In the Woodward Library commons area a group of medical students are gathered around a new laptop looking pensively at the documents displayed on the screen while discussing and collaborating information gathered for their third case week in “Blood and Lymphatics”. Elsewhere you might find another group of students putting together their PowerPoint presentation for their Human Kinetics health promotion project due later that day. Such is the typical scene that you might encounter everyday in our life sciences library.
Last November ten new laptops equipped with Windows XP and Microsoft Office arrived for circulation at Woodward Biomedical Library of UBC. A wireless network being introduced preceded this. The intention was to provide our patrons with equipment that they could use for preparing their course assignments and for group presentation projects. The demand by the patrons for the new laptops went beyond our expectations. This is in response to the increasing demand for technology and the integration of electronic resources with traditional print materials in the new course curriculum. This would include the expectation of students to create reports and projects within the Microsoft office environment as well as the use of electronic journals, CD-ROMs, and websites complementary to texts and other readings. Some professors have also created their own websites upon which the students will draw upon resources and supplemental course notes.
As electronic resources have grown so has the incidence of patrons using the facilities. The number of users in the library has gone up 17% from the previous year. This is due in part to changes in course curriculum, need for study space and accessibility to computers. There are also those that need to be educated by the librarians on how to use effectively use these resources. With medicine and dentistry leading the way in problem based and case based learning, other faculties such as Rehabilitation Medicine will be adopting the same style of learning in the near future. This is facilitated by the expansion of on-line resources. What the library has to offer extends beyond printed material and into cyberspace. This includes subscriptions to e-journals, e-reserve and interactive tutorials and websites. The new options are quite exciting and innovative!
After the introduction of the laptops into the circulation system we quickly saw that there were a number of workflow, ergonomic and technical issues that needed to be taken into consideration.
Each patron new to the laptop borrowing system is required to fill out an agreement form that details the borrowing policy and their responsibilities with the equipment. This involves updating the patrons record, signing out the item, making sure that the equipment doesn’t come in contact with our desensitization equipment (as the magnet might damage the hard drive), that each case is equipped with a wireless network card and power cord, as well as verbally giving a tour of the contents of the case to the patron. In the beginning for security reasons we housed the laptops in a very awkward locked cart in the circulation area that provided power regeneration for the laptops. After the 4-hour loan period the patrons would return the item, we would rebuild them (to clear items left on the laptop by the patron and any viruses that might be lurking about), and put them back into the cart to regenerate the batteries.
Initially the introduction of the laptops into the circulation system came with some unexpected hiccoughs and burps. The process at first was definitely awkward. After the first two weeks half of the laptops had been taken to technical repairs mostly due to small plastic pins on the computers being broken. Systems is not in-house and each broken laptop had to be taken for an outdoor walk in order to be repaired. Our circulation area was originally designed to facilitate the return of books and printed materials. After the laptops arrived we realized that we needed to reorganize the workflow, prioritize duties and make ergonomic adjustments. Due to the number of staff that we currently have and the fact that this system is integrated with our already busy circulation desk, the number of currently available laptops has been dropped down to three. This gave us the opportunity to make some decisions and redefine the process to make the work flow successful. Furthermore, we removed some harmful magnetic based equipment from one of our front desks and designated it as the laptop sign out desk. We replaced the awkward cart with a desk that can be used for rebuilding the computers. We also found that with the hustle and bustle that normally happens around the circulation desk having increased since last year, talking with the patrons and educating them about the new laptops, had created some “noise pollution” that wasn’t anticipated. It was often difficult to hear above the “hustle and bustle”. Since that time we now have more patrons that have already filled out the loan agreement forms and who now know the process. Therefore the amount of time that the process takes has decreased as well as the noise pollution. The changes that we have made in the workflow have been successful and have been well received by staff. As we fill a current vacant staff position, the number of laptops we are currently have for loan will be revised. Refining the workflow issues is an ongoing process and we expect that there will be additional improvement over time. We have had good feedback from students and faculty who seem to be quite pleased that they can “borrow” technologies for their projects and presentations.
By Patricia L. Foster
Originally printed in the Health Libraries Association of BC Forum, volume 27 Issue 3 Spring 2004.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
May 26th, 2006 at 8:09 am
It’s amazing how complicated it is to introduce something that seems benign, such as a laptop. When you hear that we should have more computers in schools, it seems like it’s just a matter of ordering some computers and plugging them in. Your post shows just how much more is involved — and how much librarians need to consider in making these choices.