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By Jean Cleveland
jclevela@uga.edu
A colleague of Claire Colombo’s once remarked, “If the library had a cat, circulation would e mpty the litter box.” The statement was not a commentary on the squalid nature of the circulation department itself, but rather a reflection on the catch-all nature of its responsibilities.
Head of the circulation department at the UGA Libraries since 1981, Colombo is accountable for an assortment of operations and personnel, from checking books in and out to facilities security. Recently she has been a part of the team implementing a new circulation and catalog system and was one of three people who directed a $4 million renovation of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in the original portion of the main library.
“Circulation in large academic libraries winds up with areas that maybe don’t make a lot of sense, but don’t fit anywhere else,” Colombo says.
In addition to the public service points of the circulation and reserves desks and the circulation office, a primary responsibility for Colombo’s department is maintaining the stacks, which is handled by the shelving supervisor with three full-time employees, three half-time employees and an army of students. They also move materials to and from an off-site repository.
“All of this plays into how easy it is to find materials--that they are in the right place and easy to get to,” Colombo explains. “Until people have been some place else they take this for granted. Going other places helps put this in perspective and the job we do keeping the collection accessible. We take a lot of pride in that.”
Colombo, who began working at the UGA Libraries in an entry-level circulation position and earned her master’s in library science from Emory while working full time, was heavily involved in the implementation of GIL, the Web-based catalog and circulation system which will be phased in statewide over three years. When complete, it will allow faculty, staff and students of any University System library to view catalogs and request materials from any other library in the system.
“Technology is changing what circulation does,” Colombo says. “It is allowing the patron to take more responsibility for materials. Patron-initiated services will really change not only what circulation does, but how people use the library. I know people have gotten frustrated with the system and with us because it’s not what they are used to, but overall the response has been very positive. I had a student the other day tell me it really rocks.”
Colombo also is on a committee of three spearheading the HVAC renovation in the original portion of the main library, which was opened in the early 1950s. The project was estimated to take three to four years, but the contractor was on-site less than one and one-half years.
“There were certain parameters we set when the decision was made to go ahead with the project: we would not interrupt any services if we could help it and we would try to ensure all materials would be accessible to the public,” Colombo says. “We were able to accomplish this because all three units--the contractor, physical plant and the libraries staff--worked together as a team.”
The logistics were daunting, especially for the person responsible for the accessibility and security of library materials. “We were faced with moving almost the entire collection of Government Documents out of the building and keeping that material accessible. In addition, materials from Hargrett [Rare Book and Manuscript Library] had to be moved to a secure area,” Colombo says. “We had to figure out how to handle that volume of material, how to provide access, how we could easily keep a fence around it so when it came time to bring it back we would know what needed to come back. And we had to maintain day-to-day operations.”
Colombo has already moved on to her next challenge--implementation of “universal borrowing” amongst the University System institutions.
“Under the governor’s initiative, all 34 University System of Georgia Libraries are moving to GIL and a union catalog of all the libraries,” Colombo says. “What we envision really didn’t exist in the way we’re thinking about it so UGA, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are working with the vendor to develop the system. We hope to test it this fall.”
The catch-all nature of circulation suits Colombo. Or, as she puts it, “I have the attention span of a gnat.”
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