T
he library kept busy promoting resources and developing new guides this quarter, including a TRB 2019 Annual Meeting Guide (the third such guide we've developed since implementing LibGuides), in addition to support for the VDOT Learning Center in the form of a new Skillsoft Books Quick Start Guide. Skillsoft Books is the new incarnation of the database formerly called Books24x7, which is managed by the Learning Center. To help long-time users log in and establish "new" accounts, and because the resource is available to VDOT personnel from home, we also created the guide Skillsoft Books Access Options.
Meanwhile, staffer Gil Kenner created another "What's New In the Library" list, which helps inform patrons of new resources and borrow then with a few clicks of a mouse. This quarter's update marks the 4th 'What's New" created by Kenner in the past 2 years.
As in the past, we cross promoted all of those new resources through social media posts in LinkedIn and through articles in the library's E-Newsletter Connections, which has about 55 subscribers at this point. We are hoping to continue driving subscriptions up in order for the newsletter to become a more comprehensive way to communicate with library users, but is will always remain an "opt in" resource.
In addition, library staffers spent a significant amount of timing setting up and promoting and running a user-satisfaction survey on the ICE Virtual Library database, which is detailed in the next section of this report.
Special Information Request: HRBT Expansion Team
In March the library was contacted by VDOT employee Phillip Casteen, requesting library support on behalf of a team working to support the information and documentation needs of the Hampton Roads Tunnel Bridge Expansion project, a 6-year $3.3 billion construction project considered the biggest in VDOT's history.
Casteen requested an online portal to access digital copies of more than 300 standards, specifications, and online manuals, handbooks, guides and circulars, which were organized into 12 subject categories. Not all the documents requested were publicly accessible or licensed in digital format for use by VDOT (though most were available through library subscriptions). Further complicating the request, users of the resources would come from two separate teams. Team one was comprised of VDOT employees, and team two would be made up of VDOT contractors.
We determined through a series of project scoping discussions that the library could accomodate the request in terms of access, copyright compliance, licensing and user education through an unconventional use of the Springshare E-reserves module.
After initial testing, work began by the library immediately, with the goal to complete the site and make it available next month. We hope to report more next quarter.
