Bio-Med Reference

Wufoo forms on HSL Web pages

Hi-

Chad has confirmed that the University spam filter is indeed blocking all email from Wufoo, so, in order to get any email forwarded to you from Wufoo you must add Wufoo.com to your safe list. I should point out that Chad has used Wufoo to create several of the online forms embedded in our Web pages, such as the literature search request form. The entries from these forms forward to various people (medref, Chad, Andre, etc.), but the email actually come from Wufoo.

Today, a patron reported that she had submitted a literature search request via the online form and never heard back from anyone. It turned out that the email to medref were getting blocked by the spam filter and that some of the settings in Wufoo had changed. This has now been fixed. If any patrons ever report to you anything similar in the future, please notify Chad. If you need help with Wufoo specifically or have a question, please let me know.

Thanks,
Martha

imagesMD

Hi Everyone,

It appears that for some reason, the proxy URL from LibData for the database imagesMD is incorrect. It is possible that this was the correct URL at one time, and that imagesMD changed the URL and it is not rolling over. Until Shane or Chad fix the proxy URL in LibData, the correct URL is http://www.images.md. This will work for sure in the library with the IP range -- the off-campus patrons will have to wait until until the proxy URL is fixed.

Katherine

Wufoo tip

Some of the Wufoo forms are set up to generate automatic confirmation email in response to your entries. Please remember to check your spam filter to make sure that email from Wufoo are not being blocked. If the Wufoo email are being blocked, you will need to add Wufoo to your safe list. If you have questions regarding how to do this, please see https://www.umn.edu/dirtools. You can also set up your email so that you are notified every time an incoming email is blocked, which is kind of handy in general.

If you have questions about this, please let me know.

Cheers,
Martha

Possible Issue with Saving Ovid Searches

This note from Scott Marsalis came across the AP Science Librarians' list, and I thought I'd post it here for those of you not on the list. It has to do with a possible error message people might get when trying to save an Ovid search. I was able to save searches with no problem yesterday so it doesn't appear to be pervasive, but here's the info just in case you get a question like this.

OVID moved their servers from Utah to Texas, and it caused problems for some users, namely an inability to create permanent saved searches. To fix it OVID needs the user's ID, which is assigned behind the scenes, so we never see it. So, to get it, have the user log into an OVID database (any will do - but make sure they use the personal, not generic, option) and in the search box, type USERINFO (all caps, one word). The search history box will display the User ID and ip:

Then create a Help Desk ticket, including the ID information. IT can the send the id to Anne at OVID, and they can delete the offending .ini file, and all should be good again.

Liz

Automatically forwarded calls

As you may know, you can set up your voice mail options so that callers can press 0 to be forwarded to a different number if you're not there and they don't want to leave a message. I have my voice mail set up so that callers can be forwarded to the Reference Desk if they press 0, in case I'm not at my desk and they want to talk to a real person about a general reference question. Instructions on how to do this are a little further down.

If someone actually chooses that option, the call that comes to the reference desk will be a little weird. It freaked me out the first time it happened, and it freaked Martha out on Friday so I thought it was worth posting about. Basically, when you answer the reference desk phone, you'll hear a computerized voice saying something along the lines of "Forwarded call. Liz Fine is not answering the phone." (you can imagine why this threw me for a loop when I happened to get my own forwarded call when I was down at the desk). After the computer voice stops, you'll probably hear dead air (and be tempted to hang up).

When the computer voice stops and you hear that silence, you're connected to the caller. So, just say "Bio-Medical Library Reference Desk" or whatever, and treat it like a normal incoming call.

So, now that you know about this, I know you want to set up your own forwarding number so that you can avoid the "if you need immediate assistance, please call the reference desk at blah blah blah" portion of your voice mail message. You can just say "press 0 to be connected to " wherever.

Log into your voice mail account at go4msg.umn.edu. On the pale blue menu on the left, click "options." Click "user profile," and click "edit." Scroll down to the bottom, and you'll see the "Personal Assistant" box. Enter the extension you want people to be connected to when they press 0, click update, and voila!

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

Long patents on esp@cenet

On the reference desk last week I got a question that eventually revealed an unfortunate limitation of esp@cenet, the website of the European Patent Office. If you recall, I've been touting esp@cenet over the years as a way to access patents, including US patents, in PDF form, as opposed to the silly, difficult-to-work-with format on the USPTO website. This isn't as much of an issue now that Google Patents offers PDF versions of US patents, but something you should still be aware of.

The patron was on esp@cenet accessing a German patent. She found the patent, loaded the PDF, and saved it the way you would normally save a PDF. However, when she went to the saved copy on her computer and opened it, it acted like it had only saved one page. When she tried to move beyond the visible page, she got a strange error message.

To make a long story short, that's exactly what happened. It turns out that on esp@cenet, if a patent is more than 50 pages, you can't download or print the whole thing - you have to save or print it one page at a time. This is obviously not very helpful, since a lot of patents are long. If it's less than 50 pages, it works just fine - you can download and print the whole thing with reckless abandon and unbridled glee.

Take a look at esp@cenet to see the problem yourself. Do a number search for WO2007062371, and click on the patent name. Click on the "original document" tab to view the PDF. Save the PDF, then open the saved file and notice what happens when you try to go to another page. Yuck! Back in the browser window, you'll notice above the patent title it says "document too large." That basically means that working with this patent is going to be a pain in the butt.

There are some workarounds. The "description" tab gives most of the text from the patent, and you can copy and paste that into a Word document. The format is messy and there aren't any figures, but you can then save the individual pages from the patent that have relevant figures. Not a perfect option by any means, but better than nothing.

Additionally, the same patent may have been applied for in multiple countries, so there very well may be a US version of the patent. You can search Google Patents to see if one is available (bearing in mind that patents take a long time to be issued, so there may not be a US one available yet - seemingly the case with the example above). Also, SciFinder Scholar usually includes international patent numbers, so you can look up the patent in there and see if it gives a US patent number.

I can only assume that it's always been this way with esp@cenet, and I just never noticed before, because I can't believe they would have taken such a big step back in usability. I did find a 102-page US patent on Google Patents, and was able to download that with no problem.

So, that's that. It still sucks, but at least you can now explain why it's happening if you get the question, and have some alternative methods to try.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Liz

Updated info on IM software

Hi all,

Some of you might have heard, but our IM software formerly known as Gaim, has changed it's name to Pidgin. Yes, another cutesy play on words for techno stuff (why do they all do that?)

You can visit the web site to download the new version at: http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/

I did this at my laptop and it worked fine, but I ran into problems with it on Ref-B, so we'll need to call in the computer gurus to check it out.

Happy IMing!

Lisa