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.
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://events.mnhs.org/calendar/Results.cfm?ParentID=2168
DebWhat 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
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
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
The
If a patron is just starting out in the area of grants and foundations, the
Foundation Directory Online is four databases in one: grants, grantmakers, companies and 990s. When you enter a database, it is best to click on the search field heading to bring up the index on the left-hand side and browse through those. Browse by alphabet, then click on the most relevant one to have it appear in the search box. Clicking on more than one type of support or field of interest will create an “or” search, not an “and”. You can add a term to the keyword box to create an “and” search. One thing to note: “
Foundation grants to individuals are a very small percentage of grants (5,000-6,000 out of 90,000). Most of these go to artists or higher education. Most foundations prefer to give to nonprofits rather than individuals because of the paperwork involved. In a few cases, nonprofits will make a legal contract with an individual to help them receive grants. This is called “fiscal sponsorship”, and the nonprofit receives a fee of 5%-10%. In the future, the
In spite of the rainy weather and parking issues, Central’s Teen Read Week 2007 was a rousing success, with a total attendance of 107 people for 6 programs. Our team of Karen, Jennifer, Carl and me created two themed days of 3 programs each.
Thursday was “Scary Day”, with a make-up effects professional, a forensic scientist, and the movie Poltergeist. The teens really enjoyed doing the hands-on portion of the “CSI Teenstyle” where they viewed evidence and solved a fictitious crime. Our new DVD and TV set-up and projector really made the movie experience more “theater-like”. Books and booklists on the topics were also displayed.
Friday was “Graphic Novel and Animation Day” , with teens from the Open School showing how to make animation with free software, a panel of 4 graphic novelist and artists talking about their work, and the anime Naruto the Movie : Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. The teens really hung on the words of the graphic novelists and some even brought their art for the panelists to look at! They also enjoyed the authentic Japanese treats like Pocky, which went fast. Some of the movie crowd had seen the movie before and chuckled at familiar scenes and lines. They even dressed up as the characters, rather like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but fortunately not as rowdy. Two lucky teens got gift certificates for the best costumes.
All in all, we had a lot of fun, and we made contacts for future programming. The presenters said they had a good time and would be interested in future events, whether teen or adult. We also created booklists which could be used by other branches or for future displays.
Thanks to everyone who assisted us, especially Therese, Sheree, Paul, Phyllis, Marcus, Alayne, John L. and Doris.
More pictures here.--Andrea
We began the day getting an overview of what is now referred to as ZcoB, a community of businesses which began with Zingerman’s Deli in
The trainers then described how they had gone from 1 small deli to 10 very large and productive businesses. In a word, vision. Follow up that vision with a mission statement, systems that cater to that mission statement and point toward the vision, create a culture that values the principles espoused by the people leading the company (which need to be written down, by the way), and work incredibly hard. That’s all. Right. (I was confused about the difference between a mission statement and a vision, until it was clarified. A “vision” is what you want down the line at a specific point in time in the future, a picture of what success looks like. A “mission statement” is a statement of what your company aspires to do on a daily basis. As a working definition, those two are actually quite good, and utterly distinct.)
When your guiding principles are shared by the workforce, ( through judicious hiring and training,) you hope to end up with a group that is pulling in the same direction. For Zingerman’s, their guiding principles include great food, great service and a great place to shop and eat. After those three come solid profits, a great place to work and strong relationships. The final two are a place to learn and being an active part of their community.
TRAINING:
By the end of the first orientation meeting for new employees, the Zingerman employee knows about the mission, guiding principles, the three bottom lines (Great Food, Great Service, Great Finance)and their impact and has agreed to the Zingerman training compact, which entailed several interesting innovations. While we already do the first part of the training, I found the compact and their ways of using that tool very interesting.
The compact itself is that the trainer agrees to
a)document clear performance expectations,
b)provide training resources,
c)recognize performance, and
d)reward performance.
The trainee agrees to take responsibility for the effectiveness of their training.
This is broken down into 4 training plan questions;
1. what is expected of the trainee-and by when,
2. how the information will be made available,
3. how will each party know if the expectations are being met, and
4. what the rewards/consequences for success/failure are.
While we are doing much of this, the one new component that I believe we should consider adopting is what the trainers referred to as a “Training Passport”—a booklet which is carried by the trainee and can be signed by other employees/supervisors when an action has been taken or an idea has been grasped.
It is the trainee who is responsible for maintaining and getting those signatures. I have a copy of the one used by Zingerman’s in the notebook, which would need to be modified for use by us, but might be an idea worth pursuing.
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
To begin the discussion on great service, the trainers asked us “why we should give great service” and conversely “why is it so hard to find?” Many of the answers provided were the standard, eg because it feels good, and happy customers come back for the first question, or because of lack of competition or poor feedback for the second one.
Zingerman’s has formulated their own three step guide to great service. First, figure out what the guest wants, second get it for them accurately, politely and enthusiastically, third go the extra mile.
In order to find out what the guest wants, you need to engage that customer in conversation. Pay attention to what they are asking about and listen actively. Ask questions to ensure that you are getting to the heart of the matter.
While getting them what they want, do so accurately (no fudging on amounts or sizes), politely (with a smile on your face) and enthusiastically (no mental eye rolling). And, when possible, go that extra mile, do something that will put a smile on the guest’s face. The expectation of the company is that the customer should leave believing that they were the best thing that happened to you (the server) that day.
Zingerman’s uses a couple of interesting forms, which might be useful in our line of work as well. They are called the code green and the code red. These are not incident forms. They are more casual, and are filled out by the employee who first makes contact with the person who is either complaining or complimenting the staff. While the staff at Zingerman’s was slow to adopt these forms, they are now a regular part of doing business in all of ZcoB.
Copies of the forms are in the notebook as well, along with the five steps they use to effectively handle customer complaints. While the steps are mostly common sense (an attribute which Ari doesn’t actually believe exists…he calls it rare and unusual sense)
they do cover all the bases. First acknowledge the complaint (do not excuse or explain…listen). They recommend either “oh” or “wow” (or both if called for) as replies when first notified of a complaint. Secondly, sincerely apologize for the mistake with a clear and unqualified “I’m sorry” or “I’m really sorry”. Third, take action to make things right for the guest (each employee at Zingerman’s is empowered to do exactly that---including refunding money, and replacing product if necessary). Fourth, thank the guest for giving you the opportunity to correct the problem, and finally document the complaint.
IN the question and answer session that followed, a question was asked about motivating existing employees, and getting them to accept changes. The Zingerman trainers also do an all day seminar on Bottom Line Change and they believe that commitment to each other =success in the workplace and that caring confrontation is necessary when there is serious resistance they outlined for us what their steps are to implement change in the workplace:
If anyone would like to see their handouts, they are residing in the FYI basket in Ref - 4th floor.
