Meet the Librarian : Emily Parks

Today's Meet the Librarian profile features Emily Parks, who is responsible for assisting with cataloging and Interlibrary Loan duties, as well as kicking butt at whatever random tasks she's asked to do.

Here are a few questions for Emily :

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?
Buy everyone in my family their own farm with their choice of house to go with it. Mine would be a house like the one in the Notebook!

If you could be any fictional character (from a TV show, movie, or book), who would you choose?
Denarius Targaryen from GOT. I think being the Mother of Dragons would be pretty legit.

What grown-up job did you want to have when you were a child?
I wanted to be a cosmetologist, but that was before I learned you had to cut people's toenails to do that job....ew.

What do you have an irrational fear of?
Being covered in centipedes

What word do you have trouble saying?
Parenthesis

What was the last book you read?
Chosen by Ted Dekker

What book can you read over and over again?
The Hunger Games series. I know it's cheesy, but I just really enjoy those books!

What is the thing you like best about your work?
My co-workers!

What do you do when you cannot sleep?
Try to mentally play through one of my pieces of piano music.

What are you always late for?
I'm generally never late. I hate being late to anything!

What are you grateful for today?
I'm grateful that graduation is almost here!

What are the perks of your job?
First dibs and unlimited access to books and movies!

Meet the Librarian : Amber McKee

As part of our National Library Week celebration, we are going to feature profiles on our librarians - Amber, Emily, Bettina, and Ashli.

Today's profile is about Amber McKee who is responsible for maintaining access to the library's electronic resources, such as the library's website and databases.

Here are a few questions for Amber :

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?
Pay off all of our debt and our home...okay, that would probably be the second thing. The first thing I would do is go to Target and buy one of everything they sell! Ha!

 

If you could be any fictional character (from a TV show, movie, or book), who would you choose?
My initial thought was Claudia from The Babysitter's Club books, but then I realized I'm 34 and it's sad to want to be a 13-year-old...or is it?

What grown-up job did you want to have when you were a child?
Writer! I still do some freelance writing but not nearly as much as I'd like to do.

What do you have an irrational fear of?
Crickets!! Yuck!!! I know they're harmless, but there's something about the way they jump towards you that just freaks me out!!

This cricket freaks me out too...

What word do you have trouble saying?
Rural - it's not one that I have to say that often, but it trips me up every time!

What was the last book you read?
Crooked House by Agatha Christie. I'm participating in a reading challenge, and one of the prompts was reading a book with house or home in the title, so that was my selection after I saw it on the new shelf at the library!

What book can you read over and over again?
I'm not sure. I don't tend to like to reread books, so I guess the answer to this is nothing!

What is the thing you like best about your work?

The variety! I have a pretty short attention span, so I would get really bored if I had to do the same things every single day.

What do you do when you cannot sleep?
We have a toddler who currently doesn't want to go to sleep in her own bed, so I pretty much fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow after battling with her!

What are you always late for?
Everything! I can't remember the last time I've been on time or early to something. That's sad, isn't it?

What are you grateful for today?
My family! I would be so lost without them!

What are the perks of your job?
Not having to pay fines on books. I'm a bit of a book hoarder when I check things out, so I would basically own a section of the library by now if I had to pay fines!

Come back tomorrow to learn about Emily Parks!

It's National Library Week!

Happy National Library Week!! It's time to celebrate your library and your librarians for all of the awesome stuff that we do! We accept gifts of Starbucks, Chick Fil A, gift cards to Target, and cash money. 

Okay, maybe that was a little much. Let's back up and talk about what National Library Week actually is...

National Library Week was started by the American Library Association (ALA) in 1958 as a way to "celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support." (Source)

Each year National Library Week happens during April, usually during the second week of the month, and there is always a theme and an honorary chair. This year's theme is Libraries Lead and the honorary chair is Misty Copeland. 

There are also specific days of celebration during National Library Week. Tuesday, April 10, is National Library Workers Day, which is a day to recognize the contributions of library workers, so be extra nice to us that day! ;) Thursday is Take Action for Libraries Day, which is a day for the national library advocacy effort. 

In honor of National Library Week, we're going to feature a profile of our library employees - Amber, Ashli, Bettina, and Emily. We'll end the week by discovering a little more about the library's official mascot, Phineas Phoenix. Be sure to come back and celebrate with us this week!

...Ready for it???

The staff of the Vise Library has some very exciting news to share! We have teased a very exciting project (to us anyways) on our social media pages and through our Tuesday Newsday videos for months and we are busting at the seams to share it!  So without further ado....

(can you tell who wrote this blog post yet?)

