HSL Access Notes - January 3rd

Hello Everyone,

Happy 2014!

A few notes to begin the New Year….

 

New Term and Term Loans

We have seen a number of graduate students at the desk this week asking why their term loan items are only renewing to January 31^st rather than the May 15^th term loan due date.

This will happen if their registration process for the new term is not yet fully processed in the system (ie. Fees not yet paid or not yet processed due to holidays), so their library privileges show as expiring on January 31^st.   Once the registration process is complete their privilege date should automatically update to September 30/14.  Their library items will not automatically renew beyond January 31, 2014, however the client will receive a renewal reminder 3 days prior to the due date.  I am pleased to follow up with any clients who would like additional assistance or information.

 

Student Assistant

I will be interviewing for a new student assistant next week to cover our Tuesday evening shifts.

 

Service Walkarounds

As another way to bring service to the client wherever they are in the library, staff at the desk are asked to do one walkaround during each shift to provide a helpful presence and offer assistance to anyone who might have questions.

Thanks.

 

NVivo

A doctor called in before Christmas asking about access to the software NVivo. 

The University of Calgary IT website does make available free software downloads to members of the university community with a valid IT Account, that includes Nvivo and quite a list of other software.  The full list, that also shows eligibility for faculty, staff and students is available at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/it/software/downloads.

 

Withdrawal of Vet Med DVDs

The decision was made late last year to withdraw Vet Med DVDs from the Health Sciences Library collection because, given the nature of these products, we could not ensure compliance with Canadian licenses and copyright terms.  A few examples would be: The Art of Equine Auscultation, the Glass Horse and The Glass Horse Equine Colic.

Please let Lorraine T.  know if you get vet professors who ask about Vet Med DVDs.

 

SharePoint on Service Desk Stations

Since the service desk workstations have not yet been upgraded, we have been seeing some odd file behavior when working with files saved in SharePoint.  ITS has provided this easy work around for the time being.  This will apply mainly to the student project files.

 If you are going to be working on project files that are saved in SharePoint at the service desk workstations, it is best to:

·         First open Word 2007 and/or Excel 2007 and minimize these windows on the desktop,

·         Then open SharePoint  and find and open the files.

The files should then automatically open in the 2007 version of the Office program.

 

Excel Resources

Chelsea shares some Excel resources that she has found helpful:

·         I most often references Excel Magic Trick #… videos through the Excel is fun youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ExcelIsFun?feature=watch

·         And sometimes MrExcel videos through Bill Jelen’s youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/bjele123

·         I also sometimes find help through Contextures Inc. as well: http://www.contextures.com/

 

Sessions Next Week

The Photoshop, Xibo and Colourbox Toolkit session scheduled for January 9^th will likely need to be rescheduled – watch for more details so you don’t miss out on this fun and interesting session!

 

Outlook Tip

One Outlook feature that I like is the Autocorrect to help expand acronyms.   It is a great feature – I type AHS and it automatically expands this to Alberta Health Services and I type UofC   and it automatically turns it into University of Calgary.  You can create your own autocorrect rules to use this in many different ways.

Select the File tab: Select Options: Select Mail: Under Compose Messages click on Spelling and Autocorrect button: Select autocorrect options: then in the dialogue box fill in the appropriate fields.  Replace : type in your acronym or short form word With:  type in the expanded form

Would anyone else like to share on Outlook tip?

 

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

Looking forward to an interesting year ahead at Health Sciences Library!

Mary