In the last 365 days (March 2024 to March 2025) there have been 176,504 interlibrary loan requests filled by 243 libraries throughout the state. Those requests were made on behalf of patrons from 245 different NH libraries.
That comes out to 483 items shared among Granite State libraries each day.
I just heard from the north country driver, and she said the driving conditions are terrible [Monday, March 24]. She is calling it a day and ending her route at Franconia. She said she will try and make up the last few stops in the next few days.
Safe travels.
Best,
Jill M Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
The NHAIS ILL System will be offline briefly tonight (Thursday, March 20) to install program updates. The outage starts at 10 o'clock.
One bug is fixed with this release: the lender list build process will now be able to match publisher names that have a space within the first 5 characters (for example, W.W. Norton). The publisher name only comes into play in the process when there is no match on standard numbers (ISBN, LCCN, UPC, publisher number, OCLC number, ISSN).
As we continue together through this exciting adventure we call the Annual Public Library Survey, I’ve discovered something that I wanted to share.
Has this happened to you? You’ve made changes to your data and/or moved numbers around, but when you re-verified your survey, it stubbornly continued to throw red Edit Check Failure messages at you and be completely annoying?
If/when this happens:
• Log out of the survey.
• Go get a cup of your favorite beverage.
• Log back in.
• Re-verify your survey.
On the borrower side of the Request Manager screen, you may notice you have some requests in Expired status. You may further notice that the count sometimes goes up or down without your having made any changes. What's going on?
The NHAIS ILL System automatically changes requests in Unfilled, Cancelled, or Retry status to Expired when the need-by date passes. Requests still in Expired status after another 365 days will be automatically deleted (although statistical data will be retained).
If you'd like to give an Expired request another try, click on the title in the Borrower's Expired List so you can view the need-by date in the Borrower's Full Record Display. Change the need-by date to something in the future and choose Approved - Send. Before you click Submit, it may also be worthwhile to use the Rebuild Lender List function (but NEVER use Rebuild Lender List for a multi-copy request).
If you'd rather just make the Expired request go away, Delete is also an option. That will flag the request for deletion during overnight processing (again, stats associated with deleted requests are retained).
Need more help? The NHAIS Help Desk is here for you at 603-271-2141 or nhu-pac@dncr.nh.gov.
Due to driver illness the north country van route for today Thursday, March 13,2025 is cancelled.
The affected libraries are:
Whitefield
Lancaster
Groveton
Stratford
Colebrook
Errol
White Mountain Community College
Berlin
Gorham
Randolph
Jefferson
I’m sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
Sincerely,
Jill M Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
The North Country route for today Wednesday, March 12,2025 has been cancelled.
The following libraries that will NOT receive delivery today are:
Plymouth
Rumney
Wentworth
Warren
Orford
Piermont
Haverhill
North Haverhill
Woodsville
Bath
Lisbon
Littleton
Bethlehem
Sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
Sincerely,
Jill Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
Several libraries in the NHAIS ILL System allow patrons to create requests in the system, with staff approval required before those requests are sent to potential lenders. In the course of creating a cyber attack response plan recently, one library offering patron-initiated requesting asked the NHAIS Help Desk if an attack on their ILS could damage the ILL program through the SIP2 connection used to authenticate patrons. Here's the answer we got from Auto-Graphics:
"Yes, it’s an issue but most likely a low priority one. If we assume that the local catalog is attacked in a DOS [denial of service] fashion, that means patrons who want to initiate an ILL won’t be able to authenticate. It is true that SHAREit’s SIP2 client will use previously provided credentials to authenticate if the SIP2 server is unreachable so there’s some level of backup there. But if the attack is more about credential stuffing or identity stealing, attackers could leverage that for patron access to SHAREit. Patron access is limited though so the worst that could happen is a ton of items are requested."
SIP2 authentication through a local ILS applies only to libraries configured to offer patron-initiated requesting in the ILL program. Those libraries are reminded that they can set limits on how many requests a patron can submit.
Welcome to Week 5, the FINAL week of the Public Library Survey tour!
PLS DUE DATE: April 30, 2025
“The more I learn, the more I learn how much I have to learn.” – Charlie Brown
Please note: Although the tour is wrapping up today, you should continue to keep those questions coming in. The survey itself will be open until April 30, which gives you 8 more weeks to finish up. Need individual help to wrap up a few questions? Please shoot me an email (Jennifer.m.finch@dncr.nh.gov) or give me a call (603-271-2060) and we can arrange to chat or meet via Zoom.
Today we’ll be working on Sections 12 through 14, Staff and Digital Services.
The staffing questions ask for numbers that represent the hours worked in your library as a “snapshot in time”. Any library that has had turnover during the year may find it challenging to know how to complete this section. Since they are looking for a “snapshot in time”, even if you had turnover in your library during the year, you will only be reporting this information for one day; typically, the staffing on the last day of the year you are reporting on. For the purposes of the survey:
• Report the number of hours worked in a typical week. If you have employees who do not work a set number of hours per week, please use the number that you feel best represents the typical hours per week for those people.
