North Country Van Route Update

We continue to refine and improve our plan to continue service to libraries who receive inter-library loan delivery through North Country routes. Please see below for a list of current hub libraries and our suggestions about where libraries can drop off. If your library would prefer to use a different hub, that is fine, please just let us know so that we are sure we get the bin to the right location. Please note, there are a few changes from last week. 

I want to acknowledge that this is no one’s preferred method of operation. I also want to thank you for your patience as we’ve been building the plane while flying the plane. I’d like to share some factors and facts with all of you so that you can understand what we are doing and why:

1. The usual North Country routes driver lives in the area. This means that many days during the week she can start or end her day near the libraries in Coos, Carroll, and Grafton Counties. When we have a substitute van driver, that person starts and ends the day in Concord.

2. In the past, we have had a roster of five circulation/reference staff members who, under “other duties as assigned”, were able to fill in on routes when drivers took vacation or were out for medical reasons. Today we have a roster of three— Diana, me, and one substitute driver. Additionally, when Diana drives, that requires us to find people who can fill in for her at the circulation desk that day. Sometimes that is not achievable.

3. At this time, we do not know how long we will have to operate like this. I acknowledge that is its own difficulty, and I am sorry for that.

4. The North Country routes, while the most affected, are not the only inter-library loan routes affected lately. Libraries in the southwest corner of the state have also recently dealt with multiple cancelled routes and reduced deliveries for several weeks while we sought to hire a new driver. A director on the seacoast is making the trip to Concord tomorrow to drop off and pick up bins for three libraries because their usual driver is on vacation. 

5. I am deeply appreciative of the work and effort that Diana and Jen have put into this plan. However, these decisions are mine and mine alone. Please direct any questions, comments, or concerns directly to me. 

6. I would like to propose that for two weeks we all give this plan a chance to work. Then, on 7/29, I will make myself available via Zoom to take your collective feedback, ideas for improvement and virtual rotten vegetables. 

With thanks,
Mindy

Mindy Atwood
Administrator of Library Operations :: Assistant State Librarian
New Hampshire State Library 
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
20 Park Street :: Concord, NH  03301
603-271-2393 (w) :: 603-573-6402 (m)
mindy.atwood@dncr.nh.gov
nhsl.dncr.nh.gov

ILL Van routes for the week of 7/13/2026

Here is a summary of what the ILL van routes look like for this week:

Monday, 7/13 (yesterday) – SE-B route was cancelled.  The driver did the Capital delivery route instead. 
[As mentioned in an email last week, starting 7/13, and The SE-B route will remain cancelled until further notice, as for the time being that driver has been reassigned to the Capital route. The Capital District route libraries will receive delivery on Mondays.]

Tuesday, 7/14 – SE-C route cancelled (Driver on a much-needed vacation). Affected libraries: Deerfield, Nottingham, Epping, Newmarket, Stratham, Greenland, Hampton, Hampton Falls, Seabrook, Kensington, East Kingston, Exeter

Wednesday, 7/15 – SE route cancelled (Driver on vacation). Affected libraries: Northwood, Center Strafford, Barrington, Rochester, Somersworth, Dover, Madbury, Lee, Durham, Portsmouth, New Castle, Rye, North Hampton

Thursday, 7/16 – SE-B route cancelled (Driver on vacation). Affected libraries: Auburn, Windham, Pelham, Salem, Derry, Londonderry, Hudson, Nashua, Milford, Amherst, Merrimack, Bedford, Manchester.

NOTE: The regular NC routes are suspended until further notice.  Instead:

Thursday, 7/16 – TWO NC Hub Routes will run. Details to be sent out in a future email.

Friday, 7/17 - A NC Hub Route will run. Details will be sent out in a future email.

Thank you.  Please send any questions to nhslill@dncr.nh.gov 

Jennifer M. Finch (she/her)
Supervisor, Reference & Information Services and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources

No SE-B Van Mon, 7/13

The SE-B ILL Van route had to be cancelled today.  My deepest apologies for the late notice.
Affected libraries are as follows:

Salem
Derry
Nashua
Milford
Amherst
Merrimack
Bedford
Manchester
Hooksett

Please bear with us, thank you!
Jen

Jennifer M. Finch (she/her)
Supervisor, Reference & Information Services and State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library

Sorting fix and request form enhancement coming Thu 7/9 10pm

The NHAIS ILL System will be offline briefly starting at 10 o'clock tonight (Thursday, July 9) to allow installation of program updates.

With tonight's update, locations listed in the Where To Find It area will once again be sorted by town/library name rather than HSA code. 

On the request form, some lines (including ISBN and ISSN) have 3 fields and these fields are blank if the source record has no relevant information. These fields will now show placeholder text, illustrating the expected input for more intuitive entry by users.

This will likely be most useful when requesting journal articles, where you're currently faced with lines like this on the request form: 

 

Public Access to 1.2 Million Historic Government Records Dating Back to 1895

 The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has launched public access to more than 1.2 million newly available records of historic U.S. Government publications, making it easier than ever to find documents published between 1895 and 1976. The records are now live in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and are available to the public at no cost. This launch improves search and discovery and opens the door to decades of Government publications that were previously difficult to locate online.

