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12th ALIA National Library Technicians Conference
Keeping the balance: Customer service and electronic access in an OPLMichelle Alcock, librarian, Queensland Medical LaboratoryAbstractWe are encouraged by the popular media to believe that the entire world is online, however reality is still divided between those who have access to electronic resources and those who do not. Information in the Science, Medical and Technology fields is increasingly available in electronic formats. Publishers offer a dizzying array of online access methods with matching licensing arrangements, often changing them mid year without notice. Serials librarians around the world are attempting to keep up with the changes while ensuring client expectations are satisfied. As the librarian at Queensland Medical Laboratory, I have been developing electronic access to resources the library holds in print subscriptions. The library offers an information service to the pathologists, scientists and staff within the organisation around Queensland. In order to increase the equity of resources throughout our laboratories I have a web page on our Intranet portal. This has links to a variety of Web and Intranet based electronic resources available to all QML staff in theory. However like the wider world, not all QML staff have electronic access to information, many do not have desktop terminals in their work environment. In order to compensate for this disadvantage the library has tailored and enhanced traditional services such as circulation and reference to ensure necessary knowledge is circulated throughout the organisation. This presentation discusses the methods used by an OPL to balance customer service and the use of electronic resources in a contraction of the wider world. Keeping the balance: Customer service and electronic access in an OPLQueensland Medical Laboratory or QML Pathology as is the new title, is a pathology laboratory that started in the 1950's with two doctors who recognised the need for pathology services in Brisbane. Over the years it has grown to employ 1700 staff and have laboratories all over Queensland. With the increase in staff and laboratories has been an increase in ancillary services to the pathologists and scientists. One of those services was the library. Initially the library was a place for the doctors to collect their various subscriptions to medical journals. The librarian was an admin assistant. With the growth of the company came the growth of the library. An admin assistant was no longer knowledgeable enough to manage the growing collection so a library technician was employed. She moved the library twice and managed the print collection for nine years until she left to start her family. In December 2000 I took responsibility for the QML Pathology library. In the beginning it was made very clear by my manager that the library service was to assist the pathologists and senior scientists in their need for current medical and scientific information. However I could see a wider spread of information needs throughout the organisation. Other managers of departments such as Building and Maintenance, Quality Management and Workplace Health and Safety needed information and standards in order to keep up to date and in line with NATA (National Australian Testing Authority) regulations under which the company is licensed. The pathology collection training officer needed information on phlebotomy standards and other industry procedures in order to train our staff in best practice. Scientists from all the laboratories needed to have access to information for their own professional development and for the training of new staff as they commenced employment at QML Pathology. Everywhere I looked I could see an information need that currently wasn't being met. My challenge as the only staff member of the library was how to meet the needs that I identified. I began by continuing the current practices of the library for three months. I didn't want to make radical changes without a full understanding of the library practices and the client's needs. Journals were sent out to all our laboratories on a weekly basis and to hand delivered to the pathologists at our West End facility. Two days of each week were spent packing up journals and unpacking them on their return. Sometimes the pathologists would hold on to journals and this would create a backlog. Some of the journals were still being circulated 12 months after they had been published. The lack of currency was a problem for some of the pathologists, but not for others. Some of the pathologists view current information with scepticism, others view it as vital. This was reflected in their attitude towards returning the journals within the two weeks allowed. In order to overcome the problem of journals being delivered and not being returned I developed the Electronic Journals List - EJL. Initially I opened access to one electronic journal, the one most commonly still circulating a year after being published, The New England Journal of Medicine. I encouraged the pathologists/scientists to use the electronic version, but still supplied print version to those who requested it. Electronic Table of Contents (eTOCs) were sent for each issue to all the doctors on the circulation list with the journal's login and password. After a couple of months all the doctors were notified that the print version of this journal would no longer be circulating, access would be through the electronic version. All except one pathologist agreed and have been using the electronic version ever since. An Electronic Table of Contents (eTOC) delivered by e-mail allows the freedom of deleting the contents with a mouse click once scanned for articles of interest. Once acceptance of the new delivery method was universal, the process was repeated with the Lancet and BMJ. After the successful acceptance of the first three electronic journals, all the electronic versions of the journals that came free with the print subscriptions were added. Some of the challenges that had to be overcome in the preceding months before the removal of the circulating print version were related to the pathologists and scientists. Like all people, who are comfortable in their work patterns, new methods and changes to old routines brings with them fear and resistance. Some of the reasons for this were lack of time, lack of knowledge, lack of experience and an initial failure of the change to achieve what was expected. These reasons are no different from any other profession's reasons for resistance to new technologies and change. The pathologists and scientists are experts in their fields but some felt completely at a loss with a computer. Things that maybe taken for granted such as opening and reading our e-mail were total mysteries to some of them. Yet once they overcame the initial challenges, the benefits of electronic access to journals were explained and demonstrated to them, they adapted their behaviour to include it. In order to overcome the resistance I visited my clients. I didn't wait until they came to the library. I introduced myself and offered to help them understand and use computers to access information. In some cases tailoring individual lessons that increased in complexity with the person's confidence was the most effective approach. In others an hour long tutorial that covered accessing the journals, a brief searching capabilities run through of each journal, the differences between html and pdf documents and how to print articles was all that was needed. I travelled to three of our regional