Comments Off on Reference Changes and Procedures

By Scott Pfitzinger, August 24, 2007 12:08 pm

It’s Fall 2007 and time for an update/reminder about Reference Desk procedures.

We’re still keeping track of Reference Transactions and doing counts of people in the Reference Dept. (not the rest of the first floor–just those who have passed the Reference Desk) every half-past the hour. This process uses the Excel workbook called “Reference Tracking.” There is a shortcut to this workbook on the RefDesk desktop.

We have begun tracking usage of Reference books again this year. There is another Excel workbook being used for this and it has a shortcut on the RefDesk desktop called “REFERENCE USAGE STUDY.” Just make sure the active cell is in the “A” column and in the first open cell (at the bottom of the list) and then scan away. The handheld barcode scanner at the Reference Desk is used for this. Please shelve any books you scan. Better to not scan than to scan and not shelve, since the books will get unwittingly rescanned. If anything is unclear, please just leave books on tables or the Shelving Cart.

The new printers in Reference are called IL_120_K and are a little touchy. To ensure smooth operations, keep an eye on the three lights near the menu screen. The left light should always be green, since it’s the “Ready” light; if it’s not green, push the green “Go” button. The second light (“Data”) is green if the printer is processing any print jobs. The third light is “Attention” and blinks reddish orange if there’s a problem. Typically, it’s flashing because a paper tray is empty. There are four paper trays in these printers, so they’ll hold up to 2,000 pages. If one or two are empty, that’s fine. If you DO add paper to the printers, please make sure the tray is totally empty and then add one full ream. Too much paper in a tray can cause jams.

If anyone brings us a copy of an assignment, we have a blue manila folder at the Reference Desk specifically for keeping assignments.

There have also been some computer changes in Reference. There are six new iMac computers along the row by the windows. The six PCs that were there are now in IL119, which is our technology classroom and (when no class is in session) is being used for overflow when the Reference Dept. lab is full, which will usually be only in the evenings. The remaining lab-type computers around the library are now located in:

• Basement – (1) near the newspapers
• 1st floor group workstations – (1) in the back of Reference and (2) in Current Periodicals
• 2nd floor – (1) A-D, (1) HM-L, and (1) the Listening Room
• 3rd floor – (1) P-PR

Comments Off on BibMe

By Scott Pfitzinger, July 20, 2007 12:23 pm

Greetings, all. For those of you who deal with citations and bibliographic formats and all, there a relatively new (June 2007) tool that I’d like you to try. It’s called BibMe and is online at http://www.bibme.org/. From what I read from the reviews of other librarians, it’s not only a free program but is good at creating bibliographies quickly and easily. Emily Chang at eHub says:

“BibMe can generate citations in MLA, APA and Chicago style (which you
can change on the fly), and I found it took half the time to create a
bibliography than any other tool I have used. Like its commercial competitors, BibMe has an extensive search function
that can find and generate a detailed citation by entering a few
keywords. Registration is simple and non-intrusive, and once you have
an account you can save and edit your bibliographies.”

I would be interested in the thoughts and opinions of OUR staff about this product. Please give it a try when you have a few minutes and then share your thoughts in the form of comments to this post.

Thanks very much.
Scott

Comments Off on Changing Toner in Reference Printers

By Scott Pfitzinger, December 5, 2006 12:36 pm

Because of the volume of printing we’ve been
experiencing in the Reference Dept., we’ve been flying through toner
cartridges. Even with the amount of printing, though, there has been some
question about whether toner cartridges were really full, because they had to
be changed rather suddenly sometimes.

To help measure the productivity of our toner cartridges, we
will now be tracking how many pages are printed out for each cartridge. What
does this mean for you? Probably nothing more than printing out a page whenever
you change a toner cartridge. I’ll be keeping track of the stats. We just
need a Print Usage Page created every time a toner cartridge is printed.

Instructions are included below, are saved in the Reference
folder on BUFiles/Library, and are posted on the bulleting board behind the
Reference Desk. If the toner cartridge runs out on your watch and you need
help, talk to any of the Reference Librarians.

Thanks.

Scott