Author Archives: Carrie Macfarlane

Director of Research & Instruction.

Research Questions During Intersession

We don’t have Research Desk hours until j-term classes begin, but if the library is open, librarians are around! The go/askus page tells you how to find us. If you receive a research question, please don’t hesitate.

  • During regular hours, the easiest thing to do is to call x5496. That number rings in all librarian offices, and one of us should be available to help on the phone or in person. Try us even outside of regular hours! Often, at least a few of us are here even during the dinner hour.
  • You’re welcome to just walk over to our offices, too! Most of us are in the row of offices behind the Research Desk.
  • At any hour, you also can use to the go/askalibrarian form, which sends an email to all librarians.

Please encourage all researchers to drop by! It’s not interrupting. It’s our job!

Where’s the librarian?

We don’t have Research Desk hours until fall classes begin. But librarians are still around! The go/askus page tells you how to find us:

  • During regular hours, the easiest thing to do is to call x5496. That number rings in all librarian offices, and one of us should be available to help on the phone or in person. Try us even outside of regular hours! Often, at least a few of us are here even during the dinner hour.
  • You’re welcome to just walk over to our offices, too! Most of us are behind the Research Desk.
  • At any hour, you also can use to the go/askalibrarian form, which sends an email to all librarians.

Please encourage all researchers to drop by! It’s not interrupting. It’s our job!

Research questions?

We don’t have Research Desk hours from now until summer school. But librarians are still around! The go/askus page tells you how to find us:

  • During regular hours, the easiest thing to do is to call x5496. That number rings in all librarian offices, and one of us should be available to help on the phone or in person.
  • You’re welcome to just walk over to our offices, too! Most of us are behind the Research Desk.
  • At any hour, you also can use to the go/askalibrarian form, which sends an email to all librarians.

Please encourage all researchers to drop by! It’s not interrupting. It’s our job!

Research Desk this Friday (Spring Symposium)

In order to allow librarians to attend the Spring Symposium this Friday April 19, we have reduced our Research Desk hours. We recognize that some students will be doing coursework in addition to attending presentations throughout the day.  So, students can find us in person at the Research Desk early and late in the day, from 11 am – 12 pm and 3 pm – 4 pm. We’ll also be checking our email throughout the day.

If someone needs help from a librarian and you don’t see anyone at the Research Desk, please direct the student to our email form at http://go.middlebury.edu/askalibrarian.

As always, our hours and contact info can be found at http://go.middlebury.edu/askus. Our Find Books and Articles FAQ offers a number of good starting points too.

Research Desk for j-term

The Research Desk is reopening today, 11 am! For the first 2 weeks, we plan to staff daytime only. For the last 2 weeks, we’ll add evenings. Important: During the first 2 weeks, if you receive a research question after 5 pm, please tell a supervisor and/or a librarian! (In addition to trying to find an answer, of course!  See Research Tips for Circulation Staff.) If we can document that we’re receiving evening questions now, we’ll add evening coverage sooner.

Statistics from previous j-terms don’t justify evening Research Desk coverage, but this fall when we went back out at the Research Desk, our numbers went way up. We’re not sure what to expect this j-term.

Marked list in MIDCAT

Over the weekend, we received an “ask a librarian” email from a person who said the “marked list” feature in MIDCAT wasn’t working.  In case someone asks you, here’s how it’s supposed to work:

1. search MIDCAT
2. check records and click “save marked records”
3. click “view saved” at the top of the results page
4. click “export saved”
5. select “email” or “screen”
6. print the email, or print the screen

The person said she’d asked for help at the circulation desk, so I figured I should share! I think the confusion was that the person expected the “save marked records” button would refresh the page and give her a new view of only her marked records. In fact, you have to click on “view saved” to get your marked list…

We’re back next week!

Coming soon:  The red sign!  Librarians are back on duty next week.  As always, whenever someone has a research question, please don’t hesitate to refer them to a librarian.  At any time!

Give us a call at x5496.  Whoever is available will be glad to come out and help. On weekday and Sunday afternoons, and Monday-Wednesday evenings, one of us is always on duty.  Look for the red “Librarian on duty” sign.

If 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.

Also, try this:  Ref Chat!  It’s new!  Available on the library home page when we’re on duty.

Research questions?

We don’t have “Librarian on Duty” hours from now until summer school. But librarians are still around! The go/askus page tells you how to find us:

  • During regular hours, the best thing to do is to call x5496. That number rings in all librarian offices, and one of us should be available to help on the phone or in person.
  • At any hour, you also can use to the go/askalibrarian form, which sends an email to all librarians.

Please encourage all researchers to use the phone and form, too!