Valerie Horton has been director of Minitex since December 2012. Minitex serves Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota libraries with a large resource-sharing network, databases, continuing education, remote storage, and many other services. Horton is also the co-general editor for Collaborative Librarianship, and wrote Moving Materials: Physical Delivery in Librariesfor ALA Publications. Prior to working at Minitex, she was the first director of the Colorado Library Consortium (CliC), a statewide library service organization. Before CliC, Valerie was Director of the Library at Mesa State after ten years at New Mexico State University, where she was Head of Systems, and for a time, library budget director/associate director. During her tenure in New Mexico, Valerie received an ALA International Fellowship and spent a year in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, where she consulted on how to automate the country's public, school, and government libraries. She started her professional career as a systems librarian at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, after graduating from and working in Systems at the University of Hawaii.
- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the Authors
- Reviews
Picking, packing, delivering, and returning library materials can be very time consuming and expensive; yet, it is one of the most important and least understood functions within a library. Until now, little time has been spent studying, exploring, or writing about the physical delivery of library materials.
Moving Materials is the guide to contemporary logistics management for libraries. Eleven experts in the field explore every aspect of this multi-million dollar function, so readers will learn
Moving Materials is a practical, useful handbook for library managers who want to save money and offer quality materials to their patrons.
Preface
I. The Current Landscape of Physical Delivery
1. Delivery: The Forgotten Function
Valerie Horton
2. Factors Influencing Delivery Options
Valerie Horton and Brenda Bailey-Hainer
3. Physical Delivery Service Organization
Bruce Smith
II. Library Delivery Service Models
4. Creating an In-House Delivery System
Bruce Smith
5. Outsourcing Delivery Services
Valerie Horton and Greg Pronevitz
6. Contractual Vendor Relations
David Millikin and Brenda Bailey-Hainer
III. Managing Physical Delivery Services
7. Routing and Materials Management Systems
Bruce Smith and Valerie Horton
8. Growth Management Solutions
Valerie Horton, Ivan Gaetz, and Bruce Smith
9. Managing Participating Libraries' Relationships
Valerie Horton
10. Managing the Delivery Service
Valerie Horton, Lisa Priebe, and Melissa Stockton
IV. The Future of Physical Delivery
11. Home Delivery
Lori Ayre and Jim Myers
12. Connecting Courier Services
Valerie Horton
Glossary
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
"In these days of shrinking budgets and rising user expectations, information professionals are finding new ways to provide resources. Electronic delivery is now the preferred option for materials such as journal articles. But we are still moving plenty of physical volumes around, either between different branches or between independent libraries. What are the best ways to accomplish this? Should we consider possibilities beyond the U.S. Postal Service? Perhaps this book will provide some insight … The authors not only provide practical tips about negotiating and interpreting contracts, evaluating the costs of services, and managing a courier service, they also balance it with ideas about how such services may evolve in the future."
--Information Today
"Fantastic!"
--Russell Palmer, Educational Services Librarian, Lyrasis, Chair of the Rethinking Resource Sharing, Physical Delivery Task Force
"...immensely helpful. Thank you so much for shining some illumination on this topic for me! Before I began, I never really thought about just how important the physical delivery of library materials is – it was just one of those things that as a library manager I took for granted."
--Julie Craig, Library Manager, Andrew & Laura McCain Library, New Brunswick, Canada
"This book is highly recommended for library managers and staff in the initial stages of implementing or making changes to a physical delivery system. The editors' knowledge and interest in delivery of library materials is demonstrated throughout the book ... a valuable resource."
--Internet Reference Services Quarterly
"A rich source of practical information replete with citations to further resources, brief bibliographies at the end of each chapter, an annotated bibliography by top names in the field, a glossary of terms, task inventories, and contributors' profiles. This is sure to become a well-worn reference on the library manager's bookshelf."
--Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services
"A quick read packed with tons of valuable information that will help library managers learn how to provide high-quality delivery service that is faster and more cost efficient."
--Technical Services Quarterly