Closed stacks - improved workflow

ELAG 2014
Going digital in the closed stacks – Library logistics with a smart phone
Eva Dahlbäck and Theodor Tolstoy, Stockholm University Library

(see description of the talk)

Approx. 300 orders a day. Up until recently, orders would have been printed on paper. Orders from closed stacks, interlibrary loans and missing books. Before: digital -> paper -> digital (email sent to user to let them know item available).

The workflow is essentially the same, even if the orders come in differently and come out differently. So now a new digital workflow: All the orders are collected together in a list managed by the Viola programme, in which they are sorted. The librarian makes downloads the list, goes to the stacks and comes back with items. It's managed by a portable phone.

The list can be ordered by location. It is downloaded in the mobile phone. Each book has a separate entry and includes the shelfmark info. The librarians has also a small printer for slips. The phone scans the barcode and a slip is printed and goes in the book. Once a book has been scanned, it receives a green star (they can be various colours for various situations).

Benefits are fewer manual steps and a unique workflow. It's faster and easier to follow the order steps. It requires less people. Viola is also connected to the invoice-system (what does this imply?...). However collection is only twice a day...

A close collaboration between developpers and librarians was necessary. They worked with "user stories" to help in the collaborative work, to prioritise tasks and break them into smaller steps and to follow progress. The user stories included staff, such as the book fetcher (what does he/she need?) Intention is to release this as open source!

The technology used was ASP.NET MVC, the database is a SQL server (replaceable thanks to the ORM PetaPoco) and Android APP (Xmarin Monodroid). Most of these are open source.