Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tip for Slug Card dispenser and "newer" bills

This worked for a student with a $5 bill that had color and the large image: try putting the bill in the opposite direction from what the bill slot says. It did not work the regular way, but it did this way. I don't know if this works for larger bills but it might.

Handout at Ref Desk explaining printing








IT Help Desk hours for Fall

The Fall Quarter hours for the IT Help Desk in the InfoCommons is:

Monday-Thursday: noon-3pm and 5pm-8pm
Friday: noon-5pm
Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: noon-3pm and 5pm-8pm

So folks working the 10am-noon Ref Desk shift may get more printing and computing questions.
Some incoming freshmen have their CruzID Gold passwords already, and some do not. So it's always good to ask if they do, as they often just buy a card when they didn't know they could charge printing to their accounts.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

An afternoon at the Fall Festival

Peggy McNicholas, Laura McClanathan and I set up a table at the OPERS Fall Festival yesterday and spent the afternoon meeting students and talking about the library. We asked passersby,"Have you been to the library yet?" and passed out fliers on services and hours.  If students didn't know where our libraries were located we gave them personalized maps with directions from their college to both McHenry and S&E.  We talked to close to 300 students both new and returning.  Returning students were especially happy to hear that we have been able to restore library hours thanks to the passage of Measure 42.  Every student we talked to expressed positive support for the library as reflected in this sampling of comments we collected:

- Yay! we love McHenry!
- Thanks for keeping it open!
- I love the library - I'm a fan!
- The library is our favorite

It was a great day, a wonderful event, spent with good company.  Here are some photos:


facsimile services on-campus

In addition to those services offered by the former XpressIt! (now absorbed by Print Services and located at B66, Baskin Engineering), faxes can be sent and received at Bay Tree Bookstore as well. Although this information is not currently listed on the bookstore's Web site (though see: http://summer.ucsc.edu/services), the service has been verified by their staff; charges are identical to those levied by Print Services (http://printing.ucsc.edu/printing/fax.html).

KL

Fall desk shifts begin tomorrow

Hello Deskers,

Fall desk shifts begin tomorrow, Thursday, September 23rd. I have posted the master schedule on the internal page (http://internal.library.ucsc.edu/ref/schedule/). This schedule will be migrating very soon to the new staff portal, and I'll send out a message when that happens. I am also updating materials at the desk, so please let me know if you notice something I've missed that is out-of-date. And don't forget to log your questions on SurveyMonkey. The link is still on the Firefox browser on the desk computers.

We've reduced the handouts kiosk to one, and moved it by the pillar closer to the InfoCommons. There are fall hours fliers, and an updated "Top 10 things" flier. I've seen groups of students come in and take them, so please let me know if you see them out of stock. I'm keeping an eye on them too.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Laura

Monday, September 20, 2010

Precalculus book by Cohen

If you get asked here at McHenry for the Precalculus book by Cohen, we don't have it. It is only at the Science & Engineering Library:

http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/search/X?SEARCH=precalculus+cohen&searchscope=5&submit=Submit

Students are seeing this on the math placement test advising page, and I've let them know that it needs to be changed. Several students have already come by only to find that it is not here:

http://undergrad.pbsci.ucsc.edu/advising/gettingstarted/StudyGuideandPracticeExam.html

Thursday, September 16, 2010

(corrected) Reference Desk Transactions Report, Summer Sessions 2010

During the two summer sessions of 2010 (21st June–27th August), the McHenry Library Reference Desk was open for four hours per day, Monday through Friday, from 1 till 5pm. This tallies to a total of twenty hours per week, or 200 hours for the entire ten-week period. In that period, 387 desk transactions were logged by Reference staff in SurveyMonkey (of which 379 included explanatory remarks). Since Reference staff have been logging desk queries through SurveyMonkey (from March 2010), 2501 transactions have been recorded:

March (includes Spring Break week)—144
April—685
May—927
June (prior to Summer Session)—738

