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.

Friday, December 12, 2014

HSL Access Notes - December 12th


Hello,

 

A few notes for the week….

 

Farewell

We will be wishing farewell to Nicole Talsma this week who will complete her term with HSL on Friday.   We will miss you Nicole and will be thinking of you and wishing you well from HSL!

 

Doucette now offering Onshelf Holds

Starting today, clients can now place HOLDS on items on the shelf at the Doucette Library.

Everything, including kits, is holdable and we will be monitoring this to see if this becomes an issue for in transit purposes (some kits are very large and present an awkward size for shipment). 

Also, because this is an education collection, it includes materials for learners of all ages.

 

Network Outage

The planned UofC Network Outage December 27th – 29th will interrupt access to online library resources and services.  There will be a slide created for our flat panel and webpage to notify clients.

 

Printer

Our back up printer has had some adjustments and seems to be priming at a more reasonable speed.  We are going to continue to monitor.  Please let Lourdes know if you encounter any further problems with this printer.

 

Instruction Winter 2015

The instruction schedule for the winter 2015 term is now posted.  Handouts are available for clients at the desk.

 

Electronics

Chelsea has created a easy-reference list of our electronics in our staff electronics cabinet. 

All of the circulating electronics can be found in Sirsi under the brief record HSL A/V Electronics. 

All Apple accessories have labels to indicate name and function.

 

RefWorks

All those who have accounts with the  popular citation management software RefWorks accounts for the University of Calgary will  have received notification about the account migration planned for December 18, 2014 at 11:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, with an anticipated downtime of approximately 2 ½ hours.

Lorraine Toews has prepared and distributed a comprehensive reference guide to assist clients who come to the desk with questions about the migration and next steps.

Three are copies of the document for clients at the service desk by station #3 and in the consult office.  The information does include Customer support contact information if clients deed in depth assistance.

LCR Christmas Social

Hawaiian Holiday celebration!

Get into the spirit of the Islands!

Break out your tropical wear and enter our Contest!

Anything wearable goes - Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, wide-brimmed sunhats and shades

Wednesday, December 17th

Lunch, 12:00 – 2 :00 p.m.

TFDL Gallery Hall, Main Floor, Taylor Family Digital Library

Holiday greetings from Tom at 12:45 p.m.

We are accepting donations of cash and/or non-perishable Food items for the Campus Food Bank

Tropical dress winners announced at 1:45 p.m.

Voting closes at 1:30 p.m.

You don’t have to be present to win

 

Christmas Hours

The UofC will be closed at noon on December 24th – January 1st.  Regular hours resume January 2nd.

No items will come due over the holiday break.

 

A message from HR:

As we enter into the holiday season we once again have many Statutory Holidays and University Float days that we enjoy.  They are:

 

Statutory Holidays                                                                      University Float Days

December 25, Thursday – Christmas Day                            December 29, Monday   

December 26, Friday – Boxing Day                                         December 30, Tuesday
January 1, Thursday – New Year’s Day                                  December 31, Wednesday

 

Time worked from December 16, 2014 up to and including December 31, 2014 will be paid on your January 9, 2015 pay deposit.  To ensure your pay is accurate all time must be entered by midnight January 2, 2015 and approved no later than 4:00 p.m. on January 5, 2015.

 

 

Inter-hospital Delivery

The last day for sending items out the Knowledge Resource Service Calgary sites via inter-hospital transit, will be Friday, December 19th.

 

Knowledge Resource Service DDS December dates

Ordering via Docline (ILL):   last day to order Dec. 17
Returning books via Canada post :  last day to return Friday, Dec. 19
Resume Docline on Monday, Jan. 5.

No Docline @ ACH until Feb. 2015

 

Generic Emails

Could staff who monitor the generic email accounts please ensure that a holiday ‘away’ message is added for the 24th – January 2nd?

Thanks.

 

Wishing everyone a very joyful Christmas season!

Friday, December 5, 2014

HSL Access notes - December 5th


 
Hi, 

 

A few notes to end the week…..

 

Christmas Social

Please join us for the annual Christmas social at HSL on Tuesday, December 9th  from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Our event will be catered by EthniCity, a non-profit social enterprise of the Centre of Newcomers. 

Homemade Christmas desserts, and beverages will also be provided.

We are looking forward to this time together.

 

Child Unattended in Library

Please be aware that an unattended boy, aged around 10, has been spending time in a number of library branches on main campus recently.   When approached by staff he becomes very nervous and tearful and leaves immediately.   Info gathered to date indicates

1.       He lives on campus with his parents.

2.       His parents work (?) on campus.

3.       He is approximately 10-12 wearing an orange top, black pants and glasses.

4.       He is of Asian descent and had a slight accent.

If you do see this boy in Health Sciences Library, we do not want to alarm him, however please notify security who can speak to him about his situation.

