HSL Access Notes - April 17th

Hello Everyone,

A few notes for the week…..

Hours at Health Sciences Library

We have posted information about our closure on Sundays effective May 1^st.

Please pass along any client concerns or comments to Susan or myself.

Best Wishes to our Student Assistants

Many thanks to our student assistants, Mary, Kathleen, Jessica, Amy, Krystal, Jenna, Robin, and Anna, who have provided so much service and work on countless projects over the fall and winter terms.

We couldn’t do it without you!

Congratulations on completion of another term, and very best wishes with finals.

Summer Schedules

Our summer student scheduling will begin May 1^st.

Evening student shifts will be 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. and Saturday student shifts will be 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

ProQuest for Word and RefWorks

Glenn was in this week and updated the public computers in the service area (including our back up workstation at the desk), with ProQuest for Word to support the new RefWorks platform.

Bad Debt

We have received the following information from Lucille Wallace at TFDL regarding “Bad Debt Client Accounts”

1.        Accounts that had been billed prior to April 1, 2011 and were still outstanding as of June 2, 2014, were put through SIRSI as a Bill Paid with the payment type Bad Debt; these payments were processed from March 20-26, 2015.  This initiative was set by LCR Accounts to reduce the receivables showing as owed to LCR for the fiscal year end.  There were 800+ accounts cleared, $169,086.41 was cleared, have not yet documented the number of books to be cleared off patron records.  These items will be cleared off once year end is complete, plan to start the week of April 6^th.

2.        The accounts that had been submitted as either a Registrar’s Withhold or Collection Agency account will not have these accounts released as paid; as far as the Registrar or Collection Agency know, these accounts are still owing and need to be collected.

3.       The patron status will remain at or be set to Barred; a Note will be on the patron record advising that the account was written off but still needs to be collected.  The amount written off and any details for the number of books that were cleared off will be included.  Details for the fines can be found under the Bills tab on the patron record, select Paid, should the patron query what they had been charged for.

4.        Any books on the patron record will be discharged, their item type set to Libonly, their location set to Missing.  I will be sending a list of those items belonging to branch libraries to the appropriate branch so that you are aware of what has been cleared off as a result of this account write off process.

5.       If a patron does settle their account due, please advise Lucille Wallace via e-mail the paperwork required to advise the Registrar or Collection Agency can be completed. 

What this means is that there may be some client records that show up as ‘barred’, that do not show any outstanding items in checkout or bill screens since they have been cleared as bad debt.  These clients still have an account to be paid.

Staff are asked to keep an eye out for clients with a ‘barred’ status.  All details of the account still owing should be listed in the Extended Notes screen.  If you accept payment, there would be no ‘fine payment’ action in Sirsi, but we would add a Note in the extended info screen with amount paid, the record would be changed from ‘barred’ to ‘OK’ and an email would need to be sent to Lucille Wallace with client and transaction details.  

Please let me know if you have any questions.

LibAnswers

We are continuing to learn a bit more about norms for entering reference questions into LibAnswers.
It has been confirmed that transactions captured by other systems do not need to be entered in LibAnswers.
Answered By: If you are at the desk, logged in through our generic account staff are still asked to select their name form the drop down list when they enter a questions. Student assistants will leave the generic Health Sciences Library in the answered by field, but will add their initials to the notes box.
Questions form AHS clients:   = Please use Community as client type, but add AHS to note field.
Pre-defined questions:  Have you used the toggle switch to see the set of pre-defined questions and save yourself some typing?  These includes questions such as: Money on card, or room booking and many more.
Clear fields:  You can clear fields in two ways.  One, click submit and clear, or, if you click submit then decide you would like to clear the fields, use the ‘clear fields’ option below the “boxes”

Any questions staff have come across that seem tricky to categorize? 

Next week sessions

·         Ben King

Want to learn more about 3D modelling for visualizing health research?  Join us on

Monday, April 20,

2:30-3:30.

