tutorials + hours

Last week, ML helped me fix the tutorials page, and I removed some old ones and added some new ones.

She also let me know that the PDF version of the hours also had Friday the 10th as a day when we'd be closing at 1am, so I amended the one online and the printed ones in the library (rather than printing them for a third time).

The hours on the home page now show the "(W)intersession" hours.

hours

Yesterday I changed the closing hour from 12am to 1am for Mon-Thurs.

New image link "ad"

• I figured out how to get a linked image to sit on top of the main picture on the home page. We can use this to place special links and announcements on the page without interfering with operational parts of the page. It's on the home page now, for a GPO survey DS asked me to put on the page. If you click it, it goes to the survey.
• I have removed Criminal Justice Abstracts and Communication Abstracts from the web pages because their trials expired.
• I also have not heard much about the off-campus access page, but I do know that students are still having problems. I will try to initiate changes with LOUIS; we were able to get changes with them before.
• Also: returned the hours to normal after Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving hours are now up on the home page. Happy Thanksgiving!

Special Collections Fax + scanner

This week I added information about the scanners the library has to the Computer Lab page and
FAQ. I also added Special Collections' new fax number to the Special Collections/Archives page and the Staff And Departments page.

I also put the library fax number on the Contact page.

As for the progress with the new off-campus access authentication page, I have not heard anything but it has been submitted.

Why HTTPS matters

Some time ago, our catalog was switched over to HTTPS. Why bother to do that? Because it's very, very easy to steal log-ins now. So easy that even a luddite could do it, now that the Firefox add-on "Firesheep" makes it that simple.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/208773/firesheeps_a_huge_hit_with_amateur_hackers.html

Off-campus log-ins, home page image....

Last week I deployed the special links for Medline w/ Full Text and Comm. & Mass Media Comp. to all places they appear on the site (that I know of). It appears to be working so far.

Today I removed the robot from the home page. I can put it back if anyone wanted it there.

I am also working on getting a new off-campus login page for both proxy servers we use, to reduce confusion about using them. I will soon send another email about this to ULMLWPC members.

Hours

I fixed the hours on on Fri. to show the break closing, and today I changed it back to normal.

I also suggested that we change the off-campus log-in pages to include directions to help users, and if possible, eliminate the term "PIN" as to not confuse anyone anymore.

As for the BBW robot... I'll remove it later. The display is still up, after all.

Banned books week

Currently Chuck and I are trying to figure our whether or not the Nursing Reference Center can be made to work off campus.

Also, with DDS's permission, I've put a banned books week icon on the home page. It uses the image hosted on ala.org, and links to a page about BBW.

Tarbutton collection + Nursing Reference Center

So far this week I've made a Blog post and home page image for Special Collection's Tarbutton collection presentation on Friday, and added the Nursing Reference Center to the website. It will not work off campus until it has been added to EZ Proxy, though.

I wasn't getting any numbers from my Google Analysitcs JavaScript, so I asked Uni. Relations if I had the right script. Some there did, and I've uploaded it. So we'll see if that works.

Google Analytics + videos +more

a)
Google Analytics as it is on our site can only record stats on links within our domain. I can't use it to know who clicks on what database links.

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55527

I've applied that JavaScript to the database by name page, and after it gets some time to collect information, I'll look at the GA stats page to see if they are working.

If they don't work, the next option is to make html entry pages for each database. That may be inconvenient, but if we want stats badly enough, it may be worth it.

b)
Megan gave a presentation about plagiarism this week, and I made it available on the web here, with its slides in the video:
http://www.ulm.edu/reference/video/plagiarism.html

I couldn't use YouTube for this because the videos are just too long. But we can host them ourselves because we have Flash, which I can use to make the embedded players.

c)
Also today, updated the library map and library hours.

Hours fix + Mergent fix

The library hours were changed this week, so that fall break is a day shorter for the library.

Also, today I noticed that Mergent Online link was broken, even though it was working earlier this week. I've changed it to a different link that does work. After I get home, I'll check it again to make sure the off-campus access is working.

As for the library tours, new video content are in the works.

New tour + updates

I've updated the contact list on the site...
http://www.ulm.edu/library/staffdept.html

And I've added the new library tour video.
http://www.ulm.edu/reference/ssclib.html
It's... the best I can do so far. The reference dept. will make an improved version sometime soon.

After writing about it in the main ULM Library blog, the publisher of the Classical music library database we have contacted us to let us know what the correct URL and EZProxy for their database is. That was nice of them :-)
I've changed the URL on the pages where it appears. However, it still doesn't work off campus yet. The EZ Proxy needs to be updated.

