Resource Sharing

Guest post written by Emily Pfotenhauer of WiLS

Recollection Wisconsin recently launched a new and improved central search interface for their digital collections. Through this new search, you can find state and local history resources as well as materials from across the country and around the world, all from the collections of dozens of Wisconsin libraries, archives, historical societies and museums.

This new interface was created for Recollection Wisconsin as a benefit of their partnership with the Digital Public Library of America. In fact, Wisconsin is the first DPLA member in the country to launch a “DPLA Local” site. The search portal uses the same code DPLA developed for their own dp.la portal, which means Recollection Wisconsin users can benefit from handy features like auto-generated citations and the option to save custom lists.

The new search also uncovers resources about Wisconsin from other DPLA contributors around the country. For example, did you know that the New York Public Library has a great collection of stereographs of the Wisconsin Dells, photographed by H. H. Bennett? Or that the National Archives holds thousands of photos of Wisconsin landscapes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture?

The DPLA Local interface replaces the search portal created for Recollection Wisconsin in 2005 by UW-Madison Libraries. Recollection Wisconsin is grateful to UW-Madison for their many years of support to centralize access to Wisconsin’s digital collections and for their continued quarterly metadata harvests to update and refresh the data in the new system.

Give the new search a try and let Recollection Wisconsin staff know what you think!

Recollection Wisconsin is a consortium administered by WiLS and managed by seven Governing Partners: WiLS, Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee Public Library and Marquette University. Primary support for Recollection Wisconsin is provided by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, which administers Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds distributed by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Guest Post Written by: Robyn Clark-Bridges

This post originally appeared on the OCLC Next blog

A few years ago, two colleagues and I co-led the popular workshop, “Keep the ILL Motivational Fires Burning!” at the Midwest ILL Conference. The point was to openly acknowledge that—like many jobs—resource sharing librarianship can become routine and draining. We tried to answer the question: how can you do a job with many necessary, detailed, repetitious job functions while still maintaining energy, enthusiasm, and drive?

While everyone’s answer is going to be slightly different, I think we uncovered a few ways that might help you maintain your LOVE for a job that many of us got into in the first place because of a passion for helping library users.

Details drive enthusiasm

To stay passionate, I need to do more than simply post inspirational quotes. I need to find ways to reconnect to my job in satisfying ways. In my case, I found three ways to improve my attitude to keep doing what I needed to do.

1. Insert joy. I love to learn … ILL regularly brings an eclectic grouping of articles and books across my path that I enjoy skimming. I get a natural high by filling a quirky ILL request whose citation was incorrect. (I fulfilled 100+ such requests last year!) When I fill a request near the end of a lending string, I celebrate by inserting an arrow, a smiley face, and an exclamation mark above our UIW symbol.

2. Remember the “why.” Being an ILL librarian isn’t just a job, it’s a calling. We do what we do for a reason. Adding reminders of that fact to my work area helps keep me inspired. For example, framing my work space with thank-you notes from other libraries reminds me that my job is appreciated. My ‘warm fuzzy’ e-file (and separate physical folder) house affirming interactions from others, which I review on ‘cold prickly’ days. Even the reflective process of creating a curriculum vitae was an empowering self-affirmation of my life’s journey.

3. Personalize the process. I am happier with color in my work life, so I intentionally write with a variety of colored pens and use colored scratch paper for ILL book band expanders. I delight in holding a three-year record of sharing more ILL items than any other Iowa private college/university. I am a visual person who smiles every time I glimpse a family picture collage hanging by my work desk. After completing the final ILL request of a work shift, I enjoy an imaginary vision of myself as Rocky reaching the championship round to a roaring, applauding crowd.

Discovering your own three things

A lot of the research I did after our conference workshop centered around understanding personal motivators—that’s how I got to my three ideas shared above. You’ll need to do some of your own reading and searching to find what works for you. The good news is, there’s plenty of material to get you started, and our workshop takeaways are a great place to begin:

• Consciously articulate personal priorities and a personal learning network map.

• Find alternatives that free you up to proactively refocus vision and attitude.

• Make a list of what energizes you and act on it regularly.

• Change up your motivators to keep them fresh and actively working for you.

• Embrace a growth vs. fixed mindset and don’t self-limit your toolbox.

• Explore Brene Brown’s vulnerability research. Our human imperfections provide touchstones to deeply connect with others.

Remember: the very nature of ILL is that we are stronger together. Partner with someone else to share your ideas as you nurture your drive.

Written by:  Robyn Clark-Bridges, Evening Supervisor & Interlibrary Loan Associate, Mount Mercy University 

WISCAT staff are currently compiling WISCAT statistics and will soon be sharing them with library system staff. For most library systems, these statistics reports will provide numbers that can be included in the Items Loaned (Provided To) and Items Received (Received From) fields in the Annual Report. The reports will also include Unique Requests Sent, Fill Rate, Patron Initiated, and Staff Initiated counts on the borrowing end, and Requests Received and Fill Rate on the lending end. These additional figures are for system and library staff reference and are not required on the annual report.

You may wonder why these statistics are being generated several weeks after the year's end. Interlibrary loan statistics are essentially a snapshot of a moment in time, and the later statistics are run, the closer they will be to being accurate (and the higher the numbers will be). As an example, a library may have placed 10 requests on 12/31/2018. Until those requests are all marked as Shipped by lenders, they will be seen by the system as not yet filled. Activity & Request Reports in WISCAT are based on request origination date, so statistics pulled on 1/1/2019 for 12/31/2018 may have shown the fill rate for those 10 requests to be 0/10, while a later snapshot would show them closer to 10/10, depending on how many are ultimately filled.

Please see WISCAT Documentation for more details on statistics, and please Contact Us with your questions.


Written by Gail Murray, Resources for Libraries & Lifelong Learning

It’s the season for sharing and celebrations! Wisconsin has good reason to celebrate the amazing resource sharing network that many dedicated professionals have built over the years. Let’s celebrate the library staff that continues to sustain and improve this network for Wisconsin residents. 

Our culture of freely sharing library materials across city and county lines and across library types has created a system virtually problem-free. Wisconsin resource sharing works so well, in fact, you may not even notice. You may take for granted that all states have this kind of cooperation, when in fact, Wisconsin is unique. Below are just a few examples of recent requests:

• 30 copies of A dog named Christmas for an elementary school
• A photocopy from the “Journal of clinical oncology” for a technical college
• A handbook of auditory research The Vestibular System for a hospital
• A photocopied article from “The Physics Teacher” for a public library
• 15 copies of The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors and the collision of two cultures for a public library book club
• California newspaper microfilm for a genealogist in a public library
• 25 copies of the book Speak for a high school library

Let’s take pride in an efficient system that each day sees materials like these shared throughout the state on behalf of Wisconsin's library users.

Written by:  Christine Barth, Resources for Libraries and Lifelong Learning