GPO has trial project re chat reference

I noticed the following on the GPO Access page today:

Government Information Online (GIO) is a national pilot project sponsored by the Illinois State Library, OCLC, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. GPO is participating in the pilot along with more than 30 federal depository libraries from across the United States. Users of the service can interact online with government information librarians during a weekly chat schedule, or users can submit questions at any time using an email interface. To use the service, visit the project's website at http://govtinfo.org. The pilot is scheduled to run through November 14, 2005.

New databases

There's been a number of new databases added in the past few weeks:

• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Grove Art Online
• Grove Music Online
• In the First Person

Oxford Reference Online is back

In case you were wondering.

Oxford Reference Online

Per Oxford: they are experiencing system-wide access problems and are working to fix it soon.

Hoover's

Off campus access to Hoover's has been restored!

Oxford Reference Online connection down

Not sure why we can't get in to Oxford Reference Online right now.

Vendor Card Printing from Public PCs

Saad is continuing work on the 8 public PCs (behind the reference desk) so that users can print to the vendor printers. As of this morning, the three PCs nearest the popular reading collection (but not the PC for the disabled) can be used to print to the vendor printer. Users must select the printer icon for "hp5si1u on pserver1" not the "Vendor card printer" and they cannot name their jobs at this time. I will keep you posted.

New York State Demographics information

Gotham Gazette has an interesting article today on the differing demographics of Upstate and Downstate New York and the conflicts that result. The link in the article for the region's differing demographics is to a 49-slide Power Point presentation, "Demographics Overview of New York State: Implications for Education," given at the Board of Regents Retreat at the University of Albany, July 21, 2005.

Sneak preview of new Librarians' Internet Index

The Librarians' Index to the Internet has been undergoing a complete overhaul recently. You can see a preview of the new design, which looks like it will also feature slightly different name: Librarians' Internet Index. According to Karen Schneider of the Free Range Librarian, the URL for this preview version is temporary, so don't bother bookmarking it.

You can find more of Schneider's earlier thoughts about the redesign here on the Free Range Librarian. (By the way, she often uses the abbreviation MPOW to as shorthand for "my place of work," which happens to be the Librarians' Index to the Internet.)

Laptop availability via CUNY+

In the browse section of CUNY+ search screen ("Browse an Alphabetical List") type "baruch laptop" and go to the holdings info in the item records for each of the following:

• Baruch Laptop
• Baruch Laptop - iBook
• Baruch Laptop - Latitude D600
• Baruch Laptop - PowerBook

Study room availability via CUNY+

In the browse section of CUNY+ search screen ("Browse an Alphabetical List") type "study rooms baruch" and go to the holdings info in the item record.

Hoover's: on campus=yes; off campus=no

This week we got on-campus access to Hoover's back, but they are still refusing to allow off-campus access (via EZ Proxy).

NOVEL Databases access via driver's license

One more option for remote access to databases. Anyone with a NY state driver's license or with a NY state non-driver photo ID can now access NOVEL databases from this special NOVEL databases page.

New features of NOAH database

If you haven't looked at the NOAH database lately, it has an updated and revised appearance.
For a number of health related topics, you can also now view short videos.

Intra-campus telephones

A brief experiment today confirmed that the intra-campus telephones in the alcoves where the pay phones are located can only be used to dial campus phone numbers that begin 646-312. They can't be used to dial numbers that begin 212-802.

Calculators for Second Summer Session

Calculators will be available, first come, first served, at the 2nd floor circulation desk beginning Monday July 11th.

Property information needed for financial aid

This morning I helped an incoming freshman student who needed property valuation information in order to complete her financial aid information. She had a web site that she had received from the financial aid office, but when we entered it, it was an old address.
The correct address is:
http://nycserv.nyc.gov/nycproperty/nynav/jsp/selectbbl.jsp (This takes you to the page in which the information about a specific lot can be entered.) If they don't know their block and lot number, there is a link that allows them to search for it on this page.

I let the Financial Aid office know about the new address.

Although it was probably not following our policies, I set her up on a side computer at the reference desk to do the search and allowed her to print the one page out, on recycled paper. I mention this because there might be other requests and without a Baruch student account, she couldn't sign on, and getting a vendor card and printing to the vendor print seemed like a bit much to me, but I can understand that others might think otherwise. Perhaps most students will have access to other computers with a printer.

Rita

College Now Students

Sudents enrolled in the College Now program have a printing budget and can print to the student printers. They have the same Library privileges as Baruch students except that, as of now, they cannot borrow laptops. I will let you know if the laptop policy changes.

New Search Interface for Euromonitor

Euromonitor's GMID database will soon have a new search interface. I heard about this - but didn't see it - at SLA. Here is the official announcement.

Hoover's Online not available

Hoover's Online has temporarily disconnected Baruch as a subscriber. According to Saad, Hoover's has issues with the way that Baruch allows access to our subscription to their product. No word at the moment about when we will be able to get our connection back.

Changes in Course Reserve Listings

Title and author searching in Docutek for course reserves is no longer an option and the tab "Course Reserves by Title" has been removed. This is to comply with "fair use" guidelines that require password protection for title access to all course reserve items.

Borrowing Laptops

During July and August, students should go to the circulation desk on the second floor to borrow laptops.