Database problems, map, tour...

Today I added some emergency links that made it possible to use the EZProxy databases, but now that they working again, they are gone. I also made some blog posts talking about this.

I also updated one of the rooms on the library map: The Garden Study League room is empty again.

The library tour is half done. I completed the physical library facilities tour, and was going to record some things about the databases yesterday and today... but the databases weren't working. Perhaps I'll do something today.

Wireless Info

DW asked me earlier this week if there was any specific information about the wireless network and how to use it. I did find a computing center page, and I added it to the FAQ and computer lab page.
http://www.ulm.edu/computingcenter/hardware/wireless

As for the library tour, that's still coming...

New map page + Annual report

I've updated the library map, in Flash and PDF. Do let me know if I missed anything:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/mappage.html

Also, the new Annual Report 2010 has been added to the bottom of every page.

Since there's no reason not to, the new hours are also going to be posted.

I'm also working on the new library tour, which I hope to complete this weekend.

new newsletter + hours

There's a new Special Collections newsletter, and I've added the Fall Hours to the hours box just in case anyone needs them right now.

Gov. Docs. pages

Yesterday I removed many extra words and some outdated things from the main Gov. Docs. page, and moved the information about Docs to the bottom so the item location info would be at the top. I added USA.GOV at the top as it is now a very good starting place for people unfamiliar with the concept of Gov. Publications.

The other pages that have annotated bibliographies are more detailed and I haven't changed them. I will ask MW about, as I've heard that she is handling Docs matters now.

Plain English + etc

a)
On Friday I uploaded all the new pages I've recieved and made. Almost every page was changed in some way, although it might not be obvious.

When I saw them, I removed references to Delta and also fixed parts saying that reference is on the right as you enter the library.

b)
The Gov Docs page is different, however.
http://www.ulm.edu/govdocs/

I will maybe shave it down a little and update some things, but it's probably going to remain mostly the same. KC covered it rather well.

c)
Today I fixed a problem that's been bothering me-- the link to the "advanced search" in the grey bar on the site hasn't been working right for a while, ever since the catalogs URLs were changed from "http" to "https." I've fixed that, and now the link should take you right to the advanced search.

"New" "databases"

a)
Megan told me to add the Directory of Open Access Journals and Project Gutenberg to the site (and that the latter might get indexed in the catalog too). Just because something doesn't cost anything doesn't mean that it's any less useful or trusted, so I've placed them alongside everything else.

I put Project Gutenberg on the Home pages next to NetLibrary, so that they are equal (and because it fits).

And I put both on the DB list page, with symbols to indicate that they are free:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/dbname.html
I also moved the short list of "database tools" to a little box near the top, because I don't think anyone ever scrolls to the bottom to see it. Some of the links in that list were in the repeated Quick List too, so now I keep them in "tools" only, as both lists are now visible.

These have also been added to the subject guides; the DOAJ is on all of them, and Project Gutenberg is on most of them.
http://www.ulm.edu/library/subject/index.html

b)
Barbara is no longer on the staff list:
http://www.ulm.edu/library/staffdept.html

July 4th hours + video development

a)
I've put the July 4th weekend hours on the home page, so people don't think we're open.

b)
I don't mean to blow my own horn, but some of you may have seen my pro-LOUIS video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOjP3lMhCJ8

I made this in a short amount of time at the library and at home (but it's not in color, and is only a min. and a half long, after all). The most tedious (tedious, tedious) part of working with flash is making the subtitles. But YouTube automates that process. I was shocked at how easy and fast it was. So it would not be unreasonable to do something like it with pictures or video to replace the now-outdated library tour.

As LJ suggested, we could also make a video commercial at the same time.

Farewell to Delta...

I posted about Delta's departure to the reference blog, and I also know I need to update the site. This time, I'm going to search all the site files I have for the word "delta" to make sure I get all mentions of it.

I may re-do the library tour in order to get it up to date.

Karen C. isn't around here

ML found Karen C.'s name and contact information on the instruction and tours page. I've updated that, and I did a search of all the pages, and it seems that it was the last one.

"Plain English Project"

Well, Google/Blogger has updated its available designs, so I changed the look for no reason. This isn't a critical blog meant for public use.


