Plan of Service - Element 1

Cooperative Collection Development

Goal

Activities/

Department

Evaluation

Intended Results

Enable members to work together and with STLS to develop diverse collections

Provide Unicorn Workflows and online catalog to enable libraries to see what others own; enable libraries  and patrons to borrow materials from other members  (Information Technology, Technical Services)

Discuss collection development and distribute information on special materials during visits, meetings, workshops (Adult/Outreach, Youth)

Acquire System and Central Library materials that will complement those of member libraries (Central Library, Adult/Outreach, Youth)

Purchase titles for which demand in member libraries is too light to purchase with local funds (Central Library, Adult/Outreach)              

Annual member library evaluation of STLS services

Circulation statistics

Library budgets for materials increase

Residents have access to local collections of high quality, varied, and up-to-date materials on diverse topics, authored by a wide spectrum of authors reflecting a full range of viewpoints

Local libraries will receive support in providing residents with browsing access to materials not owned at the local level (rotating collections); important but in low demand locally; of a cost more than can be easily absorbed by local budgets, or in specialized formats (multi-media kits; descriptive videos/DVDs, other)

Delivery

Goal

Activities/

Department

Evaluation

Intended Results

Provide libraries with frequent, reliable, timely service

Explore options to enhance and expand delivery among members and non-member public, school, academic, and other libraries (Delivery)

Inform library staff about delivery procedures (Adult/Outreach, Youth)

Annual member library evaluation of STLS services

Statistics

Anecdotal evaluation

Residents will receive fast delivery of materials

Local libraries and STLS will work together to ensure reliable and accurate delivery of materials through cooperatively developed procedures

Interlibrary Loan

Goal

Activities/

Department

Evaluation

Intended Results

Strengthen member library interlibrary loan services

Train member library staff and patrons in becoming more skilled in searching the regional catalog (Interlibrary Loan, Information Technology)

Review and rewrite interlibrary loan guidelines

(Interlibrary Loan – 2007)

Develop a brochure, that member libraries can ‘customize’ with local information, describing interlibrary loan services (Interlibrary Loan – 2007)

Investigate/evaluate various software packages, including per item cost, to lessen staff intervention in providing interlibrary loan (Interlibrary Loan – 2010)               

Annual member library evaluation of STLS services

Interlibrary Loan advisory committee

Annual analysis of interloan statistics

Number of interloans generated via regional catalog, STARCat, will increase

Patrons in all member libraries will have access to desired materials. 95% of patron requests for materials filled

Number of member libraries using interlibrary loan services for materials from beyond system borders will increase.

Member libraries and patrons will be able to  directly request materials from libraries that are not STLS members

Regional Catalog

Goal

Activities/

Department

Evaluation

Intended Results

Maintain regional catalog through centralized cataloging

Work with member libraries to complete retrospective bar coding of their collections (Technical Services)

Maintain consistency and accuracy through centralized cataloging (Technical Services)

Work with Technical Services Advisory Committee to further develop and standardize new and existing procedures for new and exiting formats and new technologies and train members in their use (Technical Services)

Encourage members to inventory collections in order to make the database more accurate

Investigate sending the database for authority work. Maintain authority records (Technical Services – 2007)

Investigate cost/benefit for entering member holdings into OCLC database (Tech Services – 2009)

Annual member library evaluation of STLS services

Comments from library users

Member comments and requests

Technical Services Advisory Committee

Patrons are able to find the information and items they want by searching STARCat, the regional online database

Accuracy and use of standardized subjects ensure that the information in the database is accessible

Patrons able to find items in a series, written by authors with a pseudonym, with up-to-date subject headings  

Patrons locate local library materials through online search engines