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August 2007

August 31, 2007

What's new at the Healey Library?

Welcome Back Students and Faculty! We have been busy over the summer preparing for your arrival and are excited to have you back in the library. 

This is a very exciting year for all who need something from the library, from a coffee or a smoothie, or help in finding the best resources we have for you.  Keep your eyes open and come right in to ask your questions by land, phone, or virtually. You will have a blast! -Daniel A. Ortiz, University Librarian

Group and graduate study rooms are available on the 8th floor. Sign up at the circulation desk (2nd floor main lobby) to use one of the 4 group study rooms on a first come first served basis. The 6 graduate study rooms have been assigned to the 6 colleges for their students’ use. The 6th floor is reserved for quiet study.   

            Groupstudy_2_2          Gradstudyrooms_3_2         Quietstudy_2_2

The Media Service Desk has reopened on the 3rd floor. Laptops, headphones and DVD remote controls  can be borrowed from here. The Laptop Loan Program has implemented a $4.00 charge in order to maintain the equipment. Laptops are loaned for four hours at a time.  PDAs are also available her for Nursing students only.

Interlibrary Loan, Virtual Catalog and all other books on hold have been moved to the 3rd floor. Please pick up all requests at the Media Service Desk and return these items to Circulation Service Desk on the 2nd floor.

All computers in the library building are now set to the Pharos pay to print system. Students receive the first 200 pages a semester for free, after that they pay $.10 per page. A UMB student ID is required to access the print queue. In addition,  all users need a library barcode is to connect to the Internet. A guest password will be available at the circulation desk.

Marilyn Day, Supervisor of the Curriculum Resource Center (CRC) (5th floor), has been adding CRC book titles (organized by theme) to the  LibraryThing catalog. The catalog currently contains over 200 titles. LibraryThing allows users to view book covers, reviews, subjects and more. Marilyn is delighted to now share her space with Joanne Riley, the director of Massachusetts Studies Project (MSP). Look for future posts about the CRC and MSP.

We have added several new Databases to the collection and are especially excited to have 360Search. 360Search allows users to search many of the library's databases, including the catalog, at the same time. Another addition is Literature Reference Center which has a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes.  LexisNexis has a completely redesigned interface.

The Healey Library Course Resource Hub now has over 300 webpages designed for UMB courses. The webpages are designed to connect students with library resources for their coursework. The Reference department has spent much of the summer contacting faculty and creating the these pages for the fall semester. Spencer DiScala, professor of History, has already used the wikisite for five of his classes. Prof DiScala aid of the site, "Greater knowledge of the resources available through wikis designed for specific courses would go a long way to increasing students' skills in research and in making new tools available to everyone." We encourage all faculty to contact George Hart to customize their class presence at the library site.

August 27, 2007

Doing away with Dewey

The Perry Branch Library in Gilbert, Arizona has eliminated the Dewey Decimal System from its shelves. The books are now arranged by basic subjects much like a bookstore. Melville Dewey created the system in 1870s and it is used by 95% of public libraries in the US as well as thousands of libraries around the world. Critics are calling this change the "Googlization" of libraries meanwhile circulation is up in Perry and patrons are happy. Read more on this story in the Wall Street Journal.

August 14, 2007

Favorite Blogs

Many of us in the Reference department follow both library and non library related blogs. Here are some of our favorites.

Atlantic Free Press: Alternative press

BiblioTechWeb: The intersection of libraries and technology

Digital Reference: News and views on chat, IM, email, video reference, phone, roving, and face-to-face reference

Exploded Library: If libraries, culture, law, politics are just content, exploded onto the internet

Internet Scout Project: Updates on valuable online resources

LibrarianInBlack: Resources and discussion for tech librarians

Lorcan Dempsey's weblog: On libraries, services and networks.

Research Buzz: News about search engines, databases, and other information collections

Stephen's Lighthouse

The Oil Drum: Discussions about energy and our future

The Shifted Librarian

Orion Magazine: Nature writing

August 07, 2007

Library Service with a Smile

Refdesk_2 On August 3rdthe Healey Library staff attended a customer service workshop provided by Think & Do, an organization dedicated to developing good customer service. We were fortunate to have Steve Wishnack, the founder of Think & Do, conduct the all day workshop. Wishnack has worked with many libraries on building lasting relationships with patrons. The workshop focused on the little things that make a difference, like a smile. Throughout the day we discussed examples of good and bad customer service and role played different scenarios. We talked about “words to use” and “words to lose” and how to write a friendly overdue notice. Overall the workshop was helpful because, it reminded us that the small things we do or say make a big difference.