The distribution of queries shows that the 1–2pm hour is most popular with 31.3 percent (121) of transactions, descending with each subsequent hour: 27.4 percent (106) from 2–3pm; 19.6 percent (76) from 3–4pm; and 19.4 percent (75) from 4–5pm. Additionally, 2.3 percent (9) of the questions were recorded at times when desk service was not available. While the majority of transactions were under five minutes (55.3% or 214), 29.2 percent (113) were five minutes or longer; directional questions were only 15.5 percent (60) of the total. Just over 3 percent (76) of the total came to us via telephone, and 2 percent (52) were printing or computing questions. (These transactions do not include off-desk, Ask A Librarian/QuestionPoint, or personal e-mail enquiries.)


Transaction Highlights
  • Helped [emeritus librarian] determine the signature on an 1860 original letter he was transcribing from the Hihn-Younger Archive
  • Recent UCSC graduate: advice on applying to master's degree v. doctoral programmes in pursuit of teaching at community-college level; Web site for faculty postings at California community colleges
  • Emeritus-faculty proxy needed help with databases; also said that he has always received great service from our desk, and how much he appreciated that
  • Assisted two lecturers working on a project which required analyzing the table of contents and physical layout/arrangement of a few journals. We only had electronic access to the journals they needed…. I suggested they contact an ENVS professor who I knew once used to edit the journal to see if he had a personal print subscription.
  • Patron looking for data sets related to education from the perspective of population, transportation, health, environment, etc. Showed him ICPSR, several federal gov. sites, Rand California and our statistics guide. Also gave him contact info for [local ICPSR rep] and Lucia
  • Books, articles, primary documents on Wilder Ranch, its history, and the Ohlone who lived in the area > extensive searching for, variously, Wilder Ranch, Rancho Refugio, Ohlone, Awaswas tribelet in local history titles in Reference Area, Cruzcat, SCPL, America: History & Life + advice on general Spain>Mexico>US California history and land grants
  • Graduate student had ILL request for microfilm from New York State Archives denied as 'no lending library' although NYSA site states desired items 'available through ILL' > contacted our ILL, who will contact NYSA directly to enquire about item + found microfilm purchasing information on NYSA site to offer patron alternative if ILL unsuccessful
  • 1970s-80s index for Santa Cruz Sentinel? > no such, but showed patron how to use SCPL Newspaper Clippings file along with microfilm
  • Community member: reliable Web information/advice on home foreclosure options and alternatives > found relevant pages at HUD, FDIC, California Department of Real Estate
  • UCSC staff member who is also a Cabrillo summer student needed help finding an expert from UCSC on global warming to interview for a project. Helped him find several names and printed contact info, primarily [Earth & Planetary Sciences faculty] who spoke on the topic for Synergy
  • Historical information about the invention of the washing machine - found one book in Ref and several in stacks. Also wanted advertisements from different decades. Gave her call no. for All-American Ads by decades.
  • Tutorial on finding popular articles reporting new scientific research then finding scholarly studies on which articles are based > New York Times and Academic Search Complete, then PubMed and PsycINFO
  • [Community researcher] needed help finding and accessing a document on land use from 1878. It's an online document that Hastings owns in their Making of Modern Law database. He'll have to visit Hastings to access it. Also spent time telling him how to best approach access to these documents, when to use Cruzcat, limitations of Melvyl, and about Calcat. He was very appreciative!
  • Former student doing an internship for [Politics faculty], researching mayors who are notable or “heroes”—Academic Search Complete, newspapers, how UC-eLinks works, ILL process, Cruzcat -- subject headings "mayors", Dictionary of National Biography, Gale Biographies database, ref book: Biographical Dictionary Of American Mayors, 1820-1980
  • Staff member looking for FCC decision concerning wireless signal boosters > found public notices and comments in FCC Electronic Comment Filing System, eventually determined from listed proceedings that FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau had jurisdiction in matter, went to their separate site and found Headlines Archive lists all official public notices, news releases, and orders/decisions > determined no decision has yet been made in the case of signal boosters (as comment is still being collected)
  • Researcher from UCSF called to verify a citation from Source: Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol & Addictive Behavior. We have title electronically, and in print. Almost needed to use the print because the title search didn't return results. Determined there was a slight title change from what the researcher had vs. the title in the source.
  • Advice on appropriate use, according to Chicago Manual of Style, of footnotes v. bibliography v. in-text notes v. reference list

