Monthly Archives: November 2008

Equipment this week and weekend

Thank you to everyone in advance for taking care of all equipment needs this week and weekend while I’m away. The routine of running bookings maintenance and following up on overdues will capture many issues. On Friday, please be sure to pass along any issues heading into the weekend to the subs/regular staff who will hold down the fort: Lexa, Janine, Phil, Dan, and Karin.

Please continue to be firm on loan periods — long-term loan requests should be referred to Elin and the Helpdesk while I’m away (please still copy me so I’m in the loop), so we can evaluate the request before making any promises. This is a very high-demand time for all equipment and we don’t have a lot of flexibility right now.

Thank you again for all your help! See you on Monday … Kellam

October Fall Training Meeting – Survey Results

Many, many thanks to those of you who took the time to respond to the survey.
And thanks for the feedback and the suggestions – we will take your thoughts into consideration in planning the next training meeting.
Total number of respondents: 23
Of those: 9 did not attend the meeting; 14 did
Comments: Did not attend because: Armstrong Library employee; schedule conflict; schedule Conflict: I had to attend a lecture by a visiting scholar; schedule conflict with fall sport;
Was the NExpress/ILL presentation useful? 5 yes; 2 no; 8 indifferent
Comments: I heard the same information as last training; I already knew all this, but i thought there should have been more emphasis on changing the due date when checking out, because i notice that’s what many people do wrong
Was the Reserves presentation useful? 9 yes; 6 indifferent
Comments: New things came up!
Was the Equipment presentation useful? 12 yes; 1 no; 2 indifferent
Comments: New things came up!
Was the Q and A and general discussion useful? 8 yes; 1 no; 6 indifferent
Was the FISH movie useful? 3 yes; 5 no; 6 indifferent
I had watched it in the last training; I’ve seen it before; it was entertaining…; didn’t really relate to work at the library–the type of costumer service I think is much different than the type of jobs they were doing on that movie.
11 additional suggestions/comments:
Can you please offer more than one session? That way more people will be able to fit it into their schedule. Thank you for your help!
Generally, students don’t seem to have a lot of free time on Monday
Paying students for attending would be motivation to attend; otherwise, not much incentive to be present
The snacks were great! i thought that this meeting was probably very useful to everyone who works at the main circ desk, but i don’t usually deal with much of what we talked about in the meeting since i work at the music library. this is also my second year working, and this information would have been helpful when i started, but not so much now that i’ve been there a while
Maybe have separate meetings for Main Library and Branches. Thanks!
Length of the meeting was good. Doing student training is good, but needs to be kept to a say bi-monthly meeting so that students do not feel like it’s a time burden
I think this was a good time…the food was tasty. Maybe have a sheet go around before the meeting (like during the week before) so that students can indicate what/if anything they want to talk about – instead of just open time for questions that haven’t been thought through – that can go on and take up people’s time
I think that it would be a great idea to do a training session focused on all the neat things there are on the LIS website and throughout the library that we, as workers, and also, just generally patrons, don’t know about. I would love to be able to tell a patron a neat way to look up books/music, or a cool feature on our website or in the library that they didn’t know. I’m sure that there are tons of really neat things that the library does/has that we don’t know about, and I would love to learn about all of them.
I think you should take anonymous circ student questions/comments before the meeting and then answer them during the meeting – so people have some time to think about questions and submit them, maybe over a week or two, and also because some might be shy.

Let me know if you have any questions – or additional comments/suggestions. Feel free to comment on the blog – or email me if you’d prefer anonymity.
Elin

Microform Printers

If you are really lucky you have never had to use a microforms printer to complete a research project.
If you are among the unlucky students, staff and faculty who occasionally need to access resources on microfilm or fiche, you might find that you need some assistance!
If someone has never used a microfilm/form printer and asks you for help, what do you do?
If you can leave the desk, please go with the person to try to help. There are directions at each station.
Please feel free to ask for a lesson anytime.
Who can help?
Ask a Circ Supervisor.
Ask an ILL Supervisor or ILL student staff. They can often help – if they are available. They are experts at using the microforms equipment.

If someone reports a problem with printing microfilm/forms, and you can leave the desk, please go with the person to find out what the problem is.
Do not refer microfilm printer problems to the Help Desk.
Please refer the problem to a Circ or ILL supervisor.
Supervisors – please alert Rich. Or Charlie Conway or Chip Winner in Rich’s absence.

The Circulation Blog – Required Reading for Student Employees

Circulation staff hope that the Circ blog will be a useful and easy to access tool to stay informed about topics relevant to your circulation work. Please let us know what you think!
Many thanks to those of you who have commented on the Circ blog.
If you have not yet commented on a blog post, please do so at the beginning of your next shift. I am tracking comments as a way to verify that you have successfully accessed the blog.
Please remember that reading updates on the Circ blog is REQUIRED at the beginning of every shift.
When you view the Circ blog, please remember to select the CATEGORY appropriate to your work location – then you will see posts that are specific to your work. For example, if you work at the Main Library, choose the category Student Employees – Main.
Anyone is welcome to view all categories and all posts, but to minimize confusion about which posts apply directly to your work, select the appropriate category when viewing the blog at the beginning of your shift.
Thanks!
Elin

Browsing DVD mix-ups with trilogies

A reminder to please take care with our browsing DVDs that are part of a trilogy (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, basically anything that Harrison Ford has starred in …). The call # on the case must exactly match the call # on the sleeve. Recently we’ve had several mix-ups where the part 2 DVD has ended up in the part 3 case, causing plenty of confusion for us. And just think of our poor borrowers, who thought they were going to watch furry Ewoks dancing around, but instead are forced to relive the heartbreaking moment when Han is frozen in carbonite.

Keeping Armstrong staff informed of weekend and weeknight happenings

After the November 2nd evacuation of Bicentennial Hall Armstrong staff realized it’s important for students who work weekends and weeknights to keep us the staff informed when something happens during your shift. Now it doesn’t have to be as big as the evacuation was. Things like printer issues, running out paper or toner, or even an issue were you had trouble helping a patron or trouble with a patron. Carrie, Nancy and I need to hear about these issues, so we can work on resolving them, whether it’s ordering supplies , calling symquest or having Carrie help a student with research. E-mail us and please give enough details so we can resolve the issue. See also Elin’s posting on November 13 – Emergency Procedure and Response.