Author Archives: Janine McDonald

Vermont Summer: State Historic Site Passes at the Circulation Desk

Take a mini-vacation to visit Vermont historic sites that stretch the length of the state. Ranging from prehistoric encampments, to pivotal Revolutionary War sites, to the homes of U.S. presidents, Vermont’s historic sites chronicle the development of a state, its people, and the nation around it. Explore backroads and byways to discover Vermont’s history.

The Circulation Desk at Davis Family Library offers a three-day pass to college staff, faculty and students.

Additionally, we have a three-day ECHO Pass on the waterfront in Burlington. $7 dollar admission per person valid up to 4 guests.

Equipment reminders to circ staff members (including subs)!

This is a reminder to avoid making extensions on our equipment loans, including laptops. We need to keep the due dates as they are, so we can circulate these items to other patrons. Digital cameras, camcorders, laptops, and iPads are part of this inventory. Due dates need to be honored, so please do not change them.

We can certainly loan out the student Dell PCs and chargers for two weeks to students with laptop issues, such as a crash, theft or a break.

We can also contact the Help Desk for specific media requests. They can loan out longer-term laptops for those who need that assistance.

Thank you for all of your work and for your attention to this topic.

New Equipment: Lighting Kit

We have a new lighting kit which includes 18 parts inside the case. The parts are numbered one through 18, making it easy to count them.

There is a lighting kit checklist form to the right of the lighting kit on the shelf in the wooden equipment cabinet. When you loan out the kit, you will take a checklist form, count the items with the borrowing patron, and then the patron will sign the form. The form will go inside the case.

When the kit is returned the following day (one-day loan period), the checklist form will be inside and the 18 parts will be counted and confirmed. The checklist form can be thrown out after the kit is checked in and cleared from the patron’s account. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Booked Equipment Shelf Moved Over to the Right

When you retrieve a piece of equipment in the cabinet, you will see that the spot for booked items are now on the right side for easier access. The conference phones are on the same shelf. The conference camera is on the shelf above. The student LCD projectors have more room on the left side shelves.

We have been given 2 more XA10 camcorders so we have four in our inventory. These are placed on the shelf below the booked shelf.

I have added a lighting kit and a couple of wireless mics. They are on the shelves, and ready for checkout. I will add detailed information on those items in the next blog.

Reminder to Confirm Items are Checked In ~~

This is an important reminder to be sure that you look at the check-in computer screen to confirm that each item you check in, is marked as such in Millennium. Don’t be fooled; the audio beep upon check-in does not mean that a book or DVD has been successfully checked in. You have to see it on the screen to be certain.

The reason we are bringing this up is because we have had a recent rash of calls and emails from patrons who have stated their book or DVD is overdue, when in fact, the item was returned days ago. This wastes a lot of time for all involved. Our simple resolution: please make it a habit to check the screen for all check-in items.

Regarding Mac retina chargers, I have placed a sign for each basket of retina display chargers in the drawers, so if you place a retina chargers in its specified container, they will be properly separated. Please wind up stray cords whenever you see them so we can stay ahead of the “spaghetti syndrome.”

Thank you all. Everyone is doing a great job, but I wanted to mention this adjustment. We appreciate your attention to these issues.

Importance of Wrapping Mac Charger Cords

This is a reminder to our veteran circ student employee staff members, and it will be news to our incoming circ desk students.

We need to wrap all of the Mac chargers with a loop at the top so there is no tension on the smaller cord. They are expensive to replace, and wrapping them without the loop will wear them down quickly, and then they are off to the electronic recycle bin. There is a poster on top of the Mac computer case which shows the way it is done.

If you have down time during your shifts, you can check the charger bins to ensure they are wrapped correctly.

Thank you, and welcome back to the circ desk! We hope your summers were full of adventure!

New Zoom Audio Recorders in our Inventory

Hi Circ Supervisors!

We just received 5 new audio recorders, which will eventually replace all of the older digital voice recorders. They are in the same drawer as the other recorders. There are only 2 parts to the package we will check out: the recorder with a foam audio buffer, and a USB connector. They actually came with several other parts but Dan and I thought it best that we keep this item simpler. The barcode is on the luggage tag, since that was the only available space for it.