Underground Newspaper Collection

If you've ever had to find anything in the Underground Press Collection, you know it can be confusing, so perhaps this will make it easier:

If you see "In: Underground Newspaper Collection" after a location of McH Microform,
(as in this example from the "People's Press": http://cruzcat.ucsc.edu/record=b1528604~S5),
then you need to look up that title in the guide to the Underground Newspaper Collection. The guide lives in the bookcase at the end of the microfilm cabinets that is closest to the microform readers. It is in call number order under PN4888.U5U542. It will tell you what our holdings are an what roll# it is on.

Then you will find all of the Underground collection in cabinets 40 and 41 against the back wall of the microforms area.

Classical Scores Library

We have access until November 10 to "Classical Scores Library," an online collection of scores available at the Music Online site (the home of four of our streaming audio databases -- Classical Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound, American Song, and Contemporary World Music).

Please take some time to browse and test this resource. It is expensive, but there appears to be a one-time funding possibility for acquiring it. I would very much appreciate any feedback regarding the value of this resource (once all of the content has been loaded) to your teaching and research.

The vendor has told me that each score will soon have a link to "available recordings" so that one may play the corresponding audio (in Classical Music Library) while reading the score. However, there appears to be a technical problem with that right now.

To get to the resource, I suggest that you go to:
and then click on any of the links that say "Also available at Music Online."

Thank you,

Paul Machlis

Billing voicemail

There seems to be a problem with the billing voicemail line 9-4053. Please have patrons send emails to billing@library.ucsc.edu until fixed. If they really, really need to speak with someone you can give them my extension 9-3381. I will let you know when it is fixed.
--
Sara Puhl
Library Billing Coordinator, UCSC
1156 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
831-459-3381 Phone
831-459-8206 Fax

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Next Gen Melvyl now has tabbed limits for embeddable search box

A common concern expressed about Next Gen Melvyl is that article and book records are often intermingled in the search results. A new tool, in the form of an embeddable search box, takes a step toward addressing that by including tabs that limit the search set.  Here is an example of what the search box can look like:

In this example the search can be limited to articles or books or search everything. Other format options include DVDs, videos, audio books and images. The scoping option generates a drop down menu that will allow you to limit your search to UCSC, UC libraries or libraries worldwide.

If you want to embed this in a page you maintain the code can be found here:

http://ucsc.worldcat.org/tools/searchboxhtml

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Media Center hours

The Media Center hours from today through September 22nd are Monday through Friday 12pm-5pm.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Library hours for Fall 2010

Beginning Sept. 23rd, 2010, the hours of both the McHenry and Science & Engineering libraries will be as follows:

Sunday through Thursday - 8:00 a.m. to midnight.
Friday - 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday - 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

New UCSC website

August 26, 2010

To: UCSC Community
Fr: Barry Shiller, AVC, Communications & Marketing
Re: Newly designed campus website

Late this evening, a newly designed campus web home page and related secondary pages, supported by a new content management system, are scheduled to go live. The structure and design of these pages reflect input from academic and staff personnel; students; alumni; and others.

This is part of an ongoing comprehensive web improvement program, commissioned in late 2008 by Chancellor Blumenthal and CPEVC Kliger. Co-led by University Relations and Information Technology Services, this initiative also involves the adoption and implementation of an enterprise-wide system for managing website content, the development of clear guidelines for UCSC web sites, and an updated definition of web services supported centrally by the campus.

These web enhancements are intended to aid efforts to promote UCSC's many strengths and distinctions; recruit students, faculty and staff; increase private financial support; and provide a clear, accessible information portal for faculty, staff, students, and others.

