Behind the scenes at Roseburg Public Library

ROSEBURG – Have you ever wondered how much work is going on behind the scenes at Roseburg Public Library?

Plenty, reports Roseburg Public Library Director Kris Wiley.

Work on the library’s mystery collection is currently underway as staff and volunteers compare current holdings with series lists. They are up to authors whose last name starts with the letter “E” – but that’s just one of many tasks going on behind the scenes at the library.

Youth Services Librarian Aurora Ropp began planning for the Summer Reading Program in January. Yes, providing that summer program takes months of preparation. Aurora researches and schedules special performers, develops the incentive program, generates publicity and connects with schools, purchases prizes, creates the StoryWalk® and manages dozens of other details that go into ensuring a successful summer.

This year’s theme is “Read Beyond the Beaten Path,” and the program will begin in June. Stay tuned for more information later this spring.

A number of staff members and volunteers pitch in to help maintain the library’s online catalog. They inventory the collection every 12 to 18 months, which entails scanning every item. They hunt for books that inevitably disappear, then determine whether to replace them or remove the record permanently from the catalog.

Library staff and volunteers constantly update book series so readers see the list of titles in the order of publication. Unfortunately, this is a manual process, but they do their best because Wiley said the end product is amazing.

To see how this works, visit the library catalog at roseburg.biblionix.com. Enter “William Kent Krueger” in the search field, and click “Go.” Click on the book title “Copper River: a Cork O’Connor mystery (Cork O’Connor #6).” Then click on the link “Cork O’Connor (#6).” The list re-sorts so patrons can see the Cork O’Connor series in order.

Library staff and volunteers focus that effort on physical items in the collection, although electronic books from OverDrive and cloudLibrary may appear on some of the lists.

Staff continually purchase new materials for the collection, and they import records of the new items into the catalog as soon as they order them, so library patrons can place holds before the items even arrive. That is especially helpful for popular authors such as John Grisham and Janet Evanovich because patrons know the new title has been purchased, and library patrons can add their name to the holds list.

To view the latest additions to the collection, visit the library catalog and click on “What’s New” under the “What’s Hot” tab. The default will list all items added in the past week, although those parameters can be changed.

There is a lot more happening behind the scenes, including shelf reading that ensures items are in alphabetical and numerical order, scanning documents and weeding the collection. Everything library staff and volunteers do furthers their goal to provide the best possible service to the community.