2022 - 2023
Palo Alto City Library
Palo Alto Automated Materials Handling and Self-Check Consultation for Palo Alto City Library
In 2014, the Library implemented their first automated materials handling systems at their two busiest branches.
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Projects
2020-2022
Cleveland Public Library
Cleveland Public Library AMH Consultation
Assisting Library with planning of new central support services center that will include central sorting. The engagement includes evaluating current workflows related to delivery of CPL material as well as sorting and distribution of material between Library and CLEVNET, a resource-sharing consortium, helping the Library plan for automating central sorting of CPL and CLEVNET material, procuring the new system and supporting them during implemention.
July, 2020 - 2021
MARINet
RFID Consultant
The MARINet consortium is composed of nine multitype libraries in Marin County. They have decided to move forward as a consortium to implement RFID. Lori Ayre is on retainer to support this process.
2016-2018
Faith in the City
"Faith in the City" Digital Mapping Project
"Faith in the City: Chicago's Religious Diversity in the Era of the World's Fair" [Note: the exhibit is currently offline while The Newberry re-organizes their digital exhibits.] is a digital humanities project focused on religious movements and figures in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The project, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Newberry Library, displays hundreds of historical points as well as essays from over a dozen prominent scholars related to the theme. The map technology allows visitors to toggle between a custom-generated modern map layer of Chicago and a georeferenced panoramic map from the 1890s, seeing how neighborhoods and the city itself have changed in the past 120 years.
2017-2018
Stark County District Library
Library Materials Handling Strategy Analysis
Stark County District Library was pursuing a series of initiatives to minimize redundancy in materials handling practices and reduce the time staff spend in the back office so they can spend more time out in the library engaging with customers in a variety of ways. The Library’s strategic vision included a dramatic reduction of materials handling activities in each branch and the elimination of service desks. Instead of working behind desks, the expectation is that staff will work with patrons side-by-side in the branches and spend more time delivering high-quality programming inside and outside of the library buildings. In order to achieve this vision, the Library explored a “pure central processing” strategy in which material is returned at each library location but only checked in at a central sorter. This workflow would be supported by two times daily delivery service. The expectation is that this approach would result in material check-in within a four hour window, physical delivery turnaround times of no more than 36 hours and a traditional “bookdrop” workflow for patrons. The Library sought consulting assistance to analyze the “pure central processing” strategy and to identify critical elements of a materials handling strategy that would allow the Library to achieve their strategic vision.
2018
Barrie Public Library
Library Materials Handling Consultation, Team Building and Leadership Development Workshops
The Barrie Public Library is a two branch system based in Barrie, Ontario. The Library serves one of the fastest growing communities in Canada and the Library expects to grow to a six branch system by 2031, with the first two branches proposed for 2022 and 2024. The Library seeks assistance in achieving higher levels of service performance and increasing efficiencies especially in the area of holds process, sorting, and delivery.
The scope of work with The Galecia Group includes a combination of materials handling analysis and recommendations provided by Lori Ayre along with change management, team building and leadership development workshops delivered by Cheryl Gould.
2018
NorthNet Library Systems
Library Resource-Sharing and Physical Delivery Consultation
NorthNet Library System was seeking assistance evaluating their physical delivery options for libraries interested in joining the Link+ resource-sharing network. Link+ is a very popular resource sharing network that is composed of a software component (INN-Reach by Innovative Interfaces) and physical delivery of items (provided by Tricor).
The goal of the engagement is to develop a solution for fairly distributing the total cost of Link+ between existing Link+ libraries and the new ones so that no current library pays more than their current costs and to develop a delivery model for getting items where they need to be in an acceptable time frame.
2016-2017
San Mateo Public Library
Library Automated Materials Handling Consultation and Procurement
Worked with San Mateo Public Library to replace the existing automated materials handling system with a state-of-the-art system. Project involved consultation related to RFID and automated materials handling configuration options and includes development of RFP, guiding the library through the procurement process and assisting with selection of a new system.
The existing system was installed in 2006 and provides convenient patron returns from numerous locations including drive-up returns, outside walk-up returns and two inside returns. The project will include evaluating options for retaining some of the conveyance and only upgrading the sorter as well as full-scale replacement of all components. Ayre worked closely with the team to develop specifications for the new system and guided them through the procurement process. The new system has been successfully implemented and is now up and running.
2017
The Newberry Library, AHCB Website
Website Development - Atlas of Historical County Borders
Historians and genealogists searching for historical records can often be challenged by geographical changes over time. As county and state borders have shifted throughout US history, locating physical records can be tricky. Over
2016 - 2017
NC Cardinal
Library Consortium Environmental and Organizational Assessment and Strategic Planning Consultation
The Galecia Group has been working with NC Cardinal since May 2016. NC Cardinal is a consortium in North Carolina which provides a shared Evergreen system for 31 library systems across the state. The engagement includes:
- assessing existing services and operations
- identifying emerging needs and aspirations of shareholders, and
- creating a 5-year strategic plan to grow the system, enhance the services, and define a sustainable funding model
The final deliverable was a recommendations document and a planning document that was developed during a one-day workshop with the NC Cardinal Board. It included a calendar of prioritized activities to pursue over the next 3-5 years with assigned owners for each activity.
This engagement was led by Lori Bowen Ayre with Galecia Associates Lucien Kress and Sam McBane Mulford.