In early September, the Humanities Division, two of its departments, and Porter College sites are scheduled to transition to the new design and architecture within the campus Web Content Management System (WCMS). Other partners in the pilot phase of this project will transition their sites in coming months.

More information about this comprehensive effort is available at: http://www.ucsc.edu/redesign/

Your input is valued. Please share any comments via the Feedback link that will appear at the bottom of each revamped web page.

Many people have worked tirelessly on this intensive, complex project. On behalf of Vice Chancellors (and project co-sponsors) Donna Murphy and Mary Doyle, please join me in expressing appreciation to all who have contributed — and in celebrating this first visible milestone.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

New telephone numbers at Santa Cruz Public Library

The Santa Cruz Public Library has implemented a new telephone system and, as a result, their phone numbers have changed. The new Telephone Reference number is (831) 427-7713.  The complete telephone directory for the Santa Cruz Public Library system can be found here:

http://www.santacruzpl.org/contact/phonelist/

Friday, August 20, 2010

Largest businesses in Santa Cruz

A recent article on health care costs for small businesses in the Santa Cruz Sentinel included this list of the largest businesses in the city.


UC Santa Cruz: 7,507
County of Santa Cruz: 2,463
City of Santa Cruz: 985
Plantronics: 474
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: 347
Costco: 236
Santa Cruz Biotechnology: 216
Threshold Enterprises: 213
Community Bridges: 212
New Teacher Center: 211
Crow’s Nest: 190
Safeway Stores: 186
Harmony Foods: 165
Whole Foods Market: 160
United Parcel Service: 150
Bell Sports: 127*
Ideal Bar & Grill: 120
Beckmanns Old World Bakery: 113
Staff of Life: 105
California Certified Organic Farmers: 100
* Bell Sports has moved to Scotts Valley

The full article can be found here: Small businesses wrestling with health care mandate - Santa Cruz Sentinel

New "apps" available on McHenry Library iPads

The following were recently added. A full list of the applications available on the library's iPads can be found here: http://library.ucsc.edu/ipads.


Blausen Human Atlas HD (http://blausen.com/iphone)
The Elements by Theodore Gray (http://periodictable.com/ipad/preview/index.html)
Star Walk (http://appshopper.com/education/star‐walk‐for‐ipadinteractive‐astronomy‐guide)
Brushes (http://gizmodo.com/5458319/ipads‐brushes‐app‐like‐paint‐butwith‐multitouch)
Numbers (http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/numbers.html)
Pages (http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/pages.html)
Keynote (http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/keynote.html)
iAnnotate PDF (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iannotate-pdf/id363998953?mt=8)
NatGeo World Atlas HD (http://www.ipad‐applicationreviews.com/2010/05/ipad‐app‐review‐world‐atlas‐hd/)
WolframAlpha (http://products.wolframalpha.com/ipad/)
World Factbook (http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=460221&expand=false)
Da Vinci HD (http://appshopper.com/education/da‐vinci‐hd)
Van Gogh HD (http://www.frappster.com/2010/05/15/van‐gogh‐hd‐byoverdamped/)
Pulse News Reader (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/my‐favorite‐newipad‐app‐pulse‐news‐reader/7163) 

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

New IT Desk hours for McHenry

Omar let us know that they have a new student assistant who will be trained and on the desk, starting Thursday, August 12th. There is a new schedule also, for Summer Session II: Monday-Thursday, 12:45pm-7:45pm. So today (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday), there will be no public service coverage.

Call 9-2486 if you need IT Help beyond what we know how to do, or put in a ticket .

Thursday, August 5, 2010

New format for My ILL Requests

Hi everyone,

There is a new look to "My ILL Requests" when patrons log in. If they don't click on the small "Show everything" box in the upper left-hand side of the screen, at the top of their list, then they will not see items that have not yet been shipped. So if you are helping anyone in the Ask A Librarian RT or at the desk, keep that in mind if they say none of their requests are displaying (or things are missing) and they've logged in correctly.

Thanks, Laura