Since July the library has taken on a project to implement a new library catalog system.  This was no small feat and took over 5 months to complete.  There were numerous (honestly we don't want to count how many) training sessions and hundreds of hours devoted to this project.  Our previous catalog did not have the capabilities that were necessary for the library to function properly or allow for an easy patron searching experience.  After a few disasters (unplanned down times, system not working properly and a few other unpleasant experiences) with our previous system, we set out to look for an improvement (and we found one).  The library was able to rearrange its budget to make this happen and we couldn't be happier for the change.  We believe that this will be a major improvement for our patrons and for the library itself.  You are now able to view your account online, renew any items you currently have checked out (as long as there isn't a hold on the item), place holds on items, set-up text notifications and so many other great features.  We will have several blog posts to walk you through the basic functions of our new catalog!  

How to access the new catalog
How to access your library account
How to search and place holds on items

Searching for a Item and Other Things Associated with Searching

This post will explain how to search for an item in the library's catalog and a few additional features associated with searching for items.  If you are unsure how to access the new library catalog, make sure to read this blog post.

  In the search box you can search for a title, author, ISBN, or subject.  In the box labeled "All Fields" by the search box, you can select what you would like search (title, author, etc.).  I am just going to perform a general search for anything associated with Harry Potter (don't judge).

As you can see this generated three pages worth of materials!  I can narrow down if I want something in book form or in dvd form by clicking my desired choice under the "Material Type" section located on the left hand side of the page.  You will also notice you can narrow down your search results by author or even by the publication year. Make sure to click either the "include" or "exclude" button when narrowing down your results.  

I have chosen to narrow down to only dvd items associated with Harry Potter.  This narrows down my search to one result page.

If you want to find out where an item is located, make sure to click the "Where can I find it..." bar located under each item.  Once you click this, you will be shown the material type, call number and the location of the library item.

You can also place a hold on the item by clicking the red "Place Hold" button next to the item in the list.  You will be prompted to log-in to your library user account, which you can find out about here.  

Once you have logged in to your account, you will see a pop-up screen appear that asks you to confirm the hold you want to place.

There are two other options we want to point out.  Under the hold button, you will see two additional buttons.  One is "Text This to Me."  This is a great feature if you are searching for an item while at home.  If you have this item's information texted to you, you can then easily pull this item up on your phone in order to locate in the library (without doing an additional search).  You can also click the "Cite This" and a citation for this item will be generated (you can select the format).

These are the basic functions associated with searching for items in the catalog.  This system is a lot more intuitive when searching, but if you have any questions please let us know!

Accessing your library account

This blog post should answer any questions concerning your library catalog account.  Once you are on the library catalog page, click the "Log in" link located at the very top of the page.

You will see a screen popup that asks for your username and password.  If you are a student your username is your A number.  If you are faculty or staff member, then your username is the first part of your CU email address.

If you are unsure what your password is, click the "Forgot My Pin" link at the bottom of this box.  You will be prompted to enter your username and an email will be sent to you to reset your password for your library account.  PLEASE NOTE: THIS DOES NOT RESET ALL OF YOUR CU ASSOCIATED PASSWORDS AND ONLY RESETS YOUR LIBRARY CATALOG PASSWORD.

When you receive your email concerning your library password, click the log-in button at the top of the page and enter the appropriate information.  Once you have done this click the "My Account" button that appears at the top of the page.

Once you are in your account you have several options.  Under the "Checkouts" tab you can see any items that you currently have checked out and the due date associated with each item.  This tab allows you to select any items you want to renew as well.  Just click the box by each item you want to renew and click the "Renew" button at the bottom of the page.

The "Personal Information" tab allows you to review your contact info and change any information (including your pin). You can also sign up for SMS notifications that will alert you when items are about to be due, overdue or when a hold arrives for you.  If you want to see a list of holds you have placed you can do this under the "Holds" section.  You will also be to see any holds that are available for pickup.  Don't worry, you will receive an automatic email when items arrive for you.  The "Fines" section shows any fines that you have associated with your account.  

If you have any issues regarding your account, please let us know!

Accessing the New Library Catalog

The Vise Library recently made an announcement concerning the new library catalog.  We wanted to provide a short tutorial on a few of the key features that sets this new system apart from our previous catalog system.

The most important thing you need to learn is how to get to the library catalog.  You can actually access it from the same place from the library home page.  Once you are on the library homepage, go to the link labeled "Find Physical Items" under the "Research" section.

Once you have clicked this link, you will be taken to our glorious new catalog!  Make sure to take a look around at our new digs!  From here you can do whatever you like!

One exciting feature is the new book river that shows numerous book lists.  

If you click the drop down arrow beside "New Items" you will see the list options that are available.  You can see the newest items that have been added to our catalog and the items that have been checked out recently.  Another great feature is that you can see the latest NYT best seller lists from the previous week.  You can click the arrow located to the right of the book covers to see additional items in each list and click on the book cover of an item to find out more information.  You can see if the Vise Library has any of these best sellers by clicking the red button labeled "Find in My Library" (which is found next to the book that you are interested in).  If the library owns this item, you will be shown the record for this particular item.  If the library does not own a particular item, there will be no record displayed.  However, you can always request an item through interlibrary loan for any item the library does not own.