“Making these 1.2 million records available is an investment in the future of public access to Government information,” said GPO Superintendent of Documents Scott Matheson. “Researchers, students, librarians, and the public can now more easily find and use historic Government publications, and we look forward to seeing how the library community puts these records to work.”

Historic highlights from this launch include:
1.    Hearings on the causes of the Titanic disaster, 1912
2.    “Plant a Victory Garden, Our Food is Fighting” World War II poster urging Americans to grow their own food to support the war effort, 1943
3.    Hearings on the Apollo 13 accident, 1970
 

The new records come from the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, often called “MoCat.” They were converted from the print catalogs to a searchable form and freely licensed to the public by Proquest, part of Clarivate. For many years, MoCat served as the official list of publications produced by GPO. Published from 1895 through 2004, it helped libraries and the public track Government publications. After MoCat ended, the CGP became the primary tool for finding Government publications. While newer publications have long been searchable online, many older publications had limited or no digital records.

No SW-B (7/8) and SE-A (7/9) Van Deliveries

Due to staffing shortages today’s SW-B and tomorrow’s SE-A van routes are cancelled. The affected libraries are: 

Wednesday SW-B
•    Nelson
•    Alstead
•    Westmoreland
•    Chesterfield
•    Winchester
•    Richmond
•    Fitzwilliam
•    Rindge
•    Jaffrey
•    Hancock

Thursday SE-A
•    Nottingham 
•    Stratham
•    Greenland
•    Hampton
•    Seabrook
•    Exeter
•    Brentwood
•    Fremont
•    Kingston
•    East Kingston
•    Atkinson
•    Hampstead

Thank you, 

Circulation
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
New Hampshire State Library
20 Park Street
Concord, New Hampshire 03301
603-271-2616
nhslill@dncr.nh.gov
dncr.nh.gov

Van route updates and information

There will be no Capitol District route this week. Starting 7/13, and until further notice, the Capitol District route libraries will receive delivery on Mondays until further notice. If you would like to come to the State Library to pick up your bin, we are open Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM. You can call 603-271-2616 if you would like to give us a heads up that you’re on the way, but it’s not required.

Also, until further notice, we will be running two North Country “hub-style” make up routes. Please see below for the details on those routes, and thank you to the libraries that have agreed to be pick-up/drop-off locations. 

North Country Hub Route #1- Thursdays

o    Drop your bins off at any of those hub libraries to simply return your ILL materials.  
o    IF YOU ALSO WANT TO PICK UP YOUR REQUESTED ILL MATERIALS, please email  nhslill@dncr.nh.gov to tell us which hub library to leave your bin by 2:00 pm July 8. Moving forward, we will plan on dropping off your bin at the hub library “of record” until we hear otherwise. 

Colebrook 126 Main Street, Colebrook, NH 
o    Monday, Wednesday, Friday- 10 AM to 1 PM
o    Tuesday 10 AM to 1 PM
o    Thursday 1 PM to 5PM
o    Saturday 9 to 12

Lancaster- Weeks Memorial Library 128 Main Street, Lancaster, NH
o    Monday: 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM & 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
o    Tuesday: 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM
o    Wednesday: 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM & 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
o    Thursday: 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM
o    Friday: 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM
o    Saturday: 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
o    Sunday: Closed

Whitefield- 8 Lancaster Road, Whitefield, NH
o    Monday 9:00 - 12:00 pm
o    Tuesday  10:00 am – 06:00 pm
o    Wednesday 09:00 am – 04:00 pm
o    Thursday 10:00 am – 06:00 pm
o    Friday 10:00 am – 01:00 pm
o    Saturday 9:00 am – 01:00 pm
o    Sunday Closed

Bethlehem- 2245 Main Street, Bethlehem, NH
o    Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
o    Tuesday, 10 AM to 4 PM 
o    Friday, 10 AM to 4 PM
o    Saturday 9 AM to 1 PM
o    Sunday- Closed
Note: Laura Clerkin has kindly said that if a library needs to drop off outside of open hours, libraries may contact her directly at lclerkin@bethlehemnhlibrary.gov to make arrangements. 

Lincoln
o    Monday - Friday: 10 AM to 8 PM 
o    Saturday: 10 AM to 2 PM 
o    Sunday: closed 

Plymouth 1 Russell Street, Plymouth, NH 
o    Monday-Wednesday 10 AM to 8 PM
o    Thursday and Friday 10 AM to 5 PM
o    Saturday 10 AM to 2PM
o    Sunday- Closed

North Country Hub Route #2- Friday

o    Drop your bins off at any of those hub libraries to simply return your ILL materials.  
o    IF YOU ALSO WANT TO PICK UP YOUR REQUESTED ILL MATERIALS, please email nhslill@dncr.nh.gov to tell us which hub library to tell us at which hub library to leave your bin by July 9 at 2:00 pm.

