Working from off-campus over the holiday break

With Thanksgiving and the break that accompanies it fast approaching, I wanted to remind everyone of a few things before they leave campus.

1) If you want to use the library's databases from home (or wherever you might be traveling),  make sure that you are first logging into My.Coe.  Once logged in to the site, you head to the "Campus Life" tab, from which you can access many of the college's most popular databases.  You cannot go to the library's website from home to access the databases; you have to be logged in and accessing through My.Coe so that the system can verify that you are a Coe student.  However, you can still browse the library's catalog from home if you are so inclined.

2) If you are currently in a class that using any database available through a campus trial at this time, be aware that these databases and their resources are only available from on-campus.

3) If you need research help, or have questions on ILL, remember that the reference department will be here and available on campus through the end of the day on Wednesday.  Feel free to call or email us with your questions.
Thanks, everyone, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
Katelyn, Head of Reference

New Chat Service

What's this, you say?  Say "Hello" to the library's new chat widget, Zoho.  The library staff evaluated several different chat options over the course of the summer in our efforts to replace Meebo, purchased by Google and taken offline.  Zoho was the winner, which you can now find on webpages throughout the library's website.

What has changed from Meebo?  In some ways, not a great deal.  You'll still be able to use Zoho much like you would have used our chat functionality previously.  It's web-based, so you need not install any software.  It's anonymous as well. However, one major change is that when you click on box to ask a question, a new, separate window will pop up. meaning you need not few losing your original question and text when navigating pages.

If you notice any bugs with Zoho, please do let us know, either via the comments sections here, or drop us a line by email.  We are always looking for ways to improve our website and better serve the Coe Community, so if there's things you think that we should know about your chat experience, we want to hear them.  Thanks, and welcome back to Coe!  We're glad you're here and can't wait to get another year underway.

Katelyn, Head of Reference

Where's Meebo?

If you pay a visit to the library website in coming weeks, you're going to notice one major change.  Our friendly little Meebo chat box is gone.  As a library, we really like being able to offer a chat feature to our users, so why would we get rid of such a useful tool?  Short answer: because we had to .

At the beginning of June, word hit the web that Google was buying Meebo.  Here's an article on the purchase if you're interested.  Google more likely than not purchased Meebo to use a chat feature within their social network, Google Plus.  This means that they decided to shut down Meebo as a free web application that could be embedded in a variety of websites.  So, over the last month and a half, the library staff has been evaluating a variety of replacement options.  There are quite a few things to consider, including the ability to remain anonymous while asking a question, so don't be surprised if you see us try out one or two different chat features as we figure out what works best for the patrons here at Stewart Memorial Library.  If you run into any problems using web chat, please let us know, and please also feel free to email myself, or other members of the library staff if you have a question that needs addressing.  Or, you can always drop by the reference department to get your questions answered in person as well.  Thanks for your patience as we make this transition, and I hope that you are having a great summer!

-Katelyn, Head of Reference

HELP…where’s a librarian when you need one?

You are taking advantage of the library’s evening hours (we are open until 1:00 am Sunday through Thursday) to finish up a paper due at 8:00 the next morning. Alas, you have run into a snag and there isn’t a librarian in sight. What can you do?

There are a few resources on the library website designed to help students when a librarian isn’t at hand. You can start on the Help page (it’s the last option in the left hand menu of the Library website). From here you can find answers to ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ such as “Does the library have a scanner?”, “Is there anywhere I can practice my power point presentation?”, and “Where are the current journals?”.

Need a little more help than that? On the library main page there is a tab in the middle section titled ‘Research Help’. If you roll over it you get a list of helpful links including ‘Citation Help’, ‘Evaluating Resources', and ‘Search Tips'. You can also check out the ‘Class Resources’ page on Fisher Music Library’s website (a link to the Fisher Music Library is in the top menu of the library website).

If your paper is due later in the day you can send an e-mail to a librarian (contact information for the librarian of your choice is on the Staff page), or leave a message in the instant message box. If you are really on top of things, and have a few days before your paper is due, you can schedule an appointment with the reference librarian to get individual help.  Last, if you see someone sitting at the reference desk (located in the back on the first floor of the library) you are welcome to ask any questions you have, research related or not.

New Library Webpage!

Speaking of Stewart Memorial Library website (which I just did, in my last post,) what do everyone think of the new site?  While the center of the page remains essentially unchanged, visitors will find a few new additions that I think will make the site much more user friendly, not to mention the sleek new color palette.  I might be partial though, due to the browns matching my sleek bronze physique.  One of the changes that I really like is the menu bar down at the bottom of the page, which makes it very obvious as to where to find a map of the library, a suggestion box (*cough*bring back donuts on Wednesdays *cough*), and a link to the library's staff information.  Also, the page now features a help section that has FAQs that the library hears on a regular basis.  We will add questions as they come up, so don't be afraid to ask.  We do understand that since the page has undergone some changes, everything might not be working perfectly.  Find a broken link?  Database access not working?  Just let the staff know!  And when I say staff, just go ahead and email Katelyn, the head of the reference department at kwazny@coe.edu.  That's probably the easiest way to ensure that things get fixed.  We hope that this site is generally an improvement upon previous iterations, and we believe that the changes that we made are positive ones.  We know that faculty and staff alike are going to be using the library's resources far more regularly as finals rapidly approach, and we think that the new site is going to make it easier for everyone to get what they need.

-Bronze Boy

P.S.  The snow yesterday has me thinking its almost time to break out my most stylish fedora.  If only I had a stylish fedora.