Tag Archives: Summer

Carts and Bins – Coming and Going!

Take care to ensure that the contents of bins and carts go where they are supposed to go.
Before you do anything with a cart or bin – inspect and sort the contents VERY carefully. Look at each and every item to determine next steps.
Determine if items are going to Main, Mills, Music, Armstrong or Davison BEFORE you scan and process.
If you do not know where something is supposed to go, ASK!
Or if you are not sure where the cart or bin came from or where it is going – ASK!
When in doubt – check the status and item details of the item in the system.
Supervisors, please sort all arriving/departing bins/carts prior to assigning specific processing tasks to student employees.
Look carefully for items going off campus to the Davison and Mills Libraries.
Recent problems:
Several Nexpress books never made it to Davison – they were sent back to the lending library before the requester had a chance to use them.
Quite a few ILL’s were requested for pick-up at Davison, but were shelved at Main
Many thanks for your help.
🙂

Mills Requests Work-flow in 10 EZ Steps

Be on the look-out for Mills requests.
Here is a reminder of the work-flow for Mills requests:
1. Patron logs in to Midcat at Mills, places a request to be picked up in Mills- California
2. Paging slip is generated and sorted by Main Circ
3. If item is not on shelf, a standard cancellation notice will be generated by Main Circ and the item status will be changed to “missing”
4. If on shelf, item is pulled, and then checked in, which will put the item in transit to Mills. Paging slip is placed in the item.
5. Circ will cancel the hold using the new Mills hold cancellation notice. This will alert the patron at Mills that the item will be shipped to them shortly.
6. Item is placed RUSH on Cataloging shelf @ Circ; or delivered immediately to CM area
7. CM and LS Liaison evaluate item for transfer or ILL
8. If replacement item is available, item will be transferred to the Midd at Mills campus collection
9. Cataloging will edit and mask bib record; add 949 field – which creates an item record at Mills; item will be visible in client (loc omill), but not in MidCat; ILL will ship
10. If replacement item is not available, SKIP step 9! Item will be processed as an ILL, shipped by ILL, and returned to Midd campus

Book Sale July 7 – 12

Select Japanese collection books will be on sale from July 7-12 in the Main Library Atrium. These books are chiefly duplicates of items already in the collection and may well be of interest to individuals. The Main Circ Desk will be the sale point for this book sale, starting July 7th.

Points to Remember from Circ Training, 6/29/09

Todd asked me to take notes during the training and post them here. I’ll summarize what the presenters talked about and if you have any questions, ask me or comment below.

Maura:
Scheduling – use and refer to the Outlook calendar. If you need a sub, please post to the summer distribution list for one and alert the supervisor who normally works during that shift.
Blog – students should check the blog at the start of every shift – link located on desktops at each Circ desk
Wiki – great for finding procedures and workflows

Kellam:
Equipment – heavily used by Language Schools and sometimes also Bread Loaf during the summer.
–equipment is located at all 3 branches, and items circulate for 4 hours, 1 day, 7 days, or 14 days depending on what they are. Renewals are possible for all items (except faculty/staff laptops) as long as there is still ample supply of the item in question available for other borrowers. However, under no circumstances are loans allowed to be extended for the duration of the summer. In other years we’ve been able to do this, but due to shrinking inventory and budget cuts, we’re sorry but we can’t accommodate summer-long equipment requests anymore.
–don’t turn borrowers away if you don’t have what they need on hand. Check the other two branches to see if their equipment is available. Bring in supervisors to book equipment. Supervisors can also contact Media Services to see if their equipment inventory has what the borrower is looking for.
–when people ask about how to use equipment: direct them to go/equipment (“the greatest thing ever”–Maura) which has instruction manuals in pdf format which can be read online or printed
–remember to check all pieces of equipment at check-in and check-out (ie. read and follow the pop-up messages in every equipment record)
–equipment must be returned to the branch it came from; equipment cannot be transported in the courier bins like books, CDs, and DVDs can.
–new equipment for this summer: flip cams, Hebrew keyboards, portable P.A. systems

Rachel (with input from Kellam on BLSE)
ILL – green or pink bands; green can be taken out of the library, pink must stay in the library. In fact, when a patron returns a pink-band ILL to the desk and leaves without saying anything, it’s best to assume they’re NOT done with the item and it should go back on the hold shelf (assuming it’s due date has not passed).
–ILL can only be renewed by ILL staff intervention
–when checking one out, remember to change the due date in Millennium to what the ILL band says
–ILL can be shipped from Main to Armstrong, but between no other branches
NExpress – blue bands, usually a faster option than a recall or using ILL.
–NExpress can be renewed by a patron through My MidCat twice
–when checking one out, remember to use the due date generated by Millennium, and write it on the blue band
–NExpress can be shipped from Main to Davison (ie. Bread Loaf) and back, but between no other branches

Dan
Guests/Visitors – guests who have borrowing privileges may borrow books & government documents
Guests have access to computers (through the daily “pclab” password).
–they do NOT have privileges to borrow: equipment, movies, lockers & carrels, ILL & NExpress
–guest printing: through print card bought at Wilson Cafe, college Bookstore, or MiddXPress in McCullough. Each branch has 1-2 “guest printing computers” where guests can send print jobs. Guests then use the print release stations like students & faculty do.

