HSL Access Notes - July 26th

Hello,

A final set of Notes for the month of July!

TAL – flood and renewals

Claudette has confirmed that items returned to CPL close the time of the flood may still be sitting at the main CPL branch awaiting processing.  CPL  hopes to clear the backlog of this processing soon, but in the meantime, Claudette asks that if someone identifies that they are a TAL user and returned their book to a CPL branch around the time of the flood, please extend their loan period in Sirsi so that they do not continue to receive overdue notices.

Self Check Audio

This week we noticed that the 3M self check that has a pleasant audible tone for transactions became overly loud, almost startling clients!  There is an adjustable dial for volume control along the bottom edge of the monitor, close to the monitor on/off switch.  Staff can you can adjust the Self Check volume as necessary.

Touch Table

• Abode Illustrator has been added to the touch table to allow students to add notes to the images and  export notated images. 
• We have noticed that the desktop does not load properly in the mornings, and requires a "Restore".  We have asked the technician about this and he recommends a full shut down at night.
• 1.  Close the Lindsay Atlas program (red box with X in top right corner).
• 2.  At the desktop (should see large skull), click on wavy Windows icon in top left corner.
• 3.  At bottom of drop down menu, click on shut down.
• 4.  Wait for screen to go black.
• 5.  Turn off power bar.

Computer Commons Software

• The latest version of EndNote has been installed on our Computer Commons workstations this week.  We only have a training license for the software, so LCR ITS requires advance notice to activate the software for any training sessions. 
• Optimo software to support podcasting has also been installed.

Service Desk

There is a new larger monitor at station #3 of the service desk.

Literature Searching Clinics

A client this week asked if members of the general public can attend the summer literature searching clinics.  Helen has confirmed that all are welcome to attend.

New Undergraduate Medical Education Students

As one of only two three-year medical schools in Canada, the Faculty of Medicine doesn’t break for the summer and 155 new medical students have arrived on the Foothills Campus to start a week-long orientation session.   Groups of these new students have been introduced to the library this week.  Staff may see ore questions from new students at the desk.  Caitlin and Chelsea provided new students with information at library booth at the UME Info Fair in the atrium today.  Caitlin in the liaison librarian for the UME students.

The Dartmouth Institute

UofC is hosting the Dartmouth Institute August 6th - 9th at TFDL: 

Supporting Clinical Care: An Institute in Evidence-Based Practice for Medical Librarians. 

This is an intensive, introductory, 3 day course for Medical librarians who want to learn evidence-based clinical practice concepts in order to comfortably support and teach EBCP at their institutions.

Many thanks to all those involved in preparing materials and those who have volunteered to assist.   Caitlin, Michelle and Yongtao will be instructors at the Institute, and many other HSL/KRS staff will be involved throughout that week.

Small Group Study Rooms

We are investigating the possibility of adding LCD screens and technology to the small group study rooms, so that students can use the rooms to practice presentations and more. 

Access Personal Drive from Home

Did you know you can access your personal drive from home?  This does involve downloading some software and mapping your personal drive on your home computer, but a quick call to the IT help desk, and they can assist you with the set up customized for your personal computer in a few easy steps.  IT Support does have weekend hours.  At the moment they are open 10 - 2, both Saturday and Sunday.

The Alberta Library Card (TAL ) News

A message passed along by Andrew Waller....

Starting in fall 2013, a new TAL Online will enhance how Albertans search for and find what's important to them, creating even more seamless connections to library resources.

The new TAL Online will be an Alberta-wide group catalogue powered by OCLC's WorldCat platform, making over 25 million items more accessible to Albertans.

The new TAL Online will benefit public, post-secondary and special libraries. For example, Albertans will be directed to library resources through Google and other websites that are already an integral part of their lives.

The new discovery tool will also improve access to provincially licensed e-content and library resources for new Canadians. It will also expand the presence of libraries on social media networks such as Facebook.

Other benefits of OCLC's WorldCat platform include:

• demonstrated performance as a union catalogue in large scale installations from Alaska to Florida
• ability to search over 2 billion records from OCLC's 20,000 worldwide members
• multi-lingual interfaces and metadata for non-Roman scripts which will enhance access to library resources for new Canadians
• text-to-speech functionality improving access to library resources for print-disabled Albertans
• improved process for placing interlibrary loan requests

The OCLC Group Catalogue was chosen after months of consultation and analysis. APLEN staff consulted with members of Alberta's public library network and the Public Library Services Branch and reviewed proposals by OCLC and EBSCO.

Libraries are currently being advised on how to integrate their collections into the OCLC Group Catalogue.

OCLC's Group Catalogue operates on an annual subscription basis and will be paid for through 2016 by the Alberta Government's provincial library technology plan funding.

More information on the new TAL Online is available at http://www.thealbertalibrary.ab.ca/newtalonline.html.

Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions.

Have a great summer weekend.

Mary