Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Gerstein Lost and Found Procedures

This is a copy of the procedures sent out by Renata on January 22, 2013.


Gerstein Lost and Found Procedures
Date: January 21, 2013


1.0       Policy

This policy is to ensure unclaimed materials found in the University of Toronto Library (UTL) are handled securely and accountably according to University’s Facilities and Service’s Caretaking protocol on Lost and Found.

2.0              Purpose

2.1              To declare that UTL is not at all responsible nor liable for any lost materials in its
            libraries.

2.2              The sole responsibility for processing lost and found materials is with  Caretaking,
            Facilities and Services.

2.3           The Library and its staff will endeavor to assist library patrons in finding their lost
           materials by directing them accordingly.

To this end, the following procedure is established outlining the responsibilities of each party involved:

3.0       Procedures

3.1       Library Staff

3.1.1    When a patron attempts to hand in a found article in the library, the library staff
will immediately instruct the bearer to deposit the article in the lost and found box by the Loan Services Desk.

3.1.2    Articles will be removed from the box on Fridays only. Articles in each case will only be available for pick-up at the Lost & Found Office after 2:00 pm on the day of pick-up, or later.

3.1.3    Library staff will direct claimants of lost item(s) to call the University’s
Caretaking, Lost and Found Office at 416-978-6252 or
direct them to 256 McCaul St. - 3rd Floor - ring the "Lost & Found" buzzer.
McCaul St runs south from College St. East of King's College Rd.

3.1.4    If a patron claims a lost wallet, passport, or any governmental issued photoID, i.e. driver’s license, health card, citizen’s card, instruct the patron to call Campus
Police at 416-978-2323.


Exception:      All TCards found and returned to the library are handled internally.
Library staff must take these cards and follow their library protocol for ensuring they are immediately returned to the TCard Office.

3.1.5    Oversized articles will be placed adjacent to or atop the Lost and Found box.

3.1.6    Articles that are abruptly left at any service desk must be immediately placed in or
            on the Lost and Found box.

3.1.7    Library staff must avoid handling or taking possession of any found articles.


3.2       Caretaking

3.2.1    Caretaking Services are responsible for the collection and disposal of Lost &
Found articles from all buildings on the St. George Campus.

3.2.3    The Caretaking’s Lost and Found website provides the following instructions on
how a claimant may find their belongings;

a)         Clothing, books, binders, umbrellas:
- check by the Lost and Found box (applies only to Robarts and Gerstein
  Libraries)
- check at the caretaker's office in the building where the article was lost      
- if the article is not there, check with the main Caretaking Service Office.

b)         Cell phones, wallets, computers, bicycles, jewelry:
- check with the main Caretaking Service Office or Campus Police.


3.3.      Campus Police

3.3.1    At their discretion, Campus Police may attempt to retrieve lost articles from the
Lost and Found box for a claimant should the lost article be a government issued
photoID.

3.3.2    Campus Police may contact a Caretaking supervisor to assist with finding and retrieving the lost article from the Lost and Found box in the library.


3.4       Library Patrol

3.4.1    As with Library staff, a Library Patrol will direct claimants of lost item(s) to call
the University’s Caretaking, Lost and Found Office at 416-978-6252 or
direct them to 256 McCaul St. - 3rd Floor - ring the "Lost & Found" buzzer.
McCaul St runs south from College St. East of King's College Rd.

3.4.2   If a patron claims a lost wallet, passport, or any governmental issued photoID, i.e., driver’s license, health card, citizenship card, instruct the patron to call Campus Police at 416-978-2323.

3.4.3    Given the opportunity, a Library Patrol will extend this service to a claimant by making the appropriate phone calls to either Caretaking or Campus Police.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Globe and Mail and Proquest

To access the full run of the Globe and Mail you currently need to connect to Proquest and then access the Globe from the link “Canada’s Heritage from 1844 – Globe and Mail” on the right side of the screen.

