Cybraryn Challenges

As most of you already know we have been having trouble with Cybraryn lately. Not because of the software but because of the network communication with the server. If someone tries to login or logout when that communication is not working, cybraryn will crash and leave the computer open to potential abuse. If you find a computer with the desktop background showing (the picture of Gavilan in the summer), reboot the computer. I have had to reboot student computers as much as 25 times in the course of a busy day.

A side effect of this is that these students are not being logged out fully due to the communication problem. So the number of accounts already in use is up. The easiest way to fix an account that is already in use is to override with the password. I did find out today that if the student clicks on the Wait button the system will reset the account if they are truly not logged in elsewhere. The hitch there is that this will take several minutes.

MIS is aware of this situation and they will be moving the software onto a more reliable/less congested server. We don't know when this will take place.

Anything else? Please use the comments for any comments or corrections.
Dana

New Books

Just added some exciting new titles to the New Book Shelf.

GavFest Thanks

Thanks to everyone that participated in our GavFest READ Bookmark - a - thon! My rough estimate is that we made 45-50 bookmarks on Saturday. I hope I said it enough on Saturday but here it is again. THANK YOU! Without everyone's help we couldn't have pulled this off!

Here is a sampling of some of the bookmarks.

NEW BOOKS

New books on display and on new book shelf, be sure to look them over.

Cris

Chat Reference and the Reference Statistics

Reference staff:
Let's add chat reference to our Phone/email column on the reference stat sheet.

We will divide that column into three columns. Phone / Email / Chat

This will allow us to track not only the usage but the time of day it is used.

Thanks for your help. I have gotten some use. How about anyone else?

New Books

Don't forget to see what's on the New Book Shelf.

ScienceDirect Trial

We currently have access to ScienceDirect College edition until 4/17/09. Here is a link to use from on campus. For those of us working from a geographically remote location please call me and I can set up access for you guys. Please review this database and how it might fit in to our collection of electronic information for our students.

Thanks
Dana

http://www.sciencedirect.com/college

Soc 4 reserves

There are two folders on reserve with articles for a Soc 4 class. One folder had some missing pages that were luckily available in the other folder. The contents of the folders looked like chapters of textbook(s) and photocopied articles. In talking with Shuk, it came up that maybe we could scan the chapters and articles (articles not available on EBSCOhost) and put them on eReserve behind our proxy so students would have to use their library cards to access them. If you have any ideas on this, please feel free to chime in.

GECA Science Class

Students from a GECA science class are all writing papers on the same topic: whether or not the U.S. should continue to fund space exploration. There’s a couple of ways of searching at the reference desk. What I tried is by subject: Outer Space—Exploration including further subdivisions OR using keywords: space exploration. Many appropriate print books are already checked out. We have some that are a little old (but still good for background/historical type info). Luckily we have several eBooks (search inside the books with keywords like funding, funds, financ*, benefit*, wast*, etc.) There is a good Info Plus series book in the reference collection: REF QB 500.262 S624 2009 (use its index to find “benefits” of space exploration, etc.)

Also don’t forget to try EBSCOhost, Opposing Viewpoints and CQ Researcher.

What is Where?

As a reminder to us all, here is a listing of what programs have been loaded on our library computers for student use in the evenings and what computers they are on.

Diet Analysis (+pdf printer) -- LIB008 - LIB010
Final Draft -- LIB006
Gaspar (Spanish language program) -- LIB000-LIB002, LIB004-LIB005
Kurzweil (oral reader for online resources) -- LIB007-LIB011, LIB017
QuickBooks -- LIB010-LIB011

We will be adding the Diet Analysis program to one or two additional computers soon. I'll update this post at that time.

Dana

New Books

Hi all
Once again I updated the new book shelf, check it out.

New Books

New Books on display

electronic books

Please note that some of the ebooks in the the online catalog do not have "eb" or "eab" in the call number. It's because they are missing Year of publication, or no call number is available for the record.

Examples:

Scarecrow of Oz [electronic resource] / by L. Frank Baum.
Baum, L. Frank, (Lyman Frank), 1856-1919.
199u
Library Location: Electronic Book
Call Number:
Status: Not Checked Out

Love and the witches [electronic resource] / Mary E. Wilkins.
Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins, 1852-1930.
1995
Library Location: Electronic Book
Call Number: PS1710 .L68
Status: Not Checked Out

New Books

Updated the New Book shelf again.

Cris

New Books

Just added some new books (nursing) and some sound recordings yesterday. Check it out here.

Cris