Wiley e-journal subscriptions have apparently developed an occasional problem that, upon trying to access full text, the user is told that there are insufficient "tokens" available at your institution. We should not get this message, ever.
Our recent problem seems to be fixed now (thanks to Ashley Halverson at Bio-Med!). If this happens again, just contact Chris so he can get in touch with Wiley. It seems to be a fairly straightforward fix at Wiley's end (fixed w/in an hour of our notification this AM).
-Kevin
When we upgraded MNCAT last summer, one enhancement (?) was that e-journals accessed through the catalog came up in a pop-up browser window. Unfortunately, the pop-up window didn't have any navigation buttons, so it was easy to get stuck on a journal web site. We placed a note in MNCAT therefore that users right click the journal button, and choose "open page in new window" so that they could navigate properly.
This problem has now been substantially fixed. Janet found a way to insert navigation buttons into the pop-up windows in MNCAT, so there is no longer a strong need to "right click" the links to journals. (The pop-up windows still don't have the "File" Edit"..."Help" Dropdown menus, so they're still not *fully* functional.)
-Kevin
In response to a patron request, I've made available on 2hr loan a molecular modeling kit (the ball and stick models used in organic chemistry and biochemistry classes). There is a kit available at Magrath and another at Bio-Med.
They are cataloged under the title "molecular model set for organic chemistry."
Circ folks, let me know if this turns out to be an unmitigated disaster (little pieces of plastic everywhere, half the set goes missing after two weeks, etc.).
Thanks,
Kevin
I just now learned (thanks Marlys!) that there have been some problems with staffing at the Writer's Help Desk over the past few weeks, particularly, tutors not showing up for work.
The tutors have been instructed that if they are sick and cannot come to work, they need to call the Magrath circ desk (612-624-2233) and speak to someone. Library staff can then put out a sign at the desk saying that the tutor is out ill.
If there hasn't been a call, but the tutor doesn't show, please contact Julie or me so we can figure out what's going on:
Julie 4-4781
Kevin 4-7210 or 6-5454
If you can't get a hold of either Julie or me, on Mon/Tuesday you can try the Rhetoric Dept (4-3445) or Prof. Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch at the Online Writing Center (4-6727); on Wed/Thursday call the Center for Writing (5-1893).
Since absentees have apparently been a persistent problem, I'd like to ask that anytime a tutor is out ill, or more than about 10 minutes late for their shift, that someone send me an email (messn006@umn.edu) to let me know. Since I'm not working on-site at present ("someday, my ship will come..."), I am relying on your eyes and ears as to how service at the desk is going, so please let me know of your observations, good and bad!
Thanks much,
Kevin
Alert staff and students to the latest phone scam: there are companies who will call (particularly one called Informatika) and ask for "confirmation" of our address for a free directory. Don't give it to them or argue. Hang up as soon as possible. They can be quite beligerent. The scam is that they then try to hit us with a pricey invoice for being listed in their 'free' directory.
There are variations on this theme, such as trying to find out what kind of printer cartridges we use, etc, then billing us for them. All supply questions, questions about equipment-anything like that-- should be routed to Bernadette.
Terry
This is more a collections issue than a reference one, but questions may come up at the desk about BioMed Central. They are altering their pricing model, and the change could create quite a mess.
-Kevin
From LJAN:
>
> ****************TODAY'S NEWS*****************
> EVOLUTION IN OPEN ACCESS: BIOMED CENTRAL ALTERS ITS
> MEMBERSHIP MODEL
> Although it initially offered institutional memberships on
> a flat fee basis, open access publisher BioMed Central
> (BMC) has sent notice to its members and supporters that
> institutional memberships for 2005 will now be renewed
> calculated on an estimated "per article published" basis.
> Under BMC's open access model, access to all content,
> including databases, archives and peer-reviewed journals,
> is completely free for users. Costs are instead recouped
> through author processing charges (APCs). Under the BMC
> model currently in force, however, APCs for those who opt
> for "institutional memberships" are waived in exchange for
> the flat rate membership fee. That means researchers at
> member institutions can submit and publish freely all
> accepted articles with BMC. Currently, the BMC web site
> lists U.S. flat fees ranging from $1612 to $8000 depending
> on institution size.
>
> That model, however, produced "unfair side effects" earlier
> than anticipated, explained BioMed Central publisher Jan
> Velterop in a message to Yale Unviersity's Liblicense electronic
> discussion list. "While we started off with a flat
> membership fee, based on the number of potential
> researchers in a given institution," wrote Velterop, "some
> institutions generated far more articles than others." As
> such, for 2005, BioMed Central announced it would "link
> fees to the past record of publication as a proxy." Should
> researchers at a member institution publish 10 articles
> during their 2005 membership, their membership bill would
> be the number of articles (10) multiplied by the APC ($525)
> for a base fee of $5250. That figure could be adjusted
> downward by additional qualifying discounts. The new scheme
> will only apply for renewals. BioMed Central has grown
> steadily since its launch in 1999. It now numbers some 400
> institutional members, including a major deal in 2003 with
> the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) for all
> researchers in the United Kingdom (See LJ Academic Newswire
> 6/19/03). While exact figures were not released, the BMC
> web site notes that January 2004 saw "a record number" of
> submissions to BMC, more than double the number from
> January 2003.
