ILL Blog

We are now able to pull the full text PDF’s from the Hartford Courant and the Historical Hartford Courant from the databases and send them through whatever mechinism, Ariel, fax, US Mail, instead of having to scan from the microfilm! This will greatly speed things up since the citations that we get are usually a bit lean on information. The Historical Courant runs from 1764 to 1982 and the regular Hartford Courant runs from 1992 to the present. Alas, there is a ten year gap where we will need to use the microfilm, but this is so much better than having to deal with all three hundred years on film.

For those libraries that want us to lend the film, if we can get them to tell us what they specifically need copied, we may actually fill more requests. Finding things is very simple. These databases are a wonderful tool for the people doing geneological research who need obituaries, especially if they don’t know the exact date that the obituary appeared.

These two databases can be accessed at: http://library.ccsu.edu/find/articles/articles.php?opt=alphadb&idx=H&type=db

From Sharon at the State Library:  The Connecticut State Library would like to conduct a brief survey during the week of October 22nd to determine the volume of items being shipped on Connecticar.  For planning purposes we would like to periodically get a sampling of the volume on Ccar.   This information will help us improve our service.  Later in the year we will be following up with a more detailed survey to investigate delivery time.

During the week of October 22nd we will be asking you to count all incoming shipments on Ccar and enter the number on the Survey Monkey website. 

Don’t forget that we can code embargoed titles as “CCL”.  Technically, we have purchased the journal title, but because of the way we purchased it, we do not have access to the most recent year.  It is the same idea as if we had a paper journal subscription and we had claimed a missing issue, we are only replacing what we did not receive from the publisher.

Make sense?

I have noticed several requests that have previously been updated to “Shipped” or “Yes Loan” in Clio that have the status of “In Process.”  These requests will have a due date.  If you trip across any of them, please double check Mill Circ and then update them back to “Yes Loan”.

In some cases, the record may not be in OCLC, we may have lost it.  I have not determined how this is happen or when it started, but Judd K. and I are working on that.  I will keep you posted.  Kim

1) New Search parameters for searching Closed Requests

The new parameters include all of the following:  Author (au:), Borrowing Library (bl:), Call Number (cn:), Illiad transaction ID number (tn:), Lending Library (ll:), Patron Department (pd:), Request closed date (rc:), Request identifier (an:), RLG reference id (rg:), Title (ti:).

2) Ability to view more than 20 requests in Request Manager categories:

Users can now view more than 20 requests in a category on the same screen in Request Manager.  A drop down box at the top of the list of requests allows users to choose from 20 (default), 50, 75, 99 records per page.  Once the selection is chosen it remains persistent thought the session.   This is available for all categories of requests.

From Bill Sullivan at iConn:  Auto-Graphics has identified the cause of the slowness problem – a condition that causes CPU utilization to max out at 100%.  The problem is related to Version 3.0 (which explains why we never experienced this particular problem before) and will be fixed with an overnight upgrade early next week.  Until then, Auto-Graphics will monitor system performance and manually free the system up if the problem re-occurs.  As of right now, system performance should be normal.  We are sorry for this inconvenience.

The A-G Help Staff are looking into reports of slowness when using Staff  functions (esp. ILL) and searching of the iCONN portal.We will keep you posted as to when this issue is resolved and appreciate your patience while it’s being worked on.

–Lorri Huddy

The new Xerox copier should be delivered within the next five to ten business days.  There are two arriving, one for ILL and one for TP.  They should be taking the old copiers away, including the one from ILL and the second one from the Serials room on Stack 7.  If I am not here, direct them up to the Serials desk to get access to the second copier.   Kim

The changes will begin on Monday, July 30th.  I will change the numbers in the Clio Libraries.

Ridgefield Public Library is now A-159

Mark Twain Library Association in Redding is now A-158

Tolland Public Library is now A-186

Canton Public Library is now A-25

The Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in Rocky Hill is now B-161

Sharon has updated the route slips on WebJunction Connecticut so you should download the new version.  http://ct.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=6020I have downloaded this, saved it to the S: drive and will print it for the back room.

A FEW MORE CCAR REMINDERS:
Please no staples in padded envelopes.
Ship DVDs in padded envelopes or bubblewrap.

There has been some talk recently on the ILL listserv about customs labels.  It appears that when we put the actual value of an item on the label (ie: $75.00), the receiving library has to pay more money to get the package through customs.  Several Canadian libraries have complained about this.

It seems that many libraries now write:  $0 value and “Library Materials No commerical value” on the slip.  This evidently speeds the package through customs.  I have created a dummy package with dummy slips and have put it in the back room.