Computer Assistance Available Now!

The Computer Assistance Desk is open and ready for business!

The desk is located on the west side of the 3rd floor of Library West (across from the Orange printer and next to room 317, which is the Information Technology Services Office).

This desk will be staffed full time by highly knowledgeable students and staff. The desk will be open from 10am until 5pm Monday through Friday.

Any and all technology related questions may be directed to the friendly staff at the Library West Computer Assistance Desk. They will be able to field questions ranging from frozen computers to activating Gator 1 cards and everything in between.

This desk is not only for our patrons but our faculty and staff as well! You can also give them a call with your questions at 273-2668.

Need Ares Training?

Additional training for Ares will be held on Tuesday, September 4th at 8:30am in MSL L107.

This training is specifically designed for desk staff who have to help patrons find their course reserve items in Ares. I know I've been getting a LOT of these questions on the desk since fall started.

Endeca request* Issue

At the moment in Endeca there are error messages associated with Storage items with a ‘request*’ link (notice the lowercase r and the asterisk).

When you try to request these items, you may encounter an error message that says ‘Patron does not have permission to place a hold request for this item’.

(You can all see for yourself with 843.91 K66r 1953).

FCLA is aware of this issue, and are trying to fix it. In the meantime when you encounter this error, please direct the patrons to use the alternate request form at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/Storage/StorageRequest.asp which they can access via the Retrieval Help link at the top of the page.

Please note: in Endeca clicking the Retrieval Help link will not open a separate window. You may want to force it to open in a new tab or window so that you can easily cut and paste information into the form.

Regular items with the normal ‘Request’ link should not be affected by this problem. (Note the capital R and there is no asterisk.)

Endeca

With the Endeca implementation this week I thought many folks would appreciate some sort of help getting used to this new system.

Matthew provided this link to the Endeca online tutorial. Please go through the tutorial on your own, and then try to use Endeca as much as possible in your normal daily work.

As you notice issues or run into questions please email them to me (with as much detail as possible) and I will compile all our questions and concerns to the appropriate folks for answers.

Also there is an online help guide accessed by clicking “help” next to the Endeca search bar.

One very important caveat though: when looking up items that are on course reserves check the Aleph OPAC instead. Endeca isn't showing the current status of these course reserves items "live." Instead it is updated once or twice a week (we're not sure of the exact schedule). So while you can trust the Available vs. Checked out status, you can't be sure about whether the item is on reserve yet or not based on Endeca's information.

Orientation Time

It's that time of the semester again. Orientations are available online at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/instruct3/orientation.html where they can find the listed times for the in-person sessions and the link to the online orientations.

For tours of the building you can refer them to the lovely map brochures to go on a self-guided tour. Or they can attend one of the orientations- I'm told they might do a tour if time allows at the end.

No reservations are needed for the orientations.

Returned Study Carrel Keys

If you have a patron returning a key for their study carrel (the ones that are assigned to Graduate or Faculty for the year) please refer this to circulation staff. The keys are overdue and their is a block that must be manually removed when the key is returned.

By the way, the Carrel Application website is active again. It came up by yesterday before noon.

Endeca is LIVE

We've officially switched over to the Endeca interface to the catalog. I anticipate that many folks might be interested in a hands on training, so I'll be working on setting something up soon.

An important piece of information in the notice is: If you are ever using the Endeca OPAC and need/want to go to the Aleph OPAC for any reason, there is a link in the lower left of every Endeca OPAC screen to "Previous Library Catalog".

I know that in the Endeca interface you can't search by call number, so you'll want to switch over to Aleph for that. (I know I end up doing a lot of those kinds of searches on the desk.)

Happy Monday everyone!

Weekly Calendar is online now too

Now you can check the weekly calendar online as well. This is the place where all trades are recorded. I think I've also put in all the holidays we'll be closed for too. But if you notice one I missed let me know.

Right now I have the reduced Fall schedule as continuing till Winter Break, but we may end up closing the desk after Finals. We'll look at that later in the semester.

See you Monday!

The Fall Schedules are UP!

So many folks were able to stay on for the first three weeks of Fall! Thank you all for volunteering! The Fall Triage Schedule is up, and we'll start Monday. Keep in mind that Monday-Wednesday next week we'll only be open until 6pm though since it's still technically intercession.

We'll continue with the full schedule until September 10th when we'll switch to the reduced Fall Schedule. Again though, so many folks were willing to take shifts during these busy times. Thank you all!

