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CONNECTIONS: The VDOT Library E-Newsletter

Library Named VTRC 'Employee of the Year'

by Ken Winter on 2018-03-06T10:00:00-05:00 in VDOT Library | 0 Comments

Library staffers (left to right): Haddis Abebe, Gil Kenner, Barb Neyman, Becky Ernest and Ken Winter (with supervisor Dr. Amy O'leary).

Staffers (left to right): Haddis Abebe, Gil Kenner, Barb Neyman, Becky Ernest (supervisor Dr. Amy O'Leary), and Ken Winter.​


Members of the VDOT Research Library were collectively recognized as "Employee of the Year" by the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC) last month for implementing a new, publicly accessible Library Website.

 

Library staff shared the honor with Linda Cullop, IT Technology Specialist, who was also named an employee of the year for her outstanding desktop support of VTRC staffers.

 

Library staffers were honored "for excellence in productivity and customer service" with an emphasis on the results achieved from new Web Site. That site is powered by Springshare's LibGuides CMS, which dramatically improves the ability of library patrons to engage in "self service" and also helps library staff respond to customer support questions received via online forms, e-mail, live chat and even SMS text message...all of which are directed into an online customer service dashboard and ticketing system. 

 

Springshare has featured the VDOT Research Library as an example of how a "special library" can configure LibGuides as a "whole Website."  In fact, the library's new site is comprised of multiple elements and "modules." It has informational pages, an online library FAQ, and Research Guides to help customers with specific subjects, processes and resources, and an E-newsletter called Connections

 

In addition to the main site library created a separate Website called the "Staff Lounge" which is only for use by library employees and which includes staff training materials and "how-to" guides for internal staff procedures, as well as special Staff Only FAQs and other resources that help improve staff productivity.

 

Both sites combines LibGuides CMS, LibAnswers, LibChat, and Springshare's library and social media integrations, and are designed to be "mobile first" integrating a responsive design so that pages and features dynamically re-size themselves for optimum appearance on desktops, tablets or Smartphones. 

 

The library was established at VTRC (the research arm of VDOT) to support "researchers" in 1954 and built one of the most comprehensive transportation research collections of any state DOT in the country over the next 50 years, which holdings from publishers like: AASHTO, TRB, ASCE, ASTM and more.

 

In 2005 the library won the Commissioner's Award for Outstanding Achievement by making those holdings more accessible through an online library catalog accessible to everyone in VDOT. Shortly thereafter the library changed its name to the "VDOT Research Library" to reflect its efforts to serve VDOT employees in all districts and divisions.

 

The library began adding full-text online subscription databases to its collections shortly after that and today those databases are accessible to VDOT employees wherever they are using the library's Virtual Library Card

 

Visit the library today at: https://library.virginiadot.org 

 

Ken Winter
434-962-8979
VDOT Research Library


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