Services: Client Services
Changes to staffing levels in 2009 have resulted in a merger of the Technology Services and Training and Development Departments. Together, the staffs from these departments now make up a new department called Client Services. Staff will continue to hold their same job titles and will for the most part continue doing the same things they did before the merger. The biggest changes will be that we will work more closely now and will have to prioritize our workloads differently as we are effectively striving for the same goal with fewer people.
Technology Services
The Technology Services Librarians and Network Administrators provide support both for the internal network at YRL headquarters and the member libraries on the YRL network, as well as the Integrated Library System (ILS). YRL has partnered with three other regional libraries (Northern Lights Library System, Peace Library System, and Marigold Library System) to have all their member libraries operate off the same ILS database. This partnership is called TRAC (The Regional Automation Consortium) and consists of 156 public library service points in the province that carry out their library operations (circulation, online public access catalogue) on the shared ILS database. The Client Services Department at YRL is the Central Site for the TRAC ILS and supports all elements of the hardware and network portions of maintaining the shared database. The TRAC consortium has nearly 3 million holdings and nearly 700,000 titles.
Training and Consulting Services
Yellowhead Regional Library employs professional librarians to provide for the training and consulting needs of member library staff.
The Client Services Librarians provide the following services:
- Plan and host Conferences
- Collection Development including evaluations, weeding, selection, development, and planning
- Consulting on specific questions or issues
- Information on current library issues
- Policy and Procedures
- Programming for all age groups
- School library evaluations
- Space Planning
- Training on Databases and Internet searching
- Workshops or seminars on library management skills
The following professional librarians have these training and development responsibilities:
Liz Forseth, Stephanie Thero
Desktop and Network Support
Libraries that chose to connect to the Supernet via Yellowhead Regional Library are eligible for a range of services to augment the base services, such as access to the Integrated Library System Software and the online catalogue. The network and desktop support services YRL offers are:
- Network connectivity / wireless hotspot connectivity
- Email services via Microsoft Exchange
- Domain and web site hosting
- Helpdesk services
- Application sharing via citrix
- First level Backup/ Disaster Recovery Services
- Hotspare equipment loan service
- Recommender Services
See our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for more information and answers to commonly asked questions.