Learning about Mobile Library Services

Several Milne Librarians interested in using mobile technology for the Library took part in this year's Handheld Librarian II Online Conference February 17th and 18th.

Topics ranged from trends and "social reference" (and how libraries fit into it) to "iPhone/Mobile Applications for Digital Library" to building a mobile site to mobile tagging, including QR codes and were included in topic tracks for Mobile Reference Service, E-readers, Mobile Apps, Marketing, Websites, and Content for Library Mobile Sites.

You can see what some other schools and organizations are doing with their mobile sites, including Duke University, Northwestern University, International Children's Digital Library (ICDL), and London's National Gallery.

Currently Milne offers very basic access through our Milne Library Mobile page. Have you used the mobile page? What was your experience like? If Milne were to offer extended mobile services, would you use them? If so, what would be the kinds of information and services you'd like to have access to through your cell phone? Tell us in the comments!

New Research Guides for Classes and Subjects

Our research guides are now easier to use, with more resources and multimedia content.

Milne librarians have been working over the intersession to implement a new system for connecting users to important resources: LibGuides. The new system allows for easy creation of subject and class-related guides. It also allows librarians to incorporate a wider array of content than our previous system, including images, video and RSS feeds to provide subject-specific news and research headlines.

LibGuides pages replace the Resources by Subject pages previously used to help identify scholarly materials.

Users can browse the guides by subject or guide title, or search the guides for specific resources.

On some pages, users can provide feedback or suggest possible links for inclusion into guides.

Importantly, the system allows the librarians check links and to track which guides and links are being used. This helps us keep the guides up to date with content that users actually need.

Have a look at our new guides for Citing Sources and the topical guide about Haiti and the recent earthquake.

Our New Beta Catalog Launches with Improved Features

The main search box on the library homepage has been updated to make use of a new Beta Catalog developed by libraries in the IDS project.

This search engine allows users to search for books and media here in Milne, in IDS Project libraries (these items can be delivered in less than 3 days) or in libraries around the world (these books may take 7 to 10 business days to arrive).

New and improved features include:

• Spell checking for misspelled search terms
• Estimated time of arrival for items not held in Milne Library
• RSS feeds for searches
• The ability to export items to citation software (like EndNote or Zotero)
• A quick link to create citations for each record.
  

Our new Catalog is still in a Beta testing phase, so please provide us with any feedback about your searches.

WorldCat Local - your better alternative to Google

The Quicksearch box on the library home page now uses WorldCat Local. This search tool quickly finds books, articles, and materials held in Milne Library and in other libraries across the country.

Unlike Google which searches billions of web sites of unknown authority, WorldCat Local (containing 55 million articles) provides items from reputable databases that the library subscribes to. Search results can be narrowed to specific databases and refined by author, format, year, language, and content. Items not available in Milne or online are easily obtainable using Get Text/IDS service.

Post written by Rich Dreifuss.

Library information for your mobile device

Milne Library is now pleased to provide library hours, contact information and a few search tools to cell phone and smart phone users.

Mobile users can point their browsers to

library.geneseo.edu/m

Users can access contact information for the reference desk or library office, or get information to contact a subject librarian via email or phone.

A few mobile search tools are available:

• Worldcat.org
• Google Books mobile (public domain books only)
• PubMed

Of course, iPhone or Smartphone users also access the main library webpage from their phones at

library.geneseo.edu

Scopus, ScienceDirect unavailable on November 15th

On Saturday, November 15th, ScienceDirect and the journal articles available there will be unavailable from 8am until 5pm.

Scopus will be unavailable from 8am to 4pm on the same day

Elsevier, the publisher who provides both of these resources, will be conducting upgrades to the database infrastructures at this time.

If you have any questions, please contact Paul MacLean, Head of Information Technology Services in Milne Library.

Changes to the library homepage

While students were away on Spring Break, we've been busy!
Thanks to the students, faculty and staff who completed surveys in Fall 2007, the Milne Library Web Team has implemented several design changes which grew out of these recommendations. Improvements include:

1. Consolidation of QuickLinks on the library homepage and less clutter!
2. Removal of much of the text from the side columns on the homepage
3. Addition of direct links to our most "Popular Resources" -- right from the homepage!
4. Spacing of individual news stories farther apart (making them easier to read) and adding an RSS feed for New Books to the bottom of blog's column. This also has the added benefit of keeping RSS feeds in one column.
5. New color choices for main page.
6. The addition of a "Bookmark" badge to all library webpages, thus increasing Web 2.0 functionality to our website and allowing users to bookmark our pages easily.
7. Removal of underlining for hyperlinks.

Tell us what you think - we want your feedback! If you have questions about any of the changes made to the library website, please contact Kate Pitcher, Web Development Librarian, at pitcher@geneseo.edu or by phone at 245-5064.