Library News 02/06/2010

Ah, Saturday, so quiet, so very, very quiet...

I did actually get a few things done. I went through a long list of lost stuff to decide what to replace and what to withdraw. I think people get confused about that word "lost", most things that are lost aren't really lost, someone checked them out and then didn't return them for various reasons out of our control. If a current student loses something, they need to pay the cost of the item plus a $15 processing or restocking fee, plus their overdue charges up to $10. We do this so that we don't become some unscrupulous person's private bookstore. If a student drops out of school with library materials, these charges are added to their account.


It was a heck of a week. Had 11 college orientation tours which means 11 scavenger hunts which means lots of stuff to put away. Plus we had 4 regular library instruction classes and a bunch of meetings. Next week is looking a little better (maybe because we are off on Friday?).

Tip of the Day

I have observed that students tend to ignore books that don't have pretty covers. You should really be careful about that. Some books that are so good the covers get worn off may end up being sent to the bindery in Waco and come back with boring covers but extended lives. It is absolutely true that you can't judge a book by its cover.

Also, for some reason, we've had a run of people wanting to print 11 x17 on the computer lab printer. Um, that won't work because it doesn't fit into the paper trays. If you want to print bigger than 8.5 x 11 then you should send it to the Print Lab.

And another thing, please try to get the word out that changing the student email to Gmail doesn't mean that your email address changed. Gmail is just how it's running now and it has some bonuses like more having more room for messages and web pages and stuff like that.
I want to send a big thank you to Davon for inviting his friends to fan the Library Facebook page. The number of fans doubled in one week!! He is obviously a man of great influence.

Next week, no classes are scheduled in the computer lab. That’s unusual for week 5.  

Hope you all have a good weekend.  I hope to go see The Fantastic Mr. Fox at the dollar movies.

How to renew materials all by yourself!!

Voyager Renewals

Here are the directions (for now, this could all change, hopefully to be simpler) for renewing materials from home.  Make sure you have your student ID card with you.

RENEW


NOT available if items are overdue

Search Catalog
Go to Advanced  Search

Click on Patron in the red bar at the top.
To log-in:

If your ID barcode starts with 2066--use 22017000 plus your 6 digit ID number, ignore any letters :

22017000123456
If your ID barcode starts with 22017-- enter the entire barcode, ignore any letters
Enter your last name below your barcode.

It should display what you have checked out and let you renew them as long as they aren't overdue and you don't have any fines and you haven't exceeded the renewal limits of 2 times for a book, once for a video or DVD.

Working again

We're back!!  All is well in internet land, everything is working, time for me to go home now.

It's Friday afternoon and the

It's Friday afternoon and the internet is down at school. We can't check things in and out or access the databases on campus. Some fun!

Library News 1/20/2010

Week 2 is half over.  We had 11 library classes week 1 and only 3 classes this week.  Kind of strange.  Next week we have 4 scheduled. 

Databases

The sign-ups for the new Getty service have been kind of slow, what's wrong with you people?  It's a great service, maybe when students get further into their assignments, the usage will pick up.   I hope I'm not forced to have our student workers walk around with sandwich boards or dressed up like the Statue of Liberty standing on the skybridge from the student garage.

Some good stuff from Stylesight, they added two new sections in the Images, one on advertising campaigns that should be useful, also a section called Brushes and Fills that has pre-designed patterns and details that can be used with Illustrator.   If you want to use this service off campus, come by the library with your valid student ID to pick up the passwords which change every quarter.

Voyager

The reaction to the new catalog, Voyager, has been pretty good.  Just a few people have looked for books that are actually at other libraries.  Here are a few tips:

• Make sure you are searching Ai Dallas
• Use the wild card, which is the question mark, ?

If you want to renew a book, you can log in as a patron.  In order to do that, you need your barcode on your ID; the old IDs have the wrong prefix so pay close attention here:

If the barcode on your ID starts with 22017000 then you are OK, go ahead and log in. Ignore the letters at the begining and end.

If the barcode on your ID starts with 20660200 then use the prefix above instead, 22017000 plus your six digit student ID number, ignore any letters at the begining and end.

Other stuff
Woo-hoo, the Library Facebook page has 37 fans!  I'll freely admit that 2 of them live at my house; still, I'm pretty happy with it.

Haiti

If you want to help the people of Haiti, here are some options:

Got no money?  Give blood if you are eligible.

Carter

Red Cross

And speaking of the Red Cross, they are doing an awful lot to help as they always do.  You can donate $10 to Haiti relief by texting “Haiti” to 90999.   This is legit, they've raised more than $3 million that way so far.

Here is a list of religious and spiritual organizations that are working to help in Haiti.  Take your pick, depending on your preference.

InterAction

If you find a good way to help, please feel free to let me know so I can post it.

We're back!!

Happy to report this morning that the library web page and catalog are working again.  Many thanks to the IT folks who I suspect were at work very late last night.

Network probs

If you are having trouble getting to the library web page or the catalog, please be patient, they are working on it as I write.  Hopefully it will be working in the morning.  Crossing my fingers...

Welcome to 2010

The library was busy during the break!

Stop by to see how the books were rearranged to take advantage of the shelves left empty by Argosy’s departure. The Reference section is expanded to two ranges and the unusable top shelves were removed.

If you take a look at the library web page, you will see links to our blog, Facebook page and Delicious links. The new catalog, Voyager is up and running. Voyager replaces Athena.  With the new catalog, changes to circulation policies were made:

• Videos and DVDs are now a 7 day check-out instead of 3 days, the fine remains $1 a day
• In the past, books that came with disks were checked out for 7 days only and couldn’t be renewed, those items may now be renewed the same as books without disks
• Overdue notices will be mailed out automatically

There may be some kinks in circulation as the Voyager system is rolled out, please be patient with us, it will be a wonderful service when it’s all worked out. Don’t forget that canned goods will be accepted in lieu of fines for the first two weeks of the quarter.

Media

The Omnimusic service will now be available on or off campus using the log-in and password which is available when you show your valid student ID in the library. Passwords are not given out over the phone or through email. Our Omnimusic service includes sound effects.

On the Media page, you will see a link to the new Getty service. Getty Images+Video will allow faculty, staff and students to download stock photographs and illustrations along with stock footage from any internet connected computer. A music and sound effects service from Getty will be announced soon.

In order to use the service, you must agree to the Terms of Service which are available on the library web page under Media. Please note these important points:

• Premium Access must be selected in order to receive the materials included in our subscription.

• You may NOT use any of the materials from Getty for anything but Art Institute of Dallas education related work. In other words, you may not use these materials for other employment or freelance work.

• All materials must be properly credited; directions on how to cite are included in the documentation on the library web page.

• Download limits are 50 high resolution images and 15 clips per quarter.

Students will share a generic account, faculty and staff will share their own generic account. The passwords will be changed every quarter; the new passwords will be mailed to your school email address if you have completed the agreement. You must complete the Terms of Service agreement annually in order to continue to use the service.

So what’s in Getty? Getty Images + Video contains nearly one million non-digitally watermarked royalty-free images and more than 300,000 rights-ready and royalty-free video clips.