ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries May 199 7 / 31 9 Life in the Olympic Village: A view from Georgia Tech B y D o n ald G. F ra n k , L a u ra L. G re e n e , L isa A. M ack lin , J illia n B a k e r, T a n y a B a rb e r, L au rie M acL eod B e n n e tt, K a th a r in e C a lh o u n , T o m F is h e r, a n d C laire O slun d S w a n so n The Olympic Games are over but the memories remain A s the O lym pic Village for the 1996 Cent­ennial O lym pic Gam es, the cam pus o f the Georgia Institute o f Technology (G eorgia T e ch ) was hom e for 13,500 athletes during the five w e e k s o f the O lym pic and Paralym pic Gam es. T h e im plications for the faculty and students o f Georgia T e ch w ere dramatic and extensive. Information services and the people w ho provide these services in the Library and Information Center w ere also affected by the Games. The Atlanta Committee for the Olym­ pic G am es (ACOG) assum ed control o f and responsibility for the cam pus in mid-June. In only five w eeks, the cam pus was physically transformed from an academ ic com munity into the “sixth-largest city in G eorgia,” populated by athletes, coach es, trainers, and officials.1 The first sign o f change w as a high, electrified fence w hich defined the borders o f the Village. As the fen ce approached com pletion, the campus w as no longer recognizable as an academ ic institution. Transforming the campus into the Olym pic Village required a H erculean effort for all co n ­ cerned . New and renovated buildings, new landscaping, and other Olym pic structures sig­ nificantly changed the appearance and charac­ ter o f the campus. The Aquatic Center and the athletic dormitories w ere constructed in 1995 as perm anent additions to the campus, to b e u sed by stu d en ts at th e co n c lu sio n o f th e Gam es. T h e Olym pic Plaza, w here flags o f 197 countries fluttered in the breeze, included a new fountain and cam panile, and served as the backdrop for the Today Show’s daily broadcasts; it rem ains a cam pu s fo cal point. Huge air- conditioned pavilions and tents, a massive din­ ing hall as large as a football field, and other buildings w ere erected all over campus. O ther tem porary structures included a cafe, disco, swimming pool, am phitheater (for official w el­ com ing ce re m o n ies), and a “Surf S h ack ” o f com puters for electronic mail. The basic am eni­ ties o f a city, including a b o o k sto re, florist, general store, and hair salon, w ere available for the athletes. S c h e d u le s a n d s e cu rity As the Gam es approached, library staff b ecam e increasingly apprehensive. With 15,000 people arriving at the Olym pic Village and 2.5 million com ing to Atlanta for the Gam es, occasional feelings o f anxiety w ere natural. T h e campus and the library rem ained op en for academ ic business. Officially, the library w as op en from 8:00 to 5:00, M onday-Friday, so all staff m em ­ bers faced either a lengthier com m ute or using vacation leave. Flex time allow ed many staff to start w ork as early as 6:00 a.m. to avoid heavy traffic. It w as not possible to drive onto cam ­ pus. Therefore, staff parked at nearby lots or used MARTA, the public transportation system, and then to ok various shuttle buses to the cam ­ pus. D espite dire predictions, autom obile traf­ fic was not overwhelm ingly heavy in the m et­ ropolitan area. However, stories o f problem s on MARTA w ere numerous and w ere accurately Donald G. Frank, Laura L. Greene, Lisa A. Macklin, Jillian Baker, Tanya Barber, Laurie MacLeod Bennett, Katharine Calhoun, Tom Fisher, and Claire Oslund Swanson are librarians at the Georgia Institute of Technology; e-mail: don.frank@library.gatech.edu mailto:don.frank@library.gatech.edu 3 2 0 / C&RL News d escribed b y the national and international media. Each staff m em ber navigated a series o f se­ curity checkpoints to get onto campus. At the entrances, each person passed through metal detectors and had hand geom etries scanned. This procedure allow ed an exact match o f each person’s hand dim ensions to his or her photo identification badge. Attaches, purses, and back­ packs w ere carefully searched. O ne library staff m em ber had a jar o f peanut butter confiscated as it was d eem ed by a security guard to b e potentially dangerous. Security increased as several bom b scares w ere reported and becam e especially intense after the bom bing at Cen­ tennial Olym pic Park. S e rv ic e s a n d the g a m e s The campus b ecam e “secu re” on Ju n e 15. From then until August 12, access to the Olympic Village was limited to individuals w ho had been ch ecked and accredited by ACOG. As a result o f the library’s location in the O lym pic Village, the only walk-in customers w ere Georgia T ech ’s ACOG-approved faculty, staff, and students. Faculty and students unable to gain access to the library w ere served through electronic means and by phone. Staff m em bers noted that som e professors, w ho usually relied on their graduate students for library research, w ere using the library them selves. This provided an excellen t opportunity to update them o n re­ cent changes in the library’s online systems and hom epages. Many non-Tech custom ers w ere unaware o f the library’s secured status. Callers’ reactions to the “state o f siege” ranged from disappointed or frustrated to curious or sympathetic. As public aw aren ess o f O lym pic secu rity sp read , the intensity o f these calls lessened. Reference staff n o tic e d a m e ta m o rp h o sis o f th e ir d ep a rt­ m ent into a referral c e n t e r as th e y d i­ O ne lib ra ry staff m em ber had a jar of peanut butter confiscated a s it w a s deem ed by a security guard to be potentially dan g ero us. rected callers to other libraries or informa­ tion s o u rce s. Many calls cam e from frus­ trated people in cars w h o w ere trying to get on campus; they w ere h e lp ed to e s ­ cape the traffic maze and return to their offices or homes. Several access-related problem s surfaced as a result o f the library’s status as a depository for governm ent docum ents and patents. There w as con cern w hen it was learned that U.S. pat­ ents, trademarks, and their associated literature w ould not b e accessible for six w eeks. Librar­ ians suggested several options for the callers. For exam ple, depository libraries are available in Alabama and South Carolina. T h e Patent and Trademark O ffice’s hom epage provided som e access, but was not fully operational during the Gam es. Fee-based options w ere available fo r trad em ark s e a rch in g , an d w h ile m any searches w ere performed, m ost callers opted to wait for the cam pus to reopen. Librarians noted, by the way, that a significant num ber o f callers w ere seeking trademarks fo r “Atlanta 96,” w hich was federally registered for exclu ­ sive use by ACOG. Interlibrary loan and document delivery were also affected. Books were delivered via UPS rather than by U.S. mail at library rate, and photocopies were faxed. The library became a nonsupplier on OCLC from June 30 to August 15 and offered infre­ quent service to Georgia libraries only. Workflow patterns in technical services were n oticeably ham pered by the Gam es, since all incom ing U.S. mail was delivered to an off- cam pus location and X-rayed. T h e mail was loaded on a shuttle, sealed, and allowed