UT Libraries Employee Wins 2008 Tennessee Resource Sharing Award

The following article ran on Tenn-Share’s website (www.tenn-share.org/resources/award) and featured the University of Tennessee Libraries’ own Tracy Luna, the winner of this year’s Resource Sharing Award:

tracycroppedTracy Luna, Lending Supervisor at the University of Tennessee Libraries in Knoxville, is the recipient of the 2008 Tennessee Resource Sharing Award.

A “veteran” of UT’s interlibrary loan department, Tracy has been key in making One-Step Access To Library Materials, one of Tenn-Share’s TEL Phase II initiatives, closer to a reality.
David Atkins, Head of Resource Sharing and Document Delivery Services at UTK, had this to say about Tracy in his nomination:

While UT has long served the state as a library lender, Tracy was not content with how things were done. In 2003, to better connect public libraries with our collections, Tracy initiated the Tennessee Public Library Registration project. Working with Tennessee State Library and Archive’s Jack Stacy, Tracy created over 300 web-based borrowing accounts for each of the state’s public libraries. With these accounts, any interlibrary loan department in the state could request loans and copies from our collections via the web. Gone were the days of faxes, phone calls and email requests. Then, Tracy supported the state’s librarians with on-site training and congenial telephone conversations. For first-time users, Tracy would walk each librarian step-by-step through this new method for ordering loans. The result? Borrowing and lending became easier for everyone involved in resource sharing.

Between 2005 and 2006, the project really took off. We migrated from our UT-hosted system to the state’s AutoGraphics public library system. This move made it even easier for public libraries to borrow from UT. UT’s Tennessee lending volume and therefore Tracy’s Tennessee workload increased over 30% in the first year. A new system also meant that Tracy re-instructed many state libraries on how to borrow from UT. Building on the success of this implementation, Tracy made UT’s participation in a new project, InfoToGo, possible. InfoToGo does for Knox County School Libraries what AutoGraphics did for the state’s public libraries. During FY07 UT partnered with Knox Co. Public Libraries and the State Library to launch interlibrary lending for Knox County Schools. In the first year, Tracy and her staff processed 199 loans to Knox County School students, teachers, and administrators. In September 2008, we’ve started our third year with InfoToGo. With every step we take to improve our state’s resource sharing operations, Tracy Luna always provides critical, enthusiastic, and animated support. Even when the workload increases, Tracy’s there. As Jack Stacy attests: “Tracy has been incredibly supportive to libraries involved in the Hodges Library/Tennessee Public Library/Knox County Schools resource sharing project. Even though this project has increased her workload, she maintains an affable and enthusiastic manner when dealing with her new group of interlibrary loan customers.”

The Tennessee Library Resource Sharing Award may be presented annually to any person, institution or organization in Tennessee that has done outstanding work in promoting resource sharing within and among Tennessee Libraries and other information agencies.
The recipient will be recognized based on efforts to make available shared library and/or information resources that benefit the organizations involved and the patrons they serve, and that would not be available to them without cooperative efforts.

The award recipient will receive a plaque, and in their honor $100 will be given to a library or other institution of the recipient’s choice that provides resource sharing among Tennessee libraries, with the money being earmarked for resource-sharing services.

Nominations will be solicited by the Tenn-Share Nominating Committee in the months leading up to the annual Tenn-Share Fall Conference where the award will be presented.

Previous recipients:

• 2007 No award presented
• 2006 Jennifer Cowan-Henderson
• 2005 Tricia Bengel
• 2004 Aubrey Mitchell
• 2003 Jack Stacey
• 2002 Cathy Evans
• 2001 Betsy Fisher and Willa Reister
• 2000 Jud Barry and Watauga Regional Library
• 1999 Annelle R. Huggins
• 1998 Linda Phillips