Daily Archives: April 2, 2018

Annex request fulfillment rate hits an all-time high!

BY: Ann Snowman

Last month the successful fill rate for 626 items searched reached a 100% fill rate averaged across three facilities.

One metric among many the Annex tracks is the rate of success in finding an item requested via the Onshelf Hold Items Report (I Want It). For a collection of its size and age a fill rate topping 85% is extraordinary. Furthermore, parts of the collection have moved multiple times compounding the opportunity for errors. In recent years, Annex staff have undertaken several
projects to steward the collection in a way that would increase the fulfillment rate. Barcoding projects, some reorganization of materials, and new standards set for reshelving and intake of
collections had an impact. As a result, the fill rate for the month of February reached 100%.

Success rates have been inching higher for some time. By way of comparison, for the period January-December 2017, the fill rate for 8,073 items searched was 99.576%, averaged across the three facilities. In January 2018, the fill rate for 645 items searched was 99.48% averaged across the three facilities.

As we phase into a new inventory system we anticipate our ability to locate requested items to improve even more so that those high success rates become standard.

Site Seeing Along the Digital Repository Road Map and Strategic Plan

By: Tim Auman

Like any other map, the Libraries’ Digital Repository Road Map can be muddled with the occasional detour or traffic jam. However, no matter the barricade, the overall mission remains the same: increase efficiency and communication by reducing the number of platforms and leveraging the Open Source community.

Initially introduced during a Tech Update in 2016, the Digital Repository Road Map established a route for several digital initiatives to follow through 2019. Using the Product Owner model, each initiative, or product, is led by an individual product owner who is responsible for coordinating the various stakeholders and resources necessary for the product’s success. A list of all Library Product Owners can be found at: https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/product-owners

Two milestones passed in the past year were the launch of ScholarSphere 3.0 and the migration of The Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive from Olive to Open ONI. Using Samvera, Scholarsphere 3.0 now shares a common data model with other institutions and features revised interfaces for upload and discovery as well as improved metadata options. Now listed on the Databases A-Z, The Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive provides full-text searching to an ever-growing collection of more than 80 historical newspapers. The Archive uses the Open ONI platform, which the Library of Congress also uses for their Chronicling America collection.

One major project currently under construction is the Cultural Heritage Object (CHO Access) initiative that will replace CONTENTdm as the Libraries’ digital repository platform. CHO
Access will provide a better platform for both collection management and user access. Nathan Tallman gave a demonstration of the first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) on March 26th and all
library staff can keep up to date on the project’s progress at the Cultural Heritage Objects (CHO) intranet site.

Tech Tip: Overview of Office 365 apps classes in April

By: Ryan Johnson

Overview of Office 365 Apps Classes in April

Office 365 is not just email and calendar, it includes a suite of services that will available for all Penn State University Staff. The session(s) below will provide an overview of some of these services you will have available to you as a part of Office 365.

Note: These session(s) will not review Outlook(Email and Calendar). I-Tech will provide sessions on Email/Calendar at a later date.

Please read the description below and register with the links provided if you are interested in attending:

Overview of Office 365 Apps

Class Description:
Office 365 offers more than email and calendaring. Included in the suite of products are tools to collaborate, create surveys, digital presentations and project and task management. In this session, we will provide an overview of some of the new products in Office 365 that will be available to you.

Note: These session(s) will not review Outlook (Email and Calendar)

Objectives:

Review O365 including how to access apps
Identify key applications of O365 and their uses
Locate support and training resources for O365 Apps

If you have any questions about the session, please email ryanjohnson@psu.edu or call 814-867-4095.

If watching the session over Zoom, please visit the following URL at the starting time indicated to participate: https://psu.zoom.us/my/ultraining

The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Ryan Johnson (ryanjohnson@psu.edu or 814-867-4095) in advance of your participation or visit.

Customer Service Tip: Four ways to determine what your customer really needs

By: Emily Triplett Lentz (submitted by Carmen Gass)

Your customer—let’s call her Francine—adores your product, but she wishes it had one extra feature—we’ll call it Feature X—that would make her life easier and save her boatloads of time.

You don’t have Feature X. You’re not planning on building Feature X. Come to think of it, Francine is the only person who’s ever asked for Feature X. “What a weird idea, Francine,” you say to yourself. “Why would you want to do something like that?”

While you could tell Francine no and move on to the next conversation, more often than not you can help solve Francine’s problem in a way that works just as well (if not better) than
what she originally had in mind. It just takes a little effort to ask the right questions, figure out what her need really is, and convince her to implement the solution you suggest.

Here are four ideas to get you started.

Events: April 2

Spring 2018
Academic calendar information for all campuses is available online.

Jan. 16–Aug. 26, “What Big Eyes You Have! Looking at the Wolf in Fairy Tales”exhibition, Eberly Family Special Collections Library Exhibition Room, 104 Paterno Library.

Feb. 18-Aug. 13, “Depth of Field” exhibit, Diversity Studies Room, 203 Pattee Library, seeks to highlight the intersections of war in the Middle East with the history of war photography.

Monday, Apr. 2: Edible Book Festival – Compete in or help judge a book-themed cake decorating contest. Sign up at http://tinyurl.com/psulibsediblebook, noon- 1p.m., Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library.

Monday 2 April: Editing Aphra Behn in the Digital Age (E-ABIDA) – Show-and-tell session with some of our special collections related to Aphra Behn, with Elaine Hobby and Claire Bowditch of Loughborough University, England. 5-6 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library.

Tuesday, Apr. 3: Grant Writing Workshop , Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, 1-2:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 3: Editing and Collating 17th Century Books in the Modern Digital Age – with Elaine Hobby and Claire Bowditch of Loughborough University. 2-3 p.m., Foster Auditorium and live streamed via MediaSite.

Tuesday, Apr. 3: Jillian Cantor to read as part of the Mary E Rolling Reading Series, Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, 7:30-9 p.m.

Wednesday, Apr. 4: Software in the Humanities and Social Sciences Workshop – IIIF, with Karen Estlund. Bring a bag lunch; noon-1 p.m. 403 Paterno Library and via Zoom at https://psu.zoom.us/j/914950827.

Thursday, Apr. 5: Lecture by Professor Leo Bersani, “Force in Progress”, 5-7 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

Friday, Apr. 6: Art+Feminism Wiki-edit-a-thon – An editing free-for-all to improve content on feminism, gender, and the arts on Wikipedia, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library. Remote participation is also encouraged; This year’s meetup page is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/University_Park/ArtAndFeminism_2018/The_Pennsylvania_State_University.

Wednesday, Apr. 11: Software in the Humanities and Social Sciences Workshop – OpenRefine, a free and open-source resource for cleaning, regularizing, and organizing complex data, with Jose Guerrero. Bring a bag lunch; noon-1 p.m. 403 Paterno Library and via Zoom at https://psu.zoom.us/j/914950827.

Sunday, Apr. 22: International Write-In. Two sessions, 3:30-7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.-midnight. Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library. Interested writers can sign up today at: http://tinyurl.com/psuwritein

Monday, Apr. 23: Working with International Students Workshop: Resources and Inclusive Strategies, 1-4 p.m., 221 Chambers Building, Krause Learning Space.

Please submit event information — and all Library News submissions — to Public Relations and Marketing via the Library News submission form. *Please note: The content submissions process may be changing soon; please stay tuned for updates.*