Tuesday 29 September 2009

Important - Ebook passwords

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Song of Myself - Walt Whitman

Having written a brief guide to username and passwords yesterday, I'm now forced to contradict what I said about Dawsonera - Ebook logins. First, let me explain. Rather than wait for you all to contact the library asking for Dawsonera username and passwords, we are able to bulk create new users. This means we can create hundreds of accounts at the same time rather than one at a time. This is really handy for us, and for you as well as you don't have to bother contacting the library to ask for a login. Sadly Dawsonera recently "enhanced" their bulk user creation software. One of the "enhancements" turned out to be their software now recognising the first slash in dd/mm/yyyy as some kind of end of line or end of field symbol, so instead of seeing dd/mm/yyyy as the password, Dawsonera sees dd as the password. Two character passwords are not allowed by Dawsonera. Epic fail.

So, if you are a new student, having registered since July, and have not previously logged into Dawsonera, or have contacted the library to be set up with a username and password, then your username is your student number and your password is your date of birth in the format ddmmyyy - no slashes involved (except for the one I want to make to the flesh of Dawsonera programmers).

Summarising Dawsonera logins:
If you were here before January 2009 your username is probably firstnamesurname or firstinitialsurename e.g. clarkkent or ckent and your password is your student number.
If you registered after January 2009 and before July 2009, your username is your student number and your password is your date of birth in the format dd/mm/yyyy
If you have registered in July 2009 or after, your username is your student number and your password is your date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy. If this doesn't work try using your student number as your password. If you are unable to login, please contact me.

I apologise for having to make this more complicated that it really should be, but I suppose I have to thank Dawsonera for making this post possible. Thanks Dawsonera! (To be said in the same tone as said here)





Monday 28 September 2009

A very brief guide to resources, logins and passwords

Around this time of year, I and other library staff spend a lot of time passing on details on how to login to various resources on and off-campus. Here follows a very terse guide to what you can login to and how in no particular order:
Library Catalogue Here you can browse and search the library catalogue. You don't have to login to be able to do that, but if you want to manage your account - see your current and previous loans and charges and renew and reserve books, you will need to login. You login with your student number and a 4 digit PIN. To get a PIN you need to contact library: in person, by phone, by e-mail or using the all-new Ask A Librarian service.
DBS Computers: To login to a computer (on the student network!) at DBS, you need a username and password. Your username is your student number and when you first login, your student number is also your password, but you will be asked to change your password before you can proceed. Try to choose something memorable. The same combination also controls access to the print management system.
Moodle: is what's known as a virtual learning environment, which can supplement what you see and hear in your lectures. If nothing else, Moodle is very useful because its the online repository for most DBS exam papers. I'm very happy (honestly, I am) to say that Moodle is nothing to do with the library, and the following information is provided as a public service only. If you have any problems with Moodle, contact our IT department. You are responsible for your Moodle login and password. To set up a Moodle account, you need to activate your mydbs.ie email account. Do this by going to Windows Live and entering your student number@mydbs.ie as the username and your date of birth as your password. Follow on-screen instructions. A handy wee tutorial is available to assist here.
Search All Resources: The library subscribes to a number of elecrtonic resources that provide bibliographic and full-text access to newspapers journals and books. These can be accessed off-campus by clicking the graphic on the library website home page. You login again with your student number and date of birth. If you are a new student you may have to contact the library to gain access to this resource off-campus.
E-books: many (well, some) of the textbooks available in the library also come in pdf format that can be read online or downloaded (terms and conditions apply). If you started before January 2009, try using your name as your username and your student number as your password. If your name is Clark Kent and you started before January 2009, your user name is probably clarkkent or ckent and your password is your student number. If you started January 2009, your username is your student number and your password is your date of birth. If you can't login, contact the library.

I'm off for a cup of tea now.

Database trial - Safari Books Online

Gosh, is it that time of year already? Welcome to Dublin Business School, or if you're unfortunate enough to have been here before, welcome back! The library starts off the academic year in style with a month long trial of Safari Books Online. Safari, to steal from the content description in the html of their home page (huh?) is " is an on-demand, digital library that provides access to thousands of technology, creative and business books, training videos and expert reference and learning materials from leading publishers, like O'Reilly Media, Addison-Wesley, Peachpit Press, InformIT, Sams, Microsoft Press, Apress, Manning, Talented Pixie and many more". In simpler language: we have a month's trial of full text ebooks. I suppose of relevance to DBS students (and staff) are the IT and business books. Have a look at them by pointing your browser here. I suspect that it will only work on-campus, but I'll verify that later. Take a look, because if you don't, then we can't really justify trying to purchase a full subscription next year.

Thursday 24 September 2009

Library Catalogue Up and Running

Students of the Dublin Business School rejoice! Your online library catalogue is back up and running. In the end the problem turned out to be having two self-issue stations run at the same time as the library catalogue. Hopefully, the problem has been resolved, with a big thank you to Rob Perkins of Heritage Technical Support merited for his patience. I think if it falls over again, you'll see me in the foetal position.

For you newbies, the online catalogue (OPAC) allows you to access your library account - see the books you have on loan, your lending history, your fine history, reserve and renew books and create reviews of books available in DBS. You will need a PIN, which can be gotten from Information Desk staff (or indeed through Ask A Librarian)

Setting up personal EBSCO logins

We don't get many comments, and even fewer that are publishable (most being along the lines of ("boo! you stink!"). A comment was left asking about saving articles to folders on EBSCO databases, so material can searched for at one location and marked for retrieval at another location - so you don't have to perform the same search twice. Your wish is our command.
When you access an EBSCO database you see a screen like this. On the top right, there is a 'Sign into MyEBSCOHOST' link.


