Robarts Renovations - map collection & govpubs

Due to renovations on the 5th floor of the Robarts Library, the map collection will not be accessible Fri. 7 August - Sun. 16 August.

The government publications area will be closed Tues. 11 August - Sun. 16 August.

There will be no access to the 5th floor during this period.


Gabriela Bravo
Aug 7, 2009

Closest Fax Machines/Copy Centers

There is a Fax for student use in the UTSC building (old observatory on Hart House Circle).

There is a copy center at University and College in the Hydro building lower level, a Kinkos further south on University (505 University Ave, Toronto, ON), and an Alicos at College and St. George (203A College Street Toronto, ON).

Search Procedure for Missing Items

A few modifications have been made to the procedures that staff
follow when searching for an item, so I thought a recap of the process
would be helpful. I hope that this will allow staff to explain the
procedure clearly to the requester so that they know what to expect.

Once a search card is taken it is placed on Kelly's desk. During the
next week it will be searched for on two occasions. The following areas
are checked: sorting shelves, stacks, STL, mending shelves and
Meredith's binding shelves. In addition we will search for variations
on the call number i.e. QA123 B4 would be checked in Q123, QB123, QC123, and so on.

After the second search the status of the item will be changed to "searching". In the case of a journal issue a note will be put in the catalogue record.

The requester will be contacted and told that we were
unable to find their item. Once the status is "searching" the requester
can ask for Inter Campus Delivery or request it from another institution.

The items will be searched monthly until November. In November their
status will be changed to "missing_utl".

If you have any questions please ask Renata.

DVD Burners

DVD Burners are available in the Media Commons (adjacent to the Information Commons, 1st floor Robarts). They are not available in Gerstein, nor in the Information Commons.

Problems with PDFs in CSA

Following the upgrade to the CSA Subscription server at the beginning of May, please note that you may receive error messages if you are attempting to access the Service from a previously created Shortcut.
This is because the redirection to csagateway.com is no longer taking place.

It is recommended that you:

1. Manually delete temporary internet files and verify that
cookie files are deleted.
Steps to manually delete cookie files for Internet Explorer 5 and 6:

i. Open Internet Explorer.
ii. Click on Tools/Internet Options
iii. Under the General tab, under the Temporary Internet Files, click on Delete Files
iv. Click on Delete Cookies
v. A pop up window comes up, click on the OK icon.

For Firefox:
i. Open Firefox.
ii. Click on Tools >> Clear Private Data
iii. Check the boxes beside Cookies and Cache
iv. Click on Clear Provate Data now

2. Delete all previous Shortcuts to the Subscription Services from
your Desktop

3. Type in the URL: http://subscribe.csa.ca
into your browser's address field and hit Enter and create a new Shortcut for your Desktop*

4. Delete any Favourites within your browser and recreate a new
one with the URL: http://subscribe.csa.ca

If you are still unable to view the PDFs, staff at Gerstein should contact IT support. Patrons can try the following on their computers:
i. Click on the /My Subscription/tab within the Subscription Service and click on the link (top right) to reinstall the FileOpen plug-in;
ii. In some cases it may be necessary to first uninstall FileOpen and then reinstall it.

Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS) at the Toronto Public Library closed on May 8, 2009

With the loss of operating funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the Consumer Health Information Service (CHIS) located at the Toronto Public Library closed on May 8, 2009.

The Toronto Public Library will continue to provide health information to local users. Please visit the Business and Health Sciences centre at the Toronto Reference Library, call the library's centralized phone service at 416-393-7131, or visit the Toronto Public Library's health and wellness wiki at http://chis.wikidot.com/

History of CHIS:

CHIS began as an 18-month pilot project funded by the Premier’s Council on Health, Well-Being and Social Justice in November 1991. The Service – located at the Toronto Reference Library - opened to the public in February 1992. It included a walk-in service, local and toll-free phone line assistance, as well as the provision of tailored information packages to help consumer make informed decisions about their health. In 1993, the Ministry of Health began funding CHIS.

Since CHIS opened in 1992, approximately 115,000 people have consulted CHIS for health information, and 350,000 users have accessed the CHIS website since it became available in November 1999.

Accented and non-accented characters in the new catalogue

**The new catalogue interface now handles accented and non-accented
characters interchangeably for all character sets, all languages. This
means that we can now recommend it as a good choice for searching for
material in the Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Slavic,
Baltic, Turkic, and Finno-Ugric scripts. If a user enters either an
accented or unaccented version of any word, they will retrieve all
instances of the word in the catalogue, both accented and unaccented.*

(*As we've discussed, the new catalogue interface previously handled
accented and non-accented characters interchangeably for the Latin-1
character set only, which meant that it was fine for searching in west
European languages, but did not retrieve complete results for accented
words in the languages above).

Sian Meikle, May 11, 2009

Renewal and fines changes

On Mon. May 11 at these libraries:

Math, Earth Sciences, Gerstein, Robarts, Engineering,OISE,Media
Commons,UTL Downsview, UTM,Law,Physics,Innis,Music,FIS,ROM,New,Laidlaw,UTSC

University of Toronto faculty, staff and students will be able to renew
books three(3) times, providing that the book has not been placed on
hold by another borrower. As well, all books are still subject to recall
after 2 weeks of the initial loan period when requested by another user.

On May 11, 2009 some libraries(Central system and others) will begin
charging overnight fines on Reserve Room material.(Fining even when
library is closed) Fines on Reserve Room material are 50 cents per hour.

