<!--StartFragment-->The following article written by Lovejoy Library Cataloger, Elizabeth Lowe, was published in a recent Lovejoy Library <em>Imprints</em> newsletter.
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<h4>SIU School of Dental Medicine records are now available via Lovejoy´s OPAC</h4>
<p>In 2003, Lovejoy Library agreed to assume responsibility for the SIU School of Dental Medicine´s Biomedical Library in Alton on a trial basis. This administrative shift entailed a major analysis of the library´s services, resources and needs. One result of this study was an organizational adjustment. Kathy Behm, Lovejoy´s Science and Nursing Librarian, became the liaison for the dental faculty and assumed overall responsibility for the Biomedical Library. Greg Cash was reappointed as its supervisor. When this experiment began two years ago, the Biomedical Library´s holdings were inventoried only in the card catalog. Most library patrons could not ascertain what the library held without coming to the Alton campus. Students and faculty in the School of Dental Medicine had access to few online databases. Now, all of that has changed.</p>
<p>This transformation pivoted on the re-allotment of workflows and responsibilities to the Technical Services Department of Lovejoy Library. The geographic relocation of certain roles and responsibilities has allowed the Alton staff to devote more time and resources to directly helping patrons. While the Biomedical Library now offers a much improved set of services,—and far more of them, they are able to do so precisely because members of Lovejoy´s Tech Services, further down the bluffs in Edwardsville, now share in their mission.</p>
<p>Tech Services has enhanced the Biomedical Library´s services by taking over technical services functions and by collaborating with the Alton staff in technical or support processes. Catalog Librarian Jill Garbs trained the Alton staff on the Voyager cataloging module, enabling them to perform routine catalog maintenance on holding and item records onsite. Members of Tech Services collaborated with the support staff of ILCSO (Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization) to oversee the initial bulk import of approximately 2,800 bibliographic records of the Biomedical Library´s holdings into Lovejoy´s OPAC. Alton´s indirect support from Tech Services has not been limited to cataloging. The Tech Services staff also transferred the Biomedical Library´s bindery contract to a new vendor and helped to set it up.</p>
<p>Even more dramatically, however, Lovejoy´s Tech Services staff has absorbed functions which were previously performed by the Alton staff into their own workflows. Beginning in 2003, Technical Services took over the acquisitions of new items destined for the Biomedical Library, ordering titles, tracking funds and keeping statistics for reporting purposes. In 2004, Tech Services assumed primary responsibility for the bibliographic control of the Alton collection.</p>
<p>Finally, the two staffs share responsibility for processing new volumes. Tech Services is responsible for placing the original date stamp and call number on an incoming book or journal; and for processing CD-ROMs which accompany new books. The Alton staff retains responsibility for adding the ownership stamp and targets. This "sharing" of the process has required that Tech Services maintain a second set of procedures. They have accomplished all of this without the addition of any new personnel.</p>
<p>Today, the students and faculty at the SIU School of Dental Medicine have access to all of the online resources available through Lovejoy Library´s website. These resources include research guides, online databases, electronic journals and Lovejoy Library´s online public access catalog. Because the holdings of the Biomedical Library have been added to the online catalog dental students and faculty can check the holdings from home, work, another campus, or even Starbucks. They can read and print out articles contained in Lovejoy´s innumerable databases or order them via ILL or document delivery. Members of the surrounding community can also access the online catalog and peruse the Biomedical Library´s holdings And there is plenty of evidence that they are doing so. According to Kathy Behm, the Biomedical Library is now beginning to receive regular ILL requests. Most important of all, however, is the fact that, with the new enhancements to the library service, patrons in the School of Dental Medicine are better equipped to meet their informational needs. — Elizabeth Lowe</p>
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<p>Lowe, Elizabeth. SIU School of Dental Medicine Records are Now Available Via Lovejoy´S OPAC. Lovejoy Library, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Edwardsville: Friends of Lovejoy Library, 2005. 03 July 2006 <http://www.library.siue.edu/lib/imprints/imprints_dental_medicine_records.htm>.</p>
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