The link is circled in red. Clicking on the link takes you to this screen:

If you are a new user click on the link on the top left of this page (again circled in red) to set up your EBSCO account. You will need to provide:
your first name
your last name
an email address
a username name (to log into MyEBSCOHost)
a password (a minimum of five characters)
a secret question and
a secret answer.

Your username and password are between you and EBSCO, so it's they you have to contact if you forget your password (hence the need for an email address and secret question). There's other stuff you can do with an EBSCO profile: if you're logged in you can save and view your search history, set up em-mail alerts and share your folders with other EBSCO users.

I'd put links to the EBSCOHost pages into the images themselves, but each page comes with its own session ID - which of course expires after a certain amount of time.

More information available here.

Library Classes

Our ever-popular library classes return next week. Come along if you want to learn about essay writing, avoiding plagiarism, searching databases, referencing and macramé. I may be mistaken about the macramé though. The first class will be help on Wednesday 30th September. Ask at the Information Desk for its location (which is yet to be decided).
In following weeks, there will be two weekly classes held, (both starting at 5pm) one on a Monday aimed at non-business students and the other on a Wednesday is aimed at business students. Location yet to be decided. If they're being held in a classroom, I'll post the details here and the library website, else present yourselves at the information desk on the day.

Wednesday 23 September 2009

Library Catalogue Still Down

Yes, we still don't have the library catalogue working. To give some background: the initial error that deactivated the catalogue has only ever been seen once before by our vendor technical support team and related to how catalogue information was copied onto the web. To solve (hah!) this, they came up with a piece of software whose only function was to copy data. Before it was run, vendor technical support deleted all catalogue data. However when we run the sofware, we get an error message saying that we don't have permission to access the directories where catalogue data is stored. But we do (how else could we delete the data in the first instance?). Unfortunately the problem can't be solved by retrieving catalogue data from the recycle bin, so vendor techical support are currently scratching their heads. Stay tuned.

Friday 18 September 2009

Library Catalogue Down

It looks like the library catalogue will be taking the weekend off. There's a problem with the underlying database engine. Before anything can be down to address this I need to speak to one of our IT staff - who's not around of course. Hence no catalogue. Bah.

Computer classes

Computer Services is holding a series of IT workshops designed to familiarise new students with the IT systems they will be using here in Dublin Business School, such as Email, Moodle, and the printing systems. All students are invited to attend. Workshops will be taking place in the Open Access lab (SWS2.2)on the second floor in South William street at the following times:

Monday 28th September 10 -11 am & 5-6pm

Wednesday 30th September 3 -4 pm & 5-6pm

Friday 2nd October 10.30-11.30 am

Wednesday 16 September 2009

(Book) Relocation Relocation Relocation

In the immediate future, we are going to reorganise some of our Aungier St collection. Obviously we're not doing this to Mess With Your Head(s), but to use the space more efficiently and effectively. The upshot of the changes is that all books that can be borrowed will be on your right as you enter the library. Here are the changes in nicely digestible bullet point form:
  • There will be no more Restricted Access\Desk Reserve books. Instead these will be made reference only
  • Short Loan and 7-Day Loan books will be integrated into the main lending area.
  • The short-loan section will now house a beefed up reference collection
Thus, when you enter the library turn left for:
Computers
Self-Check stations
Bound Journals
Newspapers
Printing and Photocopying
Reference Books

Turn right for:
Standard short and 7 day loan material
(More) Computers
Current Journals

Thank you.

Friday 11 September 2009

Self-Service x2

After a difficult period, where we thought we'd ended up with a very expensive paperweight, we're pleased to say our 2nd RFID self-check machine ("Louis Mathieu") is now functional.

There's also added functionality now - you can now do unseen renewals - that's technical jargon for renewing books that you don't have with you. Touch 'Renew Items' or 'Account Info', scan your card and touch 'Renew Items' on the bottom right of the screen. A list of your loans will appear. You can renew books by touching the check box next to the book.

Thursday 10 September 2009

Ask a Librarian II

To see how the instant messaging Ask a Librarian service works we've activated the service on the current website. There should be a chatbox on each webpage and somebody should be at other end if you want to say hello or ask a hopefully meaningful question.

Also, give us time to respond before logging off please!

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Disruption to Library Services 08/09 and 09/09/09

This is a 'men at work' sign.  The man is digging up the library floorThere may be some disruption to library services on the evening of the 08/09 and morning to early afternoon 09/09/09 (when's the next time you'll see that date?) as we will be installing our second RFID machine. This one is a bit more complicated as it involves digging up some floor. We may indeed have to close the library for a short while in the morning. Watch out for notices on the stairwell. We will try to keep disruption to a minimum, and the Dame St. library is open if you need some peace and quiet. If it's merely a PC that you want you can also try the computer labs in South William St.

Ask a Librarian

As you may or may not have noticed, the 'Ask a Librarian' box has disappeared. That's not because we don't want you to ask us anything, but because we're moving it to the library website. What do you mean it's not there? I mean the new improved library website which will be appearing very soon, honest. We were basically testing proof of concept here, and though we love this blog, we realise that the library website gets more traffic - there's little point in having instant chat on a site that doesn't get much traffic (unless of course, you don't want people to chat to you...). Stay tuned all you loyal readers (me, my Auntie Mary and a three-legged dog in Copenhagen)!