laboratories and delivered individual tuition to the pathologists and scientists so that they had the same opportunities as the staff at West End. As travel to the more distant regional centres such as Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns was not feasible, assistance has been given to the pathologists in these centres over the telephone and with e-mail support. The response has been excellent with all the pathologists and many of the scientific staff in regional areas using electronic access to journals regularly. Currently 25 of the 60 print subscriptions are available electronically. Planned increases of 7 more for the 2004 subscriptions. Electronic access has led to a decrease in the articles from journals we subscribe to being requested for document delivery. This has increased the time available to address other staff's information requests. Several of the pathologists have stated that they are able to cover more journals electronically than they were when receiving them in print. They feel they are able to keep up to date with current medical information more efficiently. Electronic access also allows them to keep an electronic record of articles in specific subject areas. Not all scientific staff have internet access through QML work stations. For a variety of reasons (security and the cost of IP addresses being two of them) the company restricts internet access to pathologists and the senior scientific staff. This has meant that electronic journal access is limited to a select few. Because of this restriction print journals are circulated to staff who do not have internet access. Of course there are journals that are not available electronically as yet. These journals are still circulated manually throughout the organisation. Although it is my least favourite tasks in the library, it brings me into regular biweekly contact with some of my clients. In order to request a copy of a journal article a print form was used. The form required the article's and the sender's details added and then signed and dated to fulfill copyright requirements. This was then sent through the internal mail to the library. Invariably requests would arrive without the sender's details. This made matching requests to the client a little like a game, one I usually lost. An electronic form using their QML ID and their library pin number to log in and identify them has meant clients no longer have to fill in their names and departments on each request. The request form program does it for them. The form incorporates the copyright declaration as a click through at the beginning of each request. The request form system is located on the library's homepage on the company's intranet. The electronic form the requests are delivered to is also available from the library's homepage. This allows the staff to view their request until it has been filled and sent. On completion an e-mail is sent to the client informing them of the imminent delivery of their request. This change has brought about an approximate 50per cent increase in requests from its inception. The encouraging part is that the majority of the increase comes from staff who previously did not use the library. The manager of the genetics department brought her entire staff to the library to get library pin numbers. With the increase in the availability of information she has started monthly education meetings with one staff member speaking on a topic that interests them in genetics. Time is always cited as a major factor in why staff located at West End don't come to the library to read journals or search for information. Staff from the regional laboratories don't have the luxury of walking over to the library. An electronic bibliography allows staff to read the citation details and an abstract (if available) of articles selected by senior scientists and order a copy of it electronically through the library. The bibliography is currently located on the department's intranet homepage under education resources. By building a bibliography of recommended articles and enabling staff to request them electronically staff are able to keep current with information and reduce the time they take to keep up to date. By bringing selected information to their desktops and making the request process as simple as adding their library pin and QML personal ID to a form that already has the articles details embedded, we are able to remove the 'not enough time factor'. Listing the articles under subject headings used by the department adds to the time reduction. My goal for this project is to have an electronic bibliography for each department accessible through their homepage on the company's intranet with a link to the bibliography from the library's homepage. To remove all the bugs I have been working initially on one department's bibliography. The major difficulty lies with not having responsibility for uploading all the information myself, having to rely on other staff who have other priorities and are unable to devote sufficient time to my project to complete it. This has come about because of internal policies that restrict the addition of information to the company intranet to ISD staff. During the past two years one of the most pervasive challenges has been that the library only deals in books and journals for the pathologists. Changing the culture of the organisation to develop an attitude that information is available for all who want, need and use it has been my predominant goal. This has been a gradual shift and word of mouth as been the most effective advertising. The library message to all staff is that the library is available and the librarian is willing and able to help with providing information. The other ongoing difficulty has been access to the electronic journals themselves. Each publisher has a different method of providing access to their journals. Each publisher has a different search facility located on their website and each publisher makes changes to the electronic access of their journal without notifying their clients of the changes. Some things that appear to be easy are made difficult and the difficult things are made nigh on impossible. Just when I think I have access sorted and I can concentrate my efforts elsewhere, a client will ring and tell me they can't get into 'Gastroenterology'. Rather than go on for hours boring you about the challenges of providing access to electronic journals, I recommend two excellent articles from the Australian Library Journal listed in my bibliography. In my quest to provide my clients with the best customer service I am able to provide, I haven't been innovative. I have followed in the footsteps of other larger libraries and adapted their strategies to suit my situation. Electronic access to information through digital journals, databases and specialized bibliographies are services that other libraries have been providing for a number of years. Pathways to these same resources have been developed for the staff of QML Pathology without adding to the budget or the staff of the library. Doing this has enabled me to spend more time with new library users increasing the value of the library and its resources to my organisation. BibliographyBiographyMichelle Alcock is the librarian for Queensland Medical Laboratory. She has a Bachelor of Science (Library Technology) and will complete a Bachelor of Arts (Library and Information Sciences) in 2004. She has written articles for Quill the Queensland Library newsletter and was the 2001 recipient of the Queensland Library Technician's (Recent Graduate) Award.
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