Libraries for the future: Europe’s new wave of ‘meeting places for the mind’

From Ghent’s De Krook to Helsinki’s Oodi, recent civic constructions have shared a vision of the library as a living room for the modern city

Prevent multiple requests from a same borrowing library within a short period of time

Within a same day, we sometimes receive (in Alma) several RapidILL requests coming from a same institution for a same book or journal issue (native electronic materials or scans from physical materials): usually one request per book chapter, one request per article, etc., but sometimes, some of these requests are for multiple chapters or significant portions of a work. We assume that in most cases, these multiple requests come from a same requester, associated to the borrowing library. In addition to copyright issues that multiple request raise, it is unreasonable to expect a lending library to expend spending a lot of time to scan significant portions of a work. We don’t expect any systematic mediation from borrowing libraries. This would increase the turnaround time, make the process heavier and slower for end-users and be in contradiction with encouraged integrations like Alma/RapidILL and Alma/Rapido. Instead, we would like lending libraries to have the possibility to limit the number of requests they receive from a same borrowing library for a same book or journal issue within a given (short) period of time. Example of configuration: “Maximum XX requests in YY hours for a same book or journal issue from a same borrowing library”, where ‘XX’ and ‘YY’ would be numeric values to select from a drop-down list. Possible values for XX and YY should be defined in collaboration with the RapidILL and Rapido WGs. In case the values for XX or YY would be reached: 1) Any new request matching the limits should be assigned to another lending institution that owns the requested material. 2) The borrowing library should be informed that there is a risk of multiple requests from a same requester. The library could reach the requester, explain the resulting copyright issues and/or decide if possible to acquire the highly demanded material. 3) If no other library can provide the material, request should be cancelled and associated with a new ‘Request Cancellation Reason’ code in Alma. It is important that Resource Sharing requests that would be cancelled for such reasons explain the requester that requesting a too large part of a journal issue or book is not without consequences or risks.

Add a self-checkout feature in campusM/Library Mobile

It would be useful to add a self-checkout function to campusM/Library Mobile. Built as a new product integration, notably with Alma, it would allow patrons to check out items on their mobile device (quick and private way for patrons to borrow items from anywhere in the stacks). Some libraries use parallel apps for self-checking, it is not very convenient to propose different library apps to users. Adding a self-checkout feature in campusM/Library Mobile would consolidate the use of this app among the library patrons.

Snippets, subject lines, and exclamation points: A case study in constructing better library emails

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The Code4Lib Journal – Customizing Alma and Primo for Home & Locker Delivery