Desktop Stats – to be clicked after every patron interaction which does not involve the actual circulating of materials (ie. check-ins, check-outs). Used by staff to document staff and student staff use during all hours we’re open.

Todd (with input from Kellam on BLSE)
Printing for students & faculty – all branches using print release stations – Middlebury username and password (same one used for Webmail, Banner, etc.) NOT the same one used by Bread Loaf students & faculty – they will need to activate their Midd accounts for this. Direct them to go/activate and look them up in Millennium to give them their ID #.
–copying is $.10 for b/w, $.50 for color. Color available in Main and Armstrong.
–Equitrac copy cards bought at “black box” in print rooms. Use $1 to get a card; then more money can be added onto that card.
–Faculty can use a department code (2) and their ID number to charge copies directly to their department.
–please report printer problems to supervisors/Helpdesk in a timely manner

Joseph
Emergency Procedures – please use part of your next shift to read over the Emergency Manual (there’s a copy in each branch). Ask your supervisor if you have questions about what’s in it.
–first aid kits are also available at each branch at the Circ Desk. Additional kits are available in Main at the Info Desk and in the Staff Room.

Steve
Mozio – new texting reference service, implemented at the end of spring semester. Text to # 66746 from any cell phone. Start your message with “midd” and then type your reference question. Reference librarians (or perhaps Circ or Helpdesk staff) will respond via text to your phone.

Is that it? Whew!

Reserves – highlights from training meeting

– Our summer students turn out to be the most knowledgeable and best trained students we have. They become the “point” student for our academic year students because they deal with such a variety of questions during the summer. Thanks for becoming so knowledgeable.
– Our language patrons need a little extra “hand holding” – they come from varied institutions, and are not familiar with our systems. Thanks for your patience and guidance.
– Media items: during LS, we receive many “personal copies” for media screening. Besides completing the purple reserves slip, please make sure there is an English title on the film case.

New Credit Card Machine @ Main

We have a snazzy new credit card machine at Main Circ which I know you’re all excited about. The instructions for using it are similar to our old machine:

1. Swipe customer’s credit card, black stripe facing towards the left.
2. Enter in amount to be charged.
3. Press green button
4. Machine will print first receipt and beep.
5. Machine will print second receipt and beep.
6. Have the customer sign one receipt and give it back to you. Give them the unsigned receipt for themselves.
7. Once customer has left, add signed receipt to cash drawer and fill in transaction sheet with the date, amount, and your initials.

If you have questions, please ask any supervisor. Thanks!

Summer Schedules

Summer means even more schedule changes as we add the Davison Desk to our busy schedules.
Please pay careful attention to schedules on Outlook.
The Davison Desk schedule is a separate Outlook schedule (not integrated with the Circ Outlook schedule) so it is critical that you view the Davison Desk schedule in addition to your personal and Circ Outlook schedules when evaluating coverage and staffing gaps.
Circ staff who are scheduled at Davison MUST ensure that their regular responsibilities are covered in their absence. It is the responsibility of each staff member to know their schedule and to arrange for coverage as needed. As always – many eyes help avoid schedule problems – so please alert each other to any errors and schedule gaps.
Helpful tip #1 – add the Davison schedule to your favorites so that you can easily display your personal, Circ and Davison schedules side by side for viewing.
Helpful tip #2 – copy your schedule “appointments” from shared schedules to your personal schedule

Let me know if you have any questions about scheduling in general.
For questions specific to the Davison schedule, contact Dan and Kellam.
Thanks!
🙂

Summer Circ Student Training

A reminder for all about the training for summer Circ student employees this week and next.

On Wednesday, June 24, we’ll have Customer Service training at 3pm in room 105. The training will last for 90 minutes and will be paid time. Attendance is required for all Circ student employees. Please contact Todd with any questions.

On Thursday, June 25, there will be a Main Circ training, including Reserves, Media, Screenings, Reference, Guest Borrowers, and Printing. This will last from 4-6pm in room 145. It’s paid time. Attendance is encouraged for all summer Circ student employees, Main Circ student employees are required to attend. Please contact Maura with any questions.

On Monday 6/29 there will be an All Circ training workshop at 3:30 – 4:30 in Lib 145. Attendance is required for all Circ student employees. Please contact Todd with any questions.

See you there!
🙂

Circ Meeting 6/22

Circ Meeting 6/22 Main Lib 145
Present: Todd, Dan, Nancy, Maura, Rachel, Steve, Brenda Ellis, Phil, Janine
We celebrated Maura’s June birthday with Lemon Cake.
Brenda presented a brief (but riveting) intro to the Mosio Text LIS service – a web platform for receiving and replying to text messages from users. LISBorrowing has been set up as an account, and Circ may in the future monitor Mosio more actively. Currently LIS librarians are monitoring the site and will forward messages as needed to the Lib Circ mailbox. Users can text LIS by sending a text to 66746 (mosio) using the keyword “midd” to begin their message. Please refer questions about Mosio to Brenda or Steve.
Dan presented a brief overview on BLSE workflow for Midd, NExpress and ILL requests for Davison pick-up. Please refer to the BLSE procedures on the Circ Wiki for details about BLSE.
And…at the very same time…Kellam presented a training session on the BLSE workflow at the Davison Library. Present: Kellam, Joanne, Judy, Chris.
Please refer questions about BLSE workflow, procedures, and schedules to Kellam and Dan.