Author Archives: Terry Simpkins

MIDCAT scheduled upgrade and down-time

On Tuesday, Jan. 16, our systems vendor Innovative Interfaces will be performing an upgrade of MIDCAT, the library catalog.  We expect the catalog to be unavailable from approximately 3AM-5AM Tuesday morning.

Apologies for any inconvenience, and thank you in advance for your understanding.

Terry Simpkins
Director, Discovery & Access Services
Middlebury College Libraries

Erroneous Library Overdue Notices

UPDATE: This issue has now been resolved.  Again, we apologize for the confusion and unneccessary alarm.

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Earlier this morning, many of you may have received automated email notices generated by our library system (MIDCAT) erroneously informing you of having overdue library materials. Please ignore these notices.  We are investigating why these notices were sent, but please be assured that the materials are NOT currently charged out to your account.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Terry Simpkins
Director, Discovery & Access Services
Middlebury Library

Limited Library Services – December 19, 2017

On Tuesday, December 19, 2017, the library will be offering limited services as we migrate our MIDCAT library catalog from a locally-hosted server environment to a vendor-hosted one.  This includes all catalog look up, renewal, borrowing, MyMIDCAT, and circulation functions, from both on- and off-campus.

Specifically:

  • Armstrong Library in Bicentennial Hall will be closed
  • The Davis Family Library building will remain open but with limited services from 9am-5pm
  • Patrons will not be able to look up library materials via MIDCAT
  • Patrons will not be able to check out or renew library materials, including InterLibrary Loan (ILL) materials and including renewals via MyMIDCAT
  • Patrons will be able to use physical materials on-site inside Davis Family Library
  • Summon will be available, and, in the absence of MIDCAT, can be used to look up the call number of a physical book in order to locate it within the library.  However, links from Summon to fuller descriptions contained within MIDCAT will not be functional
  • Access to full-text journal articles and databases via Summon will be available

The migration is expected to last approximately 6 hours, and, while we hope it takes even less time than that, as with any technology change there are no guarantees.  We will update the College community via this blog if the process takes significantly longer than 6 hours.

This is the first phase of a multi-phase project to upgrade the library catalog to a more modern platform, and it needs to be done during regular business hours in order to accommodate our vendor, Innovative Interfaces, Inc.  The remainder of the migration will be scheduled during the interim period between the Spring 2018 semester and the beginning of the College’s summer programs.  We will announce that date on this blog when finalized.

If you have any questions, please contact either Terry Simpkins or Mike Roy.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The Library Responds to the Charles A. Murray Visit

The Middlebury Libraries are sensitive to the discord on campus surrounding Charles A. Murray’s recent visit. Given our core role of providing access to as wide a range of information as possible, as well as teaching the skills necessary to interpret and assess that information, we thought it might be useful to outline some of the ways we have responded to the controversy. Continue reading

Friday links – June 12, 2015

Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: A Report from the Register of Copyrights. U.S. Copyright Office (June 2015). PDF file.

A new document outlining proposals from the US Copyright Office to accommodate two areas where copyright law is currently weak:  1) handling “orphan works” (i.e. works still protected by copyright but for whom the copyright owner is impossible or difficult to find) and 2) dealing with “mass digitization” projects (e.g. the Google Books project).

Both Kevin Smith on his Scholarly Communications @ Duke blog and Mike Masnick at Techdirt find the proposed solutions for the “orphan works” situation as bad as the problems they are purporting to solve.  Worth a read.

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Augmented World Expo 2015: Behind the scenes of singer Bjork’s weird, immersive virtual reality – The team from Bjork’s immersive MoMA installation talks about authoring reality at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California.

Augmented World Expo 2015: Behind the scenes of singer Bjork's weird, immersive virtual reality

Image: Erin Carson/TechRepublic

 

Friday links – Jan. 30, 2015

Lepore, Jill. “The Cobweb: Can The Internet Be Archived?” The New Yorker, January 19, 2015.
Good read about the Internet Archive and Wayback Machine.

Forget Virtual Reality. Are You Ready for Virtual Sushi?

Project Nourished combines brightly colored experimental cuisine, crafted from agar and pectin, with VR simulations intended to make those meager morsels seem tastier than they really are.

Forget Virtual Reality. Are You Ready for Virtual Sushi?– A small Los Angeles-based team of designers, engineers, and chefs have cooked up a “gastronomical virtual reality experience” that use head mounted displays, 3-D printers, and food science to take aim at our tastebuds.