(ETA: Glitches continue – see comments for latest.)

1) If you’re looking for the transcripts, you’ll find them under the “Activity” tab in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. The date is US-style (month/date/year) and the chats are currently stored under the US timezone – eServices and LibraryH3lp are in conversations about this.

2) If you’re using Firefox (especially if you’re having problems with losing connections, eg not getting notified of new questions, or not getting notified when someone else picks up a question, or losing a student mid-conversation) then:

• Go to the webchat login page
• In the Firefox menu, < Tools < Clear recent history
• Time range – everything
• Tick only “cache” and click “Clear Now”
• On the webchat login page, hold down the shift key and click the browser’s reload (blue arrow in a circle) button

3) The change password option currently doesn’t work.

4) Any other questions or problems, check the official status board or let me know.

Deborah

LibraryH3lp is updating their system to pave the way for some frequently requested features. This will happen on Sunday morning (US time) so there may be some downtime late Sunday or Monday. If you’re not sure about their status, check their Twitter channel.

When it’s up again, the interface will look a wee bit different – there’s more details (and screenshots) at their blog.

I’ll do some testing of the new desktop notification system when it’s up and running – may not work with Internet Explorer, but hopefully we can get it working on Firefox. If we can it’ll be a great help when working on a computer without sound.

Deborah

I gave my (15-minute) talk to ENGR101 students yesterday – the slides are at K:\information_services\information_literacy\Tutorials_by_subject\Engineering\ENGR101\ENGR101_2012.pptx

You can see I didn’t have time to tell them much! It’d be useful for me (and their lecturer) to know how many students are coming confused to the desk so if you can make a tally on the desk stats sheet for any questions on ENGR101/life cycle analysis of vehicles, etc, that’d be fantastic.

They’re likely to need help with using MultiSearch and citing; they’re likely to *want* help with being told exactly what keywords to plug in to get the One True Result, but I prefer to help them work it out for themselves, by asking what information they want and then plugging in the words they come up with.

Again, if they have questions beyond what you can deal with, send them to:

• the topic guide on the ENGR101 LibGuide
• book into an “ENGR101 drop-in session” via the “Book a Library Course” link on the library homepage (as long as they seem keen enough to actually show up 🙂 )
• ask on the “Library and research questions” forum under “Assignment 1” in the ENGR101 course on Learn

Thanks,

Deborah

Just a reminder that for the next couple of weeks, we’ll all be busy and often away from desks, so when you are at your desk can you please remember to log in to AskLive.

We may get extra traffic again because there’ll be an AskLive widget inside Learn course pages (as well as on the library website and subject guides) – raising the visibility and accessibility of the service.

If you’re promoting AskLive to students in an orientation event, tour or tutorial, it’d be helpful if you mention that, while AskLive itself is available almost all library hours, individual library staff aren’t so indefatigable! So in evenings and weekends AskLive can help for most things, but if students have a more in-depth question, we may get an expert to contact them back on the next working (or other appropriate) day.

And in case you’re curious – in the last year, we’ve had 1654 conversations on the main AskLive channel (including demos etc, not including chats on individual widgets). The busiest month was August (264), and the lowest was December (62 despite summer holidays).

Deborah

There are about 630 ENGR101 students this year, and the assignment will be about “life cycle analysis of a vehicle” (“a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from-cradle-to-grave”). They can choose the vehicle but most will probably choose cars. They’ll be using Multisearch (so expect questions about accessing e-resources and other stuff) and will need to cite in APA style. Their assignment will be handed out on Monday 20th February and will be due on Monday 5th March.

I’ll give a 15-minute tutorial in their class on Thursday 23rd; this is woefully inadequate but was the best I can get. Other forms of support I’ll provide are:

• ENGR101 subject guide – will include a Topic > Life Cycle Analysis link in due course;
• being available by AskLive and in the Learn forums;
• drop-in sessions in EPS Library from the 24th, which will be bookable from the library homepage;
• roping in some friendly Education librarians to provide backup at EPS on the 1st and 2nd, and I may provide backup on Sunday 4th.

If you get questions at the information desk (particularly likely at both EPS Library and Central Library, also possible at others) then:

• in the first instance make sure they’ve checked the subject guide
• if they have and need more help, treat it like any other reference inquiry (ie don’t get scared by the topic – they’re straight from high school so don’t need anything fancy)
• if it gets too long or you’re getting too many then show them where to book into a drop-in session
• if they don’t look excited by that, don’t force them to book in (I don’t want no-shows) but point them to the forum in their Learn page instead

Any other questions, let me know. My phone number is probably subject to change, so try AskLive or email or comment here.

Deborah

On Wednesday US time (so approximately Thursday our time), the English language Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours in protest against the proposed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the US. Other language versions should stay available.

For some background on SOPA, read Stanford Law Review Online’s Don’t Break the Internet, and Eric Hellman’s Foreign Libraries Will Be Infringing Sites Under SOPA (which points out that this means, among other things, that US-based search engines such as… well, most of them… could be forced to remove said libraries from their search results).

Another proposed US act, the Research Works Act, would make open access mandates like the NIH mandate illegal – meaning more research would be locked behind publisher paywalls instead of being in institutional or subject discipline repositories. There’s a thorough roundup of blogposts on this, including discussions of which publishers are behind it and supporting it, and what libraries can do about it.

Deborah

Kia ora all, with people starting to drift off on Christmas leave we’ve got fewer people covering AskLive, so anyone who can log in this week (and probably our first week back next year) will be much appreciated.

(If you’re wanting to log in more and would find reminders useful, you can set your internet browser so when it starts up it automatically opens the login screen in a tab:

• Firefox: Tools > Options > Main > set Homepage to eg http://library.canterbury.ac.nz|https://libraryh3lp.com/webchat/ (the | character separates two addresses, so this will open a tab with the library website and a tab with the AskLive login site)
• IE: Tools > Internet Options > General > in the Homepage box add a new line with https://libraryh3lp.com/webchat/ )

Deborah

A reminder about the “Have you been cited?” session Janette and I are doing for any interested library staff at 11 this morning in the Law Dojo. We’ve still got space so book here or just turn up. 🙂

Deborah

Janette and I are running a session for academics on the 15th December (places already filling up fast) and will hold a preview for any interested library staff at:

11am
14th December (Wednesday)
at the Law Dojo

If you’re interested, you can book here.

Deborah

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The marketing group is starting to explore QR codes and these will start appearing on library posters and other ads. In case any students have questions, the basic things you need to know are:

• the code links to a webpage (it can link to other types of data, but we’re starting simple)
• to read it, you need a) a smartphone or iPad or some such with b) appropriate software (freely available via eg this website
• start up the software, point the camera at the code, and the software should take you to the website.

For more information, 7 things you need to know about QR codes (pdf) is a great summary of QR codes and their potential; and 75% of college students won’t scan your QR codes (given their results, I’d actually put that number rather higher) is a good explanation of why we need to always include a human-readable URL along with the code. The Library Success Wiki has a list of various ways libraries have used QR codes. And Boise State Library has a page about creating your own QR code – in case eg you’re making up a display and want to link to electronic resources as well.

Deborah