Room HSC G801E (Access through the Bacs Centre)

·         Public Service meeting

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

2:00 – 3:00

HSC 1459

·         MLA Webcast:  THE DIVERSITY OF DATA MANAGEMENT: PRACTICAL APPROACHES FOR HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIANSHIP  12-1:30 in 1459

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

12:00 – 1:30

HSC 1459

TFDL Intern Visit

A MLIS intern Robyn Gray from Dalhousie University, who is working in TFDL Collections for a few weeks, will be visiting Health Sciences Library on Monday morning.  I will try to introduce to staff who are available.

HSL Access notes - July 25th

Hello Everyone,

 

 

A few notes for the week….

 

Exchange Upgrade

Email Upgrade Update

 

As previously communicated, we are participating in the university-wide Microsoft Email Upgrade initiative happening next week.

Health Sciences Library computers will be upgraded the evening of Wednesday, July 30^th.

Going on holidays?

If you will be holidays or away from the office during this upgrade, please restart your computer, do not login and do not shut down your machine prior to your absence as it must be left on for the upgrade.

 

Email and Calendar Online

Did you know you can access your email and calendar online?

 

Pre-Upgrade:  Check your email online at exchange.ucalgary.ca

 

Post-Upgrade:  Check your email online at mail.ucalgary.ca

 

Information session

An information session at Health Sciences Library will be held on Wednesday July 30 at 2:00, room 1460A.

 

 

LCR State of LCR Address

 

All LCR staff are invited to join Tom Hickerson in the TFDL Gallery Hall on Thursday, July 31^st for a State of LCR update. 

Two sessions will be offered:

 

Session #1

12:00 – 12:45 pm

 

Session #2

1:00 – 1:45 pm

We hope as many Health Sciences Library staff as possible can attend.

 

Donation Review

Barb Ellis will be here to do the next round of donation appraisals this coming week.  The donations are on a marked shelf in the staff area.  

 

HDL Project

Amazing but true… the HSL project is now processing “P” titles and the end is in sight.  Many thanks to all who have worked so hard and long on this comprehensive project.

We do not have a firm date for the transfer of the physical issues to the HDL yet, but once we do, we will be ready!

 

Client Fines and Blocked Records

Once a client fine reaches 10.00, the record will be automatically blocked from further circulation type transactions such as renewals or checkouts.  UC clients will still have full remote access to online resources.

It is preferred for clients to clear their fines completely whenever possible, but if this is difficult for the client,  reducing below 10.00 will allow them to borrow or renew items.  I am also always open to discuss situations that call for exceptions to the rules.

 

Neonatal Resuscitation (NRP) titles: Alberta Health Services and UC copies

We have copies of this title both in the service area (specifically for Alberta Health Services clients) and the main stacks (for UC clients). 

It is better for UC clients to borrow one of the NRP titles from the main stacks, since these will act like any UC library book and can be renewed online as long as there are no other holds.

The copies in the circ area are flagged in Sirsi for Alberta Health Services staff.  If a UC student client wishes to borrow the Alberta Health Services copies, for example  if no others are available, this can be done, however staff will need to enter an override to allow the transaction to be processed in Sirsi.  It is important for staff to inform the client that they will need to phone in to renew due to the override required.  Of course if clients have any trouble renewing they can always call us for assistance.

 

Mary

HSL Access Notes - February 12th

Hello,

Welcome

Welcome to AHS Librarian Rachel Zhao who will at HSL on Wednesdays and Thursdays in office 1492A.  Rachel's phone number is 220-4322.

Welcome also to Heather Rideout, our new student assistant who began training last week, and will be working every other Sunday.

HSL Family Day Weekend Hours

Saturday, February 16th      

OPEN  10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, February 17th          

OPEN      12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Monday, February 18^th          

OPEN 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Many thanks to Amy and Jessica for covering our holiday Monday shifts

POS and Pennies

There has been plenty of talk of ‘rounding’ as pennies move out of circulation.

Rounding will only affect cash transactions when we no longer have pennies in our POS.  We will be moving most pennies out of the POS soon, however will still be accepting pennies.

At HSL we will see this most for copy payments made by cash.  At this time the cost of copies remains at $0.08 for B/W and $0.39 for colour.

For Now, while we have pennies:

·         We will continue to charge and  give change as we normally do until we no longer have any pennies in our POS. 

·         We will always accept the penny as currency as it will remain on the active currency list. 

