Pleasant surprise(s)

One lemon-to-lemonade moment I've experienced lately;  It turns out my ILL liaisons at the various branches are quite a bit more responsive and efficient than regular circulation staff.

I've had to fall back to relying on them, actually, because my main building is currently closed to the public and we have only a skeleton crew on staff in circulation.  Hold requests have been completely shut off for the main building in the catalog, which disrupted my daily operations immediately.  Evidently this hadn't been taken into account despite my having raised the issue in a staff meeting and being reassured that it would all be taken care of.  I was pretty enraged about this for the better part of a day but bit my tongue and maintained a cool, factual facade to my supervisor on what I needed and why the current arrangement needed a work-around.  I'm grateful to the Assistant Director of the system for intervening directly and directing me to rely instead on old-fashioned email directly to the ILL liaisons still staffing the various branches in the system.

Turns out these folks are more on-the-ball than their regular circulation counterparts when it comes to responding to my requests via email instead of via the internal hold mechanism of the OPAC.  Some branches are more reliable than others, some circ staff more dependable than others.  It's just the reality out there.  But my ILL Liaisons are amazing.  NOT ONE request has arrived too late at the main building to fill an existing ILL request since we had to jury-rig the current set-up in lieu of using the OPAC's internal hold system.  So proud of my Liaisons out there!  The main building stacks are also currently closed, which is frustrating since it means I can't just go upstairs and grab something off the shelves to fill a request.  I'm 100% relying on my pull requests via email now.  The current adult collection is now a work-zone, with the book shelves covered by protective tarp while the ceiling is being completely replaced, the wiring redone, etc.  We basically have to steer clear of the rest of the building outside of the basement for the next couple of months.

I'm also grateful for the books I'm sometimes able to add in the catalog--donations of duplicates already cataloged and in-system that need additional copies at other branch libraries.  They're not put out on the shelf every day, but I'm grateful every time new books of this type appear for me to work on.  It's not actual cataloging, but it's often close enough to keep me happy.  I'm certainly more efficient at it than our other clerks without professional experience as a working librarian.