You may have noticed books coming over from Central via the hampers have coloured slips in them. We have created bookmarks to advertise to borrowers that the Central Library is closing over the summer, and that there are extended issue dates and quotas. The Central team is placing these in books on the hold shelf, as well as Central books requested for pickup at other libraries. Please leave them in the books.

Thanks, Fiona

We are missing a hold for a borrower. The title of the books is “The Juvenile Sex Offender” and the call number is RJ506 .S48 .J97 2007.

According to the catalogue, it was checked in at 11:34 am this morning at the Central Location, generating the hold. We have searched everywhere for it here and not found it.

If anyone has been using the Central Location elsewhere and remembers this title, could you please have a look for the item/let us know where it is.

Thanks,
Fiona

A selection of recently published books by UC academics have been moved from their home library to the MacMillan Brown Library for the purposes of PBRF checking. They have a collection code of “mbpbrf” and have been changed as a batch.

They are on 2 hour loan so they can be accessed by the PBRF panel as needed, but are still available for general use within the Macmillan Brown Library.

Some students may ask at the desk why their booking for a study room on Level 9 has been deleted/why they can’t access the study room they booked on Level 9.

A brief glitch meant that students were able to book study rooms on Level 9 from today. The bookings have since been cancelled and the page has been adjusted so no more bookings can be made until 10am on September 10. Anyone who made a booking was emailed to advise their booking had been cancelled and why.

You may still get queries from students who haven’t checked their email. Please advise them to try booking another room.

Cheers,
Fiona

Free books (“Too Far”) and CDs (“Dawn Remembers”) by Rich Shapero are being distributed by an unknown person at the Central Library who is scattering them on desks. Please pass on all such items to Security at the end of the day. If they get inundated, they may try and track down the distributor to get them to put a stop to it!

I would be interested to know if any of the other libraries have noticed these books turning up as well.

Thanks, Fiona

The “Reading for Leisure and Pleasure” page on the library website has been updated.

The page now includes information about how to find fiction in each library, as well as a selection of titles from each library. This selection will be updated three times a year, according to a theme. Lisa, Nicola and I were intending that the next theme will be “books made into movies.” (Any recommendations gratefully received!).

A link has been added to the library homepage as part of the drop down menu under “How Do I Find?” This is an easy link to direct borrowers to when they ask about finding fiction.

A corresponding fiction display has been set up in the Central Libray to highlight some good winter reads. The books chosen have had their status changed to ‘on display’ so they are locatable (if someone is searching for them) and borrowable.

Staff have noticed that people are frequently setting off the gates with items that *are* issued to them.

FE has tweaked the kiosks this afternoon and think they have resolved the problem of successfully issued items still having a status of secure and setting off the gates. I have tested the machines at Central and did not find any errors.

However, the problem seemed erratic (ie. didn’t occur with every checkout) so we need to keep an eye out for this problem.

If you notice borrowers setting off the gates with successfully issued items, please contact E-Services.

The self-loan kiosks are not unsecuring books appropriately.

If a borrower attempts to issue a book but is blocked from borrowing (by fines, quota limits and so on), the item is not issued to their account but the item is still unsecured.

For example, if a borrower attempts to issue two 3 Hour loan book, the kiosk will successfully issue one book and will not issue the second book. A red error message on the screen should alert the borrower that the second book has not been issued. However, both items will now be unsecure and will not set off the gates if removed from the library.

This fault has been logged with FE technologies (and a note of this fault has been added to the wiki in the meantime).

In days of yore at the issues desk, attempting to issue a book via the barcode occasionally prompted us to create a “FAST ADD” record. Horizon recognised the UC library barcode but was unable to locate a bib record for the item so created a brief record with the call number “FAST ADD”; we added some bibliographic data to this record and the book was properly catalogued upon its return.

Since the RFID conversion, a book that has a barcode and an RFID tag must have a bib record (because the barcode had to link to a record for the tag to be encoded). So, FAST ADD prompts should no longer be occurring at the lending desk for these items.

However, they are occasionally occurring in error. If an RFID tag has a barcode encoded that follows the correct format but is one or two digits wrong, Horizon will attempt to issue the item as a FAST ADD. This is a problem because the item’s record will appear available on the catalogue, even though it is currently issued to a borrower. In addition, while the book tag will likely be fixed upon return, the Sort Assist will not alert staff that the book was issued as a FAST ADD and the temporary record will sit on Horizon waiting to be fixed up.

So, if you get a FAST ADD message for a tagged book you are issuing at the Lending desk, please do the following:

1. Retry issuing item via tag to see if it produces the FAST ADD message again.
2. If it does, check the data encoded on the tag and carefully match with the barcode on the book. You will likely find it is one or two digits out.
3. If the data in the tag is wrong, re-encode the tag and issue as normal.

Edited to add that this information has been added to the wiki ‘How To’ section.

The self-check admin card at the Central Library was last seen in the key press prior to the press being moved to the workroom. It is now missing.

If you have it, could you please return it to me (or the keypress if you wish to remain anonymous!) since I want to check the setup on the machines.

Cheers,
Fiona