ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


549

PACLink and PACLoan was a desire to experi­
ment in statewide cooperation and resource 
sharing to give any library in Utah access to 
information databases without having to indi­
vidually purchase them. The universities are 
part o f an 11-library consortium called the Utah 
College Library Council comprised of all higher

education institutions in the state that have li­
braries. These three universities are the largest 
in the consortium and each has the NOTIS li­
brary management system. The other eight sites 
have the Dynix system. Dynix and NOTIS are 
working together to guarantee interoperability 
of both systems. ■

Barcoding: Tedious project o r com m unity p a rty ?
Broome Community College (BCC) Learn­

ing Resources staff turned a tedious barcoding 
project into a community party. During the 
holiday break, 95 retired and current BCC fac­
ulty, staff, and students participated in a 
barcoding party resulting in the barcoding of 
65,584 titles in preparation for participation 
in the SUNY Library Automation Project.

Barcode volunteers were recruited from the 
college community to help “bring the LRC into 
the 21st century.” Articles were written for the 
staff newsletter 
and the student 
newspaper. The 
c o lle g e  p re si­
dent invited all 
college employ­
e e s  to partici­
pate. The direc­
tor o f Learning 
Resources dem­
o n s tra te d  the 
benefits of auto­
mation to stu­
dent and faculty 
g ro u p s. Phi 
T h e ta  K app a, 
the student gov
ernment association, and the Retired BCC Fac­
ulty/Staff Association recruited volunteers.

Volunteers were paired with trained LRC 
staff to reduce training time and increase ac­
curacy. Two trained staff members served as 
“floaters,” welcoming volunteers, and filling 
in where needed. Efforts were made to make 
all participants feel necessary to the project’s 
success.

The barcoding schedule was limited to two 
two-hour blocks per day, 10:00 a.m. to noon 
and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., with 15-minute breaks. 
These shorter time periods reduced errors due 
to fatigue. During “tea time,” volunteers drank

coffee donated by the college food service, 
ate donuts donated by area merchants, and 
socialized.

The collection was divided into sections. 
This enabled teams to work without inter­
ruption from other teams, while able to see 
and communicate with each other, occasion­
ally engaging in mini-contests. A progress 
chart, updated daily, kept teams enthused 
about their progress.

The student government and the faculty/ 
student associa­
tio n s  c o n t r ib ­
uted “BCC just 
ch a n g e d  its 
stripes!” t-shirts 
designed by the 
P u b l i c a t i o n s  
Center. These t-
shirts and certifi­
cates o f appre­
c ia tio n  w ere 
given to all bar-
coding partici­
pants. In addi­
tion, o n ce  the 

Larry Jenkins and Wanda Johnston display BCC’s 
barcoding project progress chart and t-shirts.

project was com­
pleted, partici

pating staff and volunteers celebrated with 
pizza and cake.

Can barcoding be changed from a tedious 
task to a community party? Broome Commu­
nity College proved it can. Volunteer com­
ments included:

“I’m doing this for my children.”
“I thought I would only help out one morn­

ing, but this is so much fun I’ll be back to­
morrow.”

“I’m sorry the project is done.”— W an da 
K. Jo h n ston , d ir ecto r o f  lea rn in g  resources, 
B r o o m e  C om m u n ity College, B in g h am ton , 
New York ■