ask us email | chat | phone

The University of Washington Libraries is building an Any Time Any Place (ATAP) Library. The ATAP Library is one in which collections and services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from all points around the globe. The ATAP Library is predicated on a robust, integrated environment of content, tools, and services in a wide selection of formats and via a variety of delivery mechanisms. The ATAP Library can support diverse user needs, far-flung locations, and different learning styles.

Guiding Principles

In 2001, the Libraries identified the building of the ATAP Library as a key action area in its 2002-2005 Strategic Plan. The Task Force for the Any Time Any Place Library designed a blueprint for the ATAP Library. The Task Force established six principles that guide the construction of the ATAP Library:

• The Libraries will strive to provide all services without limitations of space or time.
• Library services will be personalized and allow users flexibility in customizing their local environment.
• The Libraries will save users time.
• The Libraries will ensure effective access to information over time.
• The Libraries will expand its collections and services by leveraging external resources.
• The Libraries will be flexible to respond to user needs.

While we are a long way from fully implementing the ATAP Library, we have made significant progress. Pilots and initiatives tested and promoted new concepts, services, and resources, and led to the implementation of permanent ATAP services. Following are highlighted elements of the ATAP Library that are now available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

Any Time Any Place Learning

• UWill: Online instructional templates for delivering instruction, and generating assignments and course activities help students master information-seeking strategies. Any time any place.
• E-Reserves: Hundreds of course reserves are available to students electronically, with over 700,000 uses annually.
• Health Science Tutorials: A series of online, interactive tutorials which allow learners to master a wide range of health information research methods.
• UWired: In 1994, the University determined undergraduate education would be enhanced by bringing technology into teaching and learning, and by promoting fluency with information technology and information resources. To accomplish this ambitious goal, UWired created and operated facilities for students and faculty, developed new curricula, and worked with faculty and students to foster instructional innovations. UWired is housed in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library which is open 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Any Time Any Place Research

• Libraries Web Site: The Libraries web site has been redesigned based on extensive feedback from users. We conducted an online survey and focus groups, read focus group transcripts and survey data from the Assessment Group and past usability efforts, and read relevant publications on website redesigns. The site receives over 500,000 hits per month.
• HealthLinks is a robust health information web portal. HealthLinks receives over 430,000 hits per month and is heavily used for clinical decision support, especially in the health clinics throughout the Seattle area.
• The Virtual Reading Room: Electronic tool that maximizes exposure to the UW’s rich online journal collection in marine and biological sciences.
• Zephyr provides an individualized citation list of new library material which matches a researcher’s interest profile.
• Summit: The Orbis Cascade Alliance includes over 30 university, colleges, and community colleges in the states of Washington and Oregon. Users can request over 24 million volumes through the Alliance’s Summit catalog any time and any place and have materials delivered to the library of their choice in less than 48 hours.

Any Time Any Place Collections

• E-content: Substantive investment has been made in online resources such as e-journals, full-text databases and Web-based article delivery. Over thirty percent of the acquisitions budget is now dedicated to electronic resources.
• Digital scholarship is transforming the way scholars work and knowledge is created and disseminated. The Libraries is working to promote the understanding and support of digital scholarship at the University of Washington.
• The Libraries is creating a digital repository using the DSpace framework. DSpace is an open source software platform that enables institutions to capture and describe digital works using a submission workflow module; distribute an institution's digital works over the web through a search and retrieval system, and preserve digital works over the long term.
• The Central Eurasia Information Resources (CEIR) was created to make inaccessible materials widely available on the Web.
• The Northwest Digital Archives consortium established a union database of 2,300 encoded finding aids to regionally significant collections.
• Image Collections: A partnership with the UW Department of Electrical Engineering launched CONTENTdm, an image management system which houses more than 80 digital collections with over 100,000 images. These collections are freely available for students, scholars and the general public.
• Collaboration with twelve local museums and cultural institutions created King County Snapshots, a Web collection of 12,000 historical images from the 19th and 20th century.
• A partnership with the Indian tribes and historical societies is creating a digital archive of Pacific Northwest cultural and historical items, and producing six online exhibitions as the foundation for an online community museum.

Any Time Any Place Answers

• Q and A Live: Digital reference chat service leverages staff time and the three-hour time zone difference in a collaboration with Cornell University Library.
• QuestionPoint: Digital reference service routes questions to a library anywhere in the world based on the best match with local expertise. The Libraries is also a member of QuestionPoint Washington, a regional multi-type reference cooperative of four public libraries, a law library, the State Library and two academic libraries. The Seattle Consortium responds to law and medical questions, and includes the UW Health Sciences Library, Seattle Public Library and the King County Law Library.
• eConnect, a virtual office hours service to be used by librarians for classes or consultations. Any time any place.

Any Time Any Place Library Business

• Payment of library fees and fines is now possible online 24/7.
• Access to library services has been expanded any time any place to include patron-initiated online holds, recalls and renewals, and mailing materials to a "home" library.

Benefits for Users

The ATAP Library results in more efficient use of patron time, user self-sufficiency, the opportunity for Libraries staff to work more closely with faculty in curricular development, and increased access to and use of Libraries materials by the non-university community. In addition, the exposure of our digitized collections has resulted in heavier use of the print collection. Medical students and residents throughout the region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) have access to the same information as their Seattle-based counterparts. UW faculty and students report that they are much more productive in their learning and research because of the ATAP Library.