FWIW, I ran across another library blog written by and for the staff of an academic library. Interesting to see how they use it.
Author: Stephen Francoeur
Video Instructions on Customizing Your Name in This Blog
If you haven’t logged in to the blog and changed how your name displays in the blog, please do so. I’ve created this short video, Customizing Your Name in WordPress, that shows you how to do it.
Euromonitor GMID –> Passport GMID?
Mike Waldman mentioned in an email today that we now have access to more content in Euromonitor GMID and that the database seems to have been renamed as Passport GMID:
We have upgraded Euromonitor GMID to Passport GMID. It now includes:
Strategy Briefings
Strategy Briefings offer in-depth forward looking analysis of global trends predicted to influence consumer markets in the future. Recently published strategy briefings include:
- Global Trends 2009 – What is the World Coming to?
- Loyalty Marketing: Attracting and Retaining Customers in Difficult Times.
- Global Market for Food Intolerance: At War with Our Food
Industry Watch
Industry Watch articles allow users to recognize the impact and implications of industry events making the news:
- New product launches, marketing strategies and industry trends
- Acquisitions, disposals and strategic partnerships
- Regulatory issues and seasonal trends
Country Briefings
Country briefings examine key country trends in specified topics. To date we have reported on the business environment and income and expenditure in more than 80 countries.
Country Profiles
Country profiles allow users to locate important country facts easily. They present demographic, macro-economic and political information for 205 countries in a clear systematic way. Facts include head of state, political structure, inflation, GDP growth and more. As well as statistics, they provide a written overview of a country’s operating environment and future outlook. There are also 7 Regional Profiles which are similar in structure.
Country Insight Articles
Topical country insight articles are prominently featured. These articles provide insight into current political, economic and social issues. A typical country insight article may look at topics such as rising unemployment rates, declining housing values and the economic weakening across the globe.
Global Consumer Trend Monitoring Articles
Global consumer trend monitoring articles examine factors influencing consumer behavior. Emerging trends and attitudes are covered along with new consumer segments.Country Pulse
Country Pulse summaries provide constantly updated snapshots of what’s in the public consciousness and how it may affect consumer spending behavior. What are people talking about, what are they concerned with and what excites them?
If you log in to the database, the name Euromonitor GMID has been replaced with Passport GMID, although the site does still feature the name “Euromonitor International” in two locations. Rather than replace Euromonitor GMID from the list of databases with Passport GMID, Mike has added an entry for Passport GMID and kept the entry for Euromonitor GMID. This may help us in a transition period to help get our students and faculty used to this name change. Here’s the real question, though: how long should we keep listing Euromonitor GMID on our library web site? At what point can we assume that those who happen to know the database by name will have gotten the message that the database has been renamed?
Keeping Up with the New MLA Citation Rules
Many of our databases offer a link to click to see a particular record or item in different citation formats. I just noticed today that the Cite Now feature in CQ Researcher Online offers this message when you try to display a citation in MLA style:
The MLA citation style is currently unavailable while we revise the format to reflect the new MLA standards.
This past spring, I looked at the new MLA rules for citing sources and wrote a post on my Digital Reference blog about the more notable changes. One thing that occurred to me as I wrote that post was a concern over the lag time between the publication of those new guidelines in the new seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and when various databases that offer to automatically cite materials for you will incorporate these new rules. This concern can also be extended to when citation management software (from Zotero, EndWorks, RefWorks, etc.) and faculty themselves will take note of the changes.
What I am worried about specifically is a student using the new guidelines and finding other sources of authority (database citation tools, citation management toosl, and faculty) offering a different (and older) set of rules.
QuestionPoint Chat Still Having Problems
The issue I reported a few weeks ago with chat sessions freezing up and a “Connect lost. Please wait.” error message coming up still has not been fixed by QuestionPoint yet. While chatting yesterday, I got four of those messages in four separate chat sessions. Each time, I was reconnected to the session after waiting anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. If it happens to you, just wait for the error message to go away and the chat monitor to return you to where you left off (in other words, don’t click anything until the system sorts itself out).
I reported each of the incidents to QuestionPoint support yesterday and emailed my fellow board members of the Question 24/7 Reference Advisory Board to see if they were seeing similar problems (they were). No word yet from QuestionPoint about when this problem will be fixed.
Making Your Author Name Appear in Blog Posts
The default setting in WordPress for your account uses your user name instead of your real name in the author field for any blog posts you write. So that it is more obvious to everyone who wrote which post, please login to WordPress for this blog and update your name information in the “Profile” section. Here is how:
- Login to WordPress
- Once logged in, you’ll be at the “Dashboard” for this blog. In the upper right corner, look for where it says “Howdy” and then has your user name. Click your user name.
- After clicking your username, you’ll be on your “Profile” page. Scroll down to the “Name” section, enter your first name and last name in the appropriate boxes. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Update Profle” button.
- Whent the page reloads, scroll down to the names section again and where it says “Display name publicly as” select the option that gives you your first and last name.
- Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Update Profle” button to save that setting
Please call me at x1620 if you have any problems with this.
Self-Checkout Machine Working Again
Ester Ramos noted this morning that Saad Abulhab got the self-checkout machine working again.
Testing Email Notifications
I am tinkering with the settings of the email notifications of new blog posts. Please ignore this post.
Ref Desk Closed Sign Is Missing
Anyone know where the sign is that indicates that the reference desk is closed? I am just finishing up a 6-9 shift here and can’t find it.
Connection Failures in Chat Reference
Recently, the QuestionPoint service has had technical problems that will frequently give you a “connection failed” message on your screen while you are in the middle of a chat session. If this happens, just wait it out, as things will usually sort themselves out in a minute or so and you’ll find yourself reconnected to the patron you were chatting with. You may find, though, that your last message was not transmitted to the patron and will have to be retyped.
I have reported this problem to QuestionPoint and noted that other libraries using the software are seeing the same problems.