·         If a customer pays for a $0.08 copy, you charge them $0.08, ringing in the $0.08 in the POS.  They can give you the exact cash change and we will accept pennies, or if they give you $0.10, they will get $0.02 cents change.

·         If a customer pays for two copies, you charge $0.16, ringing in the .16 in the POS.  They can give you the exact cash change and we will accept pennies, or if they give you $0.20, they will get $0.04 cents change.

·         The only time you do the rounding is when you no longer have pennies in our POS. 

Once we no longer have pennies in the POS:

·         The penny will start to disappear shortly as people use them and they go to the banks. The bank is no longer circulating them, so when they go to the bank they end their existence.

·         If a customer comes and gets a $0.08 copy, you charge them $.08, ringing in the $0.08 in the POS.  They can give you the exact cash change and we will accept pennies, or if they give you $0.10, they do not get any change(or pay exact amount on a Onecard, or debit or credit card).

·         If a customer pays for two copies, you charge $0.16, ringing in the .16 in the POS.  They can give you the exact cash we will accept pennies, or if they give you $0.20, they will get $0.05 cents change.

POS and Credit Cards

We are now able to accept American Express credit card payments.  These transactions would be processed through the POS and the Transelect machine as our other credit card transactions (Visa and Mastercard).

Sirsi - Updates

Our Discovery Systems team have implemented a few changes the will be to the benefit of clients and staff.

Recalls:

Items that have been recalled but are no longer required because the hold has been cancelled or fulfilled by another copy will no longer continue to show as recalled and require extra attention.   The system will now recognize when these items are no longer need to fulfill a recall and will be released from their recalled status, reinstating the original due date for the client.

Fine grace period:

The system has now implemented a 1 DAY grace period for term loans and two week loans.  While this will be a nice benefit for our clients who get their books in one day after the due date, it is not something that we are publicizing with our clientele.  So, if a book is returned one day late (in the grace period), there are no fines accessed.  If a book is returned 2 days late, the fines will be accessed for the 2 day overdue period, or at $2.00.

Cancelled holds:

If a hold is cancelled in Sirsi by staff, it will become immediately available for the next client on the hold list, and the client will be notified that is available, even if it is still in transit from another location.  If staff cancel a hold in Sirsi, it is important that there is follow through with the item at the same time, either pulling from your own hold pick up shelf or notifying any other pick up location.  This will ensure timely and proper processing for any further holds.

Sirsi Transactions

 A few Sirsi reminders:

·         When accepting fine payments, please first ensure that all checkouts in the client’s record are renewed or returned.  The fine for an overdue item will only show up in the billing screen once the item is returned or renewed.

·         Please close screens once a transaction is complete. If a client places an item on the desk near the RFID pad when a check out screen is open, it could be checked out to the wrong client.

·         When completing a client transaction ask client to confirm that we have the correct (and complete) contact information in the Sirsi record, and make any updates or additions (valid email is most important).

·         If signing out items to AHS staff, especially the BLS or NRP (they often need these only once every year or two), it is sometimes helpful to check to ensure their records will not expire in the near future.  If the record is about to expire soon, offer to renew the privileges (another 2 years), reviewing the record and updating where needed.  This will ensure that the client will be able to continue to renew online as necessary, and not be blocked by having an expired library privileges.

Clients

A reminder that staff can refer any clients with library privilege expiry issues to me for follow up.

Instruction handouts

We have received quite a number of questions regarding the instructions sessions this term.  The handouts for UofC instruction sessions, HIN instruction sessions and citation management sessions are available at the front desk, and we encourage clients to take a copy.  The information is also posted on our HSL bulletin board and online. 

Shared Access Study Room update

Our shared access to study rooms 1461 – 64 has been delayed while parts are ordered for a new panic bar on door 1460ZB.  This could take as long as 2 months.

Main Doors/Gate

We are also waiting for a part for our 3M gate.  At the moment our gate and door system is partially working.  Please continue to monitor the gate and door as usual, resetting the doors if there is a light showing on the maglocks.  Please check with your supervisor for more information.

Staff Meeting Rooms 1459 and 1487A

·         We are now posting the daily meeting times for meeting room 1459, so that clients will have a better idea of availability.  If staff need to book a meeting in this room ‘same day’, please add the time to the white board outside the room.

