For the past summers, Tritonia Academic Library in Vaasa has been open all summer long. During summer, there are restricted opening hours and more self-service, but the reading rooms can be accessed as usual, for example. Statistically, there are much less visitors in summer compared to the busiest months during autumn. However, there is still a demand for a place to sit and study during summer, and numerous hardworking students can be found in the library throughout the summer. We have noticed at the service desk that both the customers and the questions they have are different in summer than during the academic year. This is because we have more external customers in summer, students from other parts of the country as well as local customers searching for literature in their own field of interest.
The past summer was more exciting than usual, as Tritonia adopted a new open-source library system called Koha. In June, the staff got to learn how to use the new system, and there were numerous aspects to consider regarding the changes Koha brought to the loans procedures. After midsummer, the library was closed for a week, while data was converted into Koha. During July and August we tested Koha in action, learned how it works and updated information and tutorials about the new system on our website. The implementation of Koha went smoothly and we did not run into any major problems.
Traditionally in summer, as there are less customers in the library, it has always been a time to do more extensive collection moves. The project for this summer was to merge all the journals from the subject collections to one journal collection, including moving journals from three different floors to one floor. We have also moved theses, serials and university publications, as well as weeded several collections. Now we have a uniform journal collection waiting for new and old customers.
Autumn has now arrived and we are happy to see the library once again filled with eager students all day long.
Text and photo: Jonna Toukonen, Head of services, Tritonia