A while ago I was talking about the idea of streamlining the langugage of the library web pages. I suppose it's about time I got on with that. To reiterate, the idea is to, basically, make papes easier to read by making them less wordy and more clear. How do you know something is too wordy and unclear? How do you fix it? Lynell S. Buckley's (a librarian at Tech) LLA 2010 presentation slides provide an excellent explanation, if you've never seen it:
http://www.latech.edu/library/tutorials/others/dejavu.pdf

I don't think this warrants a meeting, but we do need to decide who's willing to do which pages. Here is the old list of who was assigned what page (yes, the blog looks different now): http://ulmlwpc.blogspot.com/2008/10/informal-status-report.html These need to be re-assigned too, of course. If you don't want to do a page, perhaps someone else will. I will take some of Karen C.'s, and since I have access to the FTP for the Gov Docs domain, ulm.edu/govdocs/, I will work on all of that.

As an example, I have already done the "for students" page (there were some things I needed to update).
New: http://www.ulm.edu/library/forstudents.html
Old: http://www.ulm.edu/library/forstudents-OLDVERSION.html

Here is a visual comparison:
http://www.ulm.edu/~niemla/students.PNG
The difference isn't huge because I wrote it with students in mind to start with, but there is a difference. Small changes such as this one add up:

Before: "Speaking of that... we at the Library have produced a number of
presentations for classes and the web that explain not only the library
but particular subjects."
After: "The Library has a number of presentations for classes and the web."
Why: Redundant. We would've have bothered to make these if they didn't explain anything useful, so I don't need to say that again. "Produced"? Gosh.

There is no rubric for this. Just make the pages smaller. You can submit to the blog like before, or email a file to me. Don't worry too much about HTML and things like that; Since most of the program you-all use will affect the HTML markup, I will need to re-do the markup on all of them regardless. If you know how to edit HTML with a text editor, you can use that but don't use one that permanently wraps the text just because it wants to (SeaMonkey does).

If you add a new link to the page that isn't already on the page, please tell me specifically, because I'm probably going to convert everything to plain text before I put it back and use the previous text to put the URLs back. If you had a new URL in a hyperlink, I might not notice it.

Is July 30th a reasonable due date for the new copies?

databases working now...

Since friday, the databases that weren't working are OK now, so I've removed the emergency links.

Various things that happened this week...

1) EZProxy not working

It appears that EZProxy is down. I've placed some links that work on-campus but not off-campus on the DB page, and I've put something about it in the news box so that people are aware of this problem.

2) Hours

The summer hours sheet is complete.

3) Viruses

Well, I got a virus. My first virus in about 6 years. Apparently, you don't have to install junk or go to bad sites to get them anymore. They can be hidden in ads on otherwise completely legit sites. Trend Micro OfficeScan didn't find this, either.

I worked for hours trying to get rid of this, and in the end, I put everything right by restoring an image of the hard drive as it had been at a better time. I didn't lose anything. I used a program called DriveImage XML to do this, and it's free. If you'd like to know how to use this program, let me know and I'll show it to you.

4) WilsonWeb

A new database was added this week... http://ulmlibraryreference.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-database-hw-wilson.html

News + summer updates

I made a blog post about the new desk, and put it in the news box. I also added its picture to the home page, making this the first time a home page image has had a person in it (Maren). Let me know if it needs to go.

Is there any more news to report?

Also, I think I will pursue the idea of reducing the word count of the library web pages in June, so that's coming up.

Hours, halfway...

Since the weekend is coming and we are closed then and we have normal hours on Friday, I've changed the hours on the home page to show that.

Finals Hours

I've put the finals hours for Fri, Sat, Sun, and will put the weekdays up on Friday (because it's still the current week)

MarketLine Database Trial

We have a MarketLine Database Trial, so I put that on the blog, home page, and I've emailed business faculty.

Extended Hours + Plain English

I put the Extended Finals Hours on the home page, blog, and the hours.pdf file for all to see.

Also, I've revisted my idea to maybe re-write the library's web pages to be easier and faster to read, and asked ULMLWPC members what they think.

Visitors and Friends

MW pointed out some errors to me on these pages, so I fixed them. I also added a Google Map to the "Visitors" page:

http://www.ulm.edu/library/visitor.html
http://www.ulm.edu/library/community.html

And CR asked for a link to the community page to be put on the Friends page, and it may get a form for people to fill out so they can join.

http://www.ulm.edu/library/friends.html

The Hours, Part IV

The Library is not open on Sunday the 11th after all. I've put everything back as it was before.

EDIT:

April 12th - No sense in making another post about it-- I've changed the hours to normal now that Spring Semester is back.

The Hours, Part III

I've changed the hours.pdf schedule and the home page to show that we will be open on Sunday, Apr. 11. Tomorrow I will change it to show regular hours.

The Hours, Part II

I've changed the hours again to show that we are open this week, but not this weekend.

Hours + Mergent

a)
Yesterday I fixed the catalog search boxes on the site after some changes to E-library were made.

