Tuesday, November 10, 2009

History 10 - primary source questions

We are getting more questions from History 10 students needing primary sources. Their assignment is to find a letter that is ideally from the time period of a historical event (ex. the Missouri Compromise), or at least not after 1877, and then write 5-7 pages about it's historical significance. I had luck with a Thomas Jefferson letter (on Library of Congress site) about the Missouri Compromise. Consult Kerry's class guide for more sources:

http://library.ucsc.edu/course-guides/history-10a-united-states-history-to-1877

Ref Desk hours during the upcoming holiday intersession

The Ref Desk hours, at both libraries, during the intersession are as follows:

December 14th - December 18th: 1-5pm
Monday, January 4, 2010: 10-5pm

Regular quarter hours resume on Tuesday, January 5th.


Friday, November 6, 2009

Online guides for Writing and Core classes

As we get used to our new website, it might be helpful to highlight a couple of ways to introduce Writing and Core students to research (thanks to Debbie and Annette):

Getting Started (linked on our home page)
-takes students step-by-step through constructing a research paper
http://library.ucsc.edu/content/constructing-your-research-paper

Writing subject guide (linked on home page under "Subjects" and "Course Materials & ERes")
-outlines research process steps with links
http://library.ucsc.edu/course-guides/writing

Class and assignment-specific guides

There are many class guides for this quarter. Take a look at either of these links when helping patrons at the desk:

Find research materials by subject
http://library.ucsc.edu/find-research-materials-by-subject

and

Course Materials & ERes
http://library.ucsc.edu/services/find-materials-for-courses

Serials review lists & letter out to faculty today


The serials review lists (titles proposed for
cancellation) and a letter to faculty announcing the
availability of the lists, have gone out to faculty.
If you get questions about where the lists are, they are available
here:http://library.ucsc.edu.oca.ucsc.edu/collections/budget-reduction-process
- Toward the bottom of the page there are links to each
division, click on those to see the title lists.
Faculty may submit comments through the survey/feedback
form on the page.

The feedback form is referenced several times on the page
but here is the link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=W_2b4gtNSaxnj9_2bJsDfypi5A_3d_3d

If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll do
my best to answer them.

Thanks very much,

Kerry

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Anthro 1 assignment

Students from Anthro 1 may come in looking for books located at S&E and McH respectively. The point of the assignment is to use the book as a jumping off point to explore broader themes, but they do have to be familar with the book. The instructor is encouraging students to look for these books in our libraries, local libraries and bookstores. The written assignment is due Nov. 24th, and students are looking for these items now.

As you may have guessed, most of these books are already checked out. I don't have a good solution for helping students, other than ILL. I'll see if I can catch the student I helped (and who sped off) for a copy of the assignment.

Here's a sample of some of the titles:

The old way : a story of the first people / Elizabeth Marshall Thomas McH Stacks DT1558.S38 T46 2006

Female fertility and the body fat connection / Rose E. Frisch S&E Stacks RG136 .F755 2002

Your inner fish : a journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body / Neil Shubin S&E Reading QM26 .S58 2008

Thanks,

Lucia

Friday, October 30, 2009

New Visitor Guides

There are new campus Visitor Guides from Admissions at the Ref Desk, on the shelf under the UCSC catalog and schedule of classes. It has a large, easy-to-read campus map, that includes up-to-date construction areas and new buildings.

San Francisco City Directories - now online - free

Subject: [calix] San Francisco City Directories - Now online - free

San Francisco City Directories are now online - free - Here are the direct links:
San Francisco City Directories
1927. http://www.archive.org/details/crockerlangleysa1927rlporich

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Word documents on public computers



A patron came to the desk before the IT desk was staffed and said her Word 2007 document wouldn't open on PC #7. I called ITS and
Frank said that the PC's do have a concerter pac installed and should automatically open Word 2007 docs. If they don't, have the patron try another PC and report that one by submitting a ticket to ITS. And that's what I did and it worked fine on another PC. So in case this happens to you on a morning watch, that's what to do.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Psych 3 class info and online guide

Hi All,

Last week I gave a talk at Cam Leapers Psyc3 class. There is a class guide at:

http://library.ucsc.edu/course-guides/psychology-3-research-methods

The guide is meant to walk students through their assignment, which requires that they find only 1 study to replicate

Cam really prefers that they use encyclopedias or textbooks to get a citation for a study. I linked students to citation linker forms, which is the most direct place to find out if we own something or to request it.

Students, however, may also try to use Psycinfo to find a paper that is about a study. If they go this route they must ONLY use peer-reviewed articles.
Hope this is useful.

Thanks,
Annette

Students accessing their home directory in Info Commons

Periodically a student will ask for help accessing their home directory, which is UCSC server storage space provided to all students, faculty, and staff. Here's how to get to one's personal directory from the PC and MAc stations in the Info Commons:

From Macs:
-go to Fetch (from the dock or finder)
-in the Host Name text box, type: unix.ic.ucsc.edu
-in the User Name text box, type your email login (without @ucsc.edu)
-select SFTP from Connect using the drop-down menu
-type in your password in the Password text box
-select Connect

From PCs:
-go to the Secure Shell page
-select the Secure File Transfer Client icon
-select Quick Connect
-in the Host Name text box, type: unix.ic.ucsc.edu
-in the User Name text box, type your email login (without @ucsc.edu)
-at the prompt, type your password
-select OK

Meeting Room Schedule link

There is now a link to "Mtg Rms/2353" on the toolbar of each Firefox browser on the Ref Desk computers. Please leave the Incident Form as the last link on the toolbar on the right so it's easy to access if we need it.

