At the Topsfield Town Library, we pride ourselves at having a wide collection of materials. However, we are extremely lucky to be part of the statewide delivery service through the Massachusetts Library System (MLS), a state-funded service. Because of this service, when we order a book that is held by another library in our consortium, you can see it arrive in 2-3 business days!
This delivery service, which is currently contracted to Optima, delivers to over 500 different libraries of all types in the state of Massachusetts. Sean, one of our librarians, had the opportunity to tour Optima’s Northeastern sorting facility in Wilmington. This is the facility which all delivery items for Topsfield goes through.
This post will highlight the journey, from when “Place Hold” is selected in our catalog, to our hold shelf.
Those familiar with our fiction stacks may recognize a pile of grey bins
. Several times a day, we check our pull list (and other libraries do the same), which is a list of items on shelf that are requested by patrons from other libraries in our consortium. We scan these items to place them in transit, and pack them in these grey bins. We also will place items returned to our library that are originally from other libraries in these bins so they make it back to their “home” library safely.
Once per day (around noontime), our delivery driver comes, drops off items that are in transit to us, and picks up the items that are in transit to other libraries. We are one of fifteen libraries on our drivers’ route.
You may have seen us at the desk sorting out materials that arrive in delivery. Requested items are scanned, and are placed on the hold shelf for the requesting patron.
Bins filled with in-transit items are delivered to the sorting facility, located in Wilmington. This Wilmington facility, which handles transit items for libraries in Boston, Cambridge, and libraries north and west of the city, is the largest of all sorting facilities in the state. They handle approximately 24,000 items a day!
Bins in the back of a delivery can
A pallet full of bins to sort through!
Emptying bins!
The bins are unloaded at the Wilmington facility. Time for sorting! A team of sorters, armed with a handheld barcode scanner, will scan the barcode of each item in these bins, one at a time. Once a barcode is scanned, a large screen tells the sorter where the item is going. Each library has a special bay with a grey bin ready to be filled up.
For example, if an item is in transit to the Topsfield Library, a scanner will receive a notice saying to place the item in Bay 38 (see picture). The sorter places the item in the bin with other items heading to Topsfield. To prevent errors, the sorter will scan a barcode above the bin to confirm it was placed in the right bin. While this double-checking is a little bit more intensive, it helps prevent sorting errors and ensures requested items get into your hands as fast as possible.
Once the bin is full, it is placed in a pile, ready to be delivered the next day to the library. The cycle continues.
Topsfield Library’s “bay” at the sorting facility.
Sorting in action. The process includes an extra verification scan to ensure as few mistakes as possible.