• Include the hours for all funded positions for the library, whether they were filled on the last day of the year or not. You are reporting on all positions that were filled at that time and that you were authorized to fill.
• If there were staffing changes during the year that changed the number of hours worked in any category, use the more recent staffing schedule of hours for your numbers.
As in other sections, the totals for each category are grayed out and will change as you enter your local numbers.
Section 12.0 - Paid Staff (Full-Time Equivalent)
To provide comparable data, the IMLS has set 40 hours per week as the measure of full-time employment (FTE). For each staffing category that you report, the system will divide the number of hours entered by 40 to determine the number of FTE staff.
In this section, you will report the number of hours worked per week for staff in several categories:
• ALA-MLS Librarians – The total number of hours worked per week by all librarians holding an MLS degree from an ALA-accredited school.
• Non-ALA-MLS Librarians – The total number of hours worked per week by all librarians without an MLS degree. This would include the hours of anyone with the job title of Librarian, who does paid work requiring professional level skills and responsibilities.
• All Other Paid Employees – The total number of hours worked per week by all other staff who are not employed as professional librarians. This may include library support staff, technicians, pages, maintenance, security personnel, and others.
Section 13.0 - Staff Salary & Benefits
Please update the information for the year in question and be sure to report the data for each position only once. In cases of staff turnover for any position, respond using data from the person who held the position longest for the year.
• Position – For each full or part-time employee, select a position title from the dropdown list. The list was created to provide a standardized selection to avoid compound job titles and make the salary and benefits information more comparable across libraries. All librarians wear multiple hats and often job descriptions cover multiple roles but try to avoid using the “other” category. Instead choose the title that is the primary role for that person in your library. If your library is a one-person operation, select the title “Director/Head Librarian”. If someone is the Assistant Director, but serves in other roles as well, select the title “Assistant Director”.
• Education – For each full or part-time employee, select their highest degree from the dropdown list.
• Years in Position – Enter the number of years this individual has worked in this position in your library. If the person has worked at your library less than one year, you will need to leave this item blank. The system won’t allow us to enter a number smaller than 1 in this field.
• Hours Per Week – Enter the number of hours the person works in a typical week.
• Hourly Wage ($/hr) – Enter the hourly rate of pay for each employee rather than an annual salary so that we will have comparable numbers to transfer to the shared spreadsheet. Only an hourly rate of pay provides a meaningful comparison between libraries. For those who have avoided answering this question in the past, I encourage you to complete it this year by providing my own hourly pay rate here to you: $27.55.
• Min. and Max. Salary Range – Enter the salary range as it would appear on a job posting for that position.
• Number of Vacation Days – Enter the number of vacation days earned annually by the person in that position – not the total number of days that person has accrued.
• Benefits – Check all benefits that are included for each position regardless of whether the person currently in the position has selected to receive the benefit.
Section 14.0 - Digital
In this final (!) section, you will report the numbers related to computer use, Wi-Fi, and the like.
• Internet Computers Used by the General Public – The number of computers in your library (desktop & laptop) having internet access that were available to the public. Do not include computers that are restricted to a single, dedicated purpose such as an OPAC.
• Number of Uses (Sessions) of Public Internet Computers per Year – The total number of uses (sessions) of all the public computers having internet access for the year. If the computer is used for multiple purposes (Internet access, word-processing, OPAC, etc.) and Internet uses (sessions) cannot be isolated, report all usage. If an actual count is unavailable, an annual estimate is acceptable. To calculate an annual estimate, count the number of visits during an average week (not too busy, not too slow) and multiply it by 52.
• Wireless Sessions Per Year – The total number of wireless sessions provided by the library for the year. Each time a device connects to the library’s wireless network counts as one session. This number should be available from your internet service provider. If you do offer Wi-Fi connectivity in your library, but can’t get the number, use the response “Unavailable”. If you do not offer a way for people to connect to Wi-Fi in your library, your answer to this question should be zero.
• What ILS does your library use? – This is a prepopulated field based on information we have on your library. If your ILS has changed, please notify me so we can make the correction.
• Does the Library Charge Overdue Fines? – As of the last day of the year you are reporting on, did your library charge overdue fines to any users who failed to return physical print materials by the date due? Note: This does not refer to replacement costs for damaged or lost materials.
That’s it! If you have followed along with me, you are either finished with your survey, or you’re so close you can taste sweet, sweet victory. PLEASE let me know if you hit any sticky patches. I’m here to help! If you would like to go over anything with me that you have questions about, feel free to call or e-mail me to arrange a time where we can look at your survey together and you can get things finished up.
Thanks again for all your diligence in completing this important work. It will help all of us to demonstrate the value of New Hampshire libraries to our communities.
Warm regards,
Jen
Jennifer M. Finch, MSLIS
Reference Librarian and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
20 Park St.
Concord, NH 03301
Office: 603-271-2060
Ref Desk: 603-271-2144
Jennifer.M.Finch@dncr.nh.gov
