Tag Archives: Oct 31 2008

Help Save the Yellow Cables

The Cable Lady 003

Submitted by Elin Waagen

The popular LIS Yellow Cable Program (borrow a cable; put one back) is on the threatened species list. Please return any yellow cables you see floating around work and public spaces to the Circulation Desks at any of the Libraries.
Pictured here is the famous Yellow Cable Hero in full action! Many thanks to Amy Hoffman for picking up cables on her daily walks around the Main Library.

The New Library Eco Book Bags Have Arrived!

Submitted by Elin Waagen

After many months, the new library eco book bags have arrived! We hope to roll them out next week after finalizing a few details. The idea is to replace the use of plastic bags at the Circulation Desks, and to foster re-use of recyclable bags. Borrowers can take a bag when they borrow books and return an empty bag when they return their books.

Bags were funded primarily by an Environmental Council Grant in partnership with LIS.

Last spring we held a contest to solicit design ideas and the winning design was selected in a blind judging by LIS Administration.
Eco Bag Winner 007

Nikhil Ramburn (pictured here holding the new bag) was selected as our winner. He will receive a book bag and a $100 gift certificate to the College Bookstore. Congratulations, Nikhil!

Many thanks to the Environmental Council, Jack Byrne, Carol Peddie and Mary Backus for their support of this project, and to Alyson Bourne ’08 and Emily Gustavson ’08 for their help in writing the grant during their busy senior year.

Tasty Web Tidbits – a Web2.Opportunity

Submitted by Elin Waagen

Do you have a fun web tool that you are using for work or play?
Interested in sharing it with others in LIS?
Want to present? Presentations are casual and short – no lengthy preparation required.
Just want to share an idea that we can present for you?
If so, contact Elin or Bryan.

Previous topics have included:
Jott
ChaCha
RTM – Remember The Milk
GrandCentral
Facebook – birthdays
GoodReads
Del.icio.us

Future topics:
Twitter
FeedDemon
CommonCraft
GoogleReader
iGoogle

Save the date and time!
The next Tasty Web Tidbits lunchtime session is scheduled for Thursday 11/6 at 12 noon in Lib 105. The idea is to get together, have some fun and share the web tools we are using. Presentations are about 10 minutes long max. Each session has 3 – 4 presenters with time for spur of the moment sharing. There is a prize drawing at each session. Attendance at all sessions increases the chance to win the grand prize in December.
Bring you own bag lunch.
Come – it will be fun!

Electronic acquisition procedures with library vendor

Submitted by Bill Warren

We are currently setting up electronic services with our principal vendor of German-language materials, Harrassowitz, from whom we also purchase musical scores. When all is finished, we will enjoy a streamlined ordering and invoicing process, much like that provided by Blackwell, our major English-language vendor. Liaisons will be able to select items to be ordered in OttoEditions, the online bibliographic utility named for the venerated Otto Harrassowitz, who founded the firm in 1872. We purchase various categories of items from Harrassowitz, for each of which we have set up a separate account and profile. Items to be ordered in each category are assembled in a file in OttoEditions, which we import into our library system. The files of brief bibliographic records contain data added by Harrassowitz, in accordance with our specifications, which after processing through our load table causes order records to be automatically created, and encumbers the cost of each item. This eliminates the need to search for and download a bibliographic record, and create an order record, for each item individually. The ordering process is completed when we confirm our intent to purchase by electronically transmitting the order records back to Harrassowitz. We have successfully tested the procedure up to this point. Our colleagues in Cataloging are now making arrangements with OCLC, which will in conjunction with Harrassowitz furnish final bibliographic records (with embedded data that will cause our system to automatically create online invoices) for our purchases through the Cataloging Partners program. Once this second stage is completed, we will be able to implement the entire procedure.

Multimedia Resources

Submitted by Patty Hornbeck

Fall term additions to Multimedia Resources include:
A dozen new events in the lecture archive including two faculty panels on the economic crisis and the 2008 Clifford Symposium;
Copyright resources from Pacific Film Archive;
Other lecture archive sites: FORA-TV, Georgetown University Webcasts, and Stanford Humanities Center.

One of the lecture archive sites in Multimedia Resources, Connie Martin Talks Books, offers an unexpected look at a younger Barack Obama. The full interview is available, but here’s a clip (edited with Virtual Cutter): Obama interview 1995.

Suggestions Board in Progress!

Submitted by Carrie Macfarlane

Have you noticed the new bulletin boards outside the stairwell near the Help Desk? These will soon be the home of a new LIS Suggestions Board.

Here’s the plan:

  1. We’ll create a sign for the new Suggestions Board.
  2. People will be invited leave comments on the board or online at the Suggestions Blog (shortcut: go/lissuggestions). Most suggestions that are received on the Suggestions Board will be transcribed to the Suggestions Blog, and vice-versa.
  3. Responses will be tracked on the Suggestions Blog. Be ready! :) We’ll forward each suggestion to someone who has a stake in the issue. Those people should then go to the blog and respond.
  4. When a resolution has been posted to the blog, we’ll post the answer on the board. We’ll probably develop some stock answers for repeated questions. (Too hot? Too cold? Right!)
  5. If we don’t receive any suggestions at all, or if the board overflows with suggestions, or if anything else happens that we haven’t anticipated…we’ll reassess and figure out what to do next!

One more thing: All comments that we received on the post-it poster last spring have been re-entered on the blog as individual postings. We’ll soon forward those to the people who can respond. Watch your inbox! And, tell us what you think about these ideas, too.