Maximum Flotation

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Maximum Flotation

• Floating Our CollectionSarasota County Library
  SystemFlorida Library AssociationMay 6, 2009

An homage to the work of the Multnomah County
Library System.
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Who We Are
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Who We Are
Sources IMLS and Florida Library Directory with
Statistics (FY 2007)
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What is a floating collection?

• The tenet of a floating collection is simple
  one system, one collection. --LJ, 10/1/04
• Items stay where they are returned.
• Upon checkin, the location is automatically
  updated in the catalog.

At night, when the sky is full of stars and the
sea is still you get the wonderful sensation that
you are floating in space. --Natalie Wood
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Why We Floated
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Who We Are
Courier
System Think
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Who We Are
Courier
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How We Did It

• Looking backit was easy!
• Formed a Peer Driven Quality Improvement (PDQI)
  team in October 2007.
• Library staff
• County Communications Dept.
• Facilitator from Emergency Services Dept.

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What the PDQI Did

• Guided the project
• Researched best practices
• Made major decisions and set timelines/deadlines
• Planned the implementation
• Shared information
• Trained

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The Technical Part

• Innovative Interfaces Incorporated (III) ILS
• Purchased floating module
• Implement floating module
• Researched other III libraries experiences
• Created float table
• Tested everything

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The Technical Part

• Running 2 parallel interfaces to ILS
• Millennium and ANZIO
• That was a problem!

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The Technical Part

• Statistics
• OWNLOC
• Showed the ripples of floating
• Database to-dos
• Created additional location codes
• Created new categories
• Cleaned it ALL up

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The People Part

• Communication to Staff
• Library system meetings
• Friends groups
• Enet (Intranet built with SharePoint)
• Handouts
• Emails
• Communication to Patrons

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The Collections Part

• Standardized labeling
• Standardized processing

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The Collections Part
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What Happened

• It worked!
• ILS (III) was seamless!
• Check-in process was transparent.

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The Details
Large Print Fiction YA Fiction Adult
BiographyVHS Paperbacks YA NonfictionDVDs
Juvenile Materials Spanish MaterialsAdult
Nonfiction
4-2-2008Hardback Adult Fiction
9-16-2008Audiobooksand Music
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The Details
April 2008
May-June 2008
Aug.-Sept. 2007
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What Is Not-So-Good

• Friends
• Security
• Budget
• Morale
• Shelving / Balance of the Collection

Climbing K2 or floating the Grand Canyon in an
inner tube there are some things one would
rather have done than do. --Edward Abbey
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What Staff Said
Our biggest problem with the floating is that we
have many shelves that are filled end to end, and
the shelvers have no place to shelve a book
correctly.
It's not that floating doesn't work, it's that it
doesn't work for 100 of the collection 100 of
the time.
Many regular patrons are angry when they look at
the catalog and see so many copies at other
libraries but nothing here.
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What Is Good

• Material lifespan
• Collection marketing
• Patron satisfaction
• Efficiency
• Budget
• Morale!
• System-wide thinking

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What Staff Said
I love it! This is much more efficient. I
honestly feel more a system person than I ever
have in the past.
Patrons have told me that their library seems to
suddenly have more variety in the DVD collection.
Many staff enjoy this type of challenge and I
think it is positive to rethink the norm and
stretch our potential. 
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What We Would Do Differently

• Weed first
• Clean database
• Create a rebalance plan
• Wider communication
• Not change too much at once
• Standardize

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What We Would Do the Same

• Form a committee to oversee
• Stagger what floats when
• Not take it too seriously

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What We Are Doing Next

• Working on standardized weeding and rebalancing
• Working on creating a systemwide philosophy
• Continuing to evaluate (and possibly) standardize
  packaging

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The End Part
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
--Muhammad Ali
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The End Part

• http//sclibs.net/floating.aspx

Sarabeth KalajianDirectorskalajian_at_scgov.net
Andrea Ginsky Public Service Manager
aginsky_at_scgov.net Diane McCauley Administrative
Specialist dmccauley_at_scgov.net
Melisse Hypponen III System Administrator
mhypponen_at_scgov.net Laurie Bates-WeirLibrary
Webmistress lbates_at_scgov.net
Trina TurtonLibrary Supervisor
tturton_at_scgov.net