Inter Library Loans and Other Mishaps

I have been doing inter library loans for several months now. This involves finding a requested book or journal article from another library and sending out an email through the Library Management System. On the other end, libraries request items from us and we do our best to fill those requests. There are so many steps to this process, however, that I am still finding mistakes that I have made. Two things I have learned are that one must do this process slowly and that there is a need to record everything.

My instinct is to move quickly when I think I know how to do something. This comes from years of having jobs that were highly stressful and demanding. This is not a good instinct to have in libraries, it seems. There is a reason why the stereotype of the slowly moving, ponderous librarian exists. If you move too fast, you can forget a step, and forgetting a step can have really annoying consequences down the road.

Say you forget to change the due date on a book that you have borrowed from another library--something I did a lot before I realized what I was missing! Our LMS will assign a due date automatically, but it is almost always the wrong one. Then you end up getting a call from the lending library that the book is due when your system says that the reader has a whole month left!

This ties in with recording everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. If I wrote down the due date in the fist place, both in the ILL journal and recorded it in the LMS, then it is less likely that I will forget to modify the due date. Also, writing everything down means that the other library assistant will be able to figure out what mistakes have been made and be able to fix them as they crop up rather than having to try and investigate what might have gone wrong.

So yeah, I make mistakes. I try not to, but it happens. Other than ILL mistakes, I have made assumtions that I should not have. For example, I've leaned the hard way that I need to teach readers how to use the OPAC. I assumed that because our readers were professionals that they knew how to use an online library catalogue. I've also tended to assume a certain level of computer literacy that maybe I shouldn't.

After a helpful meeting with one of my managers (I'm not afraid to ask for help!), I've learned that it's a good thing to assume people have certain kinds of knowledge, but to be overly helpful just in case. I've been following that advice and it's been working. Now I just need to follow my own. Move slower and write things down.