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Keystone Systems and the 2010 Julie Klauber Award Committee are pleased to announce the finalists for this year's Julie Klauber Award.
Ron Heaton, Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library
Reason for NominationRon Heaton is the Warehouse Operations Manager at the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library in Watertown, Massachusetts. Ron has worked for the Perkins Library for 21 years, and is responsible for the shipping/receiving unit, book inspection, inventory management, and machine lending. He supervises 7 staff and approximately 50 volunteers, including large corporate groups of 30-40 people for one-day intensive book inspection or moving projects.
Ron pushes KLAS to its ultimate level every day in his quest to fill orders and get books out to borrowers, he is always tweaking settings to maximize turnaround performance to get more books out and minimize the number of items that need to be re-shelved on a daily basis. He is always an advocate for shipping staff when thinking about how KLAS can and should perform to enhance circulation of materials. In these times when budgets are based often on numbers of circulation and borrowers, every book that goes out automatically frees up a reader advisor to work with a borrower. Ron uses turnaround, Circulation Management and Front Desk functions creatively to speed up checkout and checkin to allow more time for other collection-related activities.
In 2008, Perkins assumed responsibility for circulating equipment for Rhode Island. We set up a separate login into Rhode Island’s database to allow us to keep equipment, physical inventory, and data records separate for reporting purposes. Each day staff login to this account and print and ship out equipment to Rhode Island borrowers.
In 2009, Ron spearheaded shipping efforts for Perkins participation in the digital pre-launch, developing procedures for processing new digital cartridges, containers, and equipment. Of particular note was Ron’s above-and-beyond efforts with the U.S. Postal Service to identify the reasons behind two problems we were experiencing.
The first problem we encountered was that mailing cards were often falling out of the new digital containers and the other problem was that the blue containers were getting damaged and frequently causing jamming problems with the USPS mail sorting equipment. Ron actually went down to the main USPS Boston facility at 3:00 AM, (when our mail gets sorted and processed), with a video camera, and filmed books going through the sorting line. He worked with the USPS staff to first put our digital books in a separate container from the tapes so that the USPS staff could observe what happened to the blue containers as they traveled up the sorting conveyor belt. By filming the blue containers on the belt, both the USPS and NLS were able to identify settings that some equipment could be set for to minimize digital containers falling inside the equipment and being damaged. Some equipment in larger bulk mailing centers are unable to be reset, so now blue containers are kept separate and processed manually to avoid damage in those facilities.
Ron also used his video camera to document how mailing cards were falling out of the pre-launch digital containers. With the information Ron and his staff provided, and the video footage of cards literally falling out of containers during the morning mail sort at Perkins, NLS was able to see the problem happening, and then to make design modifications to the digital containers so that now, this problem doesn’t occur.
Ron is always willing to share his expertise with staff from other libraries. Countless times, warehouse managers have called him to ask for his opinion on how they should manage a particular situation. He gives honest and practical advice, knowing the real-life, day-to-day circumstances staff find themselves in when handling shipping functions of a large collection of moving materials.
I believe Ron would gain tremendously from attending the KLAS conference and he would participate and contribute to the success of the conference and give helpful advice to other participants as well.
Linda Hill, Florida Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services
Reason for NominationMs. Hill worked diligently with KLAS this past year to refine title linking so that we all could link RC and DB titles as well as our own recorded in Florida collections of CBF and DBFs. This made it possible for all KLAS Users to use the already created RC records in order to more quickly and efficiently copy these records in order to create a DB record without having to start from scratch. The real trick was to insure that once copied any changes to one record, such as cartridge information vs. number of cassettes did not change in both records. Quite an amazing feat really!
Effect on LibraryIt made it possible for all KLAS Users to create digital book records from RC records quickly, efficiently and accurately. The time saving alone when adding new DB copies was amazing. This made digital books available to customers very fast. This feature was especially helpful when downloading BARD statistics. When customers had downloaded from the BARD retro collection, we found that these books were not listed in KLAS catalog because we did not have physical copies. Therefore, creating DB records for the thousand or so downloaded books each month was not only possible but also achievable in a few hours rather than weeks.
Job ResponsibilitiesLinda Hill is the section head of Technical Services for the Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services. She is responsible and personally handles all KLAS cataloguing, which includes Braille BR and FBC, cassettes both RC and CBF, digital DB and DBF, described movie in video and DVDs, all equipment, accessories, special collections, 65 serials that we record and produce each month and NLS serials, and new customer registrations. Her suggestions for KLAS improvements, which are usually always incorporated in upgrades, have made substantial improvements for all KLAS Users.
