Had a few requests for items from the catalogue that are ‘online’ from Books 24/7. There is no intuitive way to know how to access these books from the catalogue – you have to create an account using a ubc.ca email address – so I have emailed Sue Andrews to ask if there can be some sort of link in the catalogue that takes the user to how to access these. There is a link under e-Resources, e-Books, that takes you to the Books 24/7 collection, that tells you how to create an account, and then access the book. But nothing directly from the catalogue link.

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.

Oversize books, formerly all filed after the Z call nos. on floor 6, have now, logically, been divided between floor 1 and floor 6.
Oversize A-PN are filed at the end of the PNs on floor 1. Oversize for remaining call nos. are at the end of the Zs on floor 6.
Oversize Koerner Reference titles are shelved behind the Atlas collection

No, not that, but a Compendium of Beautiful Libraries, including an absolute stunner from Czechoslovakia. Library as place, indeed!
Sheryl

We are getting questions about opening Word 2007 docs in our Word 2003 software. Word 2007 saves documents with a .docx extension, not a .doc. From the Office website, it says…
To open Microsoft Office Word 2007 .docx or .docm files with Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2002, or Word 2000, you need to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats and any necessary Office updates. By using the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system, you can open, edit some items, and save Office Word 2007 documents in previous versions of Word.
I will email Tracey and ask about the compatibility pack!
Encourage people to save their Word 2007 documents as .doc, and then Word 2003 will recognize it and open it.

Hi all,
In support of the UBC Orientation for Mature and Transfer Students which is to take place on Sunday, September 2nd, I will be offering the following session in place of the August 20th Back to Basics class which, as of this morning, had no registrants:

Introduction to UBC Library for Mature and Transfer Students 05 Sep 2007 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Please recommend this session to anyone whom you feel might benefit.
Thanks very much,
Tara

Leonora’s email about upcoming changes in DocDel policy:
Starting Sep. 4, we’ll be changing our document delivery pricing model so that campus-to-campus delivery becomes free, for both books and articles, for our core users.
This is a change from the current model where branch-to-branch book document deliveries are free on the Point Grey campus. The current model (offered as a pilot) is no longer sustainable due to significant and growing workload involved. We’ve also had continuing requests from users at Robson Square and the hospitals for free article delivery from Point Grey. We’re eliminating the non-pickup fee as part of this change.
A link alerting users to the new policy will go onto the doc del order page next week.
See: http://www.library.ubc.ca/rss/docdel/fee_policies.html (page still under revision)
As always if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact
me, David Winter, Liz Whittam or Katherine Hill.

Courtesy of James Clay’s e-learning blog comes news of Wellcome Trust’s Creative Commons Image project that provides free access to two thousand years of images on the subject of mankind and medecine: Wellcome Images. In a word: awesome.
Tara

From Leonora Crema:
Hello everyone,
Just letting you know about a few policy changes that are happening for community borrowers starting August 1st:
– prices for community cards will increase
– new limit of 50 items that can be borrowed at one time
– BC college students and staff will become eligible for free UBC community cards (5-item limit). This is a result of UBC’s joining the BC Council of Post-Secondary Library Directors reciprocal borrorwing agreement. UBC students will also be able to borrow at most post-secondary libraries in BC.
If you have any questions, please contact me or Jocelyn Byfield.
Thanks,
Leonora

We’re getting a lot of questions at the desk from incoming students starting in September as to whether or not they can get their UBC Card right now so they can access the library workstations.
The answer is yes, as long as they are:
1) registered in courses for September
2) have a student ID
3) have a piece of gov’t isssued ID.
The carding office number is 7-5903.