LARGE GROUP COLLABORATION:

Large Group collaboration, whether occurring as part of the Libraries' formal committee structure, a formally organized work group or team, or an informal group, is a vital part of the participative decision
making process in the Libraries. The group or committee's work may result in a recommendation or a final product such as a new policy, guideline, workflow, webpage or statistical analysis.

Testimonial: The Special Collections Libraries Move Team has transported well over 100,000 items to the new building and assisted in moving the Map Library to campus. Not only are they extremely careful with the collections, but they are very inventive with solving the problems of how to move the more fragile and odd size items. They have built special pallets for moving oversize items and pieces of media; they have moved in all seasons and weather, in basements, subbasements, and the upper level of the Repo; they have willingly spent too much time in the picker at the Repo; they have moved
things that were dirty, heavy, and just all-round unpleasant. All of the Special Collections staff would like to thank them for their hard work, their unending willingness to help, and their good humor.    

Paul Van Wicklen deserves a great deal of appreciation for organizing the move, setting up the vault system, and managing this fantastic team. Without his planning and good sense of humor there would not have been a move at all.

Both Justin and Pascal have been responsible for ensuring that the move did not turn into chaos. They are the go-to people whenever a problem arises and their attention to detail, friendliness, and willingness to help is always outstanding.

Steven, Adam, Peter, Larry, and Thomas are responsible for getting things done. They are amazingly fast, reliable, and the sheer number of items that they have moved is impressive to say the least.

Testimonial: One of the ongoing issues with the various government documents collections throughout the Libraries is that the collections themselves are not fully cataloged; this makes it difficult for users to identify and retrieve the items they need.  This issue is compounded by the size of the collection:  approximately one million items housed
in four different locations (Main, Science, the Repository and the Map Library).  A long-term, multi-year project to inventory and catalog the entire Federal documents collection was started in the Main Library in 2009.  The initial plan was to start in Main, then move to the Science Library and finally the Repository.  However, due to plans to remodel the 2nd floor of the Science Library in 2012 that included moving their government documents collection off that floor, the decision was
made to temporarily focus on that part of the collection.  In addition to inventorying the documents, the plan included sending lesser-used items to the Repo, identifying and withdrawing duplicate documents from the stacks as well as sorting, and checking and processing 200 boxes of gifts that had accumulated over the past few years.  Since this rather sizable collection is (obviously) housed in the Science Library, it seemed logical for the work to be done onsite; this meant that a temporary workspace large enough to accommodate the
project had to be identified and set up in a relatively short period of time. The goal was to complete as much of the project as possible by the end of Spring Semester, 2012.          

The project started in late Fall Semester, 2011, when lesser-used documents were identified and sent to the Repo.  After Fall Semester ended, the group study room was turned into a temporary workspace, including rewiring for Internet access and installing workstations and shelving.  At the start of Spring Semester in January, the project work force – including staff members from Government Documents Processing and Reference, plus student workers from both departments and the occasional community service worker got busy.  Over the next several months, they inventoried, barcoded and copy cataloged a significant portion of the collection, pulled, offered and discarded thousands of duplicate items from the stacks, and sorted, checked and processed thousands of gift items.  When it was confirmed that Science would indeed be remodeled this year, the focus of the project shifted to preparing to move the collection to the 4th floor, with a hard deadline of June 1st.  Based on the progress to date, the project will certainly meet, if not beat, this deadline.

The Science Library Government Documents Inventory Project stands as an excellent example of the challenges and rewards of large-group collaboration.  Members of four different departments working out of two separate buildings came together in a short period of time and often on relatively short notice to find solutions to the many logistical issues inherent to a project of this scale.  All of the work on the
project was done in addition to everyone’s regular job duties; for
many of the people involved, working on the project took them far away from their regular workspaces and routines.  The Science government documents collection has never looked better, and, perhaps most importantly, access to the collection itself has never been better.  It is truly remarkable to see what a dedicated group of people can accomplish when they work together to meet a shared goal.        

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Testimonial: The homepage of the Libraries website serves as our public face in the virtual world, representing our organization and our resources to users both near and far. For many people, our homepage serves their primary or sole entryway to the Libraries collections and services.

As the committee members embarked on the project to create a new homepage that would be more clearly organized, user-friendly, and aesthetically attractive, they began by identifying both weaknesses and strengths of the current homepage design. They conducted a public survey online in order to solicit input and feedback regarding the Libraries homepage. They investigated website usage statistics
to analyze how users interact with our homepage. They conducted
"card sort" tests with several students, faculty members, and library staff to help determine what information and resources visitors to our homepage regard as most essential.

The group members also explored and evaluated many other
websites -- both of libraries and other organizations -- to assess current trends and best practices in website design, along with reviewing current scholarly literature on the topic. Through these steps, the committee established the priorities for the new homepage and how it should be organized.

The group members worked closely together to develop several different prototype versions of a new homepage, utilizing various
page layouts and color schemes and graphics. The committee then gathered feedback and suggestions on the new designs by
conducting usability testing with students and faculty, along with holding open sessions with library staff.

After making improvements and enhancements to the final design,
the group launched the new homepage on August 3, 2011. The Libraries’ redesigned homepage offers several new or retooled features. A tabbed search box simplifies access to the UGA Libraries’ resources. The default “Multi-Search” provides access to more than 90 GALILEO databases and the GIL library catalog. Real-time reference help is available via the chat box on the home page. A "Popular Links" section highlights frequently sought resources and information. A mobile version of the site also is available to those
using a smart phone to access the home page. It provides easy access to the GIL catalog, hours, directions, special collections and more.

Throughout this project, the committee members achieved a productive collaboration to create a new homepage with improved appearance, better organization, and enhanced functionality in order to serve our patrons more effectively.

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Testimonial: While other libraries have departments or units
dedicated to the library web presence, the UGA Libraries have Deborah, Amy, and WAG! In addition to overseeing a beautiful new homepage, Deborah and members of WAG launched the SCLB site, redesigned the Hargrett site, ramped up social media on behalf of the Libraries and conducted usability testing,  all while conducting the "usual" business of WAG: keeping statistics and evaluating usage of the Libraries' website, creating and updating webpages as needed, answering and routing patron questions that come through the website, the blog, facebook, and twitter to the appropriate person or resource, discussing new web technologies and their potential use
for the UGA Libraries. The work of WAG is often overlooked, but this amazing team accomplishes an extraordinary amount of work, given that much of WAG's work falls outside their daily duties.