The link to the advanced search in the grey bar doesn't work so well, however. If you've already been in the catalog recently, it will make you start over. I hope to solve that.

b)
Today I changed the hours listed on the home page.

c)
Mergent Online's interface is going to change on May 1. I've tried to change it early, but the link won't work. In fact, the link to the new interface in the old interface won't work off-campus at all. I'll ask someone if that will be a problem come May 1.

Webfeat home page link gone

The link for Webfeat is gone from the home page. As was decided at the last meeting, it has not been replaced by anything.

There have always been links for it in the DB Name list, and in the Quick Links menu, so it still is around if anyone really wants to use it.

Webfeat problems

Webfeat embarrassed me again today (why do I keep using it? Because it's right there on the home page and it's just so darned easy to get to, just like our patrons might think too). I searched for a book title in webfeat with zero results, but I did the same search again in both the LOUIS Union Catalog and OCLC Worldcat and did get 3 results in both. Just to be sure, I later did the same search in Webfeat, and did get 1 result that time (but not 3).

I will make another attempt to remove it.

Minutes for Mar. 18, 2010

Here are the ULMLWPC meeting Minutes for Mar. 18, 2010:

In attendance:
CH
LJ
ML
CA
MW
KN

• Webfeat shall be removed from the library home page for various reasons. It will also not be replaced by a similar resource. When its official replacement is revealed by LOUIS, that new product will be judged on its own merit and given or not given a place on the home page accordingly.

Note: After discussing the matter with DDS, it was decided that the Webfeat link will remain as it is, as it is a very popular resource. It could be moved later. There is still no word on the new "360" search engine LOUIS will get. --KN

• Tightening web site language is probably not necesary, as this was already done when the site was re-made. KN saw a good presentation about this subject at LLA 2009, and will try to find its slides.

NOTE: Looking back at the LLA '09 list, that sessions was:
"Clear as Mud and Full of Weasels: How to Write Library Policies, Reports,
etc. in Plain English
Friday, 1:30 pm – 2:50 pm
Sponsor: LaSSAL Section
Guidelines, examples, and exercises in writing clear, concise, and unambiguous
library policies, proposals, reports, etc. Track: Adult/ User Services."
I have an idea as to who did it. --KN

• The ULM Library has no interest in Second Life in its present form


• The ULM Library will have a Facebook page. It already has one, and has for a while; MW has been its Admin for a while also. Using Facebook for the library will have a high rate of ROI because the investment needed to do this is negligible.

• EBSCOHost Mobile could become available to students soon. We will use the link ASAP.

In other news:

I got this email from EBSCO:

Dear EBSCOhost Customers:

If you currently purchase eBooks or have considered adding eBooks to your collection, we hope this email comes as exciting news to you. Effective Wednesday, March 17^th, EBSCO Publishing and OCLC finalized an agreement whereby EBSCO has acquired NetLibrary, a leading eBook platform and service. It has been a pleasure working with OCLC, who saw EBSCO as the ideal candidate to continue to serve NetLibrary customers, and take the service to new heights.

EBSCO’s goal is to better serve research by offering the strongest possible collection of materials and the greatest accessibility and usability. As eBooks become more prominently used and relied upon by libraries, they are an ideal addition to the EBSCO suite of resources. As EBSCOhost is the single most-used premium research platform in libraries worldwide, and overall usage continues to steadily increase, it follows logically that searching databases and eBooks on a single platform would create a more complete, fruitful one-stop research experience for end users. Many librarians have requested we move in this direction, and we are pleased to be doing so.

At present, EBSCO will continue to support and enhance the NetLibrary platform, with the goal of enabling EBSCOhost to appropriately incorporate eBook availability in the near future. In the coming months, we will be conducting focus groups, advisory sessions and usability testing to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of eBook platforms, and investigate the various models for accessibility and purchase. We will provide updates on our progress as we move forward. Additionally, we plan to maintain the dark archive of eBooks to ensure accessibility for customers who have purchased and will continue to purchase NetLibrary eBooks. MARC records for these eBooks will also continue to be provided (at no cost).

Thank you for your patronage and support of EBSCO resources. We are excited about what the future holds for EBSCOhost users. If you have any questions regarding your current NetLibrary account, or would like to explore eBooks in subject sets or on a title by title level, please contact your EBSCO representative.

So... yes. EBSCO bought NetLibrary. I don't think "Whoa" is a professional thing to say, but I will say it:

Whoa.

LexisNexis has a new look

I first mentioned quite a while ago, so it's about time I finally did it. All links to LexisNexis Academic should now lead to the new interface.

It looks very different, but it's really the same, I say.