Proquest is currently in the process of moving all the content from this external, affiliated site and creating a separate Proquest database with the same functionality and interface as other Proquest databases.  You will notice on the list of databases there is now a selectable link to ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail (1844-2009).

If you use this link be aware that full functionality is not currently not working, for example date range searching so continue to use this external link until the migration is complete.  Once the migration is complete the link to the Globe on the right side of the screen will disappear and replaced by this new selectable database.


Richard Hydal
Jan 14, 2013

Monday, November 05, 2012

Literature searches for a fee

If a patron contacts you looking for someone to perform a literature search or systematic review for them, you can refer them to: http://gerstein.library.utoronto.ca/literature-searches.

Literature searches for non UofT students, staff and faculty
Individuals not affiliated with the University of Toronto wishing to contract for literature searches for a fee can consult any of the following:
  • HealthSearch - at University Health Network. 416.340.3259
  • MedSearch - Valda Poplak, Medical Information Specialist. 416.462.2941; email: valda.poplak@sympatico.ca
  • IntelliSearch –main floor at the Metro Central Reference Library, 789 Yonge St (at Bloor). 416.393.7241

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

New! Online Statistics Forms for Reference & Consults

This Thursday, Nov. 1st, we will make the switch to online statistics gathering in the RRUnit for reference service and consultations. This is a pilot project running until March 2013 and will be evaluated after that time, and monitored on an ongoing basis.

Use:
http://tinyurl.com/gerstein-reference
•    At the InfoDesk between 12-close daily, including weekends
•    Access Services staff on the desk between 10-12 are very welcome to use the online form OR they can continue to use the paper form
•    For all off-desk statistics including backup, phone, Ask a Librarian chats, emails, Ask.Gerstein, etc.
•    If you respond to a QUESTION through Twitter or Facebook (not just a mention of Gerstein), please count it using this form

Consultations will be counted with this form:
http://tinyurl.com/gerstein-consultations

Please bookmark these in your browser.

It may help to open up the reference form at the beginning of your shift and keep it open in the background.

Guest Accounts - Users with inappropriate email addresses


Please note that if a user comes to the desk to request a guest or LIRA account and has a threatening email address (such as this actual example: machinegunetiquette@gmail.com) please do not issue them an account.  In such cases, if they complain, to refer them either to security or to ask them to contact Sandra Langlands, the Director of the library at s.langlands.melvin@utoronto.ca.

Gerstein Procedures re: Viewing of Pornography at Public Terminals


Hello,
There have been a couple of incidents over the past 2 months of a user in the library viewing pornography at a public terminal, so I thought it would be a good time to remind everyone of the policies for dealing with this issue.

The practice has been “we” don’t censor, however if the viewing of such material is reported by other patrons or is visible to anyone passing by, staff should approach and request their ID and inform them it is inappropriate. You can quote from, or show them, the

Appropriate Use of Information and Communication Technology from the Provost’s website (http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/policy/use.htm):

Users of University ICT are expected to limit their use to the performance of University-related activities, although a reasonable allowance will be made for personal use. Whether or not an amount of personal use would be considered reasonable would depend on the particular circumstances and the applicable laws and policies. Users of University ICT are required to abide by all applicable laws and policies in addition to these guidelines. Reasonable personal use does not include in any circumstances the visiting of pornographic websites, the storage or distribution of pornographic material, or the accessing, storage or distribution of unlawful or otherwise inappropriate (within the meaning of the guidelines) information.

And

Pornography
Using ICT resources to visit pornographic sites, or for the storage, or dissemination of pornographic material is inappropriate.  Possession of child pornography is also a criminal offence.

