Bio-Med Reference

Reference Computer to be upgraded to Office 2007

Hi everyone,

This is just an FYI that I've requested that the Reference Desk computer be upgraded to Office 2007. For anyone who hasn't yet made the transition, SED will be offering a number of up-coming Office 2007 classes. There are also free e-learning courses from Microsoft that are being made available through the University Technology Training Center (UTTC).

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks,
Emily

EndNote Moodle Page

If you have patrons with EndNote questions, this Moodle site may be a very useful tool. This note came through the AP list.

Liz

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Hi All,

I'm not sure how many questions come the way of service points regarding EndNote, but I've put the script that I use in my EndNote for Science and Engineering workshop into a Moodle page and thought I'd share it with the larger library community.

I created it largely as a supplement for the workshop I teach, but if patrons are asking questions about EndNote you could send them this link directly to get them started. If you don't get any questions regarding EndNote, please feel free to disregard. If you have any feedback about the page, I'd love to hear it.

Otherwise, enjoy! https://moodle.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=3866

Jon
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Jon Jeffryes
Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering, and Standards Librarian
Physical Sciences and Engineering Library
University of Minnesota Libraries
108 Walter Library
117 Pleasant Street S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Email: jeffryes@umn.edu
Phone: 612-625-3814
IM: umjonlib
Office: 335 Walter Library

Reference Handbook

I have taken most of the documents that were under the clear plastic sheet at the old Reference Desk and placed them in a maroon binder and labeled it "Reference Handbook." The binder will be located to the right Reference computer A along with the phone books. The binder currently contains a user guide for Desk Tracker, a list of active directory passwords for logging non-University clients onto public work stations, phone numbers for computer assistance, instructions for registering patrons for active directory accounts, a list of NLM/LC call number assignments, passwords for logging into various IM accounts, current HSL Liaison assignments, the RefWorks Group User Code, Instructions on how to get to the Bio-Medical Library, a list of resources available at Computer Labs on campus and a revised version of Opening and Closing Procedures for the Reference Desk. If you have other suggestions of documents that should be added to the Binder let me know.

Del

Lost Internet Connections & Saving Files (Macs)

Hello everyone,

As you may or may not already know, we've been experiencing connection problems with the Macs recently. One of our Circulation students (Amy) wrote a post for our Circ blog about it, and I thought I'd pass it along:

"So as most of us know, the Mac computers will sometimes lose internet connection and have to be restarted to get it back. However, when the Mac computers are restarted, all information saved on the desktop will be lost. To get around this, patrons can save their work to the "macuser" folder on the desktop.

So when patrons ask how to get internet back, it would be a good idea to ask patrons if they have anything saved on the computer before we tell them to restart it, as they will lose their work.

[Update] Another possible solution is to turn on the AirPort on the Mac Unit in the upper right hand corner. The icon resembles an empty quarter circle. It may take a few minutes for the internet to be available again, but this avoids restarting the unit."

Thanks,
Emily

Did you know? Free PhotoDelivery Exceptions

Today I had a patron call about access to an article for which we were supposed to have online full text but due to an error wasn't available. She was happy to find out that under these circumstances we will fill the article for free through our PhotoDelivery service. In order to avoid charges, the patron will need to put a note in the Special Instructions field of the PhotoDelivery form (https://hsllibs.wufoo.com/forms/photodelivery/), indicating that the article was unavailable online due to a linking or publisher's error.

I just wanted to pass this info along to anyone who might not yet be aware of this new option.

Thanks!
Emily

Exporting data from RefWorks to Excel

I've had two questions recently at the desk about analyzing references by geographic location. I've managed to assist these patrons by helping them export data from RefWorks into Excel. Data can then be sorted and summarized in Excel. In each case, "Country of Publication" was the field we were interested in. State level data is also available, but requires manually identifying the state from each "Author Address" field. In my opinion, it is easier to do this in Excel, rather than pulling up each individual reference in a database.

I thought I'd pass this strategy along, in case it might be helpful for someone else. Also, if anyone has a better approach, I'd love to hear it!

Cheers,
Emily

Instructions for exporting data from RefWorks:

1. From the RefWorks toolbar, select Tools > Export References
2. Select folder to export
3. Select Tab Delimited format
4. Click Export to Text File
5. Click Download it to open the file in your browser
6. Your browser window should now be filled with text. Select File > Save Page As...
7. Change the file's extension to .xls and Save
8. Open the file using Excel
9. Sort and summarize as usual in Excel