Troubleshooting itself is a broad category of tools, activities and accidents that we engage in order to connect a patron with the information s/he seeks.  Judging by the small size of the search results set I retrieved from Library and Information Science Abstracts [16 results found for: troubleshoot* and (access or connect*) and (remote or electronic)], the topic is ripe for consideration and research.  Twenty-five years (give or take) into the disintermediated use of remote resources by library patrons, we should have a thing or two to say on the subject.

I’ll start by saying that if the only thing you accomplish in successfully troubleshooting an access problem is securing access to a remote resource for a patron, than you have likely squandered the opportunity to inform or remind that patron of how electronic scholarly communication works.  Furthermore, you are doing a disservice to the profession by failing to make visible the often invisible role of library staff, technology, finances, and other resources invested in that patron’s “free” access to information.  Best of all, taking full advantage of this teachable moment requires little additional effort beyond what you’ve expended to solve the problem – a good place to start is by simply verbalizing the steps you took, and systems or tools you used, to re-enable access.

If you’re troubleshooting an access problem in real time with the patron, either via face-to-face communication, over the phone, or via chat or SMS, a simple approach is to ‘think out loud’ as you troubleshoot.  Verbalize the steps you’re taking, and why you’re taking them.  (Hopefully you have a strategy, perhaps a topic for another post; coherence will come with practice.)  Personally, I think it’s ok to be fairly candid here.  Public service/reference/troubleshooting interactions are often more socio-psychological than they are technical or academic, and sharing in a patron’s frustration or revealing your own mystification can be used effectively to build rapport.  (Of course, you don’t want to look incompetent – it’s a fine line, at times.)

I more often have the luxury of troubleshooting access problems asynchronously over email.  As such, I take far greater liberties with my educational mission.  I’ve found I unintentionally follow a basic format when responding to access problems:

1) THANK the patron, sincerely, for reporting the problem.  S/he has taken additional time out of his/her research (etc.), after already experiencing frustration with library systems and resources, to let you know that something’s not working.  S/HE is doing a service for YOU.

2) RESTATE the problem.  Make sure you’re talking about the same issue – but don’t repeat verbatim what the patron reported.  No one likes a plagiarist! 

3) EXPLAIN the problem, as best you can, in comprehensible technical terms.  The point is not to scapegoat a colleague, vendor, or publisher, but to use the opportunity to teach the patron something s/he might not know about authentication, link resolution, database navigation, browser settings, etc. – whatever the source of the problem is.  Now YOU are doing a service to the PATRON, because the more s/he knows about scholarly communication and the library’s role in it, the better off s/he is as a scholar.  (You are also doing a service to yourself, because the patron that understands the library’s role in scholarly communication is more likely to appreciate and advocate for it.)  The idea is to lift the curtain juuuust a teensy bit, so that the patron comes to realize that (for instance) your link resolver is not, in fact, automagical, but that there are some complex and interesting systems and protocols delivering him/her full text content from virtually anywhere in the networked world in microseconds based on a single human-readable citation.

4) SOLVE the problem.  Or, if you can’t, explain what further steps you are taking to solve the problem, and give the patron an ETA on its resolution.  Sometimes further steps include asking for clarifying information from the patron, in which case you should ask for specific, discrete pieces of information.  Remember, the patron has already done YOU a service in reporting the problem, and s/he is now your ally in getting it resolved, because if s/he is experiencing it, chances are others are as well!

5) INVITE the patron to follow up with you if you misunderstood the problem (see #2) or if it persists.  I often thank the patron again for reporting the problem in my closing salutations, to reinforce the fact that a) we really do like to learn of connection problems before they blow up in our faces and b) a real human being reads and responds to these (often form-submitted or created) problem reports.

Electronic scholarly communication is COMPLEX.  Our patrons of today are the scholars of tomorrow, and they will need some grasp on how the systems and protocols of e-scholarship work in order to be proficient.  Troubleshooting is often cast as a technical task, but we can add immense value to both the patron experience and the library by transforming it into a reference/public services interaction.  Otherwise, patrons will not learn valuable skills and information about contemporary scholarship, and we remain invisible behind the curtain of magic.

that is, if the choice is between periodicals and staff, obviously the staff need to be preserved -

I’m beginning to wonder, are serials always the first to be cut from academic library budgets during difficult times?

The academic library where I work is cutting

-staff positions (currently and hopefully only through attrition)

-computer footprint (college-wide cut of 11% of machines)

-some electronic resources (based on usage statistics and cost)

-all print journals that can be subscribed to in online format

-some memberships through which we receive serial publications

-almost all journal and monograph binding

-and they’re investigating moving some of our online journal subscriptions to a pay-per-view model

A moderate reduction to the book acquisitions budget will also be made.

You’ll begin to notice that the sub-department of serials (2 FTE), while we’ll likely be keeping our jobs, will bear the brunt of the cut in materials budgets.

So, we’ll have our jobs (I hope), but what exactly will we be doing when our job responsibilities are so reduced?

Is this similar to what’s happening at other libraries?

“a first-of-its-kind service to provide library users with article-level recommendations based on collective usage data amassed from research communities around the world.”

The new application, which harvests usage data from Ex Libris’ link resolver SFX software, is in testing in sixteen institutions worldwide.

It’s very exciting that usage data will work directly to help researchers discover sources in addition to its use in collection development planning.

