Bishop Grosseteste University

Update your library workflows to meet user needs

"We liked the fact that WorldShare Management Services is a modern and evolving staff-facing system but with a Web interface that would feel familiar to students. At the same time, we wanted to modernize and improve the student experience."

Emma Sansby
Head of Library Services, Bishop Grosseteste University

Libraries are faced with scarce resources, changing user needs and increasingly diverse collections and systems. Therefore, libraries need to modernize and adapt in order to answer these developing challenges. With the help of WorldShare^® Management Services (WMS), libraries can now experience cost savings and increased workflow efficiency and offer more value to their users by sharing work with other libraries.

The librarians at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) were looking to save time and modernize their workflows to continue to meet changing user needs with their increasingly diverse collections. The library staff saw an opportunity with WMS. They saw that it would allow them to do just that and increase student satisfaction levels.

The implementation project started in 2012, and staff members from both BGU and OCLC took part in fortnightly conference calls to review progress on activities such as data preparation, configuration refinements and library staff training.

Deployment of the system involved only two days of system downtime in June 2013, when data was in transit, causing no operational difficulties. Following this, a number of data checks were performed. "It was a very smooth and straightforward process," recalled Emma Sansby, Head of Library Services at Bishop Grosseteste University. "The disruption was minimal."

"WMS brought the efficiencies of cloud-based computing; we will benefit not only from OCLC's regular upgrades but also from the innovations that libraries around the world develop and share. That really appeals to us."

At the same time, the university also implemented OCLC's WorldCat^® Discovery as the student-facing discovery layer for WMS. This offered unified access to print and electronic resources, delivering a one-stop shop to students. "By improving the student's search results, we hoped to increase levels of student satisfaction with the library as a whole," said Emma.

Initial response to WMS and WorldCat Discovery from BGU's students and staff has been positive. Students were pleased with the more modern, easy-to-use search interface. Efficiency savings were also evident as a result of the implementation. Eighteen months on from launching WMS at BGU, the library staff remains happy with the choice they made.