University Libraries' Digital Reference Site

SFX troubleshooting: Blank Screen when clicking on "Full-Text" link

2012-06-13T15:10:29Z

Transparentpixel.png SFX error

While using the journal A-Z list (SFX) you may come across a problem in which a blank window pops up when you click on the "Get Text" link. The URL of this blank window will look something like this: http://sfx.uky.edu:3210/sfxlcl3/img/ajaxtabs/transparentpixel.png. This problem seems to be more prevalent when using Internet Explorer and Safari.

Ex Libris is aware of the problem and is working on a solution.

In the meantime, the easiest way to avoid this is to never have more than two SFX windows open on your browser. If you do need to have more than two windows open, some users report success using multiple different browsers.

Reminder: Enter all Email & Chat Questions in DeskTracker

2011-09-16T21:57:26Z

This is a reminder to use DeskTracker as the place to record all of the time you spend working on QuestionPoint chat and email.

The pilot project group (Kristi, Virginia, Tony, Emily, Scott and Mary) discussed using the data collected within QuestionPoint for the chat questions but decided it best to take the extra time and manually enter all digital reference desk activity in DeskTracker.

EBSCO E-Book Problems

2011-09-16T21:52:51Z

Recently users have contacted us regarding problems, ranging from "locked out" messages to inability to download content, and more from the EBSCO E-Book platform. As we work to resolve the issues, one that we can answer at present is the inability to download content. CDM recently added a note to the E-books page (http://www.lib.umn.edu/howto/ebooks#E) clarifying the reason why downloading is not currently functional. It reads:

Downloading: Not currently available. The University Libraries are currently negotiating with the vendor to enable this option, seeking suitable business terms that will comply with both Libraries and University policies on fair use and liability.

With all other technical issues, please continue to use the troubleshooting guides on the Digital Reference site:

Technical Troubleshooting Tips
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/digref/tech-tips.html

and

Technical Troubleshooting Matrix
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/digref/techtips.html

If you have success stories resulting from your electronic resource troubleshooting efforts, please be sure to share them with the list.

Law Reference questions handle via email

2011-09-08T20:34:31Z

We've had a request from Suzanne Thorpe, Assoc. Director of Faculty, Research and Instructional Services at the Law Library, to forward any law reference questions to their departmental email, law-ref@umn.edu, rather than assign them through QuestionPoint.

They've asked that Law Reference account be removed from QuestionPoint. We have asked for clarification about whether we should also remove Law Circulation and Law ILL accounts.

-Virginia

Managing Reserves Questions

2011-09-08T17:34:52Z

We appear to have some confusion about how to handle reserves questions through email/chat. Therefore, Elena asked I remind everyone that anytime you have a reserves or ereserves email/chat question please assign it to E-Reserves within QuestionPoint. This is the fastest way to get the question resolved.

Continue to refer in person or telephone referrals to wilsrsv@umn.edu

After talking with Elena it's clear that public services staff training is in order and will be forthcoming.

Questions, please let me know.
Thanks!

Mary

RefWorks 2.0 and IE 9.0 incompatability - work around solution

2011-08-23T21:00:45Z

There have been reports that adding or editing the title field in any RefWorks record under IE 9 and RW 2.0 appears to be non-functional.

(Instructions from RefWorks for settings which resolve the problem):

IE9 has a new feature that allows users to set a site as downwardly compatible. I would like for you and the user to try this setting to see if this resolves the issue. Here are instructions:

Through the Address Bar

NOTE: If Internet Explorer recognizes a webpage that is not compatible, you will see the Compatibility View icon button on the Address bar.

1. To Turn On Compatibily View for the Webpage

A) Click on the unhighlighted Compatibility View icon button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: The webpage will now reload with Compatibility View turned on for it.

2. To Turn Off Compatibily View for the Webpage

A) Click on the highlighted (blue) Compatibility View icon utton. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: The webpage will now reload with Compatibility View turned off for it.

