Author Archives: Barbara Merz

Summon downtime – Saturday March 24, 8pm

We just got this notification from Serials Solutions (the provider of our Summon discovery interface).
Note that library searching in MIDCAT will not be affected.

“Downtime Notification for
March 24, 2012
Due to extenuating circumstances, Serials Solutions services will be unavailable to you and your patrons on Saturday, March 24, 2012, starting at 8:00 p.m. EDT in order to implement an emergency upgrade. The service outage will be no more than one hour.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and your patrons.”

“Think Before You” – a poem

Thanks to poet Gary Margolis for sharing his work. Gary says: “this poem emerged from my recent Winter Term Poetry Writing class. ”

Think  Before  You
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into  blossom.
James Wright

I had the last three lines
of his “Blesssing”
inked into my right triceps,

across from my heart.
So one of my students won’t
waste an afternoon combing

the stacks, searching for the book
a classmate refused to return.
For which he was charged an arm

and a leg. More than worth it,
he told me later when I felt relaxed,
sometime around midterms,

to roll up my sleeve, to flex
that skin so the lines
would break where they were

meant to. So he could read,
flesh-out I’m more than tempted
to write, what time will blur

and remove. What Wright wrote,
after he learned he had a little
hope left which was more

than enough time for him to walk
over to a fence, in view, I’m now
told, of a high window

another patient could approach,
could see those two Indian
ponies amble toward. As if

their loneliness was an apple
they could eat from his hand.
As if there was nothing

he didn’t know he could
give them. As if blood was his
barbed-wire ink.

MIDCAT will not be available 7pm Feb 6th (but Summon will)

We plan to upgrade our library system software starting at 7pm, Monday Feb 6th. Since this is during break, the libraries will be closed at that time. MIDCAT (the on-line library catalog) will not be available while the upgrade takes place – we anticipate for 1 to 2 hours. BUT, all is not lost. Our catalog is also incorporated in Summon and will remain searchable there. You won’t see availability information for our books and other materials during the down time, but you’ll still be able to see what we’ve got!

KeySurvey V8.0 webinars

If you’re a KeySurvey user, you might have noticed that some changes happened over the holidays. WorldApp updated KeySurvey to a new major version. It’s similar enough to the old version that it should be straightforward to do anything that you already knew how to do! There are some interesting new features. WorldApp is offering a couple of Webinars to demonstrate them. They are offered on January 17, 18 & 19. For details and to register: http://www.keysurvey.com/ .

KeySurvey – new version is coming

From WorldAPP, creator of the KeySurvey product:

“WorldAPP will be releasing V8.0 of Key Survey/Extreme Form on December 24th, 2011, between the hours of 1:00 AM and 11:00 AM EDT.
Individuals attempting to access surveys/forms or accounts will see a a friendly notice during this time. When the work has been completed all individuals will be able to access their accounts and links normally.

We have launched a special web-site to make sure you have all the information in one place in case you need it – www.worldapp.com/v8_0/
(Note – there are short videos here showing features of the new version)

To see the complete list of improvements, please read through our noticeable changes document – http://docs.worldapp.com/User_Materials/V8_0/Change_log_v8_2011.pdf

All current surveys and responses will remain unchanged in the new version. Overall, there are some nice new features and clearer page layouts, but it still is recognizably the same and should be intuitive to use!

New LIS blog category

Alex has set up a new category for use on this blog. “Post for MiddNotes” works just like “Post for MiddPoints”. If you add it to your LIS blog post, you’ll get an automatic cross posting to MiddNotes. MiddNotes is the student equivalent of the staff/faculty MiddPoints blog, i.e. a place for announcements of interest to students. Unlike  MiddPoints, there isn’t a weekly e-mail version going out, but it will be accessed via the new student portal. MiddNotes is definitely a work in progress right now, but it should become another useful communication channel in future.

LIS web presence – marketing project

The LIS Web team – Dan Frostman, Jess Isler, Richard Jenkins, Matt La France, & Barbara Merz – has been conducting a publicity blitz for chosen features of the LIS web presence. The selection was done in consultation with other LIS staff, with the aim of drawing attention to underutilized good stuff available to the Middlebury community. The features we advertised were:

  • Searching: the Midd Google search & special Helpdesk Google search
  • Training: Lynda
  • Drupal: documentation and new editing interface
  • Self-service PIN and password updating
  • Media services Event Recording & Film Screening forms
  • Middmedia Continue reading

Campus food drive – LIS participation

As you already know, the campus wide food drive sponsored by the Staff Council is now underway. The non-perishable food items donated will be distributed to area food shelves before Thanksgiving. Vijaya Wunnava & I are helping with the DFL part of the collection. There’s now a big cardboard box in the DFL staff room (on the floor next to the sofa). Please give generously – the need is very great. For Voter denizens – I’d be happy to pick up any items you gather there. For Armstrong Library – there’s a collection point in MBH that you could contribute to. Happy Thanksgiving!