HSL Access Notes - October 4th

Hello,

 Welcome

I am pleased to announce that Terrilynne Martinez will begin in the Service and Administrative Assistant position at HSL Tuesday, October 15th.  Terrilynne brings with her experience in school, special and public libraries, as well as administrative experience in the retail sector.  Terrilynne will be providing client assistance at the HSL Integrated Service Desk as well as administrative support to the Health Sciences Library staff.  Please join us for coffee and cake to welcome Terrilynne to the Health Sciences Library on Tuesday, October 15^th from 2:30 – 3:00.

 

Student Assistants

We are pleased to  welcome new student assistant Rezwana Shakat to HSL.  Rezwana will be assisting with Saturday coverage.  While new to HSL, Rezwana has been working at WHKC for over a year.

 

Thanksgiving Weekend Hours at HSL

HSL will be open through the Thanksgiving weekend.

Saturday, October 12th:  10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, October 13th:  12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Monday, October 14th:  10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Our student assistants will cover the holiday hours on Thanksgiving Monday.

 

Study Room Project

HSL has received funds through the Student’s Union to support additional technology in our study rooms.  The project is in the planning stage, but we hope to add LCD screens and computers to at least two of the study rooms, beginning with rooms 1454 and 1455.   This technology will allow students to practice and work more easily on group presentations.

 

Consult Office

The consult office services are being well used.  Staff are encouraged to continue to promote use of the consult office services by referring clients needing in depth reference assistance to the librarian on duty in the consult office.

If the librarian is busy with one client, staff is asked to notify the librarian in the office that another client is waiting.  The librarian will advise of possible wait time.

 

IM

IM chat is a fast way for clients to access library assistance online from any location.  The service is beginning to get busier with more and more clients accessing services remotely.  Until recently the KRS IM and HSL IM chat systems could support one another, so if one location was already busy with clients, another staff person could assist.  KRS is now on a separate system so this is no longer possible.  To support the IM service at HSL, we would like to set up IM at the service desk  (workstation #3) as backup to the consult office.  This is a way that HSL can increase services to clients.  We hope to roll this out later this month once training has been arranged.

 

Security Awareness Campaign

Unfortunately there was a theft of a student backpack from the library recently.  The backpack was recovered later, though cash and cards were missing.  It appears that this was a crime of opportunity - the student left her things unattended and someone else simply left with them.   We do want clients to feel safe in the library, however the best way to prevent these types of thefts is to make sure clients do not leave personal items unattended.

• We have signs posted.
• We are starting a campaign for the remainder of the month that includes regular 'walk arounds'. 
• We will leave a Security bookmark that states, " If I had time to leave this bookmark, a thief had time to steal your possessions" when we find unattended items. 
• At times we have clients ask if we can watch their items, however we do not have the capacity to assist clients in this way. 
• It is important that clients know that we are not responsible for personal items in the library and to advise them to take appropriate precautions.

Student and Service Staff Schedule now in SharePoint

Brian is now using SharePoint/Outlook to create the regular weekly student/staff schedules.   They can be viewed on our HSL SharePoint homepage on the left hand side under lists.  Students and staff can now view the schedule remotely from any computer.  Thanks for your work on this Brian.

 

Staff Wellness Fair

 Staff are encouraged to attend the staff wellness fair.

Drop in for free wellness workshops, health screening, and tools and information to help you live well.

Tuesday, October 8

10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Rozsa Centre

 

 History of Medicine Access Policies

As noted in the  policies for access to the History of Medicine room(available on our HSL SharePoint site), if scholars would like to use the room, they must receive permission from Susan, or myself is she is not available.  However scholars may request  single volumes from the room, to be retrieved by staff,  for supervised use near the service desk.  These would be checked out to the client in Sirsi for library use only.

For full details, please review the policy.

There is also a History of Medicine Interest Group (HONIG) that has permission to meet occasionally in the History of Medicine room.  They are aware of the room use guidelines, that is, that all coats, bags, etc. should be left at the service area when meeting in the HOM room.  This will mean that occasionally we will need to accommodate these items for the HONIG members in the service area when they meet.

 

EndNote

 The instruction version of EndNote has been loaded on station #3 at the service desk.  This should be helpful for assisting clients with EndNote questions.

 

Please let me know if there are any questions, concerns or suggestions.

Mary