I recently received a question regarding typing in French and thought I would repost Heman’s message about this issue FYI.
Tara
Hi all,
We’ve had a few patrons expressing their disappointment that our WOPAC’s language bar included English, Chinese, Korean & Japanese support but no French settings.
We did not install “French (Canada)” on the language bar because it is a keyboard mapper – unless we purchase French keyboards (eg: from Quebec…), choosing “French (Canada)” on the language bar would result in mismapped keys, ie: wrong characters showing up on screen as you type.
However, the case with Chinese, Japanese and Korean settings are very different – they are actually a host of utilities that facilitate CJK character input, which include handwriting recognition (see attached screenshot), on screen “soft keyboards”, as well as phonics based input methods. Without them CJK input would not be possible, say, for searching CJK materials.
Having said that, their point is taken and we will include “French (Canada)” in the language bar on our future builds. Hopefully it will benefit francophone touch typists that *remembered* the French keyboard layout. In the mean time, people that need access to diacritics, euros, pounds can use the “Character map” utility under [Start] – [Programs] – [Accessories]. This utility will also tell you the keystrokes required to get to these characters directly, for example to get to an “é”, just hold the [ALT] key while typing 0233 on the numeric keypad (works with most applications) (see attached screenshot).
Hope this helps,
Heman.
Attn: GAAs
The following is copied from the email I sent out earlier today as an FYI.
1. Koerner Library keeps course descriptions from previous years on Microform. If the patron were local, or knew someone local, you could direct him/her to the microform section AW1 .R7544 which can be found by typing “UBC Calendar” into the OneSearch box and selecting UBC Library from the list of results. The second hit has the full calendar list from 1915-2004.
2. If the patron requires the course descriptions to be sent, ILL will send them at the approximate cost of $20 International (and $5 for BC residents).
3. Another, not so well known option, is to ask Keith Bunnell who has copies of old course calendars in his office from which you could copy down the information the patron requested.
4. Recent course schedules from 2007-2008 are available online through student services.
Tara
For those of you who are interested, I have finally added a link to the titles from the 2008 BCLA presentation “Ain’t on the Globe and Mail Bestsellers List“. I have ordered a number of the titles mentioned here, or forwarded them to the appropriate bibliographers. A number of these titles are also available through VPL and ILL. A copy of the list will also be on my door for the next week or so. Happy browsing!
Tara
“The Map Room is a blog that points to maps, map collections, map-related resources, and material about maps on the web. Anything that fits under that rubric, from medieval mappæ mundi to satellite imagery, and from topo maps to Tolkien, is fair game.
Launched in March 2003, The Map Room is aimed at a broad audience. While GIS professionals and cartographers seem to enjoy reading it, it’s meant to be accessible to anyone with nothing more than an interest in maps.”
I particularly enjoyed finding the section on Imaginary Places when I was working on a recent reference question.
See also the link to Strange Maps, where you can find a map of the 1969 moon landingsite or have a look at the abandoned proposal (thankfully) to rename star constellations with more recognizable figures such as The Tyrants–featuring Hitler, Attila the Hun, and Mussolini.
Enjoy!
Tara
The citation style questions keep a’comin’ so I thought I would post this useful link to Diana Hacker’s Research and Documentation site I know a number of us already use it but it’s always nice to have a link at one’s finger tips. If you aren’t familiar with the site, it has a significant number of citation examples as well as sample papers with formatting details. In my experience, students have always been very happy to learn of it.
Tara
Hi all,
Finding UBC Calendar Archives has come up at the desk a few times of late and I thought I would post a shortcut here:
Here is the link to the microform entry in the catalogue for the UBC Calendar or you can simply direct patrons to the following call number: AW1 .R7544
Print copies are available in the ASRS or Law Special Collections: LE3 .B8
Online copies from the present to 1999 are available online from the Student Services UBC Calendar Archive
A brief version of the above information is also penciled into the HSS Ref Desk manual.
Tara
ProQuest has created a handy search widget for their databases that you can imbed right in your subject guides or other webpages. Here’s how it looks (this one links to PQ Dissertations and Theses). Go on, give it a try:
function proQuestSearchGo(){
var url=”http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=305&FT=1&DBId=15119&SQ=”;
var searchInputEl = document.getElementById(“proQuestSearchInput”);
document.location=url + encodeURIComponent(searchInputEl.value);
}
function handleKeyPress(e,form){
var key=e.keyCode || e.which;
if (key==13){
proQuestSearchGo();
}
}
Create your own widget here (it’s quick and easy!):
http://www.proquest.com/products_pq/proquest/widgets/search.shtml
I’ve added the widget to the Anthropology Subject Guide, in the section on theses and dissertations.
Early this week a distraught student came to the Ref desk with files created at home on Word 2007. She needed to print them but the new .docx file format was not recognized by our version of Word. She left before we found a solution but the site at http://www.zamzar.com offers free file conversions, sending the converted file as an attachment to the user’s email address.
Jeremy
Confusion no more! Richard has graciously demonstrated how to load the fancy copy room stapler which has left a number of us scratching our heads. Here are some step by step instructions:
1. Get the Bostitch B8 staples from the Journals/Microforms desk drawer (Make sure they are the B8 staples, as the regular ones won’t work.)
2. Mosey to the copy room and confront the empty stapler, letting it know who’s boss.
3. Pull out the black tab at the back of the stapler.
4. Drop the staples into the gap making sure that the sides of the staples fit into the grooves.
5. Push the black tab back in and test the stapler to make sure its working.
6. Saunter back to your desk, triumphant.
Any questions? Ask Richard, the stapler wrangler.
Tara
As Genealogy is not a research discipline at UBC, it is not a top priority for desk assistance, as generally the researchers are from the public. Our research community comes first.
However, Richard will soon be putting out some older START HERE guides to genealogical research on the handout kiosks, as they do a good job of summarizing our collection. Give the researcher a copy, and basic directions on how they can find the titles, most of which are in the reference collection.
Surrey Public Library has good genealogical resources, and also an online guide on how to start research.
Depending on the circumstances, remind telephone callers and email correspondents that we have limited resources which they can check themselves. To get started, they should check with a public library near them.
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