Online requests for Graduate and Faculty Carrels

Applications are now being accepted for the Fall 2007 - Summer 2008 school year. See the page online here for the answers to most questions.

To access the online application, patrons go to the main library page and click "Online Requests" at the very top of the screen. From there they can scroll down to "Library Study Rooms."

Desk closing for Intercession

We will be closing the Information Point during the week of Intercession from June 25th to June 29th. I know it seems far away, but folks have already been looking at making trades for that week.

We'll look into whether we'll close for Summer/Fall Intercession later in the summer.

Course Reserves system down

The Course Reserves system (ERes) is down. Docutek is working on the problem now and they hope to have it working by lunchtime today.

In the meantime, if a student needs an item from Hard Copy Reserves, you can find it either by course number and professor name if it is owned by the instructor, or if it is a library owned item and they know the title, you can look it up in the catalog and then find it on the shelf by call number.

If you need help, you can ask the circulation folks on the desk to see if they can assist as well.

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UPDATE 10:40am

Course Reserves is back up and working. Thank you for your patience!

Students not enrolled during summer

If a student is not enrolled during the summer we refer requests for library access (e.g. card activations) to the circulation staff. But I thought it would be helpful for us to know the policies the circulation staff are following with regards to these patrons.

Click here for Graduate Students.


Click here for Undergraduate Students.

Circulation Desk table completely changed

You'll notice when you come to the Information Point that the table behind the circulation desk looks a LOT different! We've purchased headphones for the patrons to use, and (for the moment at least) they are housed on that back table.

The things that were displaced from the table (the stack of black boxes for example) are now back in the reserves area (near the 24 hour hold shelf).

If the arrangement changes I'll let you know here.

But the cool thing is that we have a lot more headphones to lend out to patrons now!

Food and Drink Pilot

In case you missed the email from Carol:

For the summer, we are permitting snack foods such as granola bars, chips, crackers, cookies, candy, nuts, and small fruits and vegetables throughout Library West along with covered drinks. Other foods must still be consumed in the study area across from Starbucks or outside. Staff who observe inappropriate foods (hot entrees, salad, pizza, soup, and anything hot, messy, or odorous) should ask the patron to take the food to the area across from Starbucks or outside the building.

Several things are being done to advertise the project. There will be posters at the entrance, a notice on the web page, and a press release. A survey will be distributed to gather user reaction to the pilot project. Copies of the survey will be available at the entrance, the circulation desk, and the research assistance desk. Please encourage library users to complete the survey. Surveys will be returned to the Circulation Desk and the Research Assistance Desk. Amanda Humphries will gather the surveys each day during the lunch hour.

Also, Barbara Hood has designed some new heavy paper coasters as a way to keep our table surfaces neater. These will be distributed throughout the building, and they are certain to be popular.

Here is some of the project publicity.

The surveys are at the desk (there is a stack right at the Infopoint) and if you have someone turn one in to you, there is an orange folder on the table behind the circ desk (in the black stacked boxes where you put the ILL orange slips).

Public Printing Patchy Today

Public printing will be unavailable intermittently from 5:00 pm until 9:00 pm on Friday, May 18th. Systems will be working with Xerox and Equitrac to install updates to their server.

Remember that students can go to any of the Circa labs to print, or to the Reitz Union for free printing.

Faculty dropping books off for Course Reserves

If a faculty member or TA wants to place items on Reserves, here are the steps as outlined by the Course Reserves staff:

To place items on Course Reserve there are 4 easy steps:

1. Go to the Course Reserves online form: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ereserves where you log in using your GatorID and password.

2. Fill out appropriate form. If you have a book, click on “Book” and fill out the citation information. Do the same if you have a “journal” or “multimedia” item. If you have a personal item, a call number will be automatically generated. If this is a roll-over class, click the corresponding radio button and fill out the class roll-over information. Quick Tip: copy & paste the citation from your syllabus as it will save you time. A full citation is required.

