LibGuides tips

Some tips for creating LibGuides:

Images
To add an image to a LibGuides page, first upload the image to our server. I've put a few in http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/subjects/ but we might want to create a new folder for our LibGuides images. After you link to the image, click the "centered text" icon to center your image in its box.

Editors (secondary authors)
If you create a new page/tab within a Guide of which you are not the primary author, your photo and contact info will appear on that new page/tab! This may be OK, but if you'd rather have the primary author appear, ask the primary author to create a new page/tab, then copy the page created by the secondary author, then delete the secondary author's version.

Subjects
Assign your published page to one or more Subject Categories. Click on Change Status, then in the Subject Categories (Optional) section, pick one, click on "associate," repeat as desired. Be sure to pick at least one from:
* Agriculture
* Biological Sciences
* Chemical & Physical Sciences
* Engineering
* Math & Stats
* Course Guides
and notify Joe so he can add the pages to those listings from http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/subjects/index.html.

Good news: We can alter the Subject Categories at any time (even after a page has been published) and secondary authors may change them, too.

What else?
What other tips have you learned for improving and coordinating our LibGuides???

MSL Meeting 7/29/08

Steve Williams from systems showed up to explain the new trouble ticket system.

Anyone is allowed to access it and submit a trouble ticket. Go to http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/grover

Library 2.0 Committee met and there is no more talk about new wikis.

There was discussion about one massive library committee blog to house all committee minutes

However, this is not rolled out for the public yet

New self check out machine is here.

The desensitizer isn’t working right and Chrissy has to fix that.

Once functional Chrissy would like people to try it out and bring up issues during the weekly meetings

Val talked to Barbara Hood about the brochures.

The Map Library and Health Science brochures are used more for development.

Possibly create a pdf for use on the website.

Collaboration

Health Science Center uses rolling white boards, which might be good to use here for groups

Also the use of a large screen tv or projection screen for groups in L107

Tara met with the directors about Advanced Directory.

Change to using gatorlink name and password to log onto computers

Will happen between August 8th and August 16th

They are working with bridges to create semi permanent gatorlink id.

One reminder. Do not log anyone onto a computer using your information.

MSL Meeting 7/29/08

· Steve Williams from systems showed up to explain the new trouble ticket system.

• Anyone is allowed to access it and submit a trouble ticket. Go to http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/grover

· Library 2.0 Committee met and there is no more talk about new wikis.

• There was discussion about one massive library committee blog to house all committee minutes

• However, this is not rolled out for the public yet

· New self check out machine is here.

• The desensitizer isn’t working right and Chrissy has to fix that.

• Once functional Chrissy would like people to try it out and bring up issues during the weekly meetings

· Val talked to Barbara Hood about the brochures.

• The Map Library and Health Science brochures are used more for development.

• Possibly create a pdf for use on the website.

· Collaboration

• Health Science Center uses rolling white boards, which might be good to use here for groups

• Also the use of a large screen tv or projection screen for groups in L107

· Tara met with the directors about Advanced Directory.

• Change to using gatorlink name and password to log onto computers

• Will happen between August 8th and August 16th

• They are working with bridges to create semi permanent gatorlink id.

• One reminder. Do not log anyone onto a computer using your information.

MSL Meeting - 07/01/2008

Announcements:

• Welcome Adrian!!


• No building access after normal hours - this means do not enter the building between 1:30am & 4-5am. If you do alarms will go off and the police will come to take you away :0


• L208A conference room - Carol D's old office has been turned into a conference room. The 3rd floor conference room is now another Xerox office because they had to move from the 5th floor. There is a telephone available in the new conference room for teleconferencing


• Staff meeting time - The MSL reorg report suggested changing the meeting time to the afternoon so the evening/weekend staff could attend. Sometime in mid-July we will begin holding meetings at 3pm


• Opening time - our official opening time is 8:00am


• Circulation wall calendar will be making a comeback so circ staff can easily see who is gone/back/etc. However, make sure you put your time off on the black calendar in Pat's office. This is the "official" calendar and you must put your time off here.


• Convocation is August 13th at 2pm. Tara is compiling a list of MSL accomplishments


• July 10th is the next cross division meeting. There should be lots of reorg and other interesting information presented


• Nominations for the library excellence awards close today

MSL Services

• OPS Budget - cut by $41,000. We will have 55hrs/wk of time that needs to be filled with non-OPS students. Feel free to help shelve or shift while we are down :) Just contact Christine for directions. Also, if students come to the desk searching for a job... Ask if they are work study. If they are ask them to attach a copy of their work study permit to the application.


• Construction - movers will be here mid-July to finish the moving. The new doors will be put in sometime before that.


• Evacuation procedures - For the next fire alarm we will make an announcement on the PA for everyone to leave. The elevator is fixed now. Assignment for everyone: find all the fire extinguishers & fire pull handles in the building - Tara will conduct a quiz at the next meeting!


• MSL Reorg - Adrian came over and will combine with the serials unit to make a collection services unit which reports to Vernon. Joe will be taking over the MSL website. Circulation will report to Vernon with both Marijka and Vanessa reporting directly to Vernon so he can get updates on both days (Marijka) and nights/weekends (Vanessa). The system liaison program has been dropped. Michael and Laurie will now report to Systems.

Web Presence

We talked a little about the need for a Science Portal launch. We will wait a few weeks and talk about it again soon to decide what type of PR is best. Tara will put in a syshelp to get icons put on all the public computers for the science portal.

