Tag Archives: update

Resource sharing update recap

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On Oct. 2, the Indiana State Library hosted a resource sharing update for the Indiana library community. The two-hour webinar detailed the latest resource sharing information in the state. This took the place of the annual Discovery to Delivery conference which is normally held in-person each year. This abbreviated virtual conference featured sessions from State Library staff and vendors, and was attended by public, academic, school and institutional library staff. State Librarian Jacob Speer and Nick Schenkel, director of the West Lafayette Public Library, kicked off the conference by welcoming attendees.

Sessions included:

EBSCO – Rick Rybak, Academic Regional Sales Manager, EBSCO
As of July 1, the INSPIRE virtual library has been updated to feature EBSCO databases, including an upgrade to Academic Search Complete. Rick explained some of the newer additions to EBSCO’s offerings, including eBooks and LearningExpress.

Teaching Books – Nick Glass, Founder and Executive Director
Nick introduced the group to the resources available through TeachingBooks, which is also part of INSPIRE. While TeachingBooks’ primary audience is educators and caregivers, Nick introduced the new Book Connections interface, which is intended for every reader. Resources on these sites include background information on books and authors, including complete audio and video book readings.

InfoExpress – Nicole Brock, Indiana State Library Resource Sharing Coordinator and NOW Courier Staff
Nicole gave an update on the courier service beginning with the shutdown in March to the gradual reopening this summer. Nicole passed along some best practices related to shipping. NOW Courier staff shared some insight on how their mission is aligned with the Indiana State Library’s and gave a preview of some upcoming developments, including an upgrade to a new platform which will reduce unnecessary stops.

SRCS and Indiana Share – Nicole Brock, Indiana State Library Resource Sharing Coordinator
Nicole Brock gave an update on participation in both interlibrary loan services, and a preview of upcoming SRCS enhancements. Following the presentation, Nicole also hosted an informal lunch discussion for SRCS libraries.

Project ReShare – Scott Garrison, Executive Director, Midwest Collaborative for Library Services
Scott capped off the morning by providing an update on Project ReShare, an exploratory service that has the potential to breakdown barriers between consortia and systems, putting the patron in the center and increasing access to library materials.

The recording of the workshop and presentations is posted to State Library’s Resource Sharing page.

This post was written by Jen Clifton, Library Development Office, Indiana State Library.

SRCS Version 6 update and trainings

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SRCS, the Statewide Remote Circulation Service, will be undergoing a facelift this June as the software is upgraded to Version 6. SRCS is an interlibrary loan service sponsored by the Indiana State Library that links the catalogs of over 200 public and academic libraries and facilitates resource sharing statewide.

To help Indiana prepare for the leap, Debbie Hensler, product manager from Auto-Graphics, visited Indiana to provide three trainings for Indiana library staff. Debbie’s trainings kicked off the morning of April 30, 2019 in Indianapolis with an in-person and webinar training in which over 100 library staff from around the state participated. The training was recorded for later viewing and will be available on the SRCS website before the upgrade.

The next day, Debbie, Nicole Brock and Jen Clifton took a trip up I-65 and visited the northern portion of the state and held a training at the beautiful Crown Point Library. Staff from 11 public and academic libraries in Northern Indiana were present for this training.

After returning to Indianapolis, the trio headed south to New Albany. The Floyd County library graciously hosted our training, as well as staff from three other southern Indiana libraries in their Teen Scene. With their proximity to Louisville, and the upcoming 2019 Kentucky Derby, we enjoyed the pre-race excitement as many staff wore their finest hats and even broadcast the first call bugle over the library’s PA system.

Changes SRCS users can expect to see in the new version are:

Visual
• The site will have a cleaner appearance.
• The menus will now be more mobile-friendly.

Searching
• A rebuilt search engine will provide a faster, smoother search behind the scenes, meaning no more flickering book covers!
• Search results will be easier to expand or narrow.

Customization
• Simplified drag-and-drop request form editing.
• Staff dashboard – Menus and preferred links.
• UX admin- Simplified customization options and homepage creation.

These changes will be implemented for SRCS in June. The system will be unavailable from Friday, June 21, 2019 at 8 p.m. Eastern through Monday, June 24, 2019 at 8 a.m. Eastern. New requests will not be able to be placed during this time.

If you have any questions, please direct them to statewide services at the Indiana State Library.

This post was written by Jen Clifton, Library Development Office, Indiana State Library.