When an incident such as this occurs please remember to record the following information:
-# of the computer terminal*
-Date and time incident occurred*
-UTORid, if available (or name on a photo ID if a member of the public)

*essential

Email this to Jeff Heeney or Lidio Presutti (lidio.presutti@utoronto.ca) with a cc to Bill Godoy (william.godoy@utoronto.ca)

If the patron refuses to stop viewing the offending content, causes a disturbance, or resumes viewing once they have been warned, please call Campus police and have them escorted out. You can then fill out an incident report and give to Vidya.

If you have any questions, please ask Sandra, Renata, or Allison.

Bio120 assignment (2012)



The BIO 120 assignment is the following.  Students were assigned a species, either a plant or an animal, and they had to look at a picture of it and identify a trait (usually a prominent one) and then find two articles from peer-reviewed journals discussing the evolutionary significance of that trait.  So, for example one student had been assigned a turkey vulture and found articles about how the nostrils/olfactory system evolved in order to detect carrion/food.  Another student was looking for articles about the toxins found in glands  in a mammal called a slow loris.  I believe the students are also to find one of two articles about the natural history of the animal/plant.

I was suggesting the students use BIOSIS or JSTOR .  Also to look at the references list if they find a good article.   The students were also very concerned that the article be peer-reviewed so I was showing them Ulrich’s (hoping Ulrich’s is working today since an email went out that Bowker is down due to Sandy and not sure if Ulrich’s is part of Bowker).

Other general search tips I tell them is:
-          Search the common name along with the latin name
-          The latin name consists of the genus and species (e.g Cathartes aura).  If this does not find any results or too few, then go broader and just search the genus name e.g Cathartes  instead of cathartes aura
-          Think of synonms for the trait or what the trait does (e.g for pit organs of a rattlesnake I was suggesting pit organ* or facial pit* or thermal detect* (since these glands detect heat)

(From Heather)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Old exams

Excerpt from email sent by Sian Miekle, Oct. 15, 2012:

"Exams for Arts and Science (St. George), UTM, and UTSC are all hosted in a central repository at http://exams.library.utoronto.ca. Links to a course's old exams appear directly within the course's Blackboard page, in the Library Resources section.  More details about each campus follow:

St. George Faculty of Arts and Science
We have a rolling set of the 3 most recent years of exams available online, by policy of the Faculty of Arts and Science. The current set is December 2008 - August 2011. Old exams are handled as a batch through ITS, by arrangement with the Faculty of Arts and Science. Exams are loaded once annually, in the late fall. We therefore expect to update our collection to December 2009 - August 2012 in a few weeks time.


Links to old exams for a given course will appear automatically in the Blackboard Library Resources page, if they are available.  Only exams are made available through this channel -- term tests and exam solutions are not, although individual faculty members may choose to post them on their course pages.

If a user is inquiring after a specific exam that they cannot find, here are some helpful facts. By Arts and Science policy, all exams are posted, unless they have been restricted -- this happens when a professor makes an application to the Faculty, on the grounds that an exam shouldn't be published because it will affect the ability to set future exams without repetition.  Another explanation for a lack of previous exams is that a course may not have been offered in a given session. And finally, course codes sometimes change. I generally direct the student to the instructor for more information.

St George other faculties
At present, we are not mounting exams for any other St. George campus faculty through the library, though we would be very open to doing so, if you get inquiries. Please contact me, to discuss further.

Scarborough
The librarians at Scarborough work directly with instructors to make some exams and course tests available. Again, they appear directly in Blackboard Library Resource pages where available. 

Mississauga

UTM exams are also available directly in Blackboard Library Resource pages where available.  The collection is not limited to the most recent 3 years.


Please let me know if other questions about exams come up.
Best,
Sian"

Monday, October 15, 2012

Walkie-Talkies 2012


Bumping this up as a reminder for backups in 2012! 


Backups: Please remember to pick up, and turn on, the walkie-talkies for your backup shifts. If you have to leave your desk for a meeting, etc. please take the walkie-talkie with you so you can be reached.

For those scheduled on the desk, you should try the phone and the walkie talkie to try to reach the back-up person.

