Monthly Archives: January 2012

Cords, cords and more cords…or less

Circ Student Staff,
When patrons ask for various cords, as in USB, fire wires, or any type of cord to charge iPhones & iPads, please defer to a supervisor. If we are able to accommodate the request, we will do so. Supervisors may get a cord if we have them; there are no barcodes, so cords are loaned with an ID card exchange. DO NOT EVER take cords out of camcorder cases, iPod bags, LCD cases, or any media item. The easiest tactic is to check with a supervisor to pass on the request. We are not in the business of loaning out stray cords and connectors to charge phones and iPads. We lose too many in the process and they are expensive & time-consuming to replace. Thanks!

Circ meeting minutes 1-25-2012

Present: Shawn, Todd, Kim, Nancy, Kellam, Janine, Rachel

Brief discussion of performance evaluations

Reminder that Mike and Tim will be at the meeting on Monday – come prepared to talk.

UPDATES:
– Janine raised an issue with a printer delaying print jobs – will follow up with the Helpdesk
– Dan will ask Carol the status of new print cards
– Todd hired 3 new students, Kim hired 6, Shawn hired 3
– Book covers will now stay in Collection Management, except for display books
– Dan will check with Carrie about the status of the Science Librarian search committee
– Kellam updated on the new ADA office reserve policies. She will update the wiki once those are finalized
– Dan will talk to Joseph about a movie/CD shelf for the circ desk (browsing CDs, movie of the week) and also a possible hanging sign identifying the circ desk

OVERDUE BLOCK POINTS
General agreement that we should try it. Dan will make up some stuff and present to everyone. Dan will also look into an automatic block that will remain in place until the patron speaks with a supervisor. Stay tuned.

Visitors to the College – research databases

We love the Guests and Visitors to the College page!  It makes it so easy to provide answers about guest access.  We’ve just made a change to the page, and it’s significant enough that we thought I should make sure you’re aware.

The revised text is toward the end of the “Guest Borrower Responsibilities” section:  “Many electronic resources are available to guests in the library, but due to licensing agreements and contract restrictions, some are restricted to Middlebury College users.”  We want to be sure it’s clear that guests can use most of our electronic resources when they’re in the library.  (Previously the text said that use of electronic resources was at the discretion of the reference staff.  I’m sure someone in our group signed off on that text at some point — maybe even me!  But now we realize that it might have been misleading.)

Also, I added a link to the wiki page from this Drupal page: Visiting Our Libraries.

Thank you for all of your documentation!

Reporting for duty!

Librarians are back on duty!  On weekday and Sunday afternoons, and Sunday-Wednesday evenings, look for the red “Librarian on duty” sign to find out who is available.

As always, whenever someone has a research question, please don’t hesitate to refer them to a librarian at any time  (even when we’re not “on duty”)!  Give us a call at x5496, and whoever picks up the phone will be glad to come out and help. Alternatively, you could walk the person to our offices (LIB 205-211) and “interrupt” any of us (p.s. it’s not interrupting! it’s our job!).

If ever it seems like no one is around, have the person write to us in the go/askalibrarian form.  Even when we’re not in the library, we’re often on email.  Hours and information about how to reach us is at go/askus.  Also, some good “getting started” advice is here:  Find Books, Articles and More.