Winnefox had another busy year in 2005. Most of our member libraries saw increases in use (some had double-digit percentage increases) and that means more demand for our services.
WALS: WALS staff continue to maintain the network that connects the libraries to the Internet and provided hardware and software support to our member libraries.
Towards the end of the year they began a major project to upgrade our email software to a new version of Microsoft Exchange Server.
In September Campbellsport began checking out materials on the shared automation system. That leaves only 3 libraries—Brandon, Neshkoro, and Oakfield—not on the WALS system and these have begun planning their conversion.
25 of our libraries now have wireless internet access. This has been popular with users who bring their laptops to the library and with the many summer residents our area sees.
To make it easier and faster for library staff to update their own web sites we introduced ‘Typo’, a content-management software.
Interlibrary Loan: For the past several years we have seen increases in intra-library loan—loaning materials between WALS libraries and last year the amount went up substantially; libraries loaned 179,434 items in 2005 as opposed to 148,861 in 2004 (a 20.5% increase).
Interlibrary
loan—materials being loaned between WALS and non-WALS libraries—continues to slowly
decline but is still a well-used service (“non-WALS libraries” includes both
Winnefox member libraries who are not part of the WALS network and libraries
outside of Winnefox). 2005 saw major
changes in our ILL practice. After much
study and discussion we decided to cease using the WISCAT database and ILL
software to receive and respond to requests.
In the fall, we began using the OCLC WorldCat database and ILL
software to receive and respond to requests.
The OCLC database is much larger and more up-to-date than the WISCAT
database and the software is easier for both Winnefox and member library staff
to use. One of our former library
directors, who recently moved to a library in another library system, emailed
me to how much she misses the OCLC database and program.
In
2005 we received 5,303 requests from member libraries, 472 fewer than in
2004. Of these we were able to fill
4,119. At the same time we received
28,384 requests from libraries outside Winnefox; of these we were able to fill
10,754.
Delivery: With this many items traveling between libraries, the delivery service is the lifeblood of Winnefox. Our three drivers drove the two vans 68,685 miles in 2005 and made 5,890 stops to deliver material to member libraries, senior residences, day care centers, and the Redgranite Correctional facility. A total of 38,722 boxes were transported, a 16.7% increase over 2004.
Reference & Electronic Resources: Winnefox subscribes to several online databases that library users can access from home, office, or school as well as the library. These include health & business reference centers, online encyclopedias, and homework help databases. Each vendor counts use differently and vendors sometimes change their criteria and reporting, making it difficult to compare statistics from year to year. Nevertheless, it usage of electronic resources seems to have increased again in 2005. To increase use of these products we are presenting a series of training sessions for member library staff in 2006.
In 2005 the AskWisconsinLibrarians virtual reference
project expanded to a true 24/7 service.
This means that any resident of the Winnefox service area can contact a
librarian through the library’s web page at any time of the day or night and
get reference & research help. This
is possible because we are part of an international consortium with libraries
in the
We are participants in the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) NetLibrary e-book program which is seeing increased usage. In 2005 2,217 books were checked out, an increase of 65% over 2004.
A new service is the Overdrive Digital Audiobook service. Library users can download audiobooks to their PC and then transfer the books to portable audio devices (MP3 players) or burn them to CD. This service has proved very popular; in the first 4 months, 306 people registered for this service and 617 books were checked out.
Continuing
education is important for our librarians. Not only is it necessary to keep informed
about current developments but library directors are required to participate in
continuing education activities to remain certified. In 2005 we presented or sponsored 10
workshops and educational sessions for library staff which were attended by 287
persons. We also presented a program
for library trustees: “Directors & Trustees : a
relationship of trust” which was attended by 28 trustees from 11 libraries.
Printing & Graphics continues to be a popular service. The printing service made 846,204 impressions in 2005.
Summer Program Support: Winnefox provides member libraries with coordinated Summer Reading Program support including bookmarks, flyers, custom reading records, and prizes. We also pay for one performer for each library and book other performers for libraries. One unexpected benefit of booking the performers centrally has been saving money; by negotiating with performers and grouping performances to save mileage costs we saved $2,272 last year—an average of $75 per library.
WCTS: In 2005 Winnefox Cooperative
Technical Services cataloged
& processed 14,467 items for member libraries. Another service of WCTS is coordinating
rotations of Audiobook & DVD circuits to member libraries and providing
collections of large print books from the WCTS central collection. In 2005 they circulated 9,005 large print
books. Many of these are used for
library deposit collections in senior citizen residence, nursing homes, and
other facilities.