Computer services

Contact Laurie if you'd like to use remote desktop and she will set it up for you.

Selectors - Nature proposal

FCLA is working with Nature to get discounts on any new journals we subscribe to and a increase cap. We talked about canceling some peripheral journals to get Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Photonics and Nature Geology (?).

SNAs

Student Navigation Assistants

http://dotsx2.usc.edu:3002/export/html/160

Scroll down that page and you’ll see all the responsibilities for SNAs. It sounds like they have a desk but it sounds like they are also “roaming” because of all the chores they are assigned: enforcing food policies and quiet study, shelving books, picking up trash. They are apparently well-trained to serve in this position because they are allowed to assist student patrons with library research (peer-to-peer) at public computers.

This might be a way to incorporate peer-to-peer, provide lots of work-study students with jobs, and fulfill some much needed functions that librarians and library staff do not supply when we are stuck behind a desk.

USAIN 2008 Conference

2008 USAIN (United States Agricultural Information Network) Conference

Tradition in Transition: Information Fueling the Future of Agbiosciences

April 27 – 30, 2008 Wooster, OH

University of Florida is an institutional member of USAIN, an organization whose primary purposes are to promote discussion of agricultural issues and trends, to develop and influence national agricultural information policy, to make recommendations to the National Agricultural Library (NAL) and to increase collaborations between member partners (http://www.usain.org/). USAIN does an excellent job communicating legislative changes to its members, and then working with members to get involved with state and national government.

The conference was hosted by Ohio State University and held at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, closely situated next to a beautiful arboretum and rose garden.

Here are a few of the most important highlights from the conference:

1. The AgNIC Born Digital Steering Committee, of which UF is a participant, met for the first time to begin phase I of the born digital initiative. Here at UF it used to be we would receive a copy of IFAS Extension resources, which we would catalog and make available in our print collection. Many Extension resources (documents, websites, etc) are now published only in digital format and while this format increases access to the current resources, many of these older resources are at risk of being permanently lost due to a lack of consistent preservation processes. This is a problem not just at UF, but at almost every land-grant throughout the nation. The goal of this steering committee is to identify digitization standards (selection, metadata, format, etc.) and to develop an infrastructure to assist the land-grants in developing their own processes at the local level. The other institutions participating are Univ. of Arizona, Ohio State, Colorado State, Texas A&M, Cornell, Univ. of Minnesota, Purdue, and potentially Michigan State and Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2. Mary Ochs (Cornell) Peter Ballantyne and Barbara Hutchinson (IAALD) spoke about Agbioscience information for the worldwide community. There is a strong need to "make research information easy to access for current and future generations" through common international standards, open applications, user friendly information & data, andlocal and global action . A large amount of agricultural information is created within the U.S., and we should do more to share that information with the international community. The result of this discussion was the creation of an International Agricultural Information Interest Group which will focus on the first steps of bringing in librarians from other countries to future USAIN conferences, as well as providing more Ag information on the USAIN website. Here is Peter Young - the Director of the National Ag Library - speaking about global collaborations: http://iaald.blip.tv/file/864317/

3. Peter gave the NAL update, mentioning the new Blueprint for Success: The National Agricultural Library 2008-2012. Many of you may have seen in the Washington Post the article, A Precious Resource at Risk, about the drastic budget cuts facing NAL in the upcoming year. I believe it was at the last USAIN that I learned that the NAL has had a flat budget for the last twenty years. Somehow I didn't write down the percentage they will have to cut, but I believe it was either 40% or 60% - both staggering cuts. This will prevent the NAL from preserving their special collections, from buying print materials, from participating in Interlibrary Loan, and more. For more information, see the USAIN website for Lobbying Congress for Support.

Additional information related to the theme of the conference:

Many of the invited speakers spoke on biofuels, bioenergy/bioproducts, and sustainable farming, including David Kline, an Amish farmer and author/editor of Farming Magazine. Without going into too much detail, here are a few of the interesting things I learned from all the speakers:

1. In the 1850’s ethanols were used for lighting, but in the 1860s-1906 an ethanol tax was enacted (making kerosene more competitive). The first ethanol fueled auto was the Ford Quadricycle (1896). The first flex-fuel car: Model-T (1908)!
2. In 2008 there were 11 billion gallons of ethanol produced from corn. Unfortunately there are a number of issues related to: water quality, soil erosion, water supply, biodiversity, loss of grasslands, increase in feed costs. Also, corn is displacing other crops -- leading to food riots.
3. The cellulosic biofuels (corn, switchgrass, MSW, forest residues, etc.) industry will grow rapidly in coming years. And will bring some very specific questions, such as how will supply chains develop (big issue), what are the implications for the food/feed/fiber markets, how will environmental issues be addressed, can we coproduce fuels and foods, and how can farmers and local communities benefit?
4. Lastly, has been shown to increase smog and cancerous benzene emissions. Also, all current biofuels increase carbon dioxide emission relative to gasoline.

There was quite a bit more information available from all the speakers. If you are interested in reading the speaker presentations, they are available for download: http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/usain/downloads.html

Web address for Science Portal in progress

The URL for the mock-up Leila showed last Tuesday is:
lnadams.org/msl.htm

Please remember that this is just a design layout, the links do not work, and it is subject to extreme change.

Comments are highly encouraged! Please post to this blog or email Sara or Joe.