A patron phoned from home this afternoon (Sunday) to ask about using MetaLib from home. He was connected via VPN, but wasn’t able to use MetaLib without being prompted for a password. He also said there were lock icons next to the links.
I suggested accessing certain indexes and databases individually, which did work. I suggested some interdisciplinary databases based on his paper topic.
Anyone know of any problems using MetaLib from home?
~brie

The Oxford Scholarship Online collection of books in Poli Sci, Religion, Philosophy, and Econ are not yet listed in the library catalogue. If you see an Oxford University Press title in our collection, it is worth checking out this resource (from the Indexes and Databases) to see if we have the book online.
And I have just discovered that if you are using GoogleScholar and find a reference to a book in this collection, you can access it from GS this way:
1. Click on the hyperlinked title
2. In GoogleBooks, look for the link on the right hand side to the publisher, Oxford University Press
3. On the OUP site, there will be a link to OSO if the title is available in that collection. It is on the upper right-hand side.
4. And voila, you are reading the book online!

From Oct. 10 through early Nov. 120 students in Geography 210 will be completing part of a research assignment on lost streams of the Lower Mainland in the Map & Atlas area. I have placed the map and atlas materials they require on top of the map cabinets with appropriate signage. You may get reference questions, since not everything they require is here in Koerner. Feel free to help them or direct them to me as required. Please do not authorize special loans for the required materials; they must do the assignment here. Photocopying is OK.
– Tim

Women’s Studies 100 students may come to the desk asking for help with researching a women’s group or community organization. They have a paper due on October 11 for which they have to select a women’s group of community organization which is working for equality and social justice for women, and critically assess the group’s activities and priorities.
They should already have chosen a group as they are expected to visit them, but just in case they are looking for ideas, this global directory of women’s organizations, includes listings from BC:
http://www.distel.ca/womlist/womlist.html
The Red Book Online also includes listings. Try a search for “women” in the subject field:
http://www2.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/DBs/Redbook/htmlPgs/search/rbSearch.html
Newspaper articles will likely be the best source of information, particularly Canadian Newsstand. There may also be information in other Canadian sources, such as CBCA Complete.
Lindsay

The annual UBC Botanical Gardens Apple Festival will take place Saturday, October 13th and Sunday, October 14th from 11am-4pm. For more information, please visit the AppleFest site.

Heads up: Students have been coming to the desk looking for an article in their course reading list. The citation says it is in the journal “Population Development and Review”; this journal does not exist. Try “Population AND Development Review” and you’ll have more luck.
The citation is:
Rosenfeld, Michael J. (2006). Young Adulthood as a Factor in Social Change in the United States. Population and Development Review, (32)1: 27–51.

From Paul LeSack:
Hi everyone,
Yvonne from Systems was here and she and I attempted to duplicate the problems found by students. While we did eventually manage to do so, we could only do so sporadically. The problems may be confined to a specific version of a workstation, or they may be caused by vista itself. As they say, more data are needed.
If the problem occurs again, we should endeavour to get the following information 1. The address of the workstation 2. A screenshot of the problem 3. A screenshot of the Java error log (or, better, a complete copy/paste)
Number 1. is straightforward.
Number 2 requires that a) the workstation has not crashed, plus the following
a) Press CTRL-PrtSc
b) Open up Windows Paint
c) Paste from clipboard
d) Save the image
e) e-mail as an attachment to Systems or, failing that, me.
Number 3 is more problematic
a) When problem occurs, right click on the coffee cup in the task bar (Java)
b) Select Console
c) Select all the text in the console box and e-mail to Systems
If the computer freezes at any point, a quick photograph with a cell-phone digital camera would probably work too.
Also, you can feel free to call me to perform these steps if I am around.
Paul

Hi all,
An instructor from English informed me that he will be taking his class of approximately 20 students through the Reference section sometime today. They won’t need any library assistance that I know of but I thought I would give you all the heads up in case you are wondering why there is so much traffic in there today.
Tara

Hi all,
I’ll be doing a introductory session on MetaLib next Wednesday 1-2pm for patrons (staff are welcome, too). Please recommend this session to anyone whom you feel might benefit. A second session is scheduled for Fri Oct 5, 9:30- 10:30 am.
Here’s the link to the calendar entry, and here’s the blurb:
UBC Library subscribes to hundreds of online resources to support research across the disciplines at UBC. Are you tired of searching each of your favorite databases one-by-one? Have you ever wished you could search multiple databases at the same time? Now you can!
Introducing MetaLib, a new search tool that enables you to search multiple databases simultaneously. In this session, we’ll give you an overview of MetaLib and show you how you can use it so search across a set of pre-defined databases in a broad area like Newspapers, select databases from a specific specific subject area such as Biology, History, Art, Psychology, or create your own set of databases to search.

Beginning at midnight last night, the New York Times suspended all charges for parts of the NYT online. “In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.”
Full story from the Times