A presentation delivered to the METRO Reserves and Circulation Special Interest Group in March 2014.

1. Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust
Implementing Ares at Yale University Library

2. Fear and Loathing in Course
Reserves

3. Overview
1. My Personal Course Reserves Journey-
aka,Bringing Up Baby
2. Fear and Loathing: Reserves 911
3. Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, or Why Ares is like
Disney’s Magic Bands
4. Lessons Learned, Numbers Gathered (Recap)
5. Questions and Answers

4. Today’s Goals
• Demystify the project implementation
process
• Help you think of your course reserves
policies/procedures in a new light
• Learn about the conservation of Pixie Dust!

5. My Personal Course Reserves Journey
aka Bringing Up Baby
Hired by Yale in
2012
Associate Director of
Resource Sharing
AND Reserves
...AND Reserves

6. Evil Architecture 101
• Resource Sharing and Reserves
had never been combined at
Yale
• Part of larger Access Services
reorg
• Not just sharing a branch on the
org tree, but a chance to do
something new
• Ares was the goal, but it was
also the catalyst

7. Wait a minute!

8. Episode IV
A NEW HOPE
It is a dark time for Yale Course Reserves. In
2008, a subgroup of the E-Reserves Group in
DPIP (Digital Production & Integration Program)
is charged with evaluating existing reserves
management solutions.
The group looks at several different products,
including LIST by Talis, DOCUTEK E-RES by

9. Our Course Reserves Predicament
• YUL reserves units relying on combination of
Voyager’s Reserves module and e-Reserves
storage/retrieval maintained by Library IT
• Unsustainable in long term: new ILS in future, e-
Reserves not automated or scalable
• Market for reserves management systems has
narrowed significantly- Ares is now the industry
standard

10. Fall 2012 Ares Evaluation
• Two online demos for YUL stakeholders
• Feedback: Ares great e-Reserves tool, but what about
support for print reserves?
• On-site meeting November 2nd w/ Genie Powell, Atlas
Systems
• “Must have” features identified by stakeholders- could
the vendor provide these?

11. Vendor Management 101
Agnes: And you, start over. I want
everything in one bag.
Pimple Faced Kid: Yes, ma'am!
Agnes: But I don't want the bag to
be heavy.
Pimple Faced Kid: I don't think
that's possible!
Agnes: What are you, the possible
police? Just do it!

12. It’s a boy!
• Spring 2013- Approved to
begin Ares implementation
• Summer 2013- Soft launch for
SML, CSSSI, DIV
• Fall 2013- Full launch for 13/14
academic year
• Expected Due Date for our
son: 9/24/2013
(WARNING: DO NOT TRY
THIS AT HOME!)

13. Initial Project Planning Phase
• Met with Library IT re: integration with ILS
• Met with CMS/LMS admins re: integration
with CMS/LMS
• Met with Library Communications re:
marketing and promotional materials
• Met with UX librarian re: webforms and
usability issues

14. Implementation Task Force Teams
• Workflow/Impleme
ntation
• Data Conversion
• Training &
Documentation
• Marketing and
Outreach

15. A Collaborative, Iterative Process
• Task force included a cross-section of
librarians, managers, and support staff
• Regular team meetings and monthly All-
Project meetings to gather feedback and
constructive criticism
• Constant assessment -> continuous
improvement

16. Bumps in the Road
• Data Conversion (past 5 years)
took a LOT longer than we had
anticipated, especially for e-
reserves, requiring many hours
of data entry on our end
• Quality control for Data
Conversion was in real time.
i.e., you didn’t know what was
wrong until a professor tried to
access their list!

17. Bumps in the Road #2
• Soft launch in Summer
was good for low-
impact beta testing, but
vacations impacted
ability of teams, other
stakeholders to meet
• Much more of
scramble in Fall

18. Bumps in the Road #3
• No one surefire way to
communicate reserves
change with all faculty, grad
students, and admin
secretaries
• Adopted multi-faceted
communications strategy
(email, Web, print, etc.), but
still missed many affected
patrons

19. Lesson #1
Implementing a new
system can be a
great excuse to
assess/change
existing policies,
procedures, and
workflows

20. Lesson #2
Lesson One is easier
said than done

21. First impressions
Yale course reserves was extremely labor-
intensive:
• Many redundant workflows
• Keying/rekeying of data
• Reliance on paper checklists for status
updates, managing throughput, quality
control

22. Second impressions
Course Reserves is a fear-based workflow:
1. Fear of upsetting faculty
2. Fear of failing to meet student demands
3. Fear of changing policies/procedures for
fear of #1 or #2

23. High touch or no touch at all?
• Our reserves workflows
emphasized triage/damage
control for individuals at the
expense of efficiency and
transparency for all
• i.e., We had an excellent
Reserves “911” system, but
otherwise our services were
10+ years out of date

24. The system is down
• In June of 2013 a major
upgrade was rolled out to
NYC’s 911 system during a
peak emergency dispatch
call period, causing the new
system to crash repeatedly
• Calls were taken, written
down on paper, run to
appropriate dispatch center
by hand

25. Lessons learned?
1. Try to avoid high-volume periods for
implementation
2. Make sure you have a reliable backup
workflow in place
3. Assume that what can go wrong WILL go
wrong and plan accordingly

26. Baby steps to Ares…
• In the case of NYC’s 911
system, the paper backup
was crude but it worked
• We allowed faculty
experiencing difficulty or
anxiety about Ares to submit
their reserves requests the
old-fashioned way
• Just… make sure you can
staff this!