Those who were unable to fit the Info point into your schedule with the reduced time coverage, we'll miss you. Hopefully we'll see you again in the Spring. My guess right now is that we'll do the three weeks of Triage again in the Spring, but we'll see what happens.

I'm trying to keep up with the Email Distribution List, but if you find you're still on the list and you should be removed, please let me know. I'm also trying to keep our page of Information Specialists up to date as well.

See you on the desk!

Graduate and Faculty Study Carrels

It's that time of year again. Time for Graduate and Faculty to apply for their study carrels.

Applications are being accepted until August 31st. Applicants use the online form at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/cars/.

Assignments will not be made until the first week in September. Then all applicants will be notified via email to check their online account at the same URL.

The application form allows room for special notes or requests, so please ask patrons to enter those there rather than contacting Lori Driscoll directly. She's happy to answer any policy questions, but here are links to them as well:

Online Policies for:
Graduate Students
Faculty

-------------------

I just had a question from a student about what classification number they should choose (e.g. 7ED, 8EG, 9EN etc.) I found the information below to be very helpful. It's from the online Graduate Student Catalog.

Classification of Students

6 - Postbaccalaureate students: degree-holding students admitted to postbaccalaureate credits.

7 - Graduate students seeking a first master’s degree.

8 - Graduate students who have earned a master’s degree, or who have earned 36 or more credits while seeking a graduate degree, but who have not been admitted to doctoral candidacy.

9 - Graduate students admitted to doctoral candidacy.

July Statistics

The July statistics are up. But I know what we're all really waiting for are the stats for the first month of fall!

Closed for Intercession

Today we officially start intercession and the Information Point will be closed until Monday 8/20. I have only a few people to hear from on the schedule and then I'll be sending around the fall triage schedule and the regular fall schedule via email.

Endeca Discovery Classes

The switch to Endeca is coming up sometime this month. Possibly even as early as next week. There are two classes coming up this week and I recommend everyone try to attend one if possible. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, August 7, from 1:00-3:00 in Library West 419
Friday, August 10, from 1:00-3:00 in the MSL L107

Class objectives:
-You will leave the class with a general understanding of the web pages your patrons will encounter.
-Review common search strategies
-Highlight Endeca’s unique query capabilities.

Workstation ID cards

If you have a patron who want workstation access and they can't use their Gator1 Card for some reason (they don't have one or theirs cannot be activated) please refer them to the circulation staff. The circ staff do have workstation ID cards they can give patrons, but there is an entire procedure to set them up in the system that they'll need to follow and the patron will need a photo ID to show the circ staff member as well.

Requests from Storage

Due to a problem with the server for the Alternative Form, any items requested from storage over the weekend (From Friday 1pm on) may not be able to be delivered any earlier than Tuesday (tomorrow). Check with circ staff for the most recent information.

Today on the desk

The Aleph v18 Upgrade seems to have gone rather smoothly. Be sure that you're opening v18 when on the desk. If you can't remember how to navigate in the new version, feel free to ask any of the circ folks for help, or you can call me at 3-2523 and I'll try to walk you through it.

There has been a problem this weekend and today with the Verify Patron server. This is the server that controls patrons ability to log in to the workstations and ID checker. Systems is working on it now and expect it to be working around noon today.

Minutes from Summer B Team Meeting: BIG changes afoot!

Happy Monday!

It’s time to talk about Fall. We talked about these items during our Summer B Team meeting, and as promised here is the email follow-up. I’ll also post this to the blog.

Hellos & Goodbyes:
Summer B is coming to a close, but I wanted to recognize the folks who came on board for Summer B and those who have had to leave as well. Michelle Foss and Matthew Loving joined the Information Point schedule in July. Sonia Tergas, Enrico Gumbayan and Margeaux Johnson have had to leave us. They will be missed.

Scheduling:
With the hiring freeze I know every unit is feeling stretched right now. With this in mind we’re trying something a little different this Fall. What we propose is from Monday, 8/20 – Friday, 9/7 we’d like to fully staff the desk with as many of our current Information Specialists as possible during these first three weeks of Fall.

After the third week of classes, starting Monday 9/10, we will change up the schedule and only staff the desk between the hours of 11am-3pm. Historically these are the busiest hours on the desk and the Circulation staff is spread thinly at this time due to lunches and meetings. This will cut our total Information Point coverage to only 20 hours a week. I’m hopeful that even though many of our Information Specialists are pressed for time having to take on additional duties due to the hiring freeze and other circumstances, we will be able to fully staff the desk during these peak hours.

