Friday, November 30, 2007

Schedule meetings with Doodle


Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting or get a group of colleagues together by e-mail?

Did you just end up with zillions of e-mail messages routed around and still not know what available time everyone had in common?

I just learned of a better way: Doodle. It worked great with a Minnesota Digital Library meeting, and that group is planning to keep using it to schedule its meetings.

Create a list of potential dates and times, direct attendees to a web page, check back, and schedule your meeting. Take a look and give it a try the next time you have to schedule a meeting!

Here's an example of what the scheduling table looks like:

-- John L.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

PROQUEST NEWSTAND COMPLETE

ProQuest Newstand Complete is a database of over 500 local, national and international newspapers, 350 of which have full-text. Content is continually being added, including some obituaries and letters to the editor. The Star-Tribune is included, but not the Pioneer Press or the Duluth News-Tribune.

New features of ProQuest Newstand Complete include: smart search, search alerts, citation options, saving a search as a web page, and permalinks. Smart search is accessed under the “topics tab”. If your patron is finding it hard to get the right subject, smart search will suggest topics, compare search terms to index terms, and suggest options for narrowing the search such as additional terms, date, or publication. The patron may have to click on “next” or “view all” to see all the topic suggestions.

The “My Research” folder lets you save search results in order to manipulate them in different ways. This folder only lasts for the duration of the session, unlike MyEBSCOHost in EBSCO MasterFILE Premier, however registration is not required. Clicking in the “mark” box will automatically save records to the folder, no additional “save marked records” step is needed. Search results can be emailed, printed, or saved as a web page. The web page can be saved to a floppy or flash drive on a public terminal. A bibliography can be created which can be emailed, printed, saved, or exported to citation software such as RefWorks. The default citation option is the one ProQuest uses, but it can be changed to MLA, APA, AMA, or Chicago/Turabian.
Search alerts can be set up from the results screen. A pop-up window gives the option to search daily, weekly, or monthly on a topic and sends results to the email provided. It can be set up to stop after the project is completed. The default subject of the email is the search string, so the patron may want to change it to something snappier that they will remember.

One other thing I didn’t know: ProQuest has a “select multiple databases” option in Basic and Advanced Search. Unfortunately, historical databases and non-historical databases can’t be searched together, so you can’t search ProQuest Newstand Complete and Historical New York Times at the same time.


Supplementary materials are available in the “FYI” box in Cube City.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Plant Information Online

Plant Information Online, a database managed by the University of Minnesota Libraries, is now free and available to anyone with access to the internet. It is one of the world's largest resources for botanical and horticultural information and contains several databases of interest to plant and gardening enthusiasts as well as professional botanists, horticulturists, and plant scholars.

--Erin

Friday, November 02, 2007

Greetings. I have something for you to keep in mind when planning library programming for 2008.

On May 11, 2008, Minnesota celebrates its 150th year as the 32nd state of the United States of America. The Minnesota Legislature, in 2005, formed a Minnesota Statehood Sesquicentennial Commission. The four themes of the commission focus on: Education, Innovation, Arts and Cultures, Health and Wellness. In the Commission's own words, "Beginning in January 2008, the Sesquicentennial will be a yearlong, statewide commemoration and a catalyst, to learn from our past and connect all of us as Minnesotans in creating a thriving, innovative future. "


The Minnesota Historical Society has it's "Minnesota 150" exhibit open and there will be a number of events centered around the Sesquicentennial.

St. Paul Library has the book titled, "Minnesota 150" by Kate Roberts on order.

On January 23, I will be doing a book chat centered around 150 years of Minnesota history. Then, closer to May, I'll dedicate one month of the nonfiction display table to Minnesota history.

Here's some links to MHS activities:

http://www.mn150years.org/

http://events.mnhs.org/calendar/Results.cfm?ParentID=2168

Deb
















Thursday, November 01, 2007

WET MATERIALS RECOVERY WORKSHOP

What would you do if when you came to work you found out that some sort of emergency had occurred at the library and damaged materials were strewn about the floor in dirty water? This is what faced fifteen MPL employees and two librarians from SPPL who attended a Wet Materials Recovery Workshop led by Bob Herskovitz, MHS Outreach Conservator, at the Central Minneapolis Library. This was just a scenario but it tested us on whether we knew what to do. Most of us didn’t. We rushed to try to save the books, many not knowing exactly how to do even that. We later learned that this step was only to be taken only after several assessments for safety and peoples’ and the collections’ needs had been completed. It showed the need to have thought out emergency preparedness ahead of time by creating documents like a Disaster Management Plan. This plan should include internal and external contact information, plans for teams and the recovery directory to handle the emergency and different areas of the collection if needed, questions to answer for a disaster initial situation report, checklists for assessing people’s and the building’s safety and needs, as well as checklists for equipment and supplies, disaster re-entry, collection assessment, and recovery efforts.

