Using ebrary

The visit this week from the ebrary account consultant, Kerry O'Day, was especially useful because it cleared up the most frequently asked question from our students, "How many pages of the book can I print?" The answer is five pages at a time or a maximum of 40 pages per browser session. If the student is copying text the 40 page limit also applies but only one page of text can be copied at a time and images cannot be copied. Of course, students can close their browser and start a new session if they need to print or copy additional pages.

Kerry also answered some access questions. Ebrary allows unlimited simultaneous multi-user access. All links (to books or chapters) are persistant links and can be used in Blackboard and accessed from off-campus.

Expanded index to this blog now visible

This morning, I did some tinkering with the way the index of blog topics and subjects is displayed. In the past, the home page of the blog showed about a dozen key index entries. As an experiment, I've now decided to make the whole index visible on the right side of the blog. My hope is that this change will open up the archives of blog posts more and make older posts more findable.

In case you were not aware of my humble indexing efforts, I tag each blog post with 1-5 different subject terms. If you click on one of the tags in the index (such as technical problems) you can see all the posts that are on that topic (additional tags added to each post detail other facets of what that topic is about). We are now just shy of 700 blog posts since we launched the blog over two years ago; each of these posts has been tagged.

Please leave comments to this blog or contact me directly to let me know your thoughts about this change.

RefWorks now available

CUNY centrally purchased a subscription to RefWorks. We can now access it from the Databases page on our library web site. Once you enter RefWorks for the first time, you'll need to set up your own account.

Follow up to waiters in Manhattan question

A number of you e-mailed me in response to my blog post where I asked for help finding the number of waiters in Manhattan. I have pulled together your responses, added in my notes about them, and posted them all on an updated version of that earlier blog post.

ABI/Inform login problem (computer at reference desk south)

When trying to connect to ABI/Inform at the reference desk computer (south corner), I got an error message "Authentication error 1011". All other tested machines log into ABI/Inform properly. A message has been sent to Saad and Mike.

No access to Simmons Choices III

We seem to be unable to connect from any PC to Simmons Choices III. Lisa and Saad are aware of this problem. In the meanwhile, Lisa recommends that in many instances, MRI+ might actually be a more useful database for some marketing research (unless the student is looking for psychographics of consumers, in which case Simmons Choices III is the better option).

Number of waiters in Manhattan

To follow up on a tricky chat reference question this week, I've been searching databases trying to find an article that happens to mention the number of waiters working here in Manhattan. Nothing has been looking terribly promising so far. If you have any recommendations for sources to consult, please add a comment to this blog post or contact me directly.

Thanks.

UPDATE 9/28/06: I am amazed by how quickly my colleagues here responded and how helpful they were. Thanks to Rita, Diane, Sandy, and David for providing the following suggestions:

• Contact the Waiters Association
• Check the web site of the New York State Restaurant Association (here's the best link on their site that I found) and consider contacting them directly
• Look at data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (this is the best page I found)

None of the resources I was able to find specifically indicated how many waitpersons are in Manhattan alone. The data I found either gave me the number in the NY metro area (from the BLS) or the number of all people (chefs, waiters, busboys, etc.) employed in NYC by the restaurant industry (NY State Restaurant Association). I recommended to the patron that he contact the two associations to see if they had the more specific data he needed.

SEC to Transform EDGAR

Yesterday the SEC announced that they are awarding a contact to modernize the EDGAR database to use "interactive data". The announcement is the SEC's first step toward requiring companies to file reports in XBRL- Extensible Busines Reporting Language. With XBRL investors will not only be able to view reports but also download and analyze the financial data without re-keying. To keep up-to-date on the SEC's Interactive Data inititative see the Spotlight section of their homepage. To use current SEC reports filed in XBRL use our EDGAR Online I-Metrix database.

Business Week Online Edition

Articles from Business Week Online as well as articles from the print edition of Business Week are included in Business Source Premier. They are not in ABI-Inform. I discovered this while trying to track down an article that I found on Google.

