Friday, January 23, 2015

HSL Access Notes - January 23rd


Hello,

 

A few more notes for the week….

 

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Kathy on the proud accomplishment of 25 years of service at UofC! 

We are so pleased to have the opportunity to recognize and celebrate this special milestone with Kathy!

We hope you can join us!

 

                                             

 

Tuesday, January 27th

Health Sciences Library Staff Room 

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

 

 

 

Welcome

Please welcome new student assistant Jenna Anthony.  Jenna will be working a regular Sunday shift from 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. beginning this weekend.  Jenna is in the Bachelor of Natural Science program and also works part-time at the Business Library.

 

Health Sciences Library Service Levels and Referral Guidelines for EndNote & RefWorks

Information from Lorraine T. that will be helpful to staff at the desk when trying to assist with EndNote/RefWorks questions.

 

  • Brian/Lourdes/Chelsea (BLC) will be the first point of contact for EN & RW questions that present in person at the service desk, via hslibr, or by phone

 

o   If BLC are not on duty, or are busy serving other clients, ask the Consult librarian if she is familiar with the problem/ or can assist in troubleshooting

 

o   If the Consult librarian is busy with another client, ask the client if they wish to wait.  If they do not, refer them to the HSL Citation Management webpage at: http://libguides.ucalgary.ca/content.php?pid=432455&sid=5390321, the RW or EN customer support contacts on the webpage, and to the LCR workshops schedule at: library.ucalgary.ca/workshops as appropriate

 

o   On evenings or weekends, refer clients to Brian.  If he is not available, refer clients to the HSL Citation Management webpage as well as the RW or EN customer support contacts on the webpage

 

  • If BLC do not have the answer for the question from their own knowledge, they will ask the consult librarian if (s)he is familiar with the problem and try to troubleshoot as a team at the service desk

 

  • If the consult librarian is unfamiliar, BLC will consult the RW and EN vendor web help pages (listed on the HSL citation management webpage) and provide the client with either a printout or links to resources that answer the question.  As a guideline, BLC will spend no more than 20 minutes trying to deal with the question

 

    • If an answer is not available with the 20 minute time limit, provide the client with the RW or EN customer support contact info (on the HSL citation management webpage), and advise the client to call or email RW and EN support directly

 

·         Our service principle is to handle follow-up support questions for clients who have attended a RW/EN workshop (either at HSL or TFDL), but BLC are not expected to do one-to-one teaching (either at the service desk, or by individual appointment) for clients who have not attended either HSL or TFDL workshops.  

 

o   In principle, BLC, HSL librarians and KRS librarians should aim to refer clients, including medical residents, to first attend either HSL or TFDL workshops if the client requests to be taught the program (ie. is not familiar with EN or RW)

 

o   1-to-1 Teaching: Exceptions will be made for Deans, or other senior level faculty who present at the desk, or for disabled clients where the university has the “duty to accommodate”.  In these cases we will do 1-to-1 teaching

 

o    If necessary, Helen/Susan/KRS librarians will schedule special sessions (separate from the HSL/TFDL drop-in workshops) to meet the needs of particular groups of residents, but 1-to-1 teaching will not be expected.  If special times need to be scheduled to meet a resident groups’ needs Susan/Helen will determine at that time who is available and best able to do the instruction

 

·         Our service principle is to answer questions on using the EN and RW programs, but not to provide IT level support for RW and EN.  For example, we would not as a rule provide in-depth troubleshooting on loading Proquest for Word, other types of supporting software, beyond providing the client with the relevant vendor websites (video tutorials, quick guides), as well the vendor Customer Support Desk contact information

 

 

UpToDate

News from Helen that is also on the Mobile App Libguide.

UpToDate is now available as a mobile app for our UC users (students, residents, faculty, staff). In the past, it was only available as a mobile-optimized resource. The difference is that the mobile app – because the contents reside on the device – can be used anywhere, independent of a wifi connection.

 

I have added UpToDate app to the mobile libguide    http://libguides.ucalgary.ca/content.php?pid=442981&sid=3627540 . To get the app is straightforward:

1.      From a non-mobile computer, go to UTD (will need to authenticate if off-site)

2.      Register (at the top right corner and newly added is a big box just below the search box)

3.      On one’s device, go to the Apple Store or Google Play and download UpToDate

4.      Sign in with one’s newly created User Name and Password

5.      The contents are immediately available

6.      The UTD app is available for Apple and Android devices

 

We will announce that it is available on a web slider and on the flat panel but will not be sending emails to any departments about it (a “soft launch” only) since we may not be able to renew UpToDate next year. So when we give instructions for downloading the app, we can say we have it for now but it is very expensive.

