Back in Circulation Again 2024

In the quickly changing landscape of equipment lending, I will be exploring how our library has experimented with our equipment lending program in the last 3 years, with changes to the equipment checkout software we use, the policies we enforce, and the ways we train student workers and staff. Changes to our equipment lending software have moved us from having equipment managed by individual departments or available through the library’s management system (spreadsheet-based tracking and Alma), to software that specializes in calendars and library of things lending (Springshare’s LibCal), and now to software that is built specifically for equipment lending (WebCheckout). Policy adjustments have included how we handle late returns, the length of reservations, how far in advance people can make reservations, renewal periods, and restrictions on who can check out certain materials. With these changes, we adjusted our student worker model as well—from having student workers in a variety of departments handle different equipment, to having it be managed by the access services student workers, before transitioning to having a dedicated pool of student workers. While there are pros and cons to each of these lending methods, I will discuss why we have chosen to make specific changes, why we have made so many changes to the program in such a short period, the challenges this has presented, and take a look forward at what we anticipate for the future along with how this can apply to other institutions.