METHOD TWO

Through the Tools Menu

NOTE: This will let you turn on or off Compatibility View for the current webpage.

1. Click on the Tools Menu Bar (ALT+T) item. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If Compatibiliy View is grayed out, then the webpage has no compatibility issues and does not need to have Compatibility View turned on for it. You can still use METHOD THREE below to turn on Compatibility View for it though if you like.

A) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Click on the Tools Command Bar button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If Compatibiliy View is grayed out, then the webpage has no compatibility issues and does not need to have Compatibility View turned on for it. You can still use METHOD THREE below to turn on Compatibility View for it though if you like.

3. To Turn On Compatibily View for the Webpage

A) Click on Compatibiliy View to check it. (See screenshots above)
NOTE: The webpage will now reload with Compatibility View turned on for it.

4. To Turn Off Compatibily View for the Webpage

A) Click on Compatibiliy View to uncheck it. (See screenshots above)
NOTE: The webpage will now reload with Compatibility View turned off for it.

Refresh and Claim Reminder

2011-08-15T19:10:52Z

Before answering a QuestionPoint Email question, please click the "Refresh List" link on the a "Active Questions" page to make sure no one else has claimed it. Likewise, always make sure to claim a question before beginning to answer it. This way, we can avoid two desks working on the same question at the same time.

Checklist for Training New Digital Reference Providers

2011-08-02T18:36:00Z

Checklist for New Digital Reference Providers.docx

Forwarding a question to QuestionPoint

2011-03-08T19:45:14Z

Recently there have been some questions about how send a question to a service point if it is something that can be handled by the staff. The preferred method is to add the question to QuestionPoint, and assign it to the service point, rather than sending it to the departmental email address.

Here is a guide with step-by-step directions for adding a question to QuestionPoint:

Forwarding a question to QuestionPoint

Census Bureau Data

2010-12-14T18:57:14Z

Today marks the start of a series of major data releases from the Census Bureau that will continue over the next few years. These data will have broad application and users will start looking for the data pretty soon, so I hope the following is helpful!

1. Today, 12/14/10, marks the release of the American Community Survey 5-year Estimates. This dataset is the first since 2000 to provide data for Census Tracts (small areas of about 4,000 people) on economics, demographics, housing, income, family relationships and quite a bit more. See the profile for the University of Minnesota (Census Tract 1049) for an example: http://z.umn.edu/24r

2. The State Demographic Center provides access to MN subsets of Census data as well as guides to how to use the various datasets and organizes their information by topic: http://www.demography.state.mn.us/ I use this site all the time and recommend it.

3. For those working at service points, an increasingly common data request is for characteristics of the Somali population. This information remains extremely limited and the most recent release provides no additional information. See https://www.lib.umn.edu/faq/5340 for more detail.

4. On 12/21/10, the first data from the 2010 Census will be released. This is when we find out if we keep all 8 of our Congressional seats or not. In anticipation, the Census Bureau has developed this nifty tool showing historical population changes that is fun in its own right, but also probably useful at service points: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/

5. I am always glad to assist with Census questions (including those generated by this message). The Census Bureau is improving its web resources, but some questions are just a bear and it's not always obvious at the outset whether you're about to embark on an epic journey :)

Happy Data Mining!

Amy

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Albright

Amy West

Data Services Librarian

10 Wilson Library

University of Minnesota

309 - 19th Avenue South

Minneapolis, MN 55455-0414

New Procedure for Digital Reference Service Desks: MNU_AskUs

2010-12-06T21:00:28Z

The Digital Reference Consolidation Team would like to introduce a new procedure to the staff answering questions at digital reference service desks (Bio-Med, Magrath, Walter and Wilson).

If you answer a question at one of these locations that does not require a referral (and was not referred to your desk), please assign it to "MNU_AskUs" after you have answered and closed it. This way, if the patron replies (later that day or a month in the future), it can be picked up by any staff member working at any digital reference service desk. This will ensure that our patrons receive the most timely follow-up possible.

