I began working at the Dr. John Archer Library in January 2012 as a Cataloguer in the Technical Services Department. As a cataloguer, I create and maintain the records in our Quickfind online search engine that allows patrons to search and view materials held in our library and in the federated college libraries. Initially my focus was on government and electronic resources, but more recently there’s been a shift towards cataloguing and maintaining electronic records for our vast electronic collections. Additionally, I handle any problems that may arise with our online materials, such as fixing URLs or dealing with online errors. In the last few years, with the increased use of Leganto, I also help our Reserves and Digitization departments with creating and fixing persistent links for online course reserves.

Technical Services is a small department with a lot of functions. We handle the sourcing and purchasing of all print and electronic materials, including activating and renewing agreements for our online subscriptions. Physical items are received, catalogued, processed, and directed to the appropriate library or requester. Online materials are catalogued, tested and activated. Both physical and electronic resources are continually maintained either through renewal of subscriptions, replacement of damaged and missing physical items, or the upkeep of information displayed through Quickfind and the Databases page. Our department also provides the Interlibrary Loans services for our patrons to locate articles and materials that we do not have in our collection.

COVID-19 brought many changes to our department. The shift to remote working and online classes meant an inability to lend out physical materials for patrons. Our purchasing diverted mainly to electronic materials (ebooks, ejournals and streaming videos.) For myself it seemed like an easy adjustment as my daily tasks are mostly dealing with online content. But at the beginning it was a struggle for me and my coworkers to adjust to maintaining online services for our patrons while we ourselves were away from campus and working through proxy access, slow home internet services, and constant procedure changes. Eventually online services were streamlined and we began offering digitization of physical materials that we could not provide electronic versions of.

As classes and staff slowly return to on campus, and students are once again in the library studying and borrowing materials, some of our services will begin to return to how they once were. But there will still be more of a demand for online services and I look forward to continuing to work with my coworkers and the rest of the library staff to make sure we provide all faculty and students with the resources they require for their academic journey.