This blog has moved

This blog is now located at http://ulmlwpc.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://ulmlwpc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

test

This is a test post for migrating the blog back to blogger...

computer lab page

Maren found some typos on the computer lab page, and also suggested that make it clearer that the computer center is responsible for the computer lab, as not to confuse anyone (I mentioned it before, but not prominently).

http://www.ulm.edu/library/computerlab.html

I have also installed a spell check in the plain text program I most frequently use to edit HTML. Hopefully this will help.

Moving the blog again, perhaps

Google/Blogger will be discontinuing its FTP publication option on the basis that few people use it.

I only tried it as an experiment in the first place, and I agree. If someone needs to run a blog from a specific domain, installing a blog app like Wordpress makes so much more sense.

So, I'll probably move this blog back to its "blogspot" location. I'm not sure what the result will be, though.

Catalog Problem fixed

The IE8 error messages have been solved, after LOUIS moved all of our design elements to their own server. I also fixed a small button color problem in the CSS. Please let me know ASAP if anything goes wrong.

Just to let you know I'm aware of them, there are also 2 things I'd like to fix, except they aren't CSS-related so I can't do anything about them myself. These are:

a)
When you get an error screen from the catalog about a search, the screen that appears has a stray HTML comment tag on it " --> " and our logo disappears. The easiest way to trigger it is to try doing a search without entering anything.

b)
I'd like to make the text in the top banner click-able so that it restarts the search (goes "home", if you will) because many websites behave this way.

Small probelm with OPAC

There's a low-satus problem with the catalog. When you try to enter "my account" in IE, the browser asks about displaying "non-secure" items (you know the kind). However, the obvious thing to do is click "yes," and doing this stops the custom CSS template and images from loading.

It doesn't affect actually using the site in itself, but it is a problem. The error breaks up the browsing experience and makes the page look and feel "broken." Error messages about security suggest unpleasantry, also. But, of course, I am the sort of person who gets too 'excited' over these things. Most internet users are IE users, so that's the browser people experience our web pages with the most. I suppose I can't blame IE or anyone else for the "problem," but it's just one of those things that happens and you can't do anything about it, like a tornado.

It is helpful that not everyone uses the account feature. In fact, I did not know about it until people from LOUIS told me. So things should be all right while we try to get this resolved.

Historical Newspaper DBs

I've added the 2 new historical newspaper DBs to the DB list, and I've placed them other appropriate places too (the Quick List pop-up, the site map, History subject DB list)


African American Newspapers

America's Historical Newspapers

Edited tour, Gale links, etc

Today CH told me that our links to Gale resources needed to be changes so that they could collect statistics. I did it, and the links should behave exactly as they did before. Let me know if they don't.

I've edited the reference collection out of the library tour. It still says that the McNaughton collection is "near reference," but that's not entirely untrue; it's near the side of the building where reference is (right???).
I'll make more changes to it when more changes happen to the library.

I also fixed some links on the site map.

New hours + Louisiana Digital Library

Last night before I went to bed, I added the new hours to the home page. Do let me know if anything is wrong with it.

I also added the Louisiana Digital Library to the DB list. It probably should've been there sooner, but I thought it was a Special Collections thing then. If anyone thinks it doesn't belong in the list, do let me know.

EDIT:
I've also changed a few room names on the library map. I am also aware that some pop-up info boxes get covered up by other text. It doesn't hurt, but it looks messy. I may change that someday.


(I'M WITH COCO)

new newsletter, new news, new catalog

A new Special Collections Newsletter is out so I placed that on the home page in the news box, removing the holiday message also.

The catalog's upgrade appears to be complete. If anyone has any problems with it, contact me and I'll see what can be done about it.

New look for the catalog

The new appearance for the catalog should be something like this:

http://ulm.training.louislibraries.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi/GnwstyO8na/ULM/101130006/60/69/X

If anyone has any objections, please let me know ASAP. The deadline for making changes for the template is Monday (tomorrow, Jan 11).

The code from Sirsi was different from before. It looks similar to our current catalog, but it took a long time to make it look this way. I just hope it works when it become the catalog design this week.

New map, new hours, new catalog

New hours:
I added the new hours file for the spring this week. It is subject to change all semester.

New map:
I've made a clearer map from an original PDF made from a CAD program years ago. It is much sharper than before, but also smaller.
http://www.ulm.edu/library/mappage.html

I also added that original PDF to the page as the new print version for the map and removed the HTML one I had before, because it is much easier to read. It also has floors 6-8 too. So I guess we have 8 floors.

I have not yet added any room changes. I'll add them as soon as I know about them.


And trhe new catalog design is due on monday. I'm still working on it.