NEW POLICY TEMPORARY, MANAGERS SAY

A recent change in UW library procedures has raised concern among some library employees who feel that the new policy, while more cost effective, is less environmentally friendly.

All library units are now required to print transit slips on non-reusable, 8.5-by-11 sheets of paper for all books and other items moving from one library to another on campus. In the past, material traveling between libraries received reusable, ruler-sized flags.

Dale Hunter, a library technician at Odegaard Undergraduate Library, views the change as unnecessary and wasteful.

“I am as sympathetic as anyone when it comes to concerns about the accuracy and efficiency of work done in the libraries,” said Hunter. “But as I understand it, the decision is essentially one of whether we want to redouble our efforts at employee training to ensure this accuracy, and save some natural resources in the process, or whether we are content to take the easy way out, even though the environmental cost is much greater. Unfortunately, we seem to have opted for the latter.”

According to Thomas Deardorff, coordinator for Access Services, the switch stems from a larger change taking place in the Orbit Cascade Alliance, the consortium of 36 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington that share a catalog called “Summit.” In December, Summit switched to a new software vendor and is now working to upgrade its entire system.

“The current printing of the transit slips is our temporary fix for a change that we needed to make for the implementation of the new Summit system,” Deardorff said. “During the holidays it appears that the requirements for these slips have changed, so it looks like we will be changing the format again in the near term.”

Ryan McCrory, Access Services manager at Odegaard, made a similar point.

“Sometimes people look at one change and things seem horribly awry when the issue is much bigger than just a change from one system to another,” McCrory said.

McCrory said the current practice of printing transit slips for intra-campus books has to do with changes that occurred within Summit, and that those changes were a result of software vendor issues.

“Basically the software vendor wanted to charge more money for the same service, so in order to maintain service to the patrons, the Summit consortium began looking at alternatives. Because of when those took place, we had to look for new systems like the transit slips.”

McCrory maintains that use of the slips is only a temporary procedure while bigger issues are being worked out.

“We’ve only been printing them since Dec. 1,” McCrory said. “In the past week, we decided that Suzzallo and Odegaard will no longer print transit slips for one another because we’ve been able to make changes within the system. Some of the changes that are taking place with the new software may allow us to reduce or end the printing of transit slips in January.”

Many employees who see the current practice as wasteful feel the issue relates to the broader question of how committed the UW is to environmental ethics in the face of rising costs and budget cuts.

“With the state budget crisis, the libraries will definitely be impacted,” McCrory said. “We won’t see a lot of those changes take place until the UW budget, under the Washington state budget, becomes clear in June. We’ve already been told that the libraries and the University as a whole will have to give back money.”

Reach reporter Annie Atherton at news@dailyuw.com.