Renata, May 11, 2009

Baycrest sharing knowledge. Great resource for staff, families, patients on memory and other cognitive disorders.

Baycrest Psychologists receive numerous requests for speaking engagements, interviews, and educational support on issues relating to cognition, memory loss, and dementia. To expand our means of sharing our knowledge, we developed a website that provides information on the topic of memory and aging (what's normal, various types of cognitive disorders, and how to cope with memory loss and dementia). The link to the website is below. The site is updated periodically with new information gained through the work being done in Psychology. We hope you find it a useful resource for educating clients, family members, and staff.

http://www.baycrest.org/MemoryandAging/

Genamics JournalSeek

Genamics JournalSeek might be a good replacement for JAKE, as well as a place for students and faculty to look when considering where to publish.

http://journalseek.net/

From the website: "Genamics JournalSeek is the largest completely categorized database of freely available journal information available on the internet. The database presently contains 94715 titles. Journal information includes the description (aims and scope), journal abbreviation, journal homepage link, subject category and ISSN.

Searching this information allows the rapid identification of potential journals to publish your research in, as well as allow you to find new journals of interest to your field."


You can browse by category or search. I tried a few abbreviations and retrieved the title of the journal I needed.

Pet Policy

Re: Gerstein's pet policy.
Just for clarification, all staff should be aware that our policy is no pets, except 'seeing eye dogs' for those with visual disabilities. This is as per the University's policy as stated at: http://www.fs.utoronto.ca/aboutus/policies/fire.htm (scroll down to the section on pets)

"PETS other than seeing eye dogs are NOT permitted in any University buildings. Exceptions must have written permission from the Dean or Chair responsible for the area, and the owner will be responsible for clean-up, damage and liability."

New Old printer

There is a new old printer at the Information desk! No more jamming, freezing, etc. (hopefully).
It's the Lexmark 520 that previously lived on the 2nd floor with the RRUnit.
Enjoy!

Origin of PICO

There was a question at the info desk about when the first time the term PICO was coined, so the author could use the reference in a systematic review footnote. The usual reference for the birth of PICO seems to be this:

Sackett DL, Richardson WS, Rosenberg W, Haynes RB (1997). Evidence-based medicine: How to practice and teach EBM. New York: Churchill Livingston.

However, see http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/270/17/2093 for the first discussion of the ideas. The terms were then solidified in Richardson WS, Wilson MC, Nishikawa J, Hayward RS. "The Well Built Clinical question" ACP J Club. 1995 Nov-Dec;123(3):A12-3. The authors don't coin the acronym PICO but use all the words. (We don't have an online copy at U of T but someone on the web put up a scan here: http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/subject/ebm/richardson.pdf )

Alternatives to UpToDate

Q: Which alternatives should we recommend when students/faculty come in looking for UpToDate?

A: ACP PIER and Clinical Evidence are two great tools which are actually updated more frequently than UpToDate. They are useful diagnostic and point-of-care tools, providing evidence-based guidance for practitioners.

MLA citations no longer require URLS to be included.

MLA citations no longer require URLS to be included.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/11/mla

"...the MLA has ceased to recommend inclusion of URLs in citing Web-based works – unless the instructor requires it or a reader would likely be unable to locate the source otherwise. “Inclusion of URLs has proved to have limited value… for they often change, can be specific to a subscriber or a session of use, and can be so long and complex that typing them into a browser is cumbersome and prone to transcription errors. Readers are now more likely to find resources on the Web by searching for titles and authors' names than by typing URLs,” states the handbook."

Astronomy Library Services

A reminder that the Astronomy library doesn't serve undergraduate students, so they should not be referred over to them. They serve their department faculty and researchers, as well as graduate students from other faculties by appointment only.

FYI
The Astronomy library does not use SIRSI, all of their materials are signed out using cards!

Bill Changer Claim Forms

If the Bill changer eats a users' money or gives incorrect change, patrons should fill out the 'Bill Changer Claim Form' held at the Loan Services Desk. Contact Peter Gurney for information or to locate the forms.

T-Card Claim Forms

T-Card Claim Forms are issued from the Loan Services Desk when a Visitor Card is not dispensed by the Cash to Card machine or when a patron has deposited funds that are not added to card.

Patrons fill in the form and leave it with staff at the Loan Services desk. The Library's Business Office at Robarts Library follows up on the claim.

Staff Pre-loaded Print Card

The staff print card is located in the printer cabinet behind the information desk. It is preloaded with money by the library. This card is never given to patrons; staff must accompany the patron and use the card to print their materials for them. Remember to return the card to the printer cabinet when finished with it. If the balance is low, please report to Jeff Heeney.

Vouchers

Vouchers aka “Gerstein Public Printer Voucher for Missing/Defective Print Jobs”

Vouchers are issued when a patron uses their T-card or a Visitor card to print, and payment is subtracted from the chip on their card but the machine does not print/photocopy, or does so but the print/photocopy is damaged or illegible.

Vouchers are filled out at the Information Desk by desk staff, indicating the number of pages lost. Having a voucher allows a patron to approach the Information Desk at a later date and ask that a print/photocopy job be printed at a public printer by a staff member using the staff print card in the printer cabinet. When issuing a voucher, please inform the patron that are only to be claimed at Gerstein (i.e. patrons cannot take these to the Info Commons or Robarts to get print jobs). This is purely an internal Gerstein procedure.