Additional CommentsMs. Hill has been a KLAS User since 1998 when our system went online. She also assists all of our 12 library network staff with KLAS issues. When KLAS was implemented in our system, Ms. Hill was Head of Reader Services until she was promoted to Head of Technical Services 7 years ago. The procedures we follow today are a result of her work, time and effort. She embodies the spirit of Julie Klauber through her professionalism, expertise, motivation, effort and caring.
Nancy Reese, Idaho Commission for LibrariesReason for NominationNancy's experience with KLAS began when she started with the Idaho Commission for Libraries (ICFL) in the mailroom. She did the daily pull of Talking Book Service (TBS) books, shelving, and supervised book inspection. When TBS converted to KLAS, Nancy became familiar with it and helped in the transition. Nancy's role at ICFL now includes serving as the backup KLAS administrator, and we are planning her transition to main administrator in June of this year. In addition to taking TBS patron calls, she works with the main administrator to troubleshoot, train staff, and generate requested reports. Nancy worked directly with KLAS to develop an overdue form that better meets our needs. Nancy successfully communicated our needs and followed up until the process was complete. After attending the 2009 KLAS Users' Conference, Nancy briefed the rest of the support staff on what she had learned at the conference and, with the main administrator and second back-up administrator, presented numerous training sessions for the support staff specifically related to the upgrade functions. In addition to providing training, she was instrumental in implementing the major upgrade and helping with the transition. It is very important that the administrators remain current with KLAS upgrades and improvements and have a good working relationship with the Keystone personnel to resolve issues and implement changes. Nancy was active in identifying ways in which the upgrades didn't work as we thought they should and communicated these issues to KLAS.
Effect on LibraryThe Idaho Commission for Libraries Talking Book Service is an active user of KLAS in that we experiment with its functionality to determine how it can best meet our needs and identify aspects that don't work as expected, especially as it relates to the upgrades. Nancy's work in this area is useful for our staff who service the TBS patrons, other KLAS user states, and the TBS patrons themselves. Tailoring the system's functionality to best meet our needs improves both efficiency and customer service. Identifying areas that don't work as expected allows us to better understand the system and improve training. If the issue is system wide, it allows Keystone to address the issue and improve the system's functionality for all its users. In some instances the issue directly affects our TBS patrons, and resolving the issue helps us to better serve our patrons. Nancy worked very closely with the other administrators and with Keystone to implement the relationships feature as effectively as possible. She also was influential in resolving the issue of blocks not working in a way that was effective for us and for the TBS patrons whose records were affected.
Job ResponsibilitiesNancy is a member of the ICFL support staff and is responsible for a variety of projects. She serves as the back-up KLAS administrator and will be moving into the lead role approximately June 2010. In this position, she provides ongoing training and guidance to our support staff, communicates directly with Keystone on resolving issues, and provides telephone support to TBS patrons.
Sarah Smedley, Palm Beach County LibraryReason for NominationWhat did the nominee do? For the past ten years, Sarah Smedley has done an outstanding job of maintaining delivery of Talking Books Service to over three thousand patrons with minimal downtime on the Keystone Library Access System here in Palm Beach County. Sarah has been a regular attendee at annual KLAS Users' Group Meetings. And upon her return, she provides training sessions for her co-workers regarding these conferences.
The introduction of KLAS V 7 was a major milestone in Talking Books automation. In working closely with Keystone, Sarah was able to prepare a V 7 Users’ Manual for staff training that helped build both staff competence and self-esteem.
When the sub regional libraries in Dade and Broward Counties were in need of staff training, they visited the Palm Beach County sub regional for instruction sessions.
We are proud to be partners in the south Florida community and glad to have Sarah on board to promote the successful delivery of service to patrons in the tri-county area Effect on LibrarySarah helped to achieve a successful installation of V 7 in the Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties. As a result, more than 6,000 blind and physically disabled Talking Books readers received faster service on as fuller basis with limited downtime. Job ResponsibilitiesSarah Smedley is the designated Local Area Network (LAN) Coordinator for KLAS at the Palm Beach County Talking Books Library. Her duties include troubleshooting /documenting hardware and software problems on the system in coordination with Keystone Systems, the Palm Beach County Information Systems Section (ISS) and the Palm Beach County Library Information Technology (IT) Team. Additional CommentsSarah recently received her Masters in Library Science Degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She achieved her degree via the USF Extension Program that involved distance learning and classroom training in Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville over a two-year period. While pursuing this degree, and working full-time, Sarah maintained a 4.0 Grade Point Average.
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