Day 5, Hour 25

Not content to simply offer Andy a list of rules and regulations, I set my sights today on creating a mock website--not unlike other institutions'--to house my workup of policies and procedures. I was delighted to see that the laptop I work on here has a copy of the Microsoft Publisher program. I have never used the program before, so it was exciting to try it out in a practical way without any instruction. I like learning in hands-on ways and figuring things out for myself, so I had a lot of fun today.

I was able to find more information on similar libraries' policies and procedure, like BGSU's Browne Popular Culture Library and The Cleveland Institute of Art's Gund Library. Many of the libraries have a similar structure where the "university community" is allowed borrowing privileges for circulating materials and can browse freely in the non-circulating materials, like reference collections. The policy for those outside of the community usually states that those members may browse materials but not check them out, may browse or check out items for a yearly membership fee, or may only access certain areas of the library, like the main stacks. The Rock Hall's library will differ, however, in that it does not have a clearly defined membership community. While the library is located on the Tri-C campus and is directly affiliated with the school, browsing privileges will not be permitted solely to faculty and staff. This may simplify our policy and procedures by allowing the rules to apply to all who visit the library, not just a specified community.

On an interesting side note, I found some great articles on the Library + Archives through my research that I'd like to share with you here. One was written by Library Director Andy Leach himself, and they all provide a really exciting idea of what the library is going to be all about. (Keep in mind that the library's original opening date of December 2010, which you will read in all of the articles, has been moved to May 2011.)

The Library and Archives at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Andy Leach (Ohio Archivist's Spring 2010 Newsletter, p. 4.).

Music History Finds a New Home Inside Rock Hall's Library and Archives at Tri-C's Center for Creative Arts, John Soeder (The Plain Dealer, February 28, 2010).

Rock and Roll Never Forgets, Anastasia Pantsios (Cleveland Scene, March 10, 2010).

Coming up next: I spoke with Dr. Belinda Boon, who teaches Selection and Acquisition of Library Materials at Kent, about getting some ideas for good resources for biographies and reference books that would fit into the library's collection. She said she will try to get back to me later on this week with some ideas, so I am going to put any collection development on hold until I can pick her brain a bit.

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Laura

Day 4, Hour 20

I focused today on more research, as I am hoping to give Andy a rough outline of policy and procedure by the end of next week. I am finding more and more that there are many research libraries that do not lend their materials; most of the repositories that do circulate materials only do so for faculty, staff, and doctoral or graduate students for the purpose of completing a research project. In light of this information, I do not think it is unreasonable to say that the materials here in the Rock Hall Library will not circulate.

I have considered the idea of allowing faculty to check out materials, but there is a slim chance this would work. First, we would have to determine if only Tri-C faculty would qualify or if we would include faculty from other colleges. There is also the issue of policy, and how well it is implemented and adhered to. I found a case study today in Library Journal titled "Faculty Borrowing Privileges" in which a university branch library director was faced with the problem of the university's faculty abusing borrowing privileges. She had a difficult time convincing the Director of Libraries that this was a problem; this director was more concerned with maintaining a good working relationship with the faculty, and feared that reprimanding them would only cause problems and subject the librarians to unfair judgment. Nancy R. John, in her response to the case study, wisely stated that "few library policies are as open to emotional attack as those concerned with borrowing privileges." Perhaps the best policy will be to not let items circulate at all, regardless of the patron's status.

Many libraries, like The Getty Research Institute Library, have differing levels of users that maintain differing privileges based on what each level permits. A high level, for example, may allow the user a wider array of browsing materials and extended hours in the library; a lower level patron may be restricted to a certain area. A great number of these libraries, however, are vast institutions with many different collections, and some collections cannot even be browsed, but require a request for materials that would later be supplied for use for a short period of time. The Rock Hall Library will contain both a browsable collection and non-browsable archives. It would not make sense to limit the browsing of the open stacks collection, since it is in the open in one large room, but perhaps the paging of items in the archives could be limited to those with a higher library status.

Coming up next: As you can see, I still have a lot of research and work to do regarding creating a working policy and procedure. I should mention that I also began compiling a survey to send to various research and academic libraries, so that we can get an idea of how their institutions operate. This will all continue into next week, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Laura