3. Be sure to fill out the Copyright form, if necessary. You can fax it to us at 392-6540.

4. Once the form is completed, hit the “submit” button. You will be given a confirmation number. Please print for your records and/or save the e-mail for future reference if you call us during the semester. You will need to include this confirmation number on any personal items that you bring in to the library circulation desk for Reserves processing.

For us on the desk, the key words here are: "You will need to include this confirmation number on any personal items that you bring in to the library circulation desk for Reserves processing." We need to make sure that we don't accept materials that do not have a confirmation number. If you have any questions or the faculty member has a question, please call back to the Course Reserves staff at 273-2520.

Once the faculty member has the confirmation number and the materials together, they can be placed on the shelf in the back. The shelf is labeled, and it's the one right next to the 24 hour hold shelf (between the Reserves shelves and the Hold shelves). There is a log there as well where you can log in the materials received.

New popup message when checking out books

The folks at ALF are starting a new reclass project where items that are requested from storage will be reclassed from Dewey to LC and then put on the shelves at West. To this end, items requested from storage will have a circ note added to them by the folks at ALF so that they will be sent for reclass when they are returned by the patron.

Basically, this means that when you check out an item to a patron that was in storage it will pop up with a circ note that will say "Return to Cataloging for LC Reclass." You can totally ignore this message, click "OK" and continue checking the materials out as normal. This message is simply there to notify the folks checking in the books to send them for reclass instead of returning them to ALF.

If you have any questions though, please ask one of the circulation staff.

Activating cards over the summer

If you have patrons who are not enrolled in Summer classes who want/need library privileges, please refer them to the Circulation staff. They have specific policies and procedures to follow in who gets this kind of access and how they go about setting it up in Aleph.

We can activate cards for students who are enrolled in classes, like we have been doing all along. But if anything seems unusual about their Aleph account (the expiration date has passed, their 8 digit UFID isn't in the system, etc.) please refer them to Circ for help.

Do not circulate Judaica Reference Materials

We just received an email from Emily Madden with the Price Library. While some select reference materials can be checked out from the 3rd floor (with permission) we are not to EVER check out Judaica Reference items. This might change later on when the new librarian comes on board, but for now, any questions about this policy can be directed to Emily Madden at: 273-2791.

Summer Trainings have been trimmed

Well, we've trimmed back the summer training sessions. For our new folks on the desk, I'll spend your first shift on the desk with you to answer questions and provide some 1:1 training. For everyone though, the three more important training sessions to attend are:

Interlibrary Loan (new interface) - Wednesday, May 8th 11-12pm in West 419

Course Reserves (new Ares system) - These were last week, but I can ask if one more session could be offered if there is interest. Please let me know soon if you were unable to attend one of the trainings.

Aleph v18 training sessions (4 sessions) - Right now 3 of the 4 classes have been scheduled. You will be able to sign up using the new training database at this site soon.

Introduction to v.18 Circulation Client: in West 419
* Monday, May 14th 9-10am
* Tuesday, May 15th 4-5pm
* Wednesday, May 16th 10-11am
* Thursday, May 17th 3-4pm

Borrowers: in West 419
* Monday, May 21st 10-11am
* Tuesday, May 22nd 4-5pm
* Wednesday, May 23rd 9-10am
* Thursday, May 24th 3-4pm

Loans and Returns: in West 419
* Tuesday, May 29th 10-11am
* Tuesday, May 29th 4-5pm
* Thursday, May 31st 9-10am

April Statistics are up

The statistics for April are in. This was the first full month after we'd shortened our hours to 10am-8pm. What will really be interesting is seeing what our first real summer in the new building brings. Enjoy Intercession! See you on the desk starting May 14th!

Summer Trainings

Well, Trainings are to start next week. The most important sessions for everyone to attend are:

Interlibrary Loan Information
Date: Wednesday, May 9th 11:00 - 12:00 pm in West 419
Trainer: Michelle Foss
Trainees will be able to:
* Direct a patron to ILL/Illiad appropriately.
* Demonstrate using the new Illiad interface.
* Explain basic Interlibrary Loan policies.
* Locate and Checkout ILL items
* Accept ILL Returns appropriately

New Course Reserves Information
Dates: Monday- Friday, April 30th - May 4th 10:00 – 11:00 am in West 211
Wednesday & Thursday, May 2nd & 3rd 7:00 – 8:00 pm in West 211
Trainer: Michelle Foss
Trainees will be able to:
* Direct a patron to Ares as appropriate.
* Identify items in the UF catalog as being on reserve and explain basic course reserve policies.
* Demonstrate finding course reserves materials online in Ares.
* Locate and Checkout Reserve Items.
* Return Reserves Items appropriately.