to enter cam pus only o n ce a day at a designated time. Periodical issues w ere regularly received, but b o x e s o f materials w ere usually delayed sev­ eral days. After the Centennial Olym pic Park bom bing, n o large b o x e s w ere received. In anticipation o f mail delays, library staff asked vendors to hold all approval and stand­ ing order shipm ents until the con clu sion o f th e G am e s. T h e s e d elay s fu rth e r a ffe c te d workflow s in acquisitions and cataloging. Flex­ ible scheduling o f Systems D epartm ent staff also had an impact o n processing; since biblio­ graphic records w ere not exported o n a daily b a s is , re c o rd e d it­ in g w a s d if f ic u lt . B in d ery o p eratio n s w ere suspended dur­ ing th e se cu re p e ­ rio d , b e c a u s e th e b in d e r y d e liv e r y truck cou ld not ac­ c e s s th e c a m p u s . W h e n th e G a m e s concluded and deliveries o f b o o k s and serials resumed o n a regular basis, technical services staff collaborated to catalog and process these backlogged materials promptly. May 1 9 9 7 / 321 The r e a litie s of te le co m m u tin g Although librarians in technical services could not telecom m u te e as­ ily, telecom m uting was a viable op tion for sev­ eral librarians in other d e p a rtm e n ts. T h e li­ brarians in the Corpo­ rate Research Services D e p a r t m e n t , a f e e - b a se d unit that c o n ­ ducts online literature s e a r c h e s fo r c lie n ts , prepared a proposal for te le co m -m u tin g . S ev ­ eral reference librarians also expressed interest in this possibility. Since telecom m uting had not b ee n d one o n a formal T h e G e o r g ia T e c h L ib r a r y ’s p a r k in g lo t i n t r a n s it i o n f r o m a r e g u la r c a m p u s fa c ility to o n e o f th e v e n u e s f o r h o s tin g th e 1 3 ,5 0 0 a th le te s w h o p a r tic ip a te d in th e O ly m p ic G a m e s in A tla n ta la s t s u m m e r . basis and n o p o licies existed for it, many is­ sues surfaced for discussion. For three days each w eek, librarians in the fe e -b a se d unit con d u cted database search es from their hom es. Research requests rem ained at a near-norm al level, and requests for trade­ mark search es increased during the G am es, since custom ers w ere unable to co m e to the library to use the Patent & Tradem ark O ffice’s CASSIS system. Reference librarians worked on collection developm ent and on finding relevant W eb sites for the library’s hom epage. T h e telecom m uting experim ent w as a suc­ cess. Productivity and services were maintained, and the librarians appreciated the flexibility in their schedules. However, the delineation b e ­ tw een w ork life and hom e life b ecam e blurred at times. O ccasionally, the librarians exp e ri­ e n ced feelings o f isolation and even boredom in being away from their colleagu es and re­ maining all day in the sam e environm ent. They w ondered about the potential effects o f long­ term telecom m uting on o n e ’s sen se o f identifi­ cation with the organization. Overall, though, telecom m uting w as a positive exp erien ce, and the librarians recom m ended that telecom m ut­ ing options b e explored for the future. The “ M o v e ” T h e library anticipated that the num ber o f in­ form ation requests from faculty and students w ould b e considerably less than usual during the sum m er o f 1996. This w as view ed as an opportunity to im plem ent a plan alleviating sp ace problem s by transferring all pre-1980 p e­ riodical volumes to a renovated area in the base­ m ent o f the library, in w hich com p act shelving had b e e n installed. T h ese activities w ere re­ ferred to as the “M ove.” In addition to num er­ ous, newly hired student assistants, virtually all o f the professional and classified staff o f the library participated in the move. B e fo re they w ere re lo cate d , ap p rop riate volum es w ere tagged fo r transport. T h e se vol­ um es w ere rem oved from the shelves, placed on an assem bly line o f b o o k trucks, cleaned and vacuum ed, and m oved to the com pact stor­ age area. As the volum es w ere reshelved in com pact storage, barcod es in the volum es w ere scanned to facilitate changes o f location infor­ m ation in catalog records. Nearly 30,000 linear feet o f pre-1980 volum es w ere transferred in this manner. T he m ove constituted an enorm ous library- wide effort, and success depend ed on effec­ tive team w ork. From m id-June through late A ugust, fo u r daily shifts o f 15 individ uals p er shift w orked on the move. P eo p le dressed casu ally and com fortably, and as a rew ard for staff efforts, three special lunches w ere ca­ te re d b y a restau ran t o n cam p u s. Staff r e ­ sponded well to this dramatic change from rou­ tine activities. Photo credit: Pat Johnston 322 / C&RL NEWS Lib rary staff discovered they w e re in the middle of the pl e veryo ne w a n ted to be but couldn't—the Olym pic V illag C h a n g in g O ly m p ic p e rsp e c tiv e s T o say w o rk in g in the O lym p ic V illage w as in c o n v e n ie n t w o u ld b e an u n d e rsta te m e n t. S ta ff fru stratio n b e fo r e th e O lym pic se c u r e p eriod w as high. D ire p red ictio n s w e re b e in g m ad e a b o u t traffic c o n g e s tio n , and p roced u ral c h a n g es an d n e w restrictions w e re p u b licized alm ost daily. As th e a th letes b e g a n arriving an d th e c a m p u s w as tra n s fo rm ed in to the O lym p ic Village, th e festive atm o sp h ere h elp ed to lift spirits. Library staff d isco v ered they w ere in th e m id dle o f the p la ce e v ery o n e w an ted to b e but cou ld n 't— the O ly m p ic Village. Library sta ff had virtually unlim ited ac ce s s to th e O ly m p ic V illag e, w h ich in clu d ed the o p p ortu n ity to p articip ate in activities for the ath letes. F ree c o n c e rts and p e rfo rm a n c e s w ere o n g o in g in th e c e n te r o f cam p u s, an d th e cafe o ffered free c o ffe e and b e v era g e s for ev ery­ o n e in the V illage, not just the ath letes. T h e V illag e h o sted th e in tern ation al p rem iere o f t h e a c t io n film E r a s e r , a n d s ta r s A rn o ld S ch w a rz e n e g g e r and V an essa W illiam s m a d e g u e s t a p p e a r a n c e s . P re s id e n t ace C linton m ad e a s p e e c h in the Village. M any staff u sed their b reak s and lu n ch tim es to tak e p h otog rap h s, m ing le with e. th e athletes, and p articipate in pin trad­ ing. Staff m et and talked w ith p e o p le from all o v er the w orld, and foun d that th e O ly m p ic spirit w as infectiou s. At the en d o f th e G am es, s o m e library staff tem porarily e x p e r ie n c e d a letd ow n , s in ce m any y ears o f p lan n in g and effort had b e e n d ev oted to several q u ic k w e e k s o f ath letic c om p etitio n . L ook in g b a c k , it s ee m s that the G am es o p e n e d and c lo s e d sim u ltan eou sly . B ein g in th e m iddle o f the O ly m p ic V illag e w as a w o n d erfu l and o n c e -in -a -life tim e e x p e r ie n c e . T h e a th letes and their com p etitio n s, th e international visitors, and th e star-filled c erem o n ies con tribu ted to a unique a m b ia n ce. P e o p le w ith d ifferen t lan g u ag es, s o ­ cial cu sto m s, an d p o litical p e rs p e ctiv e s c o m ­ p e te d and sh ared as m em b