Saving docs on public computers: save often and wisely

There is not much more frustrating when a student comes up after a power outage and has lost their paper because they were only saving it to the desktop. So to help them avoid this, we've added some signage in the Info Commons to help them know how to save safely. And it's a good reminder for us to tell them. I conferred with Fish about this so here's the scoop:

Safest ways to save:
-Flash drive / memory stick
-CD
-Google docs
-Email to yourself

Unsafe:
-Desktop only
-Documents folder only

If they've only saved to the desktop or docs folder and the power suddenly goes out or flickers strongly enough, they will lose their paper and there is no way to recover it.

Alexander Street scheduled maintenance, Saturday, 10/17, 6:00 pm - 12 am


14 October 2009

Alexander Street will be doing scheduled maintenance across all collections on Saturday, October 17th from 6:00 PM TO 12:00 AM PDT.  Please be aware that you may see sporadic interruptions of up to one hour across all Alexander Street online collections on this date. In the event that downtime is prolonged for any reason, alerts will be posted to each affected collection.  Please share this information with yourcolleagues.

Contact:
Alexander Street Press
3212 Duke Street
AlexandriaVirginia 22314
USA
http://alexanderstreet.com


Jayne Dickson
CDL Information Services
California Digital Library
University of California
510.987.0550

Monday, October 12, 2009

Newspapers on reserve for American Studies 188


Please direct students in American Studies 188 to the circulation desk at S&E if they inquire about the selection of national and California newspapers from September 11, 2009 set aside for their class. We are lending them for 2 hours, like most other reserve items. I have added a note to this effect to the reserves list in Cruzcat.

--Nicole

New ILL manual forms

Hi all,

There was a time when community patrons without library accounts needed to complete a paper request form for items held at NRLF. No more! We now have online forms, which don't authenticate using library barcodes, so all those patrons who can't use Request can use these forms.

The forms are linked from the ILL pages (on the right hand side, under "Related Links"), and they live here:

books: http://library.ucsc.edu/services/borrowing/ill-manual-book-request-form
articles: http://library.ucsc.edu/services/borrowing/ill-manual-article-request-form

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Sarah

Thursday, October 1, 2009

New Hours for Library/Computing Commons Help Desk

Second Floor Computing Commons Help Desk McHenry Library

Staffed Hours:
Mon-Thu 1-9
Fri 10-5
Sunday 1-5
During these hours there will be a student on the desk, however, they do regular rounds to check on public computers throughout the day, if not present follow "contacting the help desk" procedure.

Contacting the Help Desk:
To contact the desk during the staffed hours when there is no student present or during un-staffed hours please call
459-2486 and leave a message. If there is an issue during off hours it will be addressed as soon as possible by library IT staff or by student workers.

You can also email help@ucsc.edu for issues, although if the ticket is submitted by a non-library staff it will take longer to filter to us. (hint: put "library public computing" in subject line)

Do not be alarmed if it takes 8-10 rings to get to the message, it is actually dialing our staff phone lines as well


What they do:
The Public computing help desk is there to assist with printing and computer use issues as well as best effort help for other library electronic resources such as MS office and library licensed publications.

Copying:
For card issues send the patron to the circulation desk where they can fill out a refund request.
For copier issues such as jams and toner see the Library Public Computing Help Desk.

Thanks,
Library IT
--

Frank Dang
University Library
ITS Technical Support Lead
(831) 459-1540

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Welcome Week Open House

Our beloved students are returning and we are preparing to welcome them. Here is what we will be up to for welcome week:

Monday, September 21:
12-3pm McHenry Library Open House (in the Media Center)
12-3pm S&E Library Information table

Tuesday, September 22:
11:00a, 12:00p, 1:00p McHenry Library tours
11:00a, 12:00p, 1:00p S&E Library tours

Wednesday, September 23:
11:00a, 12:00p, 1:00p McHenry Library tours
11:00a, 12:00p, 1:00p S&E Library tours

QuestionPoint difficulties



Just a note to let you know that the QuestionPoint service has been crashing frequently over the last week or two. Obviously QP is working hard to fix this but reports are now coming in that librarians and patrons are becoming increasingly frustrated by the ongoing problems. Should you hear from a frustrated patron please assure them that the problem is being addressed and that there are alternative ways of contacting us listed on our Ask-A-Librarian page <http://library.ucsc.edu/info/askalibrarian.html>.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Map Room Closed 9/7-9/21

The Map Room at S & E will be closed for 2 weeks after Labor Day (9/7), reopening on Sept. 22nd.
Patrons may return maps & aerials at the Sci Lib Circulation Desk.