Library Quarterly Report FY24 Q4: April-June 2024

A

pril-June of 2024 saw increased outreach and promotion by the library, thanks to efforts of new staffer Amy Skretta, and long-time employee Barb Neyman, whose work with VDOT HR to identify and reach out to "high potential" new employees led to our first quarterly net gain in patron accounts in over a year. In fact, outreach and promotion were the stars of the show this quarter, as the library gained a new and more accurate description and placement in the VDOT Employee Handbook. In addition, we worked with DOTi administrators to get a link to the library Web site added to VDOT's Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB), which should go live soon.

On the outreach front, Ken Winter was invited to present at the April 10 meeting of the Assistant District Administrators for Business (ADA-B) for leaders from across VDOT. The meeting was held in Bristol, VA, so he pre-recorded a presentation video shown at the workshop, which focused broadly on Data, Tools and ROI, with a hands-on focus on effective business adaptations. Library resources demonstrated focused on business needs.

Gil Kenner oversaw the library's transition from OCLC's client-side software Connexion, (which the library had used since 2003), as a key tool for cataloging and searching purposes. Connexion was phased out over a multi-year process for the cloud-based WorldShare Collection Manager system, designed by OCLC to streamline workflows for print and electronic holdings, along with other enhancements that make all a library's resources easier for patrons, peer libraries and the global research community to request and access.

Use of Electronic Resources continues to account for the majority of patron traffic, a trend seen by libraries globally. This quarter, database use was higher than average at 4,409 downloads, the second highest number of downloads on record since we started subscribing to databases and tracking use in 2008. Not all resources receive enough use to justify their cost, however. This quarter after yet another lackluster year (as measured by patron access/downloads) the library discontinued VDOT's subscription to the ICE Virtual Library of peer-reviewed engineering journals. Despite a successful trial and user survey of that full-text database in 2019, followed by our best efforts at promotion, it rarely saw adequate use. As a result, we dropped the subscription and will reallocate the funds to resources in greater demand. 

Finally, a faulty CrowdStrike software update interrupted library operations. Two staffers were affected for a day before being restored, however, Ken Winter (a full-time teleworker living out of state), had to ship his laptop back for rebooting, which took more than a week.