The second half of the procedure is for all desk staff to check for, and respond to, any MNU_AskUs replies that come in. The quickest way to check for these is to use the "limit to" filter and choose "MNU_AskU."

If you have any questions about this (or any other) digital reference procedure, we'd love to hear from you at one of our upcoming digital reference lunches:

Dec. 7, 12.30, Magrath Library, Room 2

Dec. 9, 12.30, Wilson Library, Room S30A

Thank you all for your great work,

The Digital Reference Consolidation Team

College in the Schools (CIS) Students

2010-11-30T17:21:24Z

I've noticed some questions coming in from College in the Schools (CIS) students recently, and decided to do some checking around on policies, since the status of these students can be a little confusing. CIS students are U of M students taking courses off-site in their high schools. They are located all over the state, so while they are able to check out books and use Library resources, many are not able to get to campus easily. A frequent question from these students is how they can get books sent to them from the Libraries. I checked with Kate Peterson (their liaison) and Libraries to U, to find out the best methods of getting books to them, and here is the response from Libraries to U:

University of Minnesota student, faculty and staff can get books delivered to them off-campus (residential via UPS). They are charged for the outgoing shipping and handling and responsible for return shipping. This is the same for everyone.

CIS students could save themselves the charges by working with their high school librarians and requesting the items as Interlibrary Loans. The hs librarians could have the items sent to the high school library for pickup through Universiy Libraries ILL: http://www.minitex.umn.edu/Sharing/Request/Mnu/

Finding Salary Information

2010-10-21T17:57:11Z

While reviewing transcripts at the desk, I noticed this nice write up of instructions for locating salary information. I thought it would be useful to have the instructions saved here on the blog.

Salary information is available on the UM Reports website for use by University faculty and staff. To use it:

Go to http://www.umreports.umn.edu.
Click on User Login. You will be prompted for your University Internet ID (referred to there as your X.500 ID) and password.
You will need to read and agree to the University's privacy policies.
Click on the Search Reports link in sidebar on the left.
Set the Filter By Category box to HR & Payroll and the SubCategory to HR Reports.
Find Personnel Basic Information in the alphabetical results list, and click on it.
Click on Select a College/Admin Unit.
Select the College or Admin Unit in which you are interested, and follow the prompts.
To find average salaries for a job classification, search UM Reports for "Job Code Average Salary."

It also had the following statement, " If you are not (student/staff/faculty), you will need to e-mail back and tell us the information you need. We will do one look up for those outside the U." I was trained that we should check up to three individuals, beyond which we should refer the patron to the Office of Institutional Research.

I thought it might be useful/interesting to learn what people across the system do and maybe try to standardize our approach. What do you think?

Thanks for your feedback,

Emily Reimer
Bio-Medical Library

QP-Tip : Re-opening a closed ticket

2010-09-21T15:07:53Z

This is definitely a 'work around'. Thank you to Carla Pfahl for the instructions.

This came up for me when a Chat question had been closed, and on review, I wanted to re-open it and assign it to a unit for follow-up.

The only way I found that worked was by sending a message to the patron marked as "Send as Answer". This moved the record (Status) from closed to answered (back in the active section). So what I did was changed the patron email from what was listed (saving that information) to my own email address, sending a message to myself, this then changed the status of the record from closed to answered, then I changed the patron email address back to the original patron. It is a round about way, but it worked. Please note, if you change the patron email address you will be creating a new QP ID for the record so please write down the QP IDs and the original patron email address. Once the email address is reset back to that of the patron's you can go ahead and assign to the needed department.

-Scott Marsalis

Chat Training materials available

2010-09-17T19:15:17Z

Thanks to Virginia for pulling together some screen shots, instructions and additional training information for chat reference. View the presentation she created for a review or if you are just beginning with chat.