Brief ILL outage Thu 5/29 10pm

The NHAIS ILL System will be offline briefly starting at 10 o'clock tonight (Thursday, May 29). This interruption is for a software update which should affect only behind-the-scenes functions.

CD van change 5/27

Next week on Tuesday, May 27 we will deliver to the Capital District route instead of on Wednesday.
The libraries that will receive delivery on Tuesday, May 27 instead of May 28 are:

NHTI
Hopkinton
Dunbarton
Bow
Hooksett
Allenstown
Pembroke
Chichester,
Loudon
Canterbury
Boscawen

Have a great weekend.

Best,
Jill M Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library

No NC van Wed 5/21

Please forgive my late notice. Our north country driver needed to take the day off unexpectedly.
The following libraries will not receive delivery today [Wednesday, May 21]:

Plymouth
Rumney
Wentworth
Warren
Orford
Piermont
Haverhill
North Haverhill
Woodsville
Bath
Lisbon
Littleton
Bethlehem

Sincerely,
Jill Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library

No NC van Fri 5/16

Unfortunately the North Country van route for today Friday, May 16, 2025 is cancelled due to van repairs.
The affected libraries are:

Center Sandwich
Tamworth
Chocorua
Conway
North Conway
Jackson
Bethlehem
Littleton

Best,
Jill M Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library

No NC van Thu 5/15

Heather had to cancel today’s North Country van route, unfortunately [Thursday, May 15]. She has to get work done on her van, so in anticipation of that, she made up her once-a-week stops in advance. She will be back on the road tomorrow.

Charles Shipman
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
New Hampshire State Library

Days to Respond

A recent software update in the NHAIS ILL System changed the way days are counted when determining how long a request can remain unanswered at a library before it automatically moves on to another potential lender. The day a request first appears as Pending at a location, whether first thing in the morning or late at night, now counts as Day 0 rather than Day 1. To compensate, the Days to Respond setting in the Participant Record has been changed for all libraries from 4 to 3 to maintain previous behavior. In effect, a request will still wait for a response 3 full days and a fraction of a 4th day. The settings change is now reflected in a 2022 blog post explaining the Participant Record.

ILL fixes and enhancements Tue 5/13 10pm

The NHAIS ILL System will be offline briefly tonight (Tuesday, May 13) starting at 10 o'clock to allow installation of program updates.

In results from the new Borrower Requests and Lender Requests searches (under Staff Dashboard > ILL Admin), on some screens the edit icon may require a horizontal scroll in order to be visible on the far right of the screen. To enable easy access to request details, the title (on the left) will now display as a clickable link to open the full request record. This restores the functionality of the previous request searches.

Two of the reports under Staff Dashboard > Statistics > Reports (new) are being updated. Lender Response Requests and Filled Borrowing Requests will now show the system (NHAIS), library ID (HSA code), and trading partner (town/library name) in separate columns. Currently, the system name and town/library name (e.g., NHAIS - Concord - NHSL) appear in a single column.

The rest of tonight's changes affect only libraries that offer patron-initiated requesting.

Limits can be set in the system to prevent patrons from placing more than the allowed number of requests. Prior to tonight's update, requests in Awaiting Lenders status (used while the lender list is built) did not count toward the ILL Request Limit and did not display to patrons in their Items From Other Libraries list. With this release, requests in Awaiting Lenders will count toward the ILL Request Limit and will show in the patron’s Items From Other Libraries list with a default message of “This request is processing.” This change will prevent patrons from circumventing the ILL Request Limit by placing several requests in quick succession while the lender lists are being built.

Also, requests in Pending Cancel status were not displayed when patrons viewed their Items From Other Libraries in their account but were counted as active. That could prevent additional requests based on the patron’s ILL Request Limit. Requests in Pending Cancel will now display. Statuses considered active were reviewed and made consistent across different configuration types to correct reports of ILL limits not behaving as expected.

Returning Book Bags and Reads to Go bags

I have noticed twice today [Thursday, May 8] that we had bags being retuned to us that were not labeled correctly. What I mean by that is that two bags came back to NHSL, and they still had the routing slips saying the name of the towns/library on the top part of the slip.

We have many hands that help us put away the material that comes in from the vans in the afternoon. I think we had one bag make two trips to a library before we caught it. 

Please fold down the name of your library on your returning bags.

I have  also seen some bags that come through not labeled properly. If you are a library that receives deliveries via another library, those bags (and books) need to be labeled as to where they are being delivered to. For instance: To Alstead for Acworth.

If the label reads To: Acworth, most of the drivers don’t know where it goes, and if it’s a small library that only receives one delivery a week and it could have delivered the same day, but because the label wasn’t clear as to where it was going it comes back to NHSL and sits here until it’s time to go on the van again.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to either contact me or someone at the Circulation desk.

Best,
Jill M Witham
Van Service Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
603 271-2206
Jill.m.witham@dncr.nh.gov

Moose plate grants

Hello, folks.  I’m writing to let you know that the state library is accepting Letters of Intent for Moose Plate grants aimed at preserving historical documents.  Libraries are absolutely eligible to apply.  Please also share with your town clerk!

A few specifics:

The documents in question should be of historical significance specifically to New Hampshire, or a New Hampshire community.  So for example, a diary of a town resident from the 1820s would be eligible. A diary from someone who never stepped foot in New Hampshire would not be.

The documents must be publicly owned.  That is, they should be the property of a municipality, public library, college or other public institution.  However, the documents may be housed in, say, a town historical society, as long as the documents are publicly accessible and the property of the town.

The maximum grant amount is $10,000.

The deadline for submitting a Letter of Intent is May 16, and grant applications will be due June 23.  The letter should briefly describe the documents to be treated, where the documents are currently kept, and who owns the documents.  It does not need to be detailed, a single page should suffice.  Should the letter be accepted, I will provide further documentation on how to complete your grant application.

For more information, visit Moose Plate Grant Program | NH State Library.  And I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about the grant process.

Charles Shipman
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
New Hampshire State Library
20 Park St.
Concord, NH 03301
603-271-3302
Charles.A.Shipman@dncr.nh.gov
dncr.nh.gov