 ___________________
As was discussed in our last Information desk staff meeting, we will now use walkie-talkies to help telephone service staff keep in touch with the 10-12 infodesk "on call" person.
In between 12-6pm they will be used by both sides of the Information desk to contact Jeff.

PROCEDURE
- telephone service staff should have the unit with them and on from 10am onward
- information desk "on call" staff should keep the unit with them, and on from 10-12. After 12 give the unit to Jeff (or place it in the infodesk printer cabinet)

- when not in use, both units should be kept in the Information desk printer cabinet
- on days that Jeff is not here, the units will be used from 10-12 only and should be turned off afterwards
- Jeff is responsible for them and will replace batteries, or charge batteries when required

USAGE
- to turn the units on and off, press and hold the "MODE" button for 3 seconds
- to talk, press the large button on the left-hand side
- to listen, let go of the large button on the left-hand side
- the channel should always be on 11. If it gets changed accidentally just use the 'CHANNEL' button to put it back.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Troubleshooting: Slow Printing

The problem:
email from Jeff 09/11/2012:

The slow printing in the Wallace Room yesterday was a typical issue where the document(s) printed was so large in file size that the printer could not handle it. Sometimes at the beginning of the Fall term we see more of this. Perhaps new staff creating documents for students...and they don't realize the limitations of our UTL printers.

What you can do: 
  • Ask Jeff first. But if he is not available, you can call the InfoCommons tech support at 978-HELP
  • If the patron is in a hurry, get information on who made the document (if it was indeed course materials by a faculty member) and send to Infocommons staff so they in turn can contact them and explain the limitations.

Monday, August 27, 2012

UptoDate - September 2012

Just a reminder about accessing UptoDate and where to send questions:
From our information page: http://gerstein.library.utoronto.ca/news/uptodate-access

"UpToDate access is limited to current UofT students (including medical residents) as of May 8, 2012. We regret that faculty and staff no longer have access. Please see the detailed explanation below.
UpToDate can be accessed via Library barcode and pin or UTORid and password.
If you have trouble accessing UptoDate:
  • try barcode and pin if UTORid is unsuccessful
  • try an alternate browser
  • email  ask.gerstein@utoronto.ca with your name and barcode (21761....) and we will try and troubleshoot your access problem"
Staff, if someone comes into the library and cannot access this resource, please take their barcode # and contact information, and send to perry.hall@utoronto.ca who will troubleshoot the problem and contact the patron.

Ask A Librarian Chat

Ask a Librarian is the Scholars Portal run chat service that you can refer patrons to outside of Gerstein information service hours.
http://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/contact-us

For Fall and Winter 2012/13 the service is open:
Monday to Thursday 10am - 10pm
Friday 10am to 5pm
Saturday to Sunday 11am - 5pm.


Online Study Room Booking

The Online study room booking system will go live in September. Here are the room booking policies:

  • Booking Policies:
    -You are responsible for ensuring the Library is actually open at the time of your booking.
    Please check the Gerstein Library Hours before booking your study room.
    -Occupancy Minimum: 3 persons per room.
    -Rooms can be booked for up to 3 hours per week.
    -Rooms can be booked up to 2 weeks in advance.
    -Rooms booked, but unoccupied after 15 minutes will become available to other students.

    Code of Conduct:
    -Eating is not permitted in study rooms
    .
    -For the comfort of all, please dispose of all garbage and recyclables when your booking is finished.
    -Study rooms are not sound-proof; please be respectful of others in the area when meeting as a group.
    -Rooms are for studying and group work, and not to be used for classes. For spaces to hold tutorials and other classes, please contact the Office of Space Management or your Department.
    -Everyone using the study rooms is expected to abide by the Library Code of Conduct.

    Disclaimer:
    -University of Toronto Libraries are not responsible for loss or damage of items left unattended in the room.
Please have students email ask.gerstein@utoronto.ca if they have questions or comments.