We then discussed how to assess damage to collections in the wake of a disaster, how to determine collection salvage techniques, which salvage techniques should be used on each type of material, and appropriate safety garb when salvaging. We then reconvened in the loading dock where we had first encountered the damaged materials. Discarded books, cds, dvds, photos, newspaper clippings, and other items had been soaking in water and dirt for days. Working in teams of two, we were assigned the task of identifying the items, determining the best treatment, and then documenting what we had done. We also learned and practiced how to wrap monographs in freezer paper and pack them to be sent to a commercial freezing facility. This workshop helped us learn what to do and not to do in a library disaster, made us familiar with recovery methods and techniques, and taught us to work smarter and safer in an emergency.

--Erin

TCART 25TH ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM, PART TWO

The second session was on Technological Solutions to Archival Issues.

Shawn Rounds of the Minnesota Historical Society talked about preserving the records of the E-Legislature, the electronic records of the Minnesota Legislature. She explained that when pursuing a project, collaboration and partnerships were necessary for sharing responsibilities, external skills, and infrastructure and that it was crucial to have a business plan which would show the value of the project to potential partners. She also said that projects needed to be built on practical business cases like helping with disaster recovery or enhanced access. Ms. Rounds recommended using standards for digital storage and making sure there were established routine processes as part of the work flow. It is also necessary to understand users’ needs and expectations and to justify why funding should be received.

Jason Roy from the U of M’s Digital Conservancy
talked about capturing University Web sites for preservation through the U of M’s institutional repository program. The goal of this project is to create access to digital scholarly and administrative works of U of M staff, departments, faculty, and centers. Mr. Roy spoke on how they were working to do this, the issues they encountered, and their need to pursue ongoing stewardship of online resources. He also spoke of trying to meet the needs of younger researchers as they transition through life by keeping up with and ahead of technological advances.

Heather Lawton of Minneapolis Public Library’s Special Collections
talked about using digital preservation for access when coping with a small staff. In 2003 when Minneapolis faced large budget cuts it meant a smaller staff and shorter hours and this was affecting researchers’ ability to use Minneapolis’ Special Collections. As the lone staff person in Special Collections (there had been 7), Ms. Lawton decided she needed to digitize in order to create better access. One project she has worked on is with the Minneapolis Department of Inspections. Both were interested in digitizing building permit cards and were able to work together to make this happen. They should be online in 2008. Minneapolis has also made some of its more popular photos and pre 1923 maps and plat books available through the Minnesota Digital Library (http://www.mndigital.org/). In the future Ms. Lawton will look at digitizing yearbooks in the public domain and pre 1923 city directories. She feels that digitization is becoming a core part of archives’ work. Ms. Lawton also stressed that it is important for archival collections to talk with each other so that there isn’t any duplication of digitization efforts. It was discussed that the Minnesota Digital Library is looking at how to create some sort of clearinghouse that would allow for this to happen.


--Erin

TCART 25TH ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM, PART ONE

On October 30, 2007 in honor of its 25th Anniversary, TCART (Twin Cities Archival Roundtable-a group of archivists, records managers, librarians, manuscript curators, and historians from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota) held a symposium on pressing issues for people working in archives.

The first session was on Legal, Privacy and Proprietary Issues in Archives.

Charles Rodgers from the Minnesota State Archives spoke to us on Managing State Institutional Records at the Minnesota Historical Society. Minnesota had many state hospital facilities now called regional treatment centers) most of which have closed, are closing or downsizing now. The type of records the State Archives tries to save for these institutions are those that show how the organization was governed and run and gives insight into patient and employee life. They don’t usually collect case files. Restrictions to records vary by type and agency, but generally those with private data are closed for 50 years from date of last entry. Mr. Rodgers spoke about the reasons for restrictions, means of maintaining physical and intellectual control of records, and how people may request access. (I have a handout from this presentation.)

David Klaassen of the U of M’s Social Welfare History Archives
spoke on the confidentiality of Social Service Records. Access to these archives is not directly controlled by legislation, but staff works to make others aware of privacy laws and bases its policies on the professional code of ethics such as being sensitive when individual names are mentioned in documents. Their collection contains some adoption records and these have restrictions on them if they are fewer than 50 years old and 50-100 years old.

Tony Jahn of the Target Corporation
spoke of the management of proprietary records and service in a corporate setting. Mr. Jahn also talked of the differences between corporate and public archives and access to corporate archives internally and externally. He advised that people seeking for information from a corporate archive should always try to ask for permission, remembering that it helps to show how giving access would benefit the corporation, but to know that there may be reasons why the corporation may not be able to give access.



--Erin