8 years ago, the municipal library of Spay passed from the Segilog software to PMB in order to improve the documentary resources and loans management while offering economical and viable solution. The installation was done at single-user and was only accessible in the library.
In December 2020, the team has decided once again to call on PMB Services to put its catalog online and offer the biblio-drive service. For that, a hosting resumption of the database was done.
The municipal library of Spay, managed by two half-time persons, Richard Guerin and Kévin Renou as well as two volunteers, own a documentary resources of approximately 6000 books whose 1000 books loan by Sarthe Lecture (County Library of la Sarthe). These resources composed of comic books, novels, magazines, documentarys, Cdrom are available for loan and are adressed to all audiences (children, teenagers, adults). Every year, the documentary collection is renewed thanks to the purchase of new books and every 6 months with the passage of the Sarthe Lecture bibliobus.
A particular context in favour of the use of biblio-drive
The health context and government restrictions such as curfew force every structure to adapt. Kévin Renou, referent of the library and coordinator of the sport and cultural animations of the municipality, explains to us that : "During the first quarantine, users could not borrow books ; but the request to maintain a cultural service and infrastructures to keep reading was still strong."
One year later, the service wanted to adapt to the particular context : « We still face restrictions with the health protocol ; only one family can access the interior of the library to borrow ». Concerned to respond to the needs of its members, Kevin Renou contacted PMB Services to get information about Biblio-Drive service and how to set it up. The Biblio-Drive service was naturally offered and installed. The library can now :
The SOLO catalog allows members to consult the entire documentary collection from home, the news of the library, the global news for ever more praticality. Also « it allows better communication with users » Kévin Renou highlights.
Coupled with Biblio-drive, this online catalog benefits to the 450 members who can book a time slot from home to borrow or return a document at the library. A rapidity guarantee for the user who can access in a few clicks to the online catalog, reserve his document and choose a time slot to pick up/collect from the library. "We tested a lot at first, by doing ourselves online reservations. Once operational, there was a municipal communication on the city’s website in order to inform our members" explains Kévin Renou.
The team also benefited from a half-day of online training for a better handling of the SOLO catalog and Biblio-drive service. "The training was very good, a second one would have been appreciated because of the distance, in 4 hours it’s fast to see and write everything. For example another training, 2 months after the installation of Biblio-drive would be a great idea." The suggestion was raised ; in all cases the assistance service remains available after training to support structures in the use of these new services, so do not hesitate to contact them. Positive feedback from this project "Today, users are slowly appropriating themselves the Biblio-drive service, they must realize that there is a website and that they can make reservations online. We also need to organize ourselves gradually" underlines Kévin Renou, satisfied with this new intervention by PMB Services. Thanks to the team's follow-up, Spay's municipal library can now communicate more easily with its members and support them in handling the online catalog.
Many thanks to Kévin Renou for his testimony.