 

Desk coverage in December

With a number of staff away as holidays approach, we will be shorter staffed both at the service desk and in the DDS unit.   Thanks to all for the extra single staff coverage at the desk, and extra work to provide vacation service coverage.

 

Sirsi Holiday Closure Dates

·         The closed dates in the Sirsi system will be Saturday, Dec. 20th through Sunday, Jan. 4th.

o   This means that 2 week loans from Dec. 6th onward will be due on Jan. 5th.

o   Items recalled from Dec. 6th through 22nd will also be due on January 5th.

·         Items charged to “transit” cards for over 2 weeks will get overdue notices. These may be disregarded.

·         To save power, and because of the network outage on Dec. 27th to 29th, we will shut down the SelfChecks at all locations, by noon on Dec. 24th.

·         For the holds processing around the closed dates:

o   The cleanholdshelf report will be suspended after Sat., Dec. 20th until we catch up on Jan. 2nd.

o   The OnshelfHoldsList report will be suspended after Sat., Dec. 20th until we catch up on Jan. 2nd. The OnshelfHolds3+daysold report will be suspended after Sat., Dec. 20th until we catch up on Jan. 5th.

·         The last delivery from the HDL will be Wed., Dec. 23rd, resuming on Jan. 2nd.

·         Term Loan Due Date Reminders will be sent out in the morning on Jan. 6th. The new term loan due date after January 6th will be May 15th, 2015.

 

Touch Table

The cameras in the touch table are not operating.  Efforts to repair have not been successful to date.  We can still use the programs on the table with the mouse and keyboard. 

 

1459 AV

The TV screen and computer set up for staff use in 1459, may also be used by clients if requested.  While the better rooms for student screen use are 1453, 1454 and 1455, if these rooms are bust staff could log student into the system in 1459.  Please do not give our the password to clients.  Please ensure students to not move the unit.

It can be used with either a laptop or the installed computer.  A wireless keyboard and mouse will be ordered.

The computer will remain on.  To use simply turn on the screen (power button on back along right hand side) and log on.

Select the hsl1459 login option and use password:  hsl14.

When done, please log off only – do not shutdown.  Please turn screen off.

PLEASE NOTE:  The screen is a bit top heavy on the current stand, so please use caution and do not adjust.  If the unit does need to be rolled out of the way, please use two people to keep it steady.

 

 

Printer

We are still finding that the printing at the back up printer is very slow for jobs that include a lot of images.  Both LCR ITS and Xerox are working on the issue, but in the meantime Glenn has added the circ area printer and the admin area printer as printer options for the backup workstation.  These options would be recommended (circ area for B\W and admin-colour for colour) if printing jobs seem to be too slow on the back up printer.  Also, the backup printer defaults to double-sided printing.

 

RefWorks

Message from Susan Beatty…

 

Export to Refworks function in Summon and databases is currently unavailable. If you wish to save your references please use the email function.   Our apologies for the inconvenience.

This message will be posted on library.ucalgary.ca

 

UC Network Outage December 27-29

As part of the ongoing Network Renewal Program, IT has scheduled a network outage December 27-29 to complete comprehensive upgrades to key network infrastructure. Nearly all IT services will be unavailable or intermittent during this window, including:

 

·         Email – all incoming email will be cached and distributed to inboxes upon completion of the outage.

·         Office 365

·         ucalgary.ca websites

·         Student Centre

·         Degree Navigator

·         Desire2Learn

·         myUofC

·         Campus wired and wireless networks

 

While this outage was determined to have the least impact to the university’s core business, some on-campus users may be impacted by the outage.

 

Organizations on campus that continue to run during the holiday break that may require access to the university network are encouraged to contact their IT Partner or email itsupport@ucalgary.ca prior to December 8 to allow time to investigate potential workarounds.

 

Action Required: Prior to leaving for the holiday break, please ensure all documents are saved and that your desktop computer is powered off to prevent loss or corruption of data.

 

United Way

Info from John Wright on the United Way campaign…

The official campaign ends November 30th. However, pledging will be remain active until December 12th.   

 

According to the latest statistics LCR staff have made  pledges totaling $8477.00.  We also raised $2757.50 throughout the Book Sale, which was the third highest sum raised by any faculty event on campus. So thanks again to Molly Taylor and Michael Hoskin and all those who volunteered to make that a success. 

 

The LCR pledges represent a participation rate just over 14%.  Thanks to a commitment made by Tom Hickerson on behalf of LCR, this means we have so far also raised $1400 dollars towards helping Student Wellness programming on campus; 100$ for every percentage of our participation rate.  

 

It would be wonderful if we could use this last two week window for this year to add a few  more pledges to LCR’s tally in order that we could make our donations count twice, and so that we could boost the University’s overall participation rate

 

And once again, I cannot thank enough those who have pledged or volunteered, as well as those who have given through campus events. I look forward to seeing our final results come December.

 


John

 

Thanks. 

Mary