Follow the buzz at:  http://bxbeta.blogspot.com/

See the press release at:  http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/category/bXOverview

I work in the ‘central’ branch at a college where there are two additional branch libraries.  A few years ago the decision was made to decentralize much of the serials administration, such that subscriptions, renewals, binding, and cataloging continued to be administered by the ‘central’ library staff, but check-in was managed by the branch libraries for titles which were shelved there.

This decentralized serials administration model poses problems for claiming missing issues, updating the cataloging for title changes and mergers (etc.), updating the frequency of the publication, and collecting journal issues for binding – all among the other exciting things that the world of serials throws our way.

These problems may all become non-issues as we move progressively towards an electronic-only serials collection, but in the meantime, it is a collection management mire.

Do you work with serials in a multi-site library system?  How does your library system handle serials administration?

So here are some professional resolutions for 2009.

1)  Begin a graduate program in library and information science

I’ve been accepted into a program and could start classes as early as March 2009, pending a final financial aid decision and my husband finding stable employment.  More information to come when I enroll.

2) Clean up our Union Listings

This will be a large, ongoing project involving updating our institution’s Local Holdings records in WorldCat.  This project is the outcome of a continuing education course that I took through Palinet (see “You think you know, but you have no idea: Local Holdings”).

3) Create a system for processing journal price increases, title and publisher changes, etc. during renewals season

Renewals season is a harried time of shot-from-the-hip emails as this kind of administrative information is provided on a title-by-title basis by our primary subscription agent.  I’d like to create a system, modeled on one developed by a colleague, of blogging or otherwise listing subscription changes in a central place for our collections, branch, and public services librarians to access and comment on, rather than herding the barrage of emails I receive regarding susbcription renewals and changes.

4) Coordinate training for staff communication tools

Our library staff uses a collection of blogs and wikis to record and discuss everything from committee minutes to application user documentation.  The skill and comfort levels across the staff in using these tools are varied; I’m in the process of working with colleagues to coordinate a series of orientations to blogs and wikis to promote the use of these tools by all levels of library staff.

5) Be considered for inclusion in technology projects coming through the new management pipeline

There’s a number of people in line in front of me, but I know a graduate program will be more meaningful if I can put theory into practice in my professional life.

6) Stay active in the professional debate

Keep reading, thinking, and writing

Do you have professional goals for the new year, or suggestions for a paraprofessional working towards the goal of a professional library career?  Please comment!

While I would prefer these treasures to be conserved in the public domain, what, truly, is the difference between access to Jay Walker’s private collection and the content of many special collections libraries?

The user group is not ready to have drafts of its proposal in the public domain.

I apologize for any confusion caused by the post, which simply sought to expand discussion of the URM product(s) in development by Ex Libris.

“prominent communications providers, high technology companies, manufacturers, consumers, labor unions, public interest groups, educators, state and local governments, utilities, content creators, foundations, and other stakeholders in America’s broadband future” (quoted from the New America site)

to President-elect Barack Obama and the 111th Congress.

The call to action implores the President-elect and Congress to make the development of a National Broadband Strategy a top priority for the country in 2009.  It describes ‘advanced communications capabilities’ as ‘essential for the 21st century’ and credits the broadband-enabled Internet with enhancing everything from

“innovation, economic growth, job creation, educational opportunity and global competitiveness”

to

“public safety, homeland security, health care, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and the worldwide distribution of millions of products, processes and services”.

The call to action also references the web’s role in increasing civic engagement and economic revitalization in urban, rural, and other under-served areas.

Finally, the proposal cites a broadband strategy as a national infrastructure project akin to the construction of roads and canals in the 19th century and highways, electricity and phone services, and space travel in the 20th.

The National Broadband Stratgey call to action has all the makings of an economic stimulus package that would create jobs, increase opportunities, and improve the standard of living of citizens now and for decades to come.

I wonder how it will be considered alongside out-going FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan to deliver ‘free, pornography-free wireless Internet service to all Americans’ and the American Library Association’s appeal for a $100 million library stimulus package.

In her Boston Globe article ‘Group Think’, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow cites the ranking systems of search engines, preferential treatment for new web content over older content, the effects of ‘consumer’ behavior (ie the selective circulation of content in the blogosphere and on listservs), and the difficulty of ‘browsing’ online the same way one would in library stacks or bookstore shelves as characteristics of digital research that may contribute to the shallowing of academic research.

In an age when Ithaka and the Association of Research Libraries are including blogs, discussion forums, and e-only journals in their  ‘Current Models for Scholarly Communication’ (see also ‘Scholarly Blogs as Serials?’), I view studies like these as a call to action for librarians to be more pro-active in developing ways to organize and provide access to information in the Web 2.0 environment.

Unified Resource Management (URM) System.

Our consortium uses SFX/MARCit! and Verde, and I’m exicted by the prospect of a system that would bridge the divide (read: redundant data entry) between ERM systems like these and the traditional ILS we utilize.

This is why I’m excited, courtesy of JRochkind:

“This is indeed a vision for an ILS that makes sense…. supporting staff workflow in an integrated way that actually makes sense, modular and componentized, full of APIs and opportunities for customer-written plugins, talking to various third-party software (from vendors (of various classes) to ERP software etc.), etc etc.”

Also, the vision of network-level metadata control, as JRochkind points out, comes as a timely challenge to OCLC’s new Policy on the Use and Transfer of WorldCat Records.  Has the gauntlet been thrown?

Also, what does this mean for the OLE (Open Library Environment) Project?

Please, add comments with links to new information!