We have been undergoing some changes locally and I had a few questions
for other locations if you are willing to be less serious for awhile.

Our director is pushing hard for us to get all possible newspapers direct
delivered ASAP now that we have a drive-up bookdrop.  (This idea used to
surface periodically but we couldn't cope with people driving by at 6 am
and tossing the newspaper "on the lawn".)  I am having a hard time complying
because we had already renewed most of our local papers and these will not
permit us to change until the next time we renew.  However, a number of
papers (actually not many offer local delivery) have refused to deliver
because we are "on the wrong street" or no longer offer local delivery at
all.  The director has since come up with the idea that we could g
et one
of the local drug stores to accept deliveries for us and I could pick thpapers
up on the way to work.  (How I am supposed to convince them to do this is
another story.)

What I would like to know is, how many other libraries have "home delivery"
and how has it worked out?  Do you do this for just the local papers,
for anyone who delivers in town, or???

How have other locations dealt with special services which were offered in
the old days but which current staff cannot/does not want to handle?  We
have been growing and adding subscriptions yet we are expected to keep up
a number of services such a photocopying tables of contents.  These services
are not known/made available to everyone but just to a few old-timers with
good connections.  While this is good from a service standpoint (we could
never handle the demand if all faculty and graduate students were treated
equally) it does not seem terribly fair nor does it seem the best use of
staff/student time when we are criticized for being behind in so many
crucial areas, such as creating an online Series Authority File.  The capper
came the other day, when I was pulled away from important personnel work
by the director to meet (once again) a retired professor who bugs us
periodically (how much could I claim on my income tax if I donate my
journal backfiles to our sister university in Guatemala?, etc.) who some
years ago had had an arrangement with the  then serials librarian to save
stamps for his collection.  The director assured him we would resume this
practice.  After the director left, I told the prof that he would have
to come back and talk to the head check-in clerk when she returned from
sick leave and see if she felt they could do it.  I was steaming but but
cool.  We are so pressed with so many things, how can we be treated as if
we had nothing better to do than save stamps for people?  Do others have
this situation in their libraries?  How do they handle it?
Thomas Sanders (tsanders@auducvax)