27. That was your plan, Ray?
• Phase 1 (Summer 2013)- Initial rollout, faculty
participated by opting-in, testing & feedback
• Phase 2 (Fall 2013)- Initial launch in CMS
(Sakai), faculty could opt-out, staff/user
assessment
• Phase 3 (Spring 2014)- Full launch in CMS, no
opt-out, staff/user assessment continues

28. Don’t forget the loathing!
“Everything you are
doing is bad.
I want you to know
this.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncGHiVKJh0Y

29. Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom*
• In 2013 starting rolling out
MagicBands to select guests at Walt
Disney World
• RFID-enabled smart bands serving
as identification, key, and ride pass
all in one
• Also allowing some neat/creepy
personalized “magic” with new
interactive attractions
• Intended to replace old FastPass
ride reservation system

30. BONUS: Reader’s Advisory
* Down and Out in
the Magic Kingdom,
by Cory Doctorow
(Seriously, if you
haven’t read it- GO
AND BUY IT NOW!)

31. The Mouse always wins...
• Problem: Disney insiders LOVED their FastPasses,
HATED the idea of Magic Bands
• Disney recognized that FastPass use/abuse was
creating a system with clear winners and losers
• MagicBands would allow Disney greater control over
lines and waiting times, while giving all Guests ability
to reserve rides online

32. P.S.
Yes, I’m a giant
Disney nerd… and I
have multiple
Mickey Mouse ties
to prove it!

33. What’s the worst that could happen?
• Disney targeted small group
to test MagicBands- insiders
were tapped to build buy-in,
create buzz
• Ability to use the old
FastPass ride reservation
system at the same time
• The technology is still not
100% foolproof, but critics
are helping troubleshoot it

34. Lessons Learned
1. How do you keep the magic
when your goal is Pixie Dust
detox?
2. If you’re going to take
something away, make sure
you’re giving them something
equally cool (or even cooler) in
return
3. Co-opt your critics, turn them
into your troubleshooters and
champions

35. Step One: Launch another
successful service
• In 2012 Yale Launched the Scan and Deliver electronic
document delivery service for faculty, students, staff
• Scan and Deliver service adopted to fulfill e-Reserves
scanning requests, via Ares OpenURL request
functionality
• Capitalized on a success, popular service to sell Ares
with patrons, library staff, AND administrators

36. Marrying ILLiad and Ares
• Blending of Resource Sharing and
Reserves staff made it easier to train staff
how to use the Ares client (similar to ILLiad)
• Other overlapping workflows could be
leveraged as well- i.e., using document
delivery for e-reserves, ILL staff to assist
with finding links to articles/chapters in
online resources

37. Concierge service for all?
• High-touch service meets
reserves automation
• Ease of ordering and reuse
• Transparency to tracking,
immediate gratification
whenever possible
• The personal touch (i.e.,
Pixie Dust) is still there, but
reserved for genuine
emergency/troubleshooting

38. Reserves by the numbers
2008-2012 Averages
• Avg. # of items on Print Reserve: 6603
• Avg. # of items scanned as PDF: 3016
• Avg. # of linked e-resources: 594

39. Better living through library automation!

40. Grand Totals for 2013-2014 AY
• # of items on Print Reserve: 9496
• # of items scanned as PDF: 5249
• # of linked e-resources: 3047
NOTE: Not only did e-reserves DOUBLE, but
print reserves went up 43%!

41. Other improvements- Reserves Acquisitions
• Changes in ordering procedures (direct
email through Ares to our Acquisitions staff,
fulfillment via Amazon)
• Turnaround Time:
2012: 14.11 days
2013: 7.25 days (49% reduction!)

42. Other improvements- e-Reserves scanning
• Prior to Ares, e-Reserves scanning took the
entire semester for staff to complete,
requiring staging of scanning requests by
week
• Now all e-Reserves scanning is completed
by the end of the 4th week of the semester

43. Ooh, shiny!
• By start of
classes
(1/13/14),
e-Reserves
already 50%
complete
• By 2/13/14,
e-Reserves
were 90%
complete!

44. Lessons Learned (Recap)
1. We may never be a thrill ride, but we can make the course
reserves experience as pleasant as possible- iterate, automate,
assess, and enhance!
2. Plan, plan, plan ahead for service interruptions and points of
failure. PROJECT PLANNING EXPERTISE IS A MUST!
3. Communicate with your stakeholders constantly to frame their
expectations (Basecamp, LibGuides, and Bookmarks- Oh, my!)

45. Questions? Comments? Baby
Pictures?
Thank you!
Tom Bruno
tom.bruno@yale.edu
Twitter: @oodja
“What do you mean, my
princess is in another castle?”

46. Acknowledgements
SML/Bass Reserves and
Scanning Team
Ares Implementation Task
Force
YUL Reserves Staff
Atlas Systems Staff
My wife, my daughter, and son
Don’t forget: STEELSEN!