It is important to consider what the users want. Users want what we they need when they need it. Therefore, they want the journals, books, databases, etc. that they need when they need it. This means the libraries need to still continue building a core of literature. The rest must be rapidly available to users. This means that we need speedy ILL, document delivery, and good stack reshelving and maintenance. At the same time, selectors need to have time for collection evaluation. It will be hard to reduce significant amounts of time from the collection-building process unless we have an approval plan that covers more European imprints. We still have to order too much material rather than see it on the approval shelves.
Integrated service points work best in the branches, because staff size requires it. Larger units cover more disciplines and often subject-related reference questions require special expertise that the whole reference staff does not have. Referrals are fine if the subject specialists are available, but the load is distributed unequally because some subjects have more difficult literature. A single service in Hayden would not work because Humanities scholarship is so different from the sciences.
Integrated Service Points:
This is something that may not work in all libraries, due to problems with physical layout of different libraries.
If this is a goal, and it seems to me that it could work, with careful planning, then time and money need to be spent considering how to redesign the libraries so that there will be a single service point that works well for both patrons and staff.
Determining how the desk will be staffed should be left to each individual library, so that the best reference hours, information hours, etc. would be a response to the patrons served by that library. What works for a Barker patron might not work for a Sloan school patron.
Design of study space:
Attention should be paid to the needs of undergrads versus grads where study space and student lockers are concerned.
Would it be possible to have private study rooms that could be booked for group study? I worked in a law school library that had several, and it worked rather well.
There may be some libraries where an integrated service point just won't work. Think of it as a platonic ideal, not as something that has to be done everywhere.
Self-service circulation system:
A noble ideal. Think platonic ideal. And please, please, not GEAC.
It would be nice to buy something off the shelf that worked perfectly, but I'm afraid that doesn't exist in this world. Maybe in an alternate universe.
Again, time and money. Buy something that can be adapted to the MIT Libraries' quirks. Something that would work well with circulating collections, but prevent patrons checking out reference books or reserve items on term loan. (I work a circ. desk. Every fall, I get patrons wanting to do this.)
A system that is easy to use, and that won't cause so much frustration that patrons walk out of the library with books that aren't checked out, or that haven't been checked out properly.
Are there academic libraries in the Boston area that have systems like this, and wouldn't mind MIT staff people coming to look at them?
I think circ. people, support staff people, should do this. And if it means traveling out of the Boston area on an overnight trip, I think the libraries should support it.
Well, that's my two cents. Enjoy!!!