Can I request a book that is already checked-out? May 29, 2008
Posted by Kathi in : Question of the Week, Tips for students , 1 comment so farYes. You can use the catalog “Request” link in order to have a checked out book returned and held for you.
Here’s how it works:
- If the item has been checked out for at least two weeks, it will automatically be recalled for you (each borrower is guaranteed two weeks)
- Once an item has been returned to the pickup library, you will be sent an email notification and it will be held for 10 days
All patrons are eligible to request a hold on materials currently checked out. Only Duke students, faculty and staff and TRLN patrons are eligible for recall privileges.
More details and screen-shots on Recalls and Holds can also be found on our website.
What is the LSC? May 22, 2008
Posted by Kathi in : Catalog Tip, Question of the Week, Tips for students , add a commentThe Library Service Center (LSC) is an off-site storage facility where materials are kept at optimal environment levels to help ensure their longevity. An item located at the LSC can be retrieved when requested, but there are slightly different procedures for Duke patrons and guests:
Duke community:
- Click on the “Request” link in the library catalog
- After entering your Net ID/password, indicate a library location for delivery
- An email will be sent to you when the requested materials arrive at the library
Guests:
- If you don’t have a Net ID/password, please use the Guest Request Form for LSC Materials
Helpful screen shots and detailed instructions can also be found here.
LibX updated – bug fixes and new search options May 16, 2008
Posted by Paolo in : Catalog Tip, Cool tools , 1 comment so farIf you’re a user of the Duke LibX browser plugin for Firefox, you should soon be getting prompted by Firefox to update the plugin. If you want it right away, go to the Tools / Add-ons menu and click “Find Updates” in the Extensions tab.
The new version is 1.2.8, and includes a couple of changes.
One is that the embedded “cues” stopped working in Amazon pages a while back, and this new version applies a fix that makes them work again. When you’re viewing a book page in Amazon, you should see the Duke Library icon next to the book’s title (looks like this: 
– it’s a silhouette of the Reading Blue Devil weathervane on top of the von der Heyden Pavilion). If you click on the icon, it will start a search in the Duke Library Catalog to see if Duke has the book for you to check out.
The other change is the addition of the option to search the new Search TRLN system via the LibX browser bar and right-click menu. The menu item (labeled “Search Triangle Research Libraries”) will search the catalogs of Duke, NCCU, NCSU, and UNC-CH and show you results from all for universities. There’s more information on Search TRLN in this earlier post.
And you can read more about all of the other things LibX can do in this earlier post about Duke LibX or on the Duke LibX download page.
If you’re a Duke LibX user, please tell us in the comments section what you like or don’t like about it, and if there are things you’d like to see changed added to it. If you’re not already using it, try it out!
Can a book be delivered to another library? May 16, 2008
Posted by Kathi in : Duke researchers, Question of the Week , add a commentYou are referring to a system called BARD (Book/Article Delivery) which is available to Duke faculty and Duke graduate students. It allows you to request books and articles for delivery and pick-up from one Duke library to another Duke library location.
A great page with screen shots and instructions is linked above, or you can just follow these easy directions:
- Find the item in the library catalog
- Click on the item’s call number
- Click on the “Request” link on the far right side of the screen
- Fill in the requested information
Connotea — another look May 13, 2008
Posted by Catherine in : Citing Sources, Cool tools , 3commentsIn Ted’s recent comments on connotea, he said he enjoyed it, but found that connotea was not such a great citation manager; it doesn’t always gather the metadata needed. On the connotea site, it explains that it is “specially designed for scientists and clinicians,” so it gathers bibliographic data better for some sites than others.
I agree, connotea is no substitute for a bibliographic reference manager like Endnote (to which Duke subscribes) or Refworks. I also agree that it’s “downright fun!” As a librarian, I use it as an academic networking tool, to find, track and tag resources as I come across them. It’s very handy for retrieving items on a particular topic, and for creating feeds for specific classes–I tag resources with the course name.
Ted was also concerned about messy tags. The “related tags” on the right belong to other users, who may create them however they’d like.
That’s both the beauty and the chaos of a Web 2.0 tool–everyone gets to play, and you can follow their leads, or not.
So, the short answer is: the value of connotea depends on your purpose. For a free web-based citation manager, you might like to try zotero (from an earlier LibraryHacks post):
The open-source Zotero (part 1 / part 2) is [a] Firefox extension that allows you to store, retrieve and organize your reference sources for a more streamlined citation process.
Has anyone out there done more than a first foray into zotero? Please send us your comments.