>
> ----------------------------------------
> A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE? LIBRARIANS TAKEN ABACK BY BIOMED
> CENTRAL CHANGE
> It was hardly a surprise that nascent open access publisher
> BioMed Central may (BMC) have needed to adjust its business
> model. What was surprising, however, notes Cornell
> University librarian Phil Davis, was that news of the
> change "broke" on Yale Univerity's Liblicense electronic discussion
> list. "There was no forewarning of the new pricing model to
> anyone," Davis told the LJ Academic Newswire. "I think [BMC
> publisher] Jan Velterop was not on the same page as the
> rest of his marketing group, and his postings created a
> flurry of policy actions from the company. I don't entirely
> blame Jan. I think BMC is trying to figure their model out
> as the go along. Unfortunately, it is undermining the
> credibility in their product." Velterop apologized to
> librarians on Liblicense for any confusion over the change.
> But this week, librarians expressed frustration about a
> possible communication breakdown with BMC, as well as
> deeper concerns over the BMC change itself. "One of the
> chief problems with the current or traditional subscription
> model is that authors are completely desensitized to the
> cost of publishing," Davis explained. With the BMC change
> for 2005, "moving to an institutional membership is no
> different in that we will keep the author removed from the
> price...it is potentially a suicidal model in terms of our
> budget."
>
> "Many of us are upset," added Tom Williams, professor and
> Director of the Biomedical Libraries at the University of
> South Alabama College of Medicine. Williams told the LJ
> Academic Newswire he was "horrified" when he saw the change
> on Liblicense, and called his BMC representative, who told
> him the planned change had in fact been in place
> previously. Williams, however, insists he and his fellow
> librarians were caught unaware. "We signed only a few
> months ago, and there was never any mention of moving to
> per-article changes, not ever was this made clear to us."
> Williams' library currently pays roughly $1300 for BMC
> membership as part of a consortium deal that includes
> roughly 20 medical libraries throughout the South. "That's
> quite reasonable," he notes. "Under that model I can save
> my people money. But what [BMC] is doing now is
> transferring the cost of publication from scholars to the
> library." While Williams says the BMC product is a good
> one, the recent change has left him somewhat dubious of
> BMC's business. "It looks like they used us," he said. "We
> marketed this for them. We told all our researchers these
> journals were out there and you can publish in them. Now it
> looks like this was a sweetheart deal so we would do the
> marketing for them, increase people submitting to them. Now
> that they've gotten the business, the deal changes."
> Williams said that the BMC change could "absolutely" impact
> his institution's decision to renew BMC membership for
> 2005. "We couldn't afford it," he said flatly. "If our
> faculty published 100 articles that would be over $50,000."
RE downloading citations from Indexes for importing them into RefWorks - from the public ADCS & Writing Center workstations:
When you do the "File - Save As" part of this operation, the only place you can save the file is to the "My Documents" folder, which is the default location that pops up. You cannot save the file directly to the desktop, and I guess you also cannot save it to a disk in the "A" drive (Scott, I can check with Chris Moon on that A drive part if you haven't written to him yet?). Also, for some reason when you do a "File - Save As", it defaults to "Web page" for the File Type. You need to change that to "Text file .txt" as type, or it will not work.
Hope this helps. We can discuss it more tomorrow in our RefWorks tutorial.
Linda
Linda Eells wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> RE item 1, Julie mentioned last night that Write-N-Cite users from outside should not need that group code if they come into RefWorks via the U of MN Libraries website (as opposed to directly via RefWorks.com) AND if they open RefWorks before they open whatever index they want to use. Julie, please correct me if I misunderstood that.
>
> RE item 2, I used an ADCS terminal in a class on Monday night and was able to save files from an index to the "My Documents" folder on the desktop - that is the only place it will let you save to - and our ADCS terminal here should be the same. I'm going to go try it right now!
>
> Thanks.
>
> Linda
>
> Scott Marsalis wrote:
>
>> Hi guys. I can't remember how this information has been shared, but as a reminder:
>>
>> There are 2 common problems that are arising as patrons use RefWorks:
>>
>> * For the time being, to use the Write-N-Cite from off campus, they need to enter a "Group code". Ours is RWUMinnTwin
>>
>> * Library public terminals won't let the patron save to the desktop or hard drive, so they'll need to save to a floppy. I've put a small stash of floppies at the Magrath reference desk, and the Branches will want to do the same.