·         Room 1487A, next to Caitlin’s office, is now set up as a small meeting room and can accommodate about 6 people.  Staff can book the room through Calendar.  Go to ‘Open Shared Calendar’-type in HSL and all HSL bookable rooms should appear in a list,  then select 1487A.

HSL bookmark

Our HSL bookmark has been updated. It includes our url, a QR code for our homepage, our hours,  and phone and email contact info.  These may be helpful for clients requesting general HSL information.

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

Hope everyone is looking forward to a pleasant Family Day weekend and for our student assistants, a good Reading Week break!

Mary

HSL Access notes - January 18th

Hello,

With new term well underway, it is time for a ‘few’ notes….

New Student Assistant

Please welcome new student assistant Michael Stewart.  Michael began training this week and will be assisting with the Monday evening coverage.

Campus Photocopies

Campus Photocopies service provides an option for clients to request copies of articles held in print on other campuses.  For example a client at Nursing on main campus may send an email request for an article that is on our shelf at HSL.  The email will come to our hslcirc mailbox.  Staff will pull the journal and scan the article, sending a pdf copy of the article by email to the client's desktop.  Please offer this service to clients when appropriate.  Last week a client came from main campus, pulled and copied her own articles (at .08/page), since she was not aware of the campus photocopy service.  Information for clients about this service and be found on our library webpage > services> borrow/request/renew>campus photocopies.  Also, here is the link   http://library.ucalgary.ca/campus-photocopies

Literature Search Single Point of Intake

Information from Susan and Taryn regarding a new HIN/AHS pilot…..The Health Information Network along with Knowledge Resource Services (AHS Libraries) are piloting a single point of intake service for all AHS lit search requests starting on January 2. 

Search requests coming in through hslibr or the HIN lit search request form are being directed to HIN staff who are designated "gatekeepers" who then allocate the searches out to staff.

This will not impact our service messages at the desk.  AHS clients at the HSL desk requesting lit searches can be directed to the consult office librarian, or to the HIN lit search request form after hours.  Please let Susan know if you have any questions.

Instruction sessions

There is a full slate of instruction sessions being offered at HSL through the new term.  Please promote these sessions with our clients.  Information is posted online and through the faculty and available at the desk.

HIN instruction sessions at HSL will begin in February and a schedule will be available soon.

AHS My Learning Link

AHS staff can access information on their “My Learning Link” on HSL computers as  follows:

Go to my.albertahealthservices.ca

Login in with email username and password

Select  “Visit Insite”

From Employee Tools tab Select My Learning Link

Login in

Shared Access to Group Study Rooms 1461-1464

We are very pleased that we are moving closer to being able to implement the shared access to the 1461 - 1464 group study rooms.  We are just reviewing details with Faculty and Security contacts, and hope to have this extra space available by early February.

Shared access will mean that this group of rooms, 1461B, 1462B, 1463A &B, 1464 A&B will be accessible as follows:

·         Access from the theatre 4 hallway:

o    Daytime, Monday through Friday

o    Bookable through Faculty Room Booking Services

·         Access through the Health Sciences Library:

o    Monday - Thursday:  6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

o    Friday: no evening access

o    Saturday:  10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

o    Sunday:  12:00 (noon) - 8:00 p.m.

o    Online booking for evening and weekend hours at:  http://workrooms.ucalgary.ca/hsl/

We expect that the idea that the rooms are accessed from the theatre 4 hallway during weekday hours and through HSL during evenings and weekends, may cause some confusion with clients at first, but we are working on signage and processes to make the transition as smooth as possible.  We feel the extra access to this space will  be a benefit to our clients that will be appreciated.

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

1460Z A &B alarms

 1460ZA and B are the doors that access the 1461-1464 hallway.  The 1460ZA door is on the library side (currently blocked) and 1460ZB is on the faculty side. 

1460ZA operates with card access and all HSL staff have card access.

1460ZB operates with panic bar hardware.

If the doors are accessed when alarmed, they will go into an audible alarm mode and staff will hear and see an additional alarm on the annunciator panel at the service desk.

·         To silence the annunciator panel simply push the silence button on the panel.  The alarm light will remain on until the door alarm has been reset.

