May 2013 Statistics
Usage Summary
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Visits by City
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Yearly Comparison May 2012 vs May 2013 |
June 2013 SuperStar Award
Erick Dominicis from Miami Dade College
Each month, the Ask a Librarian team picks an outstanding member that has shown exceptional participation in the program. June’s AAL SuperStar recipient is Erick Dominicis from Miami Dade College.
Erick Dominicis is the Campus Director of Learning Resources at Miami Dade College, Kendall Campus. Erick has been with Miami Dade College for about 14 years. He has been involved with Ask a Librarian for several years, and since taking over as Site Coordinator for Miami Dade College in September 2011, has worked hard to revamp collaboration with the amazing staff at MDC to encourage participation, statewide collaboration, and increase local usage statistics.
His efforts to promote Ask a Librarian services and benefits to staff and students deserve hearty recognition. Erick, your dedication and effort has not gone unnoticed!
Please help me congratulate this month’s SuperStar winner, Erick at edominic@mdc.edu.
OCLC Training Opportunity: Engaging with Patrons Online
OCLC: Engaging with Patrons Online
Friday, June 14 — 12:00 pm, Eastern (9:00 am, Pacific)
What makes a chat session good and what makes a chat session exceptional? Carla Pfahl, Coordinator of AskMN (Minnesota’s statewide virtual reference service), and Merrie Davidson, Social Sciences Librarian and fellow AskMN librarian at the University of St. Thomas, will look at how to conduct a reference interview and what makes an exceptional reference transaction. Register today!
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For information on Ask a Librarian training, please contact Virtual Reference Coordinator Traci Avet Hector at avett@tblc.org.
May 2013 SuperStar
This month, we are recognizing a Library system that has played an outstanding part in the way Ask a Librarian operates. May’s AaL SuperStar recipient is Florida State University Library System (FSU).
FSU envisioned a whole new way of utilizing Ask a Librarian when they joined in August 2011. They view Ask a Librarian as an integral part of they way they serve their patrons everyday, from every page of their website and they do it from an FSU locally-branded desk.
FSU staffs their FSU-branded desk every hour that the library is open – a total of 134 hours per week. The local desk is their Ask a Librarian interface and they staff the collaborative desk as their contribution to the collaborative project.
The Ask a Librarian team would like to thank FSU for changing the way we think of Ask a Librarian – first as a local service and then as a statewide collaborative service.
April 2013 Statistics
Usage Summary
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Visits by City
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Yearly Comparison April 2012 vs April 2013 |
March 2013 Statistics
Usage Summary
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Live Chat
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Visits by City
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Yearly Comparison March 2012 vs March 2013 |
April 2013 SuperStar Award
Each month, the Ask a Librarian team picks an outstanding member that has shown exceptional participation in the program. April’s AAL SuperStar recipient is Debora Stewart from Palm Beach Atlantic University. Debora is a reference librarian at Warren Library in West Palm Beach. She has been at PBA since April of 2000. She is a past Exemplary Reference winner for a teaching chat in both April of 2010 and 2012. Debora has been nominated for this award several times. Debora has been a strong supporter of the Ask a Librarian program since they joined in July of 2004. She staffs two Academic Desk hours per week for her library. Debora’s dedication to the program is TERRIFIC! She enjoys finding information and helping AAL patrons get exactly what they are looking for. Her love for learning brings strength to the program for our students and patrons using the service. Please help me congratulate this month’s SuperStar winner, Debora Stewart at DEBORA_STEWART@pba.edu.
Monday’s Motivational Minute – Deb USF St. Petersburg
This week’s motivational minute is from Deb Henry at USF St. Petersburg. She had a questions from a student on the academic desk from Florida Gulf Coast University about not having any luck finding journal articles on brainstorming, thinking she may have been searching incorrectly. Using her great reference skills, Deb was able to ask the right questions to find out what brainstorming topics the student really needed like brainstorming from a psychological viewpoint or how people brainstorm in a business environment or just in general.
Deb pointed her to the correct database, subject heading and limiting the results on the returned search page. Deb finished by telling the student that ” Getting into a database that covers the subject matter is half the battle and then just some trial and error with terms to use. At the end the student was so appreciative and said Deb had been such a big help. Another rewarding chat with a grateful student. THANKS Deb!
Question: Hi there- I am not having any luck finding journals for a specific topic. Perhaps I am searching incorrectly?
You have been connected to Deb – USF St. Petersburg.
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Welcome to Ask a Librarian; my name is Deb and I will assist you today.
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Hi, what is your topic and what databases or resources have you been using?
Patron: Brainstorming
Patron: I have been using my schools Journal database
Patron: I need to find a few journals w/ 1, 2, and 3-7 authors
Patron: Not having any luck. Maybe I am doing it wrong?
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Are you looking at brainstorming from a psychological viewpoint or how people brainstorm in a business environment or just in general? Also, do I understand the you need to find at least one article written by one author another by two authors and then at least a third that has 3 or more authors?
Patron: Yes, that is what I need to find.
Patron: Actually, just general
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: FGCU doesn’t let me see what databases you have access to (I’m from USFSP) but if you have access to a database called Academic Search Premier or Omnifile full text Mega, I can go into those through my library and work with you that way.
Patron: Hmm..I’m not sure if I do
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: From the FGCU library home page you should see a link to DATABASES under the Find Books and articles heading on the left side of the screen
Patron: Ok, yes I have access to that
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: The system will ask you to log into using your student information but you should then be able to see what databases are available.
Patron: Ok I found Omnifile
Patron: That one is listed in the Databases. I do not have Academic Search Premier access
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: I will go into my Omni file
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: If you type in brainstorming, you will get a lot of hits. I would look on the left and select scholarly journals (peer-reviewed) and narrow the results
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: The most recent article should appear first in your list and then the articles will get older.
Patron: Terrific
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Brainstorming is actually a subject heading so if you redo the search and change the pull down menu to SU for subject from any field, you will improve relevancy
Patron: Is there any way to tell it to search for a certain number of authors? Or that will just be me searching it out?
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Let me look at that
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: I don’t think they have an option for the number of authors but you can change the number of results per page to 50 instead of 10 per page which is the default. That way you could scan more quickly through the list and mark the articles that have potential.
Patron: Excellent!
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: For example on my list as you get into the teens, I see some articles with multiple authors
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: I do see some 2 author articles as well.
Patron: Okay so it is just a matter of searching
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Getting into a database that covers the subject matter is half the battle and then just some trial and error with terms to use but brainstorming looks like a popular topic.
Patron: Okay great
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: Can I help you with anything else?
Patron: No, thank you. You have been such a big help! Thank you so much
Deb – USF St. Petersburg: You are welcome. Good luck with your assignment