Welcome Back!

Ooooh, I missed you all today! It was the first day of classes and my favorite time of year. Sure, it will take some adjustment to get into the internet now with your email username and password. Yeah, you will have to turn over your student ID to retrieve your barcode. Those little bumps in the road will not keep you from discovering all the print and electronic resources at Pierce and better yet...the fine Pierce staff who are dedicated in making your school year as successful as possible. Stop by and introduce yourself!

Three Particular Things We Do Right!

I have been visiting a lot of libraries this past two weeks. There are so many to visit in this area and I am picking up ideas. However, in my poking around I discovered three particular things that we do at Pierce that I am really proud of:

1. We give access to our databases and OPAC to guests. Some libraries offer these resources to their patrons only.
2. We have a printer server in the ERC. This is a huge benefit that I took for granted until I had to plow through several other patrons' documents to find the articles I printed out. It is also a matter of privacy. I don't want to know what Joe Cool is reading or writing!
3. This is huge-customer service! We are just downright more friendly than other libraries. I am REALLY proud of us for being interested in our patrons and smiling at them.

Later....I am off to discover more! (Radiation is going well but I am getting sore and a bit more tired.)

7 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do at the Library

Tasha, clever thing!, discovered this article outlining some new services offered by libraries. While we don't offer them all, we come close! We still want to see faces in here, though! Come visit...we are so nice here! We will bend over backwards to serve you!

On the Road-Whitman College's Penrose Library

Wow! What a pretty place to study. I love oak so the decor is extremely pleasing to me. I visited the IT department to set up using my laptop here in the library. I got a bookmark from them that helps their students access their personal space on the campus servers. I will make one up for us. All is a go so here I am posting! It is quiet. So far, I found all that I need but will be scrambling more when my classes start next Tuesday. Like finding out how to secure a copy card, ILL, etc.

I got a library card from the public library today. They were friendly and very helpful and I even got the business card from a library worker who is getting her MLS online, too. She is attending Drexel. We are going to meet and compare notes regarding our classwork. Fun!

There is wireless in the Herring House where I am staying across from the hospital. I am set! Radiation started yesterday and I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot of science. Fascinating!

Nuke-ville!

Pardon the personal nature of this post. I don't use this forum for my personal story very much but.....I will be absent from the desk in the ERC for 7 weeks to have radiation therapy in Walla Walla. This luxury is all thanks to the generous contribution of my classified staff colleagues who donated their vacation time to my recovery. The daily four hour drive to Walla Walla (plus the gas prices today) was not something we were looking forward to as a family. Staying in Walla Walla relieves both of us from being exhausted from the driving. I pushed very hard during chemo so this time to heal is quite a gift. I again thank them for their care and support! You may see me playing music in bands around town and environs during this time. That is the best medicine of all for me!

In the meantime, our student assistants will be here to answer questions and help you. Theresa, the reference librarian, will be on hand to assist you in your research. She is awesome!

I hope this all works out as everyone says-"It will be over before you know it." Now, if the hair would just grow back as fast!

Here's a link to news from the new Cancer Center at St. Mary's Hospital in Walla Walla. Not that I wish to EVER have chemotherapy again, the new facilities will be a lot more comfortable for new infusion patients. (And there are TOO many of them!)

Catch you on the flip side! I have a laptop-- so write!

Teamwork!

Sally strolled by my desk this morning and in one quality minute she set me straight on the Groupware distribution list option in Contacts! Yes! I now have my groups set up in the email system. Life is good!!

La Grande Public Library is moving!

The NEW!!!!!! La Grande Public Library is opening on September 19th! Town patrons are starting to wander in here in the interim. They are welcome to use our OPAC (online catalog) and our databases but internet access is restricted to students and faculty/staff at EOU. The students here pay a hefty technology fee and all our computers were paid for out of that budget. They were not financed by public funds.

We have our materials arranged using the Library of Congress classification system. This system does not have a fiction section that is popular in the Dewey Decimal classification scheme found in public libraries. Therefore, browsing for fiction is not easy unless you know the author or title of a book. Libraries are arranged to accomodate the patrons that they serve so there are understandable and necessary differences between public and academic libraries.

Groupware ....gotta love it!

Okay...I am as smart as the average bear but forgot how to make a distribution list out of my Contacts list. Yikes! I accessed the Help menu and it was vague. Guess I will humble myself by asking the IT folks.

Gearing up! Even the weather speaks 'fall'

I don't know about you but I am gearing up for Fall 2006. At Southern Connecticut I am taking Public Libraries, Library Management, and Cataloguing. Full course load and full-time worker! When my textbooks arrived, I started to get excited. The cataloguing class will be my Waterloo! Should be interesting.

