and read about Tim's philosophy and how it gets played out in this example. This, along with other work by Tim shows that Trove is more than a great portal - it is a platform to build things on - to steal Tim's comment from the blog & various other talks he has done about Trove.
Make sure you look at the output of this "news in a word" project here.
Tim's post shows just how libraries' digital collections are contributing to the digital humanities & will hopefully inspire others to build other interrogation tools / foci to exploit the riches of the NLA collection. The question is, how many other libraries are also working towards making their collections as accessible and usable? Hopefully others are not just watching what the National Library is doing with Trove, but striving to follow its example.
You may choose to follow the Trove Blog, or when you visit this site check out the brief updates under the Trove link & visit whenever you see something of interest. Either way - I hope like me & if you're not already, that you become a Trove fan & spread the word about how great it is & what its potential is!
Thursday, 29 May 2014
Mannum Library goes live
Mannum Library has joined it's Mid-Murray Council neighbour Morgan on the One Card Network today.
The libraries have decided on a single shared Enterprise site for all libraries in the Mid-Murray council & their site is here. It features a number of local photos including a great photo montage of the diversity of the council's area, from the cliffs of the Murray River to the green hills of the eastern slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges.
Mannum has a great collection of digitized original photos of paddle steamers on the Murray River which are currently stored on a local PC. Over time it would be great to have these on Portfolio for all the world to see.
In coming weeks the other two libraries in the Council (Swan Reach & Cambrai) will also join the consortium.
The libraries have decided on a single shared Enterprise site for all libraries in the Mid-Murray council & their site is here. It features a number of local photos including a great photo montage of the diversity of the council's area, from the cliffs of the Murray River to the green hills of the eastern slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges.
Mannum has a great collection of digitized original photos of paddle steamers on the Murray River which are currently stored on a local PC. Over time it would be great to have these on Portfolio for all the world to see.
In coming weeks the other two libraries in the Council (Swan Reach & Cambrai) will also join the consortium.
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Updating our progress
Back on 25 February I posted some stats about where we are up to regarding the roll out. I've been asked to provide an update to these figures, so here they are below.
As of today we have transitioned 80 library services from 62 councils onto the One Card system. These 62 councils account for 98% of the State's population.
We have 1,030,189 customers and 3,834,341 items showing on the database. Of course these stats are a little misleading as we know that we have customers with multiple cards, and all of these duplicates are counted. Likewise, some items will be showing in the database, but will not be available for loan. These items will be local history items etc. Since the 25 February update the number of customers has increased by 48,580 and the items in the database have increased by 176,422.
In the earlier post I commented on a forthcoming bib-record de-duplication process, anticipating that we would clean up approximately 100,000 records. At the time or writing this was our advice, however the process was not as comprehensive as we had hoped, leading to the de-duplication of only 24,000 records. This was a bit disappointing & points to the fact that we will need to undertake a greater rate of direct staff intervention to clean up our database. The User Group is working towards a plan which will see a concerted effort across the network to speed up the process.
Some members of the project team are on the road this week to conduct face to face meetings with some of the last libraries which will transition to the system in coming months.
In the next few weeks (the rest of May & June) we expect to welcome Mannum, Swan Reach, Cambrai and Eudunda to the network.
As of today we have transitioned 80 library services from 62 councils onto the One Card system. These 62 councils account for 98% of the State's population.
We have 1,030,189 customers and 3,834,341 items showing on the database. Of course these stats are a little misleading as we know that we have customers with multiple cards, and all of these duplicates are counted. Likewise, some items will be showing in the database, but will not be available for loan. These items will be local history items etc. Since the 25 February update the number of customers has increased by 48,580 and the items in the database have increased by 176,422.
In the earlier post I commented on a forthcoming bib-record de-duplication process, anticipating that we would clean up approximately 100,000 records. At the time or writing this was our advice, however the process was not as comprehensive as we had hoped, leading to the de-duplication of only 24,000 records. This was a bit disappointing & points to the fact that we will need to undertake a greater rate of direct staff intervention to clean up our database. The User Group is working towards a plan which will see a concerted effort across the network to speed up the process.
Some members of the project team are on the road this week to conduct face to face meetings with some of the last libraries which will transition to the system in coming months.
In the next few weeks (the rest of May & June) we expect to welcome Mannum, Swan Reach, Cambrai and Eudunda to the network.
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
We welcome Renmark Paringa
The Renmark library joined the consortium on Monday - 3 days earlier than planned. This came about because the library had closed to get some other physical changes made, such as new carpet etc. Therefore they have not had to operate in "offline" mode. By not having offline files to load etc they were able to move straight to Symphony when they re-opened to the public on Monday.
Getting Renmark online is a real milestone for the project and the Riverland region. We have finished the rollout to all "Riverland" libraries, so local customers can have a true One Card feel of using their card at any local library. Also, Renmark was the last of the libraries we designate as a "C" library to come online. (C libraries are country libraries which are not School Community Libraries.)
The team has been working for a few months with some Lower Murray libraries & we will therefore welcome Mannum & Swan Reach in coming weeks.
The Renmark Enterprise site is here.
Update: Maxine has sent us through some great photos of their renovated library as well as some comments about what they've been up to. She wrote, "We were extremely excited to 'go live' 3 days early especially since this meant we didn't have any offline days at all! While our data was extracted and loaded we took the opportunity to get stuck into some major renos in the library which included new carpet, repainting and then demolishing the library toilets to rebuild along with the addition of a new storeroom.
Getting Renmark online is a real milestone for the project and the Riverland region. We have finished the rollout to all "Riverland" libraries, so local customers can have a true One Card feel of using their card at any local library. Also, Renmark was the last of the libraries we designate as a "C" library to come online. (C libraries are country libraries which are not School Community Libraries.)
The team has been working for a few months with some Lower Murray libraries & we will therefore welcome Mannum & Swan Reach in coming weeks.
The Renmark Enterprise site is here.
Update: Maxine has sent us through some great photos of their renovated library as well as some comments about what they've been up to. She wrote, "We were extremely excited to 'go live' 3 days early especially since this meant we didn't have any offline days at all! While our data was extracted and loaded we took the opportunity to get stuck into some major renos in the library which included new carpet, repainting and then demolishing the library toilets to rebuild along with the addition of a new storeroom.
We reopened with a
whole new look and a new library system. The day was then celebrated
with plenty of blue and white balloons and a blue and white lolly buffet
to keep members busy while we issued them with new cards.
Our thanks go to our
wonderful project team especially Sue who has been amazing and Jo, James,
Cathy, Matt, Bob and Brad."
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| New carpet, new paint & a great archway! |
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| The Dr Seuss quote behind the desk says The more that you read, the more things you will know The more that you learn the more places you'll go. |
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| Library staff Maxine Hodgson, Heidi Obst & Tracey Jaensch |
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| Library Staff Deb Axon, Heidi Obst & Maxine Hodgson |
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| New carpet in the children's library |
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| The ubiquitous blue lollies! |
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