Aleph v.18 Training
Dates: TBA
Trainers: TBA
With the upgrade to Aleph 18 coming up there will be several trainings coming up that will apply to all of us on the Information Point. So rather than have Matthew hold his usual Circulation Basics training session, I’ll email you with the dates and times for the Aleph v.18 sessions relevant to the Information Point as they are announced. It looks like there will be at least 3 of these sessions that will be important for us to attend, possibly 4.

I haven't had much response on any of the other trainings (the same ones we've offered each semester). We have 5 new volunteers joining us on the desk, so if no one else is interested in attending these trainings, we might cancel those and I can train our new teammates individually on the desk. I'll let you know via email if we do cancel any sessions.

A BIG little change on the UF homepage

I just found this today, and I know it's new as of last week when I was on the desk.

On the UF homepage, when you click "Libraries" it used to take you right to the uflib.ufl.edu page. But now it takes you to a page about all the UF libraries (which I can see does make sense). It just adds an extra step when showing patrons how to get to the library homepage, but I can see it really throwing someone for a loop the first time it happened.

So now you click "Libraries" and then on the left side of this new page you click "George A Smathers Libraries" to get to our homepage.

Xerox problem log & Illiad issues

Just to confirm what is below in the meeting minutes from our April meeting, the logbook for Xerox problems is actually a clipboard. It's located on the table behind the circulation desk. If you have any problems with the Xerox copiers or card dispensers reported, please follow the procedures outlined below and on the flowchart here.

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Illiad is having some authentication problems. So someone trying to use ILL, even if they've been in the system for years, might be getting errors when they try to login to Illiad. If you have a patron with this problem, call Michelle Foss at 3-2541, or if she is not available call the main ILL line at 3-2535 for help.

Government Documents are special

But you knew that right.

I found out today that items from the Gov Docs collection cannot be returned to other libraries, they must return them to the Gov Docs department. This doesn't seem to come up much, but we did have one item end up here at West today.

PK Yonge vs PK Yonge Library of Florida History

This came up last week. A professor came up to the Information Point and told us that library staff sent some of his students to the wrong library - they were asking for the PK Yonge Library of Florida History, which is housed in Special Collections in Library East, but were accidentally sent to the PK Yonge School. That's an awfully long walk to end up at the wrong owning location.

So, now we know there is a PK Yonge Library of Florida History in Library East. I learn something new everyday!

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Another topic that will be coming up more and more now that Summer is nearly here:
Question: If a student is graduating this Spring and starting Grad school at UF in the summer, will they have library privileges over the summer?

Answer: if they are here during spring, and enrolled for Fall, then the student can have library privileges during the summer. Usually their card access will expire in mid to late May, but if they bring it to the Circulation desk, Circ staff can give them access for the rest of the summer.

April Team Meeting Minutes

Minutes from today's meeting:

Statistics- We looked at the February and March statistics (which are available online).
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Schedule- We discussed the Summer schedule and a few folks have moved around. If anyone would like to move to a different time slot, or split their shift please just let me know. I'm sure we can find a schedule that works for everyone. There are several slots available since we have had a few folks who needed to drop off the schedule for the summer. (Although several are returning in the fall.)
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Reports- We discussed a few issues:

Reporting Problems with the Copiers, Printers, or Copy Card Dispensers:
Carol shared that it is very important that all service desks consistently report any and all problems we're having with the Xerox equipment. Even if it seems to be a minor issue we need to document it. A procedure has been put into place as of today.

When staff at the desk or within any branch location become aware of a failed Copier, Card dispenser or printer:

1.) Notify your Systems Liaison. (This is Scott Fagen for the Infopoint.)