So to this end, please contact me with two pieces of information:

1. Let me know whether you can maintain your current Information Point schedule through Friday, 9/7. If you need to change your schedule during these first three weeks, let me know and I’ll do my best to move shifts around to accommodate all requests. (The desk schedule for Summer will end on 8/9/07 for intercession.)

2. Let me know what days/times will work for you best between 11am-3pm for the remainder of the Fall semester. If you’re already scheduled during that time period and prefer to keep your timeslot unchanged, please let me know and you will have priority in that time slot. If you will be unable to continue volunteering on the desk after 9/7, please let me know that as well.

Training:
The folks at the meeting this week agreed that while the trainings are very useful and pertinent, we probably don’t need them offered for fall. There are only a few folks who haven’t yet been able to attend the trainings, and I was able to meet with each of them one on one to go over all the training objectives individually. We’ll revisit training for Spring. If you feel you need more practice with Ares, check out the tutorials online at: https://ares.uflib.ufl.edu/videos.html. They are very helpful. Also I’m happy to come out and spend a shift or two with you to provide any training you think you might need.

Survey:
We discussed the results of the General Satisfaction survey. The results are available online here and are overall very positive. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Statistics:
We took a look at the Summer A statistics. The number of questions was drastically lower than it had been during Fall and Spring, but the ratio between types of questions was consistent with the rest of the year. Current statistics are available online here.

Thank you to all of the Information Specialists for sticking with the desk this summer. While the traffic wasn’t nearly as high as the rest of the year, we did help nearly 3,000 patrons in May and June alone. We are making a difference out there!

The Big Silver Boxes:
This came up after our meeting, but I wanted to let everyone know that the new prototype for a replacement for our big silver boxes is up on display near the Information Point. Please come take a look at the prototype (note the information about how the real one will look- with etched glass, not clear) and express your opinions about it. If you’d like your comments to be anonymous, feel free to email them to me and I will compile them into a document for Carol and Lori.

Revisiting Printing in the Library

We had some confusion about printing from the circulating laptops. To revisit this issue I spoke with Amy Polk and confirmed that yes, patrons can print from the circulating laptops just like they can from any other library computer that prints. When they click print, they'll be prompted to enter a "print release key" which is basically a code-word they will use at the print release station to identify their print job. It can be anything they can easily remember.

Amy will work on getting some printing information/instruction up on the library website. I'll link to it from our Useful Links page as soon as it is up.

To recap on what computers are available with what capabilities:

We have 110 computers available in the General Computing Area (which includes everything on the 3rd floor except the 18 dual-monitor computers on the east side of the building).

These computers, the 2nd floor standing computers, and the laptops students can checkout will print to either the Blue or Orange printers. Both printers are on the 3rd floor. Orange is on the west side of the building, blue is on the east side next to the copier machine. A colored sticker on the monitor will indicate which printer they should go to. All the circulation laptops print to Orange, computers on the 2nd floor print to Orange, computers on the west side of the 3rd floor print to Orange and computers in the middle of the 3rd floor print to Blue.

Patrons' personal laptops can NOT print in the library at all.

The "Digital Media Center" has 18 dual-monitor computers with web design and image editing software. These 18 computers do NOT print.

There are 2 computers on the north side of the stacks on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. These may not have applications like MS office on them, but they do have internet access. These six computers do NOT print.

Returning videos & DVDs

When a patron turns in a video or DVD to you, please make sure to discharge it in Aleph before setting it on the back table. Or, if you aren't comfortable discharging in Aleph yet, you can also give them to one of the circulation students or staff to discharge. Circ will take care of putting them in the security cases and everything, but they will assume that any media on the back table have already been returned in Aleph.

Summer B Team Meeting

You've probably seen the email invitation already, but I thought I'd include it here as well. We'll be meeting Tuesday, July 24th from 10-11am for our Summer B Team Meeting in Room 253 (the conference room in Access Services. I'll meet folks outside the door to let everyone into the area. Hope to see you there!

Our tentative agenda includes:
Hellos & Goodbyes

Upcoming Fall semester:
-Recruitment
-Training: Any changes?
-Schedule: Any changes?

Results from the General Satisfaction Survey
Next Survey projected

Statistics from Summer A