Blogs

Academic libraries in Oregon (and Washington) use a shared catalog called Summit. Summit switched to WorldCat Local from III - with the idea that instead of searching your local library, then your shared catalog, then Worldcat that you just search Worldcat and books in your local and shared catalog will bubble up to the top.

It doesn't work perfectly, and especially not for known item lookups.

An example of a book that immediately properly show up as being held in a Summit library is:

Title: Design of Brushless Permanent-Magnet Machines
Authors: J. R. Hendershot, T. J. E. Miller

If you simply copy and paste the title into Summit (http://summit.worldcat.org), a default keyword search shows you the correct book but not that Summit libraries have it. If you do an advanced search by author, title or whatever, you find the book and that Summit libraries have it.

The summary of advice from academic librarians in Oregon is:

1. Start with the advanced search page (http://summit.worldcat.org/advancedsearch)

2. Use and share the handouts/help created by WSU, PCC and the ORBIS/Cascade Alliance:
- http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/wcl/indexsearch.html
- http://tinyurl.com/orbiswcl
- http://www.orbiscascade.org/index/summit-on-worldcat-searching-tips

3. Don't give up if it seems like a Summit library doesn't have something. Keep looking, ie, search by author, isbn, etc.

4. Don't forget to mention how easy it is to get something delivered to your library through Summit (generally 5 days)

Today at Portland State University, the L-net quality surprised Amy Hofer with the October 2011 notable transcript award for her chat, Hello, I need to find names of all the fruit canneries in Oregon, Washington and California. The purpose is to find canneries that can apricots.

Amy is the one with the flowers. The rest of us are Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Multnomah County Library, Stephanie Debner, Portland Community College and Emily Papagni, Multnomah County Library.

The L-net quality team wrote,

In this transcript, an Oregon State University patron asked for a list of all of the canneries in Oregon, Washington, and California that process apricots.  The patron hoped to purchase apricot pits and resell them for use in cancer research.

The patron was unfamiliar with OSU Libraries’ business databases, but Amy skillfully helped him navigate the best resources for the question.  Amy did much more than just lead the patron to the databases: she guided him through the SIC and NAICS industry codes, customized his list to include the specific details needed and created an Excel spreadsheet of the data.  At the beginning of the chat, the patron said he had just tried searching Google; near the end of the conversation, his reaction was “Oh wow, this is a really powerful website, I had no idea about it before this session”.  Amy finished by giving the patron the email address of OSU’s Business Librarian for further consultation.

The L-net Quality Team is impressed with everything Amy did – her friendly tone, reference skills, and the effort she made to provide the patron with the resources needed to completely answer the question.

We, and the patron, are really lucky to have Amy. In fact, it was the second time the patron submitted the question, and to my dismay, no one picked up the first one. I saw it and tried to respond as best as I could using print resources, but didn't succeed nearly as well as Amy. But I did get to look in the 2009 Almanac of the canning, freezing, and preserving industries.

Yesterday, with the help of Eugene Public Library staff, the L-net quality team lauded Jessi Stinson with the August 2011 notable transcript award for her chat about the Ojibwa Indian tribe of North Dakota.

The L-net quality team sent out this message:

L-net, Oregon's Statewide Digital Reference Project (http://www.oregonlibraries.net) recognizes Jessi Stinson at Eugene Public Library for her high quality digital reference work while staffing the service during October 2010. Jessi’s transcript is online at http://www.oregonlibraries.net/notable.
 
In this transcript, Jessi works with a student who is researching the traditions of the Ojibwa Indian tribe of North Dakota. Not only does she meet all of the criteria of L-net’s quality rubric, but she also teaches the student how to search OSLIS and how to do an advanced Google search. Jessi’s demeanor is friendly, professional and encouraging. When the student says, “you don’t have to be all professional like, be yourself if you want to,” she matches her tone to the student’s and uses more informal language, emoticons, and chat abbreviations to make the student feel comfortable.
 
The Quality Team is impressed with Jessi’s reference interview, her teaching skills, and her friendliness to the student.
 
As an expression of our appreciation, Jessi was presented with flowers and a certificate. Please join us in congratulating her!
 
The L-net Quality Team
 
Stephanie Debner, Portland Community College Library Barbara O’Neill, Washington County Cooperative Library Services Emily Papagni, Multnomah County Library

When we ask patrons to tell us about their experience with L-net, they give us lots of great feedback. Here is a wordcloud of their responses for the past 6 months or so.

There are two subtle changes to the Text-A-Librarian interface we use to answer text messaging questions on L-net.

1. "Close this question" link now available

We keep getting reminded of new text messages every 10 minutes until they get answered. This is great for making sure we respond to patrons in a timely way.

But what happens if a patron is simply texting back to say thank you? If you ignore the text it will come back again in 10 minutes.

Now you can use the 'close this question' link below the 'Send Answer' button to let the system know the question doesn't need a reply.

2. "1/2" and "2/2" show in your message when you send a long reply

A text message is 160 characters but the system lets you send 320 characters - two messages - in reply. When you do this, the labels "1/2" and "2/2" are added to your message.

Now these labels display in the blue boxes to the right-hand side of the answer form. These boxes show you what is being sent to the patron.