December 19, 2023
I’d ask if you can believe it’s nearly 2024, but it’s been a yearful. With that said, it’s important to remember that it’s been a year full of many good things along with some less good things. I continue to be impressed and encouraged by the resourcefulness, resilience, kindness, integrity, and curiosity I’ve seen exhibited over and over in Indiana libraries. I’m also so proud of the work that, specifically, Evergreen Indiana member libraries have put in to get resources into the hands of the people in Indiana (and even outside of Indiana). I have no doubt that this next year will be full of more good things because of you. Here are just a few things of note as we continue the holiday season.
Annual Report (LAR-1)
As many of you know, the 2023 Indiana Library Survey has opened. As is tradition, I will be sending out some statistics to help Evergreen Indiana member libraries fill out this survey. Those statistics will be emailed to library directors by Tuesday, January 9. I’ve created a list of those fields for which I will be gathering statistics. You can view that list here.
Please note that one thing I will NOT be providing in the statistics package are numbers related to holdings in the Indiana Digital Library. That is because, with the new Advantage Plus accounts, individual libraries MAY have more holdings that I can report on. These statistics are very easy for member libraries to find by logging into their Overdrive Marketplace Account and clicking on the Insights link in the top menu bar. Down the page, you’ll be able to see numbers related to holdings available to your patron. You will be reporting on “copies” as opposed to “titles.” You can also find circulation statistics for your library’s Overdrive collection by clicking on Title activity reports and then “Checkouts.”
Invoices for EG-IN Annual Membership Fee
2024 Evergreen Indiana Annual Membership Fee invoices have been emailed to all library directors. If your library has not yet received an invoice, please let me know. They are due in February.
InfoExpress Update
Service improvements continue throughout the state but are not to expected or even levels. To help ease some of the bottlenecks at the Indianapolis hub, staff at the Indiana State Library took delivery of 2 gaylords of parcels (approximately 800 parcels) with old route codes from Pillow Logistics. They have reprocessed those transits and are sending them back through NOW Courier in a stage manner with new route codes and consolidated packaging. They will be receiving another 2-3 gaylords on Thursday, and will continue with this process until the backlog has been alleviated. Please note that NOW Courier is also working through this process, but ISL staff (and library staff, in general) are faster when it comes to dealing with transits.
Additionally, Evergreen Indiana has ordered 1000 transit bags to go into the InfoExpress system. These bags will differ from the traditional bags in that they are green and have both the Evergreen Indiana logo and InfoExpress logos on them. In practice, however, they are meant to function in exactly the same manner as all other transit bags. We have full awareness that they will transit outside of the consortium at times. As you come across them, please use them in the same manner as other InfoExpress bags. You can see a rendering of these new bags here.
Indiana State Library and Evergreen Indiana Closed Dates
The Indiana State Library and Evergreen Indiana helpdesk and administration will be closed on following dates:
- Monday, December 25
- Tuesday, December 26
- Monday, January 1