FROM MONTHS TO MILLISECONDS

Book Ordering at Woodruff Library Takes a Great Leap Forward

Four...three...two...one...zero! At 2:10 p.m. on July 1, 2003, Interim Library Director Elaine Sloan made Woodruff Library history by sending out the first-ever electronic book order from the Library. A crowd of staffers from every department of the Library was on hand to salute the occasion with New Years blow-outs, noisemakers and glasses of bubbly.

The book order (Museum of the Mind, by John Mack) sped in a split second from Library Acquisitions to Blackwell's, the Library's primary book vendor. This was the crowning moment of a complete ground-up redesign of the Library's book ordering process. Our aim was to make it faster, more accurate, and above all more responsive to the needs of our faculty and students.

In the past, orders had to be submitted in print, and then keyed, one by one, into the Library's online system. The resulting orders would then be printed and sent by mail to the book vendor. Given the thousands of books ordered by the Library, this was a very laborious and time-consuming process. In today's fast-paced publishing environment, some books would no longer be available by the time the order was sent. Now, with a click of the mouse, the Library's book selectors can request books electronically, using Blackwell's Collection Manager software. Acquisitions, in turn, can send their orders, no matter how large, in a matter of seconds.

Electronic ordering is just one facet of a complete strategic redesign of the Library taking place under the leadership of Dr. Elaine Sloan. Atlanta University Center's presidents, administrators, faculty, students and Library staff are all involved in envisioning AUC's library of the future, and in bringing that vision to life. New equipment, new resources, faster service, and a new Web site are just some of the dramatic changes in store for AUC students and faculty in the year ahead.