We are starting to see students drift back. Some from the soccer team, some from other schools on their way to their own institutions. We got trained in our new Groupware software last week and that will be a fun thing to learn. Getting it to talk to my Axim handheld is a struggle. The Axim will talk to Groupware but I haven't figured out how to get the Groupware to talk to the Axim.

I will be in Walla Walla for radiation treatments when school starts here at Eastern. I am very sorry about that. It is the busiest, most fun, time of the year! I will miss meeting the new students and greeting students from last year. I have developed a fondness for many of them and will enjoy hearing about their summers. The new access to internet procedure will be tripping up some at first. The barcode and PIN issues will be an issue for the distance students. Oh, well. When I get back I will work hard at getting re/acquainted!

Color Printing-Upstairs in the Computer Lab

Since our color printer died, we often get asked for access to color printing. There is one upstairs in the Computer Lab. They charge 10 cents a page to print copies. The cost is not for actually using the printer but for the paper they use for that printer. It is a special dustless paper that aids in not clogging the printer. Maybe, that is why ours bit the dust!

Heartaches! Save attachments first!!!

Sometimes a person will send you a document attached to an email for you to revise or to have for your own. We have seen so many students lose work by editing that document without saving it first. When you open a document from the email system, it is a temporary file. You must SAVE it to your hard drive, or thumb drive (key drive, flash drive, etc.) and then edit it as yours. It breaks our hearts to see good work go down the drain in a temporary document that is not retrievable later.

Save it as yours first. Then, edit away!

Change in plans! Username and Password

Effective July 5th, 2006, Pierce Library will provide electronic access to our library online catalog and databases to all patrons on campus. Access to the Internet will be extended to students, faculty, and staff to meet the University's mission and limited resources. We will be using your username and password that you use for your university email acount to access the internet.

If you are not sure about that username and password, you will want to visit the Computing Center in Inlow Hall. Here is the link to the student email page for help online:
http://www.eou.edu/comp/student/email/index.html

Bottom line: if you are an EOU student, faculty or staff member, you will have access to the internet in the ERC. Town patrons will be directed to the La Grande Public Library on Penn Street (soon to open at their new digs on Fourth Street on September 19th!!!!!)

Wise Up to the Web- Internet Detective

Ever wonder who is REALLY writing the web site youa re getting ready to use in your research? What about improving the quality of your internet searches? Don't know a URL from a WMD?

Try this one-hour tutorial at:
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

When you master this material, you are set for any class research project!

Spend some time with your barcode!

Summertime is an excellent time for memorizing your barcode. We are planning to have authentication (What? Verifying that you are a student or faculty/staff person) on the computers in the library. The verification will likely include knowing your barcode. So, as soon as you ace those exams--start memorizing!

It Ain't Always Easy! Using your USB Drive in the ERC

Sometimes, a key/thumb/USB drive will try to install software on the computers in the ERC in order for it to work. The manufacturer has set it up that way to automatically install software on the host computer. This does not work in here because the work stations do not extend administrative privileges to users. So, if that happens and you get an error message, you are out of luck. You will have to then find a computer that extends privileges to load that software onto the computer to get the key drive to run.

Consumer beware: Purchase key/thumb/USB drives that are "plug 'n play" requiring no software to be installed to run them.

What do YOU want?!

On our Pierce Library home page, we have a link for you to recommend books and videos for purchase. That is not just for faculty and staff----students have thoughts, too! And they are valued. Just click on the "Suggest Title for Purchase" (see below) and let us know your ideas.

Playin' Around

Uptight about a test? Just finished a humungous project? Just plain not focused? Well, there are chess sets and a mah-jongg outfit ready for service in the Reading Room. They are over by the windows on the bookcase. Have at it!

Thinking about graduation? Checklists!

A student was looking for graduate requirements this morning. I wasn't sure where to look-probably by department. But no! She found them at: http://www.eou.edu/advising/checklist/checklist.htm and there are checklists of the majors and minors on campus in pdf or Word format. How cool is that????

Looking for what magazines we hold?

When using the OPAC to find a periodical (magazine) title, you are confronted with a long list of choices that has the name of the periodical in it. For example: let's try Newsweek Magazine. Here is what the first screen brings us as a result of searching by title:











I would choose the second entry as it has the word "magazine" as part of its title. If I choose entry #2, I get this screen:I can then see in what form the periodical is available in (print, microform, online) and what years that form covers.

Someday, we are hoping that changes in cataloging rules will make these screens more useable for you.

Don't get spacey on us!

When entering your barcode to access your library account or to use a database, do not use the spaces in the number as they appear on your student ID. Just enter the number, one digit after another.