Moosilauke Public Library -- 165 Lost River Road, North Woodstock, NH 03262
o    Monday     9:00am to 7:00pm
o    Tuesday    10:00am to 2:00pm
o    Thursday   9:00am to 7:00pm
o    Friday     9:00am to 5:00pm
o    Saturday   9:00am to 5:00pm

Conway Public Library -- 15 Greenwood Ave, Conway, NH 03818-2100
o    Mon - Thu - 9am-8pm
o    Fri – 10:30am-5pm *delayed opening the last Friday of every month (10:30am)
o    Sat - 9am-1pm
o    Sun - Closed

White Mountains Community College Fortier Library -- 2020 Riverside Drive, Berlin, NH 03570
o    Monday- Friday 8 AM- 3:30 PM
o    NOTE: The Fortier Library is at the far end of a hall. They have a cart you can borrow to get your bin(s) to the library more easily, but you’ll need to either call them to let them know you are coming or go into the library first to get it. The library’s phone number is 603-342-3087.

Littleton Public Library – 92 Main Street, Littleton, NH 03561
•    Monday- Closed
•    Tuesday- 9:30 AM- 7PM
•    Wednesday- 9:30 AM- 7PM
•    Thursday- 9:30 AM- 5PM
•    Friday- 9:30 AM – 5PM
•    Saturday- 9:30 – 2 PM

We appreciate your patience, welcome your feedback and will continue to tweak the plan according with the new information we gather. 

Mindy Atwood
Administrator of Library Operations :: Assistant State Librarian
New Hampshire State Library 
N.H. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources
20 Park Street :: Concord, NH  03301
603-271-2393 (w) :: 603-573-6402 (m)
mindy.atwood@dncr.nh.gov
nhsl.dncr.nh.gov

No NC van Mon 7/6

It appears the team of three who is juggling the duties of the ILL van coordinator may have dropped the ball regarding notification of the cancelation of today’s North Country route [Monday, July 6]. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience. The affected libraries are:

Conway
Madison
Chocorua
Tamworth
Center Sandwich
Plymouth
Campton
Thornton
Lincoln
North Woodstock
Franconia
Bethlehem

We are facing another week without a driver for the North Country routes and 1/3 of the “ILL Vanguard” as we’ve taken to calling ourselves, is on vacation. We are also without our substitute van driver. I will drive some kind of make-up route on Thursday. Details will be forthcoming. 

Thank you for your continued patience,
Mindy Atwood
Administrator of Library Operations :: Assistant State Librarian
New Hampshire State Library  

New MARC record source

NHAIS libraries now have access to a new source of MARC records. MARCit from Auto-Graphics lets you search millions of bibliographic records from a number of sources and download selected records for local use. If your ILS permits it, you can search MARCit as a Z39.50 target and pull records directly into your catalog. Alternatively, you can search inside the NHAIS ILL System interface and download records to a file that you later import into your catalog.

MARCit as a Z39.50 target in your ILS:

Server Address/Host/URL: marcit-service.auto-graphics.com
Port: 210
Database ID/Database Name: MARCITZIP
Syntax/Format: MARC21/USMARC
Username: MARCITZIPUSER
Password: call the NHAIS Help Desk at 603-271-2141 for the password

MARCit as a resource within the NHAIS ILL System:

This will work with any staff login but we strongly suggest using the "cat" username for MARCit searching and downloading. There are downsides to using "ill" or "all" usernames which are noted below. If you need to reset any of your NHAIS ILL System passwords, call the NHAIS Help Desk at 603-271-2141.

Click on the "stack o' pancakes" icon to the left of the search box. To search just MARCit, uncheck Library Catalogs and check Cataloging.

Search as usual and, on the detail screen, you'll see options in the left-hand menu to Download Record (for a single record) or Add to Download Cart (if you want to put multiple records in a single file--not available with username ending with "ill").

 

To see the Download Cart, go to Staff Dashboard > Cat Admin > View Download Cart. Select what you'd like with the check boxes next to titles, then click the Download button in the upper right.

Clicking on a title in the View Download Cart list displays full MARC info for that record. You can clear your Download Cart with the Empty the Cart button in the upper right.

Note that if you're searching MARCit with the username ending with "ill" or "all" you'll see the Request This Item button in your results. Using this will bring up the request form as usual and the ILL program will go through its usual routine to determine if New Hampshire lenders are available. If you're creating ILL requests, you should be searching with Library Catalogs checked rather than Cataloging so your results will be limited to what's held in Granite State libraries.

You can configure your "cat" login to search MARCit by default. Go to Your Account (top right of screen) > Your Favorite Resources, check Cataloging and uncheck Library Catalogs, then click the Save Resources button.

You can also opt to have the MARC Display at the top of the screen for your login. Go to Your Account > Your Preferences, change Default Full Record Tab to MARC Display, and click Save.

Note that MARCit is not curated. There's no attempt to deduplicate results or rate record quality. It's a large pool of MARC records available to you in a single search. Using the NHAIS ILL System interface allows you to take advantage of its facets, grouping, and sorting capabilities plus its ease of navigating from one record to the next but many catalogers will prefer the convenience of being able to draw records directly into the local catalog via Z39.50.

Need more help? Contact the NHAIS Help Desk via e-mail or at 603-271-2141.