State-of-the-Art Solutions & Future of Delivery
Lori Bowen Ayre Discovery to Delivery: Rethinking
Resource Sharing June 28, 2013
Characteristics of a Good Library Delivery System
1. Reduces need for physical delivery – finds a local copy – offers digital surrogates
2. Selects the “cheapest” copy that meets the patrons request – cheaper in terms of cost of transport – cheaper in terms of cost of fulfillment (pick the right copy to
request, scan on demand, purchase on demand, ILL) 3. Easy to discover, request and track progress 4. Gets into patrons hands within
necessary/expected window of time
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
STATE OF THE ART SOLUTIONS
Purchase Instead of Borrow
• Purchase on Demand – Generally part of the ILL workflow – Items to be purchased must meet certain selection
criteria – May ship to patron or library first
• Zip Books at Shasta County Public Library – Generous selection criteria – Items shipped (or downloaded) directly to the
requesting patron and processed after return • Support patrons buying item for themselves
– Worldcat and probably others
Holds Targeting in Evergreen • Parameters for managing behavior of holds in
Evergreen – hard boundaries – soft boundaries – stalling – hold priorities – time restrictions – preferred targets – opportunistic capture
• Other ILSs much more limited
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Box Trucks and Sprinters Box trucks with lifts for high volume routes • Sized to efficiently fit
stacks of distribution bins • Easy to load and unload
with hand truck
Sprinters for longer, short-volume routes • Fuel efficient • Less ergonomical than
box truck
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Sorting Pods
• Sort to pods of 10-20 locations
• Reduce movement while sorting
• Use clear labels • Unload to stacks
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Put-to-Light Sorting • Reads barcode, RFID tag or label to determine
destination • ILS look-up for destination (SIP or RFID tag) • Light indicates tote • Benefits:
– Improves accuracy – Make is easy to do more granular sorting – Cheaper than AMH system
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Put-to-Light to Accumulate Items Before Placing in Tote
• Allows person sorting to stay in one area for sorting
• Place stack in tote
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Automated Sorting • Staff induct items
onto sorter – 1200 items per hour
• ILS reads barcode or RFID tag
• Sorter drops item into appropriate tote
• This sorter can sort to half totes for media
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
King County Library System Service Center
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Other Good Practices • Unambiguous codes for labels • No packaging and rubberbands • No labels! • No sorting on trucks • Limited presorting (to 1-2 locations max) • Delivery systems that work for the library (not
vice versa) • Accurate delivery windows • Distribution bins for totes (lids, collapsible,
nestable, 9x12x15, max weight 50# loaded)
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Signs of Trouble
• Damaged or missing material • Missed deliveries or deliveries outside of
delivery window • Courier leaves ready-to-go items behind • Too many items delivered at once • Unnecessary movement of items • Items sorted to or delivered to wrong location
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
PROJECTIONS
All Signs Point to Reduced Delivery Volume
• Big bump from patron-initiated requesting is over
• Digital options increasing and increasingly popular
Delivery Services Will Become More Efficient
• Improvements in Hardware – RFID – Digitization – Automation
• Improvements in software – Discovery – Requesting – Management of Holds and Delivery
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Faster Retrieval of Items to Fill Holds Due to RFID
• RFID makes it more likely that items are where the catalog says they are – Libraries using RFID are more likely to
do inventory – RFID makes it easier to find misshelved
items – fewer items walk out the door
undetected • ILSs providing better pull lists
– Contain all the necessary information – Sorted in an order to optimizes pulling
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Print on Demand
How Patrons Get a Book Today • Self-Service Holds Pick-up • Kiosks / Vending Machines • Storage lockers • Purchase on Demand Print on Demand
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Scan on Demand
DRM Formats • Mobipocket (Kindle) • ePub (Adobe Content
Server) • PDF (Adobe Content
Server) • eReader (older Barnes
& Noble format) • LIT (Microsoft)
Scan on Demand
DRM-free • Smashwords • PDF
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Batch Check-in • How tote-level batch check-in
works – Sending library records scans tote
barcode and then each item it places inside
– Items inside the tote are associated with the tote’s barcode number
– Receiving library scans the tote’s barcode number to check-in all items inside
– Exceptions are identified (e.g. items that trigger a new hold)
• Does NOT require automated sorting (but its easier that way)
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Delivery Check-in with RFID Gates • Rather than reading the barcode on the tote,
read all the RFID tags on books inside the tote • Depends on advancements in RFID technology
or transition from HF to UHF tags in libraries
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Home Delivery
“The United States Postal Service (USPS) may invite some public libraries to double as post offices, Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, said on August 1.”
Home Delivery for Requested Items
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems
• High density (HD) repositories common in academic libraries
• HD systems can store 1.5-2 million items in same space as only 100,000 volumes could be stored on public shelves and its cheaper
• Add AS/RS and access to selected items takes 5 minutes
• As library spaces support more activities, AS/RS systems will make more sense Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
Real-time Tracking of Items GPS Maps Web Real-time tracking
of library items during transport
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013
ILS Adds Delivery Manager Module
LibraryILS version 4.1 was released Spring 2014 and has a lot of really exciting new features. Here are some of the highlights: • A completely updated user experience • Sophisticated yet simple unified searching
capabilities • Ability to deliver select DPLA, HathiTrust, and
InternetArchive content to your users • Integrated interlibrary delivery management
system
Lori Bowen Ayre –Discovery to Delivery Preconference ALA Annual Conference, Chicago 2013