 

It is not available to AHS clients.

 

Collection Coordinator Questions

With Caitlin on leave, Collections Coordinator questions can be directed to Susan for the time being. 

 

Touchdown Office

Room 1491B can be used at a touchdown office.

 

Scanning slides

A client recently asked if he would be able to scan slides..  We have confirmed that TFDL does provide the scanner attachment (from the 2nd floor tech desk) to clients who wish to scan slides.

 

 

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

HSL Access Notes - January 20th


Hello,

 

A few notes for the week….

 

A World of Good Wishes

Our very best wishes Caitlin, as you begin your leave this week!   We will be excited to meet your little one soon!

 

Referrals from Service Desk

As discussed at our recent Public Service meeting, the following guidelines have been developed for general librarian referrals from the service desk.  There may be a few adjustments to this as we move ahead with this, but please review and follow guidelines as indicated.  Please let me know if there are any questions.

 

 When the client wants to meet with a librarian:

·         Triage first: "is it something I can help you with?"; then send to consult office if appropriate

When the client wants to meet with a specific librarian:

·         Without being obtrusive, try to determine if it's something that can be answered at the service desk: "I'm not sure _____ is available; might it be something I can help you with?"; if not, contact the librarian using Lync.

·         If specific librarian is not available, again suggest consult and if client still wants that specific librarian, provide business card so that client can make contact.

When client wants to meet with the consult office librarian and there is already another client there:

·         Ask the librarian how long the current consult will take. It is ok to interrupt and ask this question.

·         If the current consult is wrapping up, inform waiting client that it will only be a few minutes.

·         If the current consult will take longer, offer some alternatives: if the client would like to

o    wait

o    return later -- flag and notify librarian if they intend to come back later and any provided details about their question

o    have a librarian contact him/her -- ask client for some details about what his/her information need and say a librarian will contact him/her in the next 24 hours (business day) to set up an appointment. Give client information to appropriate librarian (Lorraine for BHSc, Vet; Helen for PGME, Caitlin for UME (but will probably be Susan when Caitlin is on leave, KRS librarians for AHS, Susan for others).

o    contact a librarian using the "consult a librarian" link

·         We try to avoid making appointments for the consult office; objective is to be available for drop-in clients at the time they come in.

·         NOTE: If the client is a Dean or one of our higher profile users, get Susan (or Lorraine for Vet). We will obtain names and photos of some of these individuals for the service desk.

 

RefWorks

Information from the instruction team on RefWorks updates…

In light of the problems using the new ProQuest for Word with documents created before Dec 18th our Citation Management Tools Libguide has been updated.

You can find the Citation management Libguide from the Health Sciences Library homepage >select Research Guides> scroll down to Citation management Libguide.

Or,

Please see the changes on the home tab and Refworks tab here: http://libguides.ucalgary.ca/content.php?pid=432455

 

In addition, a reminder that those trying to create a new account, if you direct clients to register for refworks through our Health Sciences Library Citation management Libguide they should have no problems or use this link: https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/default.aspx?r=authentication::init&groupcode=RWUCalgary

 

 

HDL Transfer Project

The HDL transfer project is past the 2/3 mark with thanks going out to Chelsea, Brian, Lourdes, TerriLynne and every student and casual staff who have been assisting with this project.  The team has been pulling, processing and packing 32 boxes for pick up on a daily basis since November.   We are hopeful that this part of the project may be complete by the end of the month.  Thanks for the ongoing work on this project!

 

Electronics

The wireless keyboards, remotes and mice for rooms 1453, 1454 and 1455 are now contained in three separate barcoded bins.  This helps with storage as well as streamlines the checkout process.  The items have been entered in Sirsi as a kit with 3 parts.  This does mean the checkout process requires an override.  This flags for staff the need to ensure all 3 parts are in the bin at both checkout and check-in.  Please let me know if there are any questions or comments from clients.  Thanks.

 

 

Back up workstation Printing

Please note that the back up printer for clients at the service desk can still be slow when printing larger colour jobs.  However clients at this workstation do have a number of printer options they can select.  Clients may want to confirm which printer is selected for their jo.  Last week we had once client send a job several times wondering why it wasn't prinitng, only to find once staff assisted that it had printed to the admin printer in the staff area.  If there are unclaimed print jobs in the staff area, they may be 'lost' client print jobs.