ers o f a g lo b al vil­ lage. T h e G eo rg ia T e c h Library an d Inform ation C e n te r s ta ff w e r e p ro u d p a rtic ip a n ts in this v illa g e ’s activities and even ts. Note 1. A nne R o ch ell, Kristin Eddy, and Lillian Lee Kim, “Spirit o f K insh ip A bou nd s in ‘City’,’’ A t­ la n t a C on stitu tion (July 11, 1 996): S16. ■ C&RL N e w s 30th a n n iv e rsa ry quiz H ere is the n ex t install­ m en t o f th e C&RL N ews 3 0 th a n n iv e rs a ry qu iz. T e s t y o u r r e c o lle c tio n o f ev en ts that have b e e n re p o rte d in the N ew s s in c e 1966. 1. A cco rd in g to Hardy Franklin, 1994 ALA p resid en t, w h at is at the heart o f the library profession? 2. W hat w as Z e b ’s (a stu d en t) su g g estio n for im proving his university’s library in 1992? 3. W h e n did the B o ard o f D irecto rs vote to e stab lish a B ib lio g ra p h ic In stru ctio n S e c ­ tion (n o w k n o w n as th e In stru ction S e c tion ) w ith in ACRL? W hat did p articipan ts think a b o u t th e first ACRL N ational C o n fe ren ce h eld in B o sto n in 1978? O n May 5, 1972, library history w as m ade w h e n a class a c tio n suit c h a lle n g in g the con stitu tion ality o f a state statu te w as filed in fed eral cou rt o n b e h a lf o f all librarian s an d library e m p lo y e e s o f that state. N am e th e state an d th e statute. (Z161 JsnSny/Xinf) 6961 u! aA jpajp su nosq m jijM ‘ainiEjy ■rairejV injuij^H eiujo}iie3 sip jo XjijEuoijnjiisuoa stp psSusjpiip jjns aqj_ ((,£61 ip J ®W) .,P °°8 Aj3a„ ji psSpnl %x<, pur. „ju [̂|3^X3„ SDuarajuco 3i|i psqtfj pa/fo/uns ssoqi jo L-\ f ( l L61 ' 1'IV I lL6\ ‘ l£ XjrnuEf '£ (Z66I isngny Ajnf) sucpEjqir Sui>]oo[ w jjaq aiuos js S o x Z (>66l AjErucpj') 3DIAJ3S jauiojsrQ [ May 1997 / 323 A C R L ’ s 8t h National Conference was a resounding success! ACRL thanks those who helped m ake it possible. National Conference Executive Committee ❦ C a rla S to ffle , c h a ir ❦ J o s e p h B o issé , c o lle a g u e s ❦ M a rg o C h rist, co m m is s io n e d pap ers ❦ B a rb a ra M a cA d a m , co n trib u te d pap ers ❦ K a re n D ow n in g, co n trib u te d p ap ers ❦ J a c k W a lsd o rf, e x h ib ito rs a d viso ry ❦ S h irle y H allbla de , local a rra n g e m e n ts ❦ Bill R o b n e tt, local a rra n g e m e n ts ❦ H a n n e lo re R ader, p a n e l p ro g ra m s ❦ J a n ic e S im m o n s -W e lb u rn , p o s te r se ssio n s ❦ C h ris F ilstru p, p re co n fe re n ce s ❦ M a ria n n e G a un t, p re c o n fe re n c e s ❦ J o e W e e d , p u b licity ❦ L izb eth B ish off, sce n a rio s ❦ S h e rrie B e rg m a n , th e m e sp e a ke rs ❦ B e tty T sa i, ro u n d ta b le s ❦ C la u d e tte H ag le, ro u n d ta b le s ❦ D avid M cD o n a ld , te c h n o lo g y ❦ R o b e rt R en au d, intern ❦ J e rily n V e ld o f, intern ❦ C a th e rin e L arson , intern ACRL National Conference Colleagues Summa Cum Laude (over $5,000) ❦ B la ckw e ll N orth A m e ric a ❦ C h a d w yck-H e a le y ❦ E B S C O S u b scrip tio n S e rvice s❦ In n o va tive In te rfa ce s ❦ In fo rm a tio n -A c c e s s C o m p a n y ❦ S w e ts & Z e itlin g e r ❦ H. W . W ilso n F o u n d a tio n Magna Cum Laude ($1,000–$5,000)❦ A c a d e m ic B o o k C e n te r❦ Faxon C o m p a n y❦ S ilv e rP la tte r ❦ U M I ❦ Y a n k e e B o o k P e d d le r Cum Laude ($500–$999) ❦ B a ke r & T a y lo r❦ In stitu te fo r S cie n tific Info. ❦ M id w e st L ib ra ry S e rvice ❦ S O L IN E T ❦ S p a c e s a v e r C orp o ra tio n And all of the speakers, moderators, roundtable facilitators, poster session presenters, volunteers, exhibitors, and attendees. P.S. Save April 9– 12, 1999, for ACRL’s 9th National Conference in Detroit.