Reference at Newman Library

Year: 2017

Selected Library Systems Down on April 10

On Monday, April 10, between 9 am and 2 pm, CUNY CIS will be doing maintenance on servers that will directly impact a number of key library systems.

Systems that will be affected

SFX: The Find It! button in our databases and the View Now button in OneSearch will not be able to connect you to full text.

Library catalog: You won’t be able to connect to the catalog at all.

OneSearch: The “View Now” button will not be able to connect to full text. Although you will be able to use OneSearch as as a replacement for the library catalog to find records, you will not be able to get real-time information on availability (i.e., you won’t be able to know if an item is checked out), to renew loans, or to request items.

These systems, which are locally hosted or hosted on vendor servers, will not be affected: Remote access to databases, interlibrary loan, LibGuides, study room reservations.

Workarounds

Books: Run your search in OneSearch (select “Books + Articles + Videos” in the search bar) but remember that real-time availability info will not be working.

Articles: Use a specific library database for subject searches or use the Journals search system for known-item searches.

As soon as the system is back up, look for an email on CULIBS and a blog post here.

Database Trial: HeinOnline Government, Politics and Law for Academics

Description (from the vendor)

Coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,400 scholarly journals, all of the world’s constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase.

More info (pdf)

Trial ends

30 September 2017

Access

On and off campus.

Feedback

Please share with any faculty who might be interested and recommend they use the trial feedback form (also linked to on the Trials tab on the databases page).

Off Campus Access Problem with WestlawNext Campus Research Is Fixed

Users who want to connect to WestlawNext Campus Research from home should not have any more problems (the search box had been missing if you were using any browser except for IE).

After I called technical support at Thomson, they sent me some additional lines to add to the database stanza in the configuration file in EZproxy. After I restarted the EZproxy server and tested the connection from my office and my home, it was apparent that the EZproxy settings were the source the problem (actually, it’s the vendor that started this by making changes to the interface and system without notifying customers like us so we could then tinker with our EZproxy servers as needed).

Problem with Off Campus Access to WestlawNext Campus Research [UPDATED]

UPDATE 25 March 2017: The problem has now been fixed.

While we are having no problems with on campus access to WestlawNext Campus Research, we are seeing an odd problem with off campus access. Unless you use Internet Explorer when you are off campus, you will see that when you log into WestlawNext Campus Research that the search box at the top of the interface is missing. Please advise any users who are reporting problems with this database to switch over to Internet Explorer.

As soon as we can get a fix for this, I’ll update the reference blog.

Videos from Kanopy Now Findable in OneSearch

As of this week, all videos that are available to us from Kanopy are findable in OneSearch. Our subscription to Kanopy uses a patron-driven acquisition model. Rather than buy access to the whole collection of streaming videos, our subscription is set up so that when any given video is streamed a certain number of times, we automatically purchase it. This model is especially useful because it allows faculty and others to preview a video before we commit to actually purchasing it. While we do not want to impede use, we want to be mindful about when we will recommend Kanopy to users, especially to faculty members. Kanopy is not best used for a one-time film viewing in class (if the faculty has alerted us, we can have the DVD for them to use instead), or for watching clips (we can work with the faculty member to create a clip collection).

Reference Questions about Library Services from LIB 4900 Students

For the LIB 4900 capstone class that I’m teaching this spring, my students are researching various ICTs that are used in the library. You may find yourself getting questions about the following systems and services:

  • the remote access system for databases (EZproxy)
  • laptop loans (including the self-checkout kiosk)
  • desktop computers
  • other technology we loan out (graphing calculators, presentation remotes, cameras, clickers, etc.)

In some instances, my students may need to get in touch with the staff who oversee these resources so they can ask them about the history of how these resources been made available in the library. In other instances, they are looking for scholarly journal articles that are about how these systems (or related ones) have been used at college libraries.

If you need more information about the assignments behind these questions, feel free to take a peek at the assignments page on the course website. On the course blog, you can see the research questions they are refining as they work on their final projects.

Problem with Statista [UPDATED]

UPDATE 17 March 2017: The problem reported below has been fixed.

Although we can access content in Statista with no problems, if you try to download a graphic for an item, you’ll get a weird page that won’t give you what you wanted (a PNG file of the chart). Here is a screenshot of the interface showing where the problematic download graphic function is and a screenshot of the page you get once  you click the button.

Location of download graphic buttons in Statista
Location of download graphic buttons in Statista

 

Error page in Statista you see after trying to download graphics
Error page in Statista you see after trying to download graphics

I’ve contacted support at Statista and will report back here as soon as this problem is fixed.

New Database: Independent Voices

Name: Independent Voices

Description (from the vendor):

 Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

Access: On and off campus via IP authentication (off campus users will get our remote access login page). Added to these database pages on the library website:

  • A-Z list
  • Black Studies – Databsaes
  • History – Databases
  • Journalism – Databses
  • LGBTQ – Databases
  • Women’s Studies – Databases

If there are additional subject database pages we should add this to, please leave a comment on this blog post or email Michael Waldman or Stephen Francoeur.