Take a look at the Community Archives website where the Macmillan Brown Library Archives are featured as “Contributor of the Day”: http://thecommunityarchive.org.nz/contributors

This is basically just a “test load” which doesn’t include things like images, or date ranges – yet! There are tens of thousands more items to come and glitches will be ironed out as we progress.

The transfer of this amount of information with this level of detail is an unprecendented initiative by such a large NZ archive, made possible by the fantastic effort and collaboration between MB Library staff and Peter, Donna, and Margaret in Library IT.

Thank you to everyone involved, this is a huge step forward for making the Library’s archives accessible!

Jill

After receiving some feedback questioning some of the content of the previous broken link report for LibGuide pages, I went back to SpringShare and asked a few questions about what the report contained. I also asked them to modify the report to only include published pages, so that it wouldn’t be cluttered up with irrelevant information

They obviously found some problems with the report run on the 6th June and have sent me another one, run on a more recent data set, and only including published pages. So please could all authors of subject guides on LibGuides please check this new report, available from K:\information_services\LibGuides\2010-06-24-canterbury-LibGuides-CustomLinkChecker.htm.

There will still be some links reported as broken that are perfectly OK – always the case with link checking reports, but please double check them all just in case. There may be some hidden surprises even in links that appear to work (eg a link to the catalogue may open the catalogue but the intended search may be wrong).

Catherine

360 Search (the previous incarnation of MultiSearch, and now replaced by Summon) is going to be turned off finally next week.

Some subject pages on LibGuides had boxes containing forms that searched 360 Search, and any remaining would still be continuing to work, as our access to 360 Search has not been cut off as yet. However, they will break once it is cut off.

As Library IT can’t search automatically for any such boxes in LibGuides, subject librarians are asked to check their guides for these old search boxes. They can be replaced by deleting the existing box, and creating a new one that copies the MultiSearch box on the homepage of the 2010 template. Don’t forget to edit out the text underneath the search box!

If you need any help, don’t hesitate to contact Library IT (as long as we are still here!)

Catherine

A report is now available that lists electronic books which have unlimited access, meaning that Library staff can use them to learn about ebooks, and test their functionality, without using up limited annual allocations. The report includes a direct link to the resource, but it is also useful to practice searching for the title on the catalogue, or via Multisearch (Summon) to see how users are likely to find and link to such books.

This report is linked from the Horizon Reports page on Camelot, under the Collection Services heading.

A reminder too about the second training session for staff about ebooks, planned for 11am on Thursday 29 April. There are a few places left, but you can sign up on the waiting list and still turn up.

Catherine Jane

At PD&R time, a lot of staff ask what professional development courses they attended in the last year. Maureen used to have to keep a manual record of this, and it was very time consuming.

Now staff development courses are being managed via the online course booking system, meaning that not only can staff book themselves into courses, but if they are checked on the course booking system as having actually attended, it is very easy to see who has been to what and when. However it does require that the person who takes the course, not only notes who attended, but then ticks them as having attended using the course booking system.

To do this, go to the course admin.

1) At the top of the page, beside the box where you can select the courses by group, there is a link “Display all sessions”. Click this. This then displays ALL the sessions for courses, including past sessions.
2) Then find your course and choose the session that you want to mark the attendance for.
3) At the top of the box for the session there is a link “Current Bookings”. Click on this to see who was booked. For past sessions there is a check box beside each name – click this for everyone who attended.
4) If anyone attended who was not booked, you can add them at the top of the list. You’ll need to do this by usercode – you can find this using the address book in Outlook.

See also the help pages for the Online Course Bookings on Camelot wiki. Any questions, or if you want help with doing any of this, contact Library IT.

Catherine

Our course booking system has become cluttered with old courses and old sessions.

On Friday we intend to delete all session from 2008 or earlier. Any courses that are left with no sessions will also be deleted. If you need to keep these session or courses please notify Library IT.

Please could all departments go through the courses they are responsible for and delete all courses that are no longer being run and change the tutors’ names where the person has left or is no longer running the course.

An Online Course Bookings guide is available from the wiki.

Collection Services are now purchasing e-books in preference to print where appropriate. Records for these have started to appear in increasing numbers in the catalogue over the last two weeks. The use of these e-books has raised a number of questions. Library IT and Collection Services staff are actively working on getting answers to some of these questions and and have created some help pages on the Library’s wiki, concentrating initially on EBL e-books.

In the meantime two important things to tell users about EBL are:
1) We recommend the use of Adobe Acrobat version 9
2) We strongly recommend that on campus, and on a shared computer (eg in a student lab) users select the Read Online option and not the Download option.

Library staff will have access to the Adobe Digital Editions, the download software, next time they login, see the Counterculture posting for instructions on setting it up.

We would encourage front-line staff to try using these e-books and send any questions or feedback that arise to Library IT and Collection Services. A training session is being organised for front-line and other interested Library staff on Tuesday 13th April at 2pm. Please book online if you wish to attend.

Cynthia.

We’ve made a small change to fine calculations following reports of $2 fines being charged for standard items which were only overdue for 3 days. Horizon will need to be restarted to pick up the change.

Thanks,
Donna

Has anyone got any new news for Library News? What’s there currently is a bit dated?

Catherine Jane