>>
>> The ADCS terminal in Magrath wasn't letting us save to the floppy or desktop last night, so I'll be looking into this further.
>>
>> People are working on fixes to both problems, but in the mean time, we need to make sure people on the front lines know.
>>
>> Kevin: is the Blog public? Can we post the group code there, or would that be a security problem?
>>
>> --Scott
Newspapers are not included in the E-Journals database, so make sure to check MNCAT and/or all E-Resources list before telling a patron we don't have access to a paper electonically.
For some reason the electronic newspapers are listed under LUMINA>>Reference Sources>>Online Newspapers.
Hmmm...Gale directories are printed on newsprint, Gale directories are a reference source. Newspapers are printed on newsprint, therefore they must be a reference source, too. Any better logical reasons for this arrangement?
The good news is that once the E-Journals page is successfully run off SFX instead of a MNCAT scrape, this should be fixed.
Also, check the coverage. For example the Chronicle of Higher Ed in Lexis-Nexis is embargoed for the current 6-months. (and of course L/N defaults to searching only the current 6 months ...)
/Scott
After talking with Joan and Steve about this blog last week, we've decided that it makes sense for Magrath circ to make use of it as well. (They get the same questions reference does about computer problems and the like, and they of course serve as de facto reference when the ref desk is unmanned.) So you can expect to see posts from the circ staff showing up here periodically. Welcome to them!
Just made a minor discovery. In our "Movable Type" blog interface, there should be a set of buttons, for making text bold, etc., or adding a hypertext link, that appear above the text entry box where you make a new entry. That works just fine if you're using Internet Explorer. If you're in the habit (like me) of using Mozilla, though, these buttons don't show.
Banged away at the configuration for way too long, before I just thought to just try a different broswer...
-Kevin
From my experiments just now, it seems that the Blog software only sends notifications if you tell it to do so when you make an entry.
So, after imputing your entry, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and follow the instructions there for sending the notification.
--Scott
OK, Scott is correct, setting the Reference blog to notify you when a new entry is added is quite easy. Simply go to the add/edit entry page and login.
Then, on the left hand side, under "Manage", select "Notifications".
Enter your email and your name will be added to the notification email list at the bottom of the page.
The microfilm for the USAIN State and Local Literature Preservation Project
is still in my office. If you have requests for these reels of Microfilm, call me.
I will bring down the reels for the patron. I'm almost done with getting labels on them. The reels should be on the shelves and cabinets soon. I will notify everyone when this happens.
The Location for the Reels reads MAGR
the Mfilm numbers are generally 1100's
Some will be shelved in Periodicals.
marlys
Preliminary reports of the 2002 Census Of Agriculture for Minnesota and most of the states can be found at the NASS website.
See: http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/
2002 preliminary reports are just under the Red 2002 in the upper left hand corner.
Marlys
Students will be coming in looking for books and articles on a specific piece of clothing or some type of body adornment. The assignment is to write about the piece of clothing in context of the ethnic or population group that wears it.
They don't really need to do a historical review of the piece of clothing, but tie it in with what it represents, the belief system that is part of that ethnic group.
There is a Course lib page for the class. Links to Background notes and maps are included.
This from Lisa McGuire at Bio-Med. You might put the "group code" at your service point -- or just refer to the blog when you need it.
As you all know, RefWorks is a web-based citation manager, yadda yadda ya...
The component that allows users to write a paper in Word and create a bibliography while writing is called Write-N-Cite. Right now remote users are unable to get into the Write-N-Cite feature due to proxy server configurations on the Refworks side. Users can get into it if they know the U of M 'group code' for RefWorks.
Per Bob's excellent suggestion, the group code (RWUMinnTwin) is 'under glass' at the reference desk. Feel free to use it on a case-by-case basis. The RefWorks implementation group is still working on possible fixes for this w/RefWorks so at the moment we are not going to post the group code info on the RefWorks web site for public consumption. But that may be our only option if the other fix doesn't fly.
Thanks Bob for thinking of this!
Lisa
-Kevin
While Terry was on the reference desk, a patron called unable to access the St. Paul Pioneer Press through the Online Newspapers under Reference. It asked for the patron's user id and password for the "Newsbank InfoWeb". The technical difficulty was reported and the reply was that two others' access to the Pioneer Press had worked. I also tried and got the same message about user id and password. The failed attempt was also reported.
-Kate
This is now working.
--Scott
There is a record for the title the patron is
referring to, but the title is "International Financial Statistics"
(no "IMF" at the beginning).
Actually, there are several records. The bottom line is that we've got
current subscriptions to the print and CD in GPL and BusRef and Magrath
to the print.
There's a class (ECON 4431) that's being directed to the IFS, as well as
the UN International Trade Statistics Yearbook, of which pretty consistent runs
are held in GPL & Magrath, so similar questions may be coming...
Cheers,
Amy West ( via Linda)