From the Library: It’s all in the delivery

It’s a bird … it’s a plane … No! It’s a book! And it’s on its way to your library.

Most Morrill Memorial Library users know that they can request a book (or an audio book, a music CD, a DVD, or a video) from another library within our Minuteman Library Network. Most know that it arrives at the speed of…well, a book. Have you ever marveled at how this system works so well and so fast? Do you wonder how we work this magic?

Perhaps you use the request process all the time and just appreciate the efficiency and speed. Librarians appreciate it, too, and we are proud of how well we do it.

In a future column I’ll let you in on some librarian-speak. Words like circulation and materials and weeding and acquisitions. Terms such as automated network and reference interview and collection development. These words sometimes boggle the minds of even the most savvy library users. They work well for us but they can be cumbersome and confusing to non-librarians.

Today I’m proud to simply explain “delivery.” In the library world “delivery” can be defined as the process by which a library book (DVD, CD, or other library “material”) gets from one library to another. The library delivery process has generally been called Inter-Library Loan, or ILL. ILL is still used, as a term and a process, between libraries that do not belong to the same network, are out-of-state, or are among some college libraries, etc. The delivery process I am boasting about today is one that delivers materials to you from other libraries in the Minuteman Network at incredible speed.

Library users only a decade ago might have waited weeks for a book to arrive when today it takes about 48 hours on average and sometimes overnight.

The process starts very simply at home or in the library. A library user may request books from an iPhone, a Blackberry, or a work computer. The request is managed through our online library catalog and it can also be placed by a librarian over the phone, at the Information or Reference desk, or even through an email. The easiest and fastest way for everyone involved is for you, the user, to log into the catalog from home and place an easy and speedy request.

Recently we added lists of all of the books soon-to-be-published to our website under a “Request Bestsellers Early” link. Did you know that Dan Brown’s next blockbuster “Lost Symbol” will be published in September along with dozens of books by such authors as Michael Chabon, Reggie Jackson, Mitch Albom, and Danielle Steel? Simply by clicking on the book title link on this online list you will speed to the online catalog, where you can log in with your library card number and you will be added to the request list.

You might have a short wait (or long if it is Dan Brown’s bestseller) but if you are a library user living in Norwood you will be in line for our copy or another library’s, whichever is first. Alternatively, we have print copies of the list in the library and librarians will be happy to handle the request for you.

I’ll try not to drag this on but the process works with the coordination of the Minuteman Library Network and the MetroWest Massachusetts Regional Library System, which funds and contracts with the company that sorts and delivers the books in vans to your library.

The request for the book (let’s be brief and use the term “book” for all library items) is processed by the automated network. The book is pulled at another library and placed in a bin, the delivery van picks up the bin(s), a sort process happens overnight, and the bins are delivered the next day at our library.

If you have an email address with us you receive email notification that the book is here. If not, you are called the same day it arrives. A very similar delivery process happens in reverse when the book is returned to our library.

“Deliver” happens every weekday here in Norwood for over 60,000 items per year. Approximately 100 items are delivered per day and another 100 items are returned. Our library regional system (MMRLS) does this for an average cost of $2.50 per item. (MMRLS is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.) The Minuteman Library Network organizes and maintains our materials in an online database, allows the ease of check-out and check-in, online requests and searches, and facilitates this wonderful process of delivery. (Our Minuteman contract is funded by the library annually.)

Most importantly, your local library staff quickly, efficiently, and happily fulfills each request for you. And amazingly, this process is not just happening in Norwood but is happening all over Massachusetts and in many other states. Massachusetts libraries are “delivering” over 13,000,000 items per year between 537 town and college libraries!

Call the library for more information about the delivery process and for assistance with online requests. Visit our Website, www.norwoodlibrary.org, or call 781-769-0200 for any of your informational needs.