Staff Spotlight: Circulation and Interlibrary Loan

Over the past year, Tulane University Libraries (TUL) staff members and librarians have demonstrated high degrees of flexibility in response to both COVID-related and weather-related disruptions. The Circulation and Interlibrary Loan (ILL) departments are a great example of this, maintaining a commitment to excellent customer service during volatile periods of unanticipated circumstances.

As campus was quickly closing in March 2020, the Circulation and Interlibrary Loan (ILL) team quickly shifted their focus. Other libraries were also suspending ILL operations for physical items.  ILL staff members Cortney Labadie and Anthony Lemoine turned to providing e-journal and scanned print articles and book chapters through the Scan and Deliver program. During the first few months of the pandemic, Circulation and ILL head Hayden Battle and Anthony still came to the library several hours a week to access materials for users while Cortney helped from home. Eventually, Circulation staff contributed to night and weekend shifts for the library reference chat and email.

Less than six weeks after campus closure, the Libraries began a pickup service for physical items with hundreds of requests filled over the late spring and summer months. By mid-May, circulation staff member Bailey Graffagnini had resumed in-person work at Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (HMTL) as well, and services continued to streamline and expand. If available, patron requested materials were provided via e-book; for print titles, Hayden, Bailey, and Anthony pulled books from the stacks, checked out, packaged and prepared materials for pickup during scheduled hours in the building.

“Anthony and Bailey were indispensable in those months. They took changes in quarantine procedures in stride and developed an efficient system to ensure the safety of staff and users. To their great credit, Anquienetta Dickerson and Greg Murphy really stepped up in August, creatively committing to new hours and services as campus became active again,” says Hayden.

In early fall, Dev Jannerson joined the department and became a helpful addition as more users returned to campus and HTML. “The group went above and beyond to help users in an unprecedented time. I’m proud we were able to maintain access to collections for the entire period of COVID-19. I appreciate each of them for their dedication,” shares Hayden.

Photo

First row from left: Hayden Battle, Head of Circulation and Interlibrary Loan; Bailey Graffagnini, Library Technician; Dev Jannerson, Library Technician; Greg Murphy, Library Associate; and Anquienetta Dickerson, Library Associate

Second row from left: Anthony Lemoine, Library Technician, and Cortney Labadie, Library Technician