Web Mail Problem

On the main college home page the drop down menu under "Computer:" "Web Mail" is hanging and ultimately leading to an error message. I reported this to BCTC for correction a few minutes ago.
David

Short Story Index

Per Wilson, Short Story Index is unavailable (you will not see it in the Wilson list of choices) but should be back tomorrow 9/26.

No remote access to Euromonitor

There continues to be no remote access to Euromonitor GMID. Access does work here on campus, though.

How to use ebrary

To read ebooks in ebrary, it is necessary to download and install the ebrary reader. A link for the ebrary reader can be found on the main ebrary page in the section labeled "Getting Started."

If the user wants to save any notes or highlighting in books he/she has viewed, he or she should first click the purple "Sign In" button in the upper left corner of the screen. On the Sign In page, the first-time user will want to click "Do you need to create a new bookshelf?" to get to a page where they can set up a free, password-protected account that will allow them to build their own, customized "bookshelf" of titles they have annotated, highlighted, or bookmarked.

Due to copyright restrictions, there are varying limits set on how many pages may be printed at a time (and sometimes even how many pages may be viewed at a time). Here's how ebrary states these restrictions:

• You are not allowed to print out or copy the entire book.
• There are limitations on the number of pages you may print and copy.
• Some publishers also place limitations on the number of pages that can be viewed.

For more details on how to use ebrary, see this help guide (PDF).

Remote access to LexisNexis is back

I just checked here from home.

Posting to blog using reference desk user name

If you are at the reference desk and want to write a post for this reference blog, it is preferable to sign in to Blogger with the user name and password assigned to you. If can't remember that and just want to get the post published ASAP while at the desk, you can use the generic user name and password created for that purpose (the user name/password combo can be found in the reference wiki on the "Passwords" page). When using the generic user name and password to compose a blog post, though, please remember to always add your name at the end of the blog post (you don't need to do this if you've logged in with your personal Blogger account).

No remote access to LexisNexis

Over the weekend, our remote access to LexisNexis went down. I noticed it today (Sunday) after a number of students logged in to our chat reference service asking why they couldn't get in. I just tried myself from home here and can't get in. After getting past our EZ Proxy authentication screen, I get a LexisNexis page asking for a LexisNexis ID and password.

UPDATE (9/19/2006) Remote access seems to have been restored (I just checked from home).

Access to Choices 3 and MRI Restored

Students can access Choices 3 and MRI from workstations behind the Reference desk.

LACUNY Program Today

Today's LACUNY program "Instructional Technology from the Reference Desk to the Classroom" will be held in Room 656 from 2 pm to 4 pm. (Please note this is a room change.)

Dr. Sylvie Richards from the School of Professional Studies and Prof. Beth Evans from Brooklyn College are the featured speakers. Dr. Richards presentation is titled: "Blackboard Building Blocks - Blogs, Wikis, Journals, Podcasting and the New CUNY Online BA." Prof. Evans will talk about "MySpace, Facebook and Academic Libraries."

A few seats are still available. Let me know if you would like to attend.

Known Glitches

The workstations behind the reference desk are experiencing the following problems which are in the process of repair:

1. Once the bluesocket (logout) window is closed, it may not load again even when clicking on the login/logout icon on desktop. You may need to reboot in order to logout.

2. Simmons Choices 3 is not loading. You will receive a "forbidden IP" error message. Refer students to the three workstations to the right of the reference desk where Choices 3 does load. The database is also accessible from reference desk terminals.

3. Students are logging off the system completely by going to "start" then "log off." Terminals are then left with logon screens. Simply reboot workstation in order to return to bluesocket login screen.

Simmons Problem

As of approximately closing time last night 9/13 we were experiencing login problems to Simmons from a few of the computers at the reference desk and to the east of the desk. First thing this am I reported the problem using the Tech form on our web site.