Photos of MeL Users Day
Photos of the 2008 MeL Users Day at the Lansing Center have been posted to MLC’s Flickr account. Click here to view the new set.
1 comment February 20th, 2008
Posts filed under 'MeL'
There’s still time to register for MeL Users Day Feb 19!
What’s going on with MeLCat? Where do we stand with NCIP? What’s new with MeL Databases? Where is MeL headed?
MeL Users Day 2008 provides answers to these questions and much, much more! For a detailed agenda and to register online, see:
https://members.mlcnet.org/workshops/viewcourse.html?id=185
MeL Users Day will be held at the Lansing Center on Tuesday, February 19, 2008. In addition to multiple break-out sessions on MeLCat, MeL Databases, and MeL Delivery, this year’s MeL Users Day line-up includes a special Resource Sharing Forum in the afternoon. This is an unstructured open forum for MeLCat users where the presenters will facilitate a discussion of a variety of issues raised by those in attendance. Topics that may be covered include loan periods, work flows, packaging, and anything else that strikes your fancy! There will be an opportunity to ask questions and get input from others who are experienced in MeLCat policies and procedures, including staff members from other MeLCat libraries and MeLCat training/implementation staff.
1 comment February 5th, 2008
What’s New 2007 class ends March 31 — schedule soon!
The class that gives your library staff an overview of all the changes to the MeL Databases will be ending March 31. The changes have been incorporated into all the other free classes.
If you still want to schedule the three-hour What’s New 2007 overview, please contact Suzanne Robinson at MLC as soon as possible! For more information, please go to our MeL class description page.
1 comment January 24th, 2008
Free MeL Databases Training for Library Staff
Tight Budget? Need to offer your staff quality professional development? Is MeL being used to its fullest potential to serve your patrons?
If you want your staff to be able to better utilize the tremendous resources found in the MeL Databases, we have FREE training available for you.
You need eight library staff members. You need a lab with a computer connected to the Internet for each participant. You need a projector for the trainer’s computer. That’s it.
For more detailed information and class descriptions, please read the information on this page:
http://www.mlcnet.org/cms/sitem.cfm/workshops__conferences/mel_workshops_/
Contact Suzanne Robinson (robinson@mlcnet.org) for more information.
Add comment January 14th, 2008
Louise Bugg leaves MLC
We’ve been hearing from a lot of folks in Michigan libraryland who read about Louise Bugg’s retirement in the December News@MLC that was posted yesterday (and also the longer news item from MLC’s News & Announcements page). Louise has touched a lot of lives in Michigan libraries over the past four decades! 
Tomorrow is Louise’s last day working in the office at MLC. I’m not sure how MeLCat, or MLC, will get along without her – we’re all going to miss her and we wish her well in her retirement. Thanks Louise!
Add comment November 29th, 2007
Enhancements coming from EBSCO
This will affect CINAHL through MeL:
In late December, EBSCO plans to release an exciting new design of the Visual Search option in the EBSCOhost and several other user interfaces EBSCO offers, such as the Student Research Center, the Business Searching Interface, the Literary Reference Center, the International Security & Counter-Terrorism Reference Center, Kids Search, Searchasaurus and Consumer Health Complete.
A description of the new design’s functionality and some screen examples of its two user interface style choices are available in the first Top Story on EBSCO’s Support Site: (http://support.ebsco.com).
Please visit EBSCO’s Support Site (http://support.ebsco.com) to learn about new features, search among thousands of FAQs, download Flash tutorials, Help Sheets or User Guides, or communicate with Technical Support at any time, using the EBSCO Support Form (http://support.epnet.com/contact/askus.php).
You may also contact Technical Support by telephone, as follows:
In the United States and Canada: (800) 758-5995
Outside of the United States and Canada: access code, (800) 3272-6000
Sincerely,
Marcie Brown
Technical Communications Manager
EBSCO Publishing
10 Estes Street
Ipswich, MA 01938
1 comment November 27th, 2007
MLC Presentations at the MLA Conference
Are you attending the MLA Annual Conference in Lansing this week? MLC staff are involved with a number of presentations.
Evette Atkin is presenting a program on Second Life on Thursday at 10:45am (see News for details). Louise Bugg is presenting a MeLCat program on Wednesday at 4:00pm, and Suzanne Robinson is presenting on MeL Databases on Thursday at 8:45am (see MeL blog for details).
MLC staff will also be demo’ing the Evergreen open-source ILS at the MLC booth #23-24 (see Evergreen blog for details).
Hope to see you there!
1 comment November 6th, 2007
General OneFile – new name for Gale database in MeL
As part of the new enhancements released today by Gale, the name of InfoTrac OneFile was changed to General OneFile to describe the type of content in that database. It contains the more general-interest periodicals, news sources, etc., while Academic OneFile contains content specifically aimed at college and graduate level researchers.
Note: Most of the other Gale databases that are part of MeL Databases are subsets of General OneFile or Academic OneFile (both are enormous OneFiles!).
Add comment August 15th, 2007
New Interface for Gale PowerSearch
The following is a news release from Gale about enhancements to the PowerSearch platform and cross-searching interface.