·         12 HSL Ref   (Default)

·         12 HSL Ref Colour

·         10 Circ - HSL 

·         13 Admin - HSL

·         13c Admin - HSL - Colour

If clients indicate that they are printing a large colour job, the best option at this time is to select the 13c Admin - HSL -Colour printer that will be our admin copier/printer in the staff area.  Staff will need to retrieve for the client.

Large B/W jobs may also be sent to the "10 Circ - HSL" staff printer in the service area if the back up printer is being overly slow.

 

 

Client Alert

 I would like to alert staff to three certain client situations from recent times.

An older gentleman who most of us have assisted with printing issues.  He is in almost daily and is generally calm, though can get agitated and outspoken.  He has been seen touching another client's belongings briefly.

A younger lady who generally wears a head scarf, and glasses, and is friendly, but very talkative chatting and asking unusual or general knowledge questions.

A client who called in today who spoke assertively indicating he is in a senior position in the faculty and who spoke incoherently in a disturbing way.  This was flagged in an LCR incident report and UC Security followed up on this call).

I would like to ask staff to pass along any concerns regarding these clients, or any other clients or transactions of concern, whether in person, by phone, email or IM chat.  This will help us establish any patterns of behaviour if further follow up is required.

 

 

Kitchen Update

We have been advised by Security that our toaster oven should be removed from the kitchen for safety reasons.  It will be removed on Friday.  Does this happen to belong to a staff member?

 

TFDL Writing Sessions

 There are some information flyers at the service desk advertising free drop-in writing sessions at TFDL.  These are made available through the Student Success Centre and LCR. More details and contact

Info included on the flyers.

 

Monday, January 12, 2015

HSL Access notes - January 12th


Hello,

 

A few notes to welcome the new term….

 

 

New Term

Welcome back to all following what I hope was a pleasant and refreshing Christmas break!

 

Best wishes to our student assistants for another successful term ahead!

We appreciate the coverage, service and mountains of project work that our student assistants provide each season.

 

This term our students and casual staff will be covering shifts as follows:

 

Mondays:   Kathleen 4:00 – 10:00  & Mary A. 5:00 – 10:00

Tuesdays:  Krystal  5:00 - 10:00

Wednesdays:  Mary A. 5:00 – 10:00

Thursdays:  Robin  5:00 - 10:00

Saturdays:  Anna 1:00 – 4:00

Sundays:  Kathleen 12:00 – 8:00 and Vacant:  3:00 – 6:00

 

We are still looking for student coverage from 3:00 – 6:00 on Sundays for this term.

Thanks.

 

Health Sciences Library Room Booking System

While the TFDL room booking system seems to be up and running, the Health Sciences Library links are not operational yet.  We are following up with LCR IT and hope these will be restored soon.

 

LYNC

We are investigating options for using LYNC from the two service desk stations that use generic logins.  We do hope that all staff will be able to connect via LYNC for internal communication.

 

Issuing Sirsi Privileges

A message from Claudette at TFDL regarding issuing Sirsi cards to clients at the desk…

All –

Just a reminder that if individuals come in to validate a TAL (The Alberta Library) card or to purchase or reinstate a community reader card that you search their names in our system. It is good practice before creating any card to check the patron’s name to make sure they have no other cards in the system. 

If a client has unresolved fines, fees or issues on a previous card, even if it has expired, these should be resolved before privileges are granted or re-instated.

 

PAM Boxes

We have surplus pamphlet boxes that are available for re-purposing.  Extras will be placed downstairs by room G 385 in the hallway west of the Libin theatre for all to help themselves.

 

Electronics

We have received two new Charge-all units from TFDL this week, for a total of three units that can be circulated.

 

Power at Round Tables

Power has been restored at the round tables.  The power connections at each of the tables has been checked and the power boxes secured to the concrete floor.

 

Cheques Used for Fee/Fine Payment

We seldom see cheques used for payment, however we did see one this week!  The Finance Office had indicated that only cheques made out to University of Calgary can be accepted.  

 

HSC Maps online

In addition to the helpful interactive room finder and campus maps at:  http://www.ucalgary.ca/map/

There are also some Foothills Campus building maps from Instructional Resources at:  http://www.ucalgary.ca/instructionalresources/maps

 

Room 1459

The TV screen in 1459 is set up for staff.  The screen does have a mouse and keyboard attached.  There are also two wireless mice stored in the electronics cabinet that can be used along with the attached keyboard as another option. 

 

Wishing all a good week and good term ahead.