March and April were busy months for the MCLS RIDES Advisory Committee. Between March 30 and April 18, RIDES Coordinator Sue Alt, select Advisory Committee members, and other library staff visited six ProMed delivery warehouse hubs to learn more about ProMed’s role in Michigan’s statewide delivery process.  They met with the warehouse managers at each location and saw where the actual sorting is done.

“The warehouse tours provided a good opportunity for ProMed employees and library staff to compare notes and to get a better understanding of the entire delivery process,” Sue Alt said.  “To make RIDES successful, we need cooperation from both the participating libraries and ProMed staff.”

The committee members and library staff got to see firsthand some of the challenges that the sorters and drivers have to face, including poorly labeled items, items with no labels, and items that should not be in RIDES.  Some staff remarked that they were surprised to learn that the trucks drove between hubs at night and that much of the sorting is done at night or very early in the morning.

Warehouse tours schedule:
March 30, Grand Rapids Hub, Stephen Dix
March 31, Royal Oak Hub, Joseph Sharpe, Jan Hoffman, Diane Donnelly, Judy Dyki,
Alberta Hyvarinen, Sally Pettinger
April 1, Flint Hub, Debbie O’Brien
April 6, Kalamazoo Hub, Brenda Harrison
April 7, Jackson Hub
April 18, Grayling Hub, Sharon Southwick, Margaret Dodd, Mary-Jane Ogg

On April 20, the 2011 Advisory Committee held their first meeting of the year.  In addition to discussion of label-maker changes, the hub tours, and other reports, the agenda included a presentation from Greg Pronevitz Executive Director, Massachusetts Library System.  Greg recently combined multiple delivery services into a single statewide delivery service, and he talked about his consolidation efforts.

For further information about RIDES, see the MCLS RIDES web page.