2.) If the Systems Liaison is unavailable for immediate assistance:

a. Call Xerox at 366-4407 – if they don’t answer, leave a message.

b. Document the problem in the Xerox log book at the desk (It will be on the back table behind the desk)

c. Email the Liaison (Scott Fagen) of the steps you have taken.

3.) The Liaison will always submit a SysHelp.

So basically the end result will always be Scott putting in a Syshelp for us. That way they'll have consistent documentation gathered of all problems. If you have any questions about a copier/card dispenser/printer issue, you can ask one of the circulation staff members or contact Scott (or Angela of course). No problem is too small to report.

Phone calls:
It has come up a few times that a patron wants to either know where the closest pay phones are, or wants to use the Circ phone. After speaking to the Access Services folks I've gotten the following information.

Guidelines for patrons using the Circ phones: The circulation staff really don't let patrons use the phone unless it is a very unusual circumstance (the example was someone whose wallet was stolen and they were calling UPD). So if you have a patron who is adamant about using the phone and you're not sure it's permissible refer them to the pay phones, campus phones or to circulation staff.

Pay phones are located: Across the street in front of Target Copy

Working Campus phones are located: In Bryan Hall (east of us, past Anderson and Matherly halls) and in Criser Hall. The one that is outside of Library West does not work.

VHS vs DVD:
A few patrons have had this same issue where they are looking for a DVD but are searching in the VHS section or vice versa. To some patrons the word "video" is interchangeable with "DVD" and this can cause confusion. Just something to be aware of when an item isn't being found.

Also though, it is possible that an item is actually mislabeled or mis-shelved. If you find an item is mislabeled, Naomi requests that you send an email to the Cataloging Problems email address so that it can be fixed. If an item is mis-shelved or not found in the proper location, you can fill out an "Item Is Not On Shelf" form (on the back table) so that Access Services can initiate a search.

Fire Drill/Alarm Procedures:
The procedures for us to follow anytime the fire alarms go off are simply to lock your workstation and exit the building. However be aware that patrons with physical disabilities may not be able to leave the building via the stairs. You are not to wait with the person, but instead take their name and location (they may have an orange card with this information to give you) and report it to the first uniformed person you find outside the building.
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Training:
I've confirmed with the trainers that they are available and ready to hold training sessions during the week of May 7th-11th. I'll be sending out invitations to the sessions soon. If you haven't attended any one of these sessions before they are highly recommended. I've gotten excellent feedback on all of them. Folks have reported that they are highly relevant and useful when on the desk. Everyone is encouraged to attend each training at least once, although feel free to come for a refresher if you've attended before!
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Call for Volunteers:
The call went out via email yesterday. Please share with your colleagues how you've enjoyed working on the Information Point and encourage everyone to join us. The more the merrier! The only requirements are that they be a TEAMS or USPS position and that they have their supervisor's approval.

UPs and DOWNs

Fines going UP

Fines are increasing starting with Summer A/C this year. We have little information cards at the desk that can be handed out to patrons, and there is information online as well.

Semester winding DOWN:

The Spring semester is drawing to a close. The last day to staff the Information Point is Friday, April 27th.

Gearing UP for Summer:

It's time to think about the Summer!

Have you enjoyed working on the Information Point? Let me know if you're willing to volunteer again for the Summer!

Have you been looking for the opportunity to switch up your schedule a bit? Let me know if you'd like to change to a different shift!

Do you have some fellow officemates who have been jealous all Spring about all the fun you're having on the Information Point? Time to send them my way so that we can add them to our schedule!

Getting DOWN to business:

Finals Week is almost here. The Student Government is looking to offer free coffee and donuts in the 1st floor cafe area on April 26th. We don't have a lot of details at the moment, but more information should be forthcoming.

Training coming UP:

With Endeca on the way, a recently updated ILL interface, and now an upcoming new Electronic Reserves system coming this summer, we'll have lots of new training opportunities coming up as well. Watch this space for training dates! Well, I'll email you too. ;)