Dear Valued Customers:
As communicated earlier this summer, there will be an exciting feature release late this evening which will affect the InfoTrac databases on the PowerSearch platform, as well as the cross-searching interface. This release will not result in any downtime, so you should not see any interruption in access to the databases. We expect to have all updates completed by tomorrow morning.
Included in this release are a number of new, key features. Below is a list of some of the most exciting ones:
Search Alerts with RSS export: Set up instant search alerts and journal alerts, with the added ability to create RSS feeds of InfoTrac content.
Did You Mean?/Also Try: When a search fails to bring desired results, users are given alternate spellings and preferred search terms to find appropriate results.
Search Within Results: Dynamically refine search results to pinpoint specific information by adding or excluding more terms to queries.
Enhanced Limiting: After a search is completed, the left sidebar will be repurposed to provide users with the option of selecting subject terms, subdivisions, article types and publications to allow further limiting of results.
Enhanced Navigation: Based on feedback, changes have been made to improve the interface navigation, including the creation of document tools (print, email, cite, download, translate) that appear in a visible box on each document.
Enhanced Tabs: The number of results now will appear on each tab, and color variation will be added to the tabs to signify more content behind the other tabs.
Enhanced Bookmarks: Direct access to individual documents, searches and collections of documents will be made available through PowerSearch Bookmarks, which are clearly visible, easy to use, and always persistent.
Improved “How-to-Cite” Functionality: MLA and APA formats for citations will be provided, with accurate elements, correct spacing and formatting.
Publication Details: More information about each publication will be provided, including embargo periods, publisher address and contact information, and publication descriptions.
For a preview of the features, please visit the new PowerSearch website at www.gale.com/PowerSearch
Here, you will find search tips, user guides and FAQ documents. We have also included a PowerPoint presentation to walk you through the major features.
We are committed to continue to provide you with the greatest technology and content through our library databases. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
Best,
Nader M. Qaimari
Senior Director, PowerSearch Programs
Office: 248.699.8139
Mobile: 248.761.7095
1 comment August 15th, 2007
Update for libraries about MeLCat
The following is posted on behalf of Nancy Robertson, State Librarian, and Randy Dykhuis, MLC Executive Director.
Update for Michigan libraries from Randy Dykhuis and Nancy Robertson about
1) MeLCat servers and 2) the status of NCIP:
————————————————————
1. MeLCat servers
MeLCat is run on several servers. There are two that the DCB libraries use for bibliographic and patron records. The second of these, DCB2, was purchased earlier this year, and we anticipated having it up and running and in production by the end April. Unfortunately, we have run into some problems getting that server into production. In order for DCB2 to be used, it must pass a series of security tests that the Department of Information Technology requires of all servers housed at the State of Michigan data center. We have met most of the requirements but have yet to pass one crucial test. Until we are certified by DIT and the server is in production, we are unable to train any new libraries. We are working hard with DIT and Innovative Interfaces to identify solutions to the problems and get them fixed as soon as possible.
We are hopeful that we can have DCB2 in production by mid-August. But with DCB2 not yet in production, there is a ripple effect on our training schedule. Libraries that had been originally scheduled for training in August will now receive their training in October. All of these libraries have been notified of the change. Because of this change, the training group that had originally been scheduled for the fall, will be much smaller. We anticipate training approximately 20 libraries in November, rather than the 40 we do in a normal sized group.
The ripple effect will continue into 2008. The first group in 2008 will consist of those libraries that had been bumped from the last group in 2007, and they will go live on the system in May 2008. The libraries that had been scheduled for the first group of 2008 will be bumped to the second group and will come up in September.
There are two constraints on the number of libraries that we can implement in any given cycle: 1) the number of trainers and 2) system limitations on the speed and number of records we can upload. That means even with unlimited trainers we could only process a limited number of libraries, and we hit that limitation regularly now.
We know many of you are very eager to join MeLCat and that these changes will inconvenience you. We deeply apologize for that.
2. NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP)
NCIP affects the libraries who join MeLCat as DCB participants, i.e. any library not running an Innovative Interfaces system. Without NCIP, DCB libraries must perform two check-outs for each item. One check-out occurs on the library’s local ILS; the other occurs with the MeLCat software. In addition, DCB libraries must store patron data on the DCB server. NCIP obviates the need for both of these. We have been working hard with Innovative Interfaces and Sirsi/Dynix to get NCIP operational on the system run by the Upper Peninsula Region of Library Cooperation (UPRLC). We are very close. As with many software design projects, it is the last few requirements that seem to take the longest. We have weekly conference calls with Sirsi/Dynix and Innovative Interfaces so everyone can hear at the same time the latest progress reports. The good news is that the two systems can send and receive messages sent from the other. There are only a couple of messages that need to go between the systems. Once those are in place, we will have a working installation. We are very hopeful that the last remaining hurdles can be cleared in the next few weeks.
Once everything is working, Innovative Interfaces will update their documentation and make that available to any other system that wants to share messages via NCIP.
=====================
Randy Dykhuis
Executive Director
Michigan Library Consortium
and
Nancy R. Robertson
State Librarian
Library of Michigan
3 comments August 6th, 2007