We are getting a few more pieces of equipment, including some graphing calculators. You may have noticed that we now have a third digital Rebel T3i camera too!

I am also adding new Mac chargers, which is really great for the fall semester.

We look to be in good shape for the coming year.

New Student Laptop Procedure

Since we have a limited amount of student MacBook laptops, (14 at Davis, 3 at Armstrong), and Dell PCs (6 at Davis, 9 at Armstrong), we can no longer allow student borrowers to take them out of the Davis and Armstrong libraries. They have been continually overdue, resulting in zero laptops available for other students to check out. I understand that we did not advertise the fact that laptops could leave the library, but since we allow a 24-hour loan period, we did not restrict them to the building. We are now restricting them to remain inside the building.

They will each have a sensor attached so they will beep if they pass through the sensing gates.

All student laptops will be confined to the interior perimeters of the libraries, meaning, they are:

NOT ALLOWED TO PASS BEYOND THE LIBRARY EXIT/ENTRANCE GATES of BOTH DAVIS and ARMSTRONG LIBRARIES. That is to say and to include, the Wilson Cafe and the Armstrong kiosk and reading lounge area as off limits. The loan period will remain at 24 hours for Dell PCs and MacBooks.

To be clear, the new rule is:
NO MACBOOK STUDENT LAPTOPS AND DELL PC LAPTOPS ARE ALLOWED OUTSIDE OF THE DAVIS AND ARMSTRONG LIBRARIES – THIS INCLUDES THE WILSON CAFE.

Secondary rule change: There will be a pop-up message (coming soon) to remind anyone checking in returned laptops to open up the machine to check the screen to see if it is broken, and if the machine is off, to please turn it on, then turn it off before placing it in the cart. More often the machines are on, so please turn them off and place in the cart. We are asking this so we are certain the laptops are in good working order upon their return to the Circ Desk.

Please direct any equipment questions to me, and I will gladly assist. You may also make your inquiries to your nearest friendly supervisor or to our fearless leader, Circ Czar Dan Frostman.

Thank you for your attention to these instructions and for your dedication to our policies! Now go our and have a great weekend.

Janine

Circ Upgrade News: New MacBook Air & Dell PC Laptops for Faculty/Staff

   Zach at the Help Desk released the latest batch of laptops for our faculty/staff borrowers on Thursday. So far we have processed (into Millennium) 17 available Dell PC, Model #E6430 laptops. Additionally, there will be 20 MacBook Airs eventually processed into Millennium. Armstrong will have theirs to loan out as well. Since there is not a built-in drive on the MacBook Air models, we have ten “Superdrives” which will be barcoded separately, and they can be checked out with a laptop (or without). There is a space on the top shelf of the fac/staff laptop cabinet designated for the Superdrives. We are using the previous laptop cases for the new laptops, but of course the tags and labels have changed. The Middlebury loaner ID numbers are printed on the luggage tags for easy reference. As Dan mentioned in an email, we have a new (and simple) loaner reset process for the Dell PCs, found in the Wiki. Not to be too repetitive, the folder lives in the LIS folder called “clean me,” and instructions are easy and quick:
—      Login to the computer as yourself.
—       Go to C:\LIS and double-click “CleanMe”
—     Accept the UAC prompt (click Yes) to get admin permissions
—    You will see a window that says “Delete inactive profiles on COMPUTER-12345? (Yes/No)”. Type “Y” for yes.
—    The program will delete normal user profiles other than yours, then say “Done. Press any key to continue…”
—   Press any key to close the window. That’s it!

As for the MacBook Air laptops, we will maintain the same loaner/reset process as we did with the older MacBooks. I have done this and it works well. Keep in mind that you will be using the USB to Ethernet connector, instead of connecting the Ethernet cord directly to the laptop. These will be in the pockets formerly used by the VGA adapters.

All of the Dell and Mac laptops are fully charged and ready for borrowers’ log in. I am checking the laptop cabinet for any of the older laptops which get checked back in during the day so I can replace them with newer models. Feel free to place them on my desk if you think of it (as opposed to placing them inside the metal cabinet).

The older Dell and Mac laptops will be transferred over to the student pool.

Enjoy the new models! Thank you Zach at the Help Desk, and to all others involved in getting these to Circ! I have a hunch that once the word is out, they will be checked out frequently.