·         To silence the 1460ZA door alarm swipe your UofC card at the card access pad. This should reset the door.

·         To silence the 1460ZB door alarm, call security at 220-5333.  Security staff need to reset the alarm on the 1460ZB door.

Notes In Client Records

 A reminder that it is important and very helpful to add notes to client records about transactions that are out of the ordinary, especially if there will be further follow up necessary, that may be handled by other staff members.  There were cases recently where the notes recorded in the client Sirsi extended info screen allowed staff to establish a timeline of events, to confirm the previous conversations with staff and therefore follow up accordingly.  

Transit bags from TBCC and WHKC

 Books in transit from HSL to TBCC and WHKC should be charged to the transit card and desensitized.  The exception would be hold items coming from HDL.  These can be simply forwarded as is to TBCC or WHKC, though pleae desensitize if they do have RFID tags.

Items in transit from TBCC and WHKC will often be dropped off at HSL in a transit bag and left on the corner of the front credenza (closest to the book return bin) for HSL staff follow up.

HDL Journals

The loan period for journals borrowed from HDL changed from  3 days to two weeks late in 2012.   The  loan type for these journals has now also been updated from : 3DAYSERIAL  to: HDLfirm

FCA Registrar Withhold Process Update

if a client has bills of 10.00 or more, their Sirsi record will still be blocked from borrowing or renewing.

In the past once this 10.00 charge was on a client record, main campus would follow up with several notices, both email and mail over a period of 3 months, but if the bill was left unpaid, further action was taken.  For students,  records would go to the Registrar’s Office and a Registrar’s withhold would be place on the record with an additional 10.00 charge.  For staff,faculty, HIN and community clients, and additional charge of 10.00 would be added to the charge and paperwork would go to a collection agency.

Following a recent update, the FCA (Collection Agency) or registrar withhold follow up is done once a client has bills of 25.00 or more, rather than 10.00 or more as it used to be.

So  clients will not receive additional charges or FCA or Registrar Withhold follow up for unpaid bills until charges reach 25.00.

UCLASS

The HSL shared drive files are going to be reorganized using the UofC UCLASS system.  Sara will be sending out some information by email next week.  More details on the system are available at: http://archives.ucalgary.ca/uclass

HSL Shared Drive 

As part of our file reorganization, staff are asked to review any of their files in the R drive.  Please flag any duplicate or outdated files for review.

Cont Ed

More updates regarding Cont Ed client access to online resources…..

The UCID login is now ContEd’s standard for both Blackboard and EZproxy (Blackboard is no longer requiring the use of eID if a ContEd student has one), and that should result in fewer trouble calls to the library from users who know their eID but not UCID.

If you do get trouble calls on this issue, please gather as much information as you can (student number, course number, date of last class, date problem was noticed), and pass that information on to Andrew Pasterfield.

Term Loan Fines

You may have noticed that term loans due back on January 15^th had a one day grace before fines were accessed.  This had to do with system set up over the break.

Commons Moveable Wall 

With instruction sessions beginning once again, staff at the service desk are asked to check the Commons schedule and manage the moveable wall as necessary according to the printed weekly schedule of sessions posted on the board by the Commons.

The Commons is reserved on January 25^th for wall maintenance.  Representatives from the company will be here to address some concerns with the panels.

Exam Proctoring

As reported in the November notes, HSL is no longer supporting exam proctoring for external or U of C clients because of capacity issues. HSL/HIN will continue to support proctoring for AHS staff.

Non AHS, and U of C clients requesting exam proctoring can be referred to the University proctoring service at:

http://www.ucalgary.ca/registrar/exams/externalexams

 For AHS exam proctoring questions that come to HSL, requests should be directed to hslibr for follow up.  Staff can certainly assist clients with this process.

Consumer Health Client Loan Limit

“Consumer health” clients (those with a patient profile in Sirsi), are able to borrow from the Consumer Health collections only.   They did have a loan limit of 50 items at any one time however following recent discussions it was agreed that this limit would be reduced to 25.

Sirsi now limits the number of loans for “consumer health” clients (those with a patient profile in Sirsi) to 25.  Any loans beyond that would require staff authorization and override.

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

Thanks.

Mary