We're Moving!

An important ILS milestone was achieved on August 29th. A copy of all the data from our Geac PLUS system was transferred to Innovative Interfaces Inc. This is essentially moving the library data to a new home. The moving van has taken our first load of boxes (data) and now Innovative will take this raw data, massage it, and then transfer it to our Millennium server. We can be proud that Pam Skittino made this happen 25 days before the deadline.

Our new server will arrive and be installed just before the October 23rd - 25th training. October is when we start moving into the new home, rearranging, making sure we can find things, and settling in. We will set up parameters (rules) for the new system and then test the parameters and settings to make sure things will work correctly when we "Go Live" in early 2008.

After the October training session, this data will be available for us to use while practicing on Millennium and it will not have any effect on patrons or items in the Geac PLUS system.

Here are some counts of the data that was transferred:
Bibliographic records - 238,009 titles with 328,883 items
Name authority records - 153,098
Subject authority records - 51,862
Circulation transactions:
58,103 checkouts
10,494 holds
61,022 fine records
53,344 patron records

Free Ice Cream!

Savor the last few days of summer with free ice cream!

Summit Ice Cream & Gelato is celebrating its first year anniversary on Saturday, September 1 with free ice cream and coffee all day long!


Also that day, Summit will have pony rides, face painting, and a Bouncy House.

School Supply time

Who doesn't love school supplies? With school getting under way, kids are stocking up on folders, notebooks, pencils and erasers, and a couple of my favorites: scissors and paste.

I always loved cutting and pasting. The scissors make that satisfying scratchy sound as they cut through construction paper. Paste was always fun, too. Some of my grade-school friends were gluers -- they were especially fond of covering their palms with glue and then peeling off the dried glue like a layer of skin. Not me, though; I was a paster. I liked troweling it out of its little bottle with that spatula thing attached to the lid. Glue sticks are just not the same, and liquid glue always left a little wet lump in the paper where it soaked in too much.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, I still get to cut and paste every day. Although it's lacking some of the visceral pleasures, like troweling, the Windows "cut and paste" feature is such an incredibly handy tool (and it's less messy, too). Once you've tried it, you can't imagine how you ever did without it.

Our own Katie Olsen has designed a little tutorial to show us the ways of computer cutting and pasting. This is the first step in this fall's training curriculum. Let's see who among us can complete the entire curriculum. Can you? Click here to try the tutorial.

Meet The Trainer

I'd like to introduce you to Jason Boland, the trainer that will be teaching us all things Millennium. Katie told me Jason was "funny and friendly" and after reading his responses to my questions, I have to agree. Jason's responses to my questions are below in orange...


Personal Stats:

Place of birth: The maternity ward of a hospital

Family: Occasionally

Current hometown: Atlantis. It's a heck of commute and my fingers are constantly wrinkled, but we get great seafood.

Jason, inquiring minds want to know...

When you visit Chicago, what's your favorite thing to do? I have lots of friends who have visited Chicago and raved about this one restaurant. I think it's called McDonalds.

When it comes to training, what's the best part for you (as an instructor)? The second part. No, wait the third part. Definitely the third part.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge for our staff? Getting through the door. I plan to seal it shut with Super Glue.

As a student, what is the one thing we should know? The alphabet. Trust me, it will really help a lot.

Ok, Jason, let's get personal...fill in the blank.

If stranded on a desert island, I'd bring... an entire civilization to keep me company
As a child, I always thought I'd... get the opportunity to fill out this survey.
In my free time, I'm... an inventor. Among my best work are the solar-powered flashlight and the inflatable dart board.
Secretly, no one knows I'm... completely devoid of imagination.

And, of course...

What's your favorite snack? (This is, after all, I luv Snacks!) Fruit, cheese and chocolate. I'm smart enough to come up with a straight answer when necessary.

And that, folks, is Jason. Do you have any questions for Jason? Leave them below!

Millennium User Manual Available

The official Millennium User Manual is now available online for our perusal.

So take a sneak peek and look at the User Manual! When you visit the web site, you'll be asked to log in. The communication contact person in your department will be able to give you the username and password.

You'll see a navigation window on the left. If you see a plus sign (+) in a little box next to a topic, you can click the + to see the contents of that section of the manual. Double click a document's name to view it in the reading pane on the right.



I think you'll be most interested in perusing the following areas:

Millennium Manuals/Millennium Guide
INNOPAC Manuals/WebOPAC, Searching the Catalog, Inter-Library Loans, Acquisitions and Serials

PS Remember to leave a comment and you'll be entered for Snacker of the Month. You could win home made snacks made just for you!

Chocolate-y Goodness

Newly-crowned Snacker of the Month Gail Finegan recieved homemade brownies today...and generously offered to share her snack with the rest of the staff. That's right...homemade brownies are available now in the staff room! Thanks, Gail!

Keep reading this and comment away...maybe you will be next month's winner!

First ILS Milestone: Contract Signed!

The starting gates have opened.

And we're off!

The contract between the Library and Innovative for the purchase of Millennium has been signed by both parties!

Pam Skittino has completed the New Customer Questionnaire and according to the timeline we should have access to the User Manual and Getting Started Manual in a week or so.

Also, the first session of vendor training sessions has been scheduled for October 23, 24, and 25th.

This means the new ILS, Millennium, is officially official! Giddy up!

Cook offers a Quickie!

Express Checkout made its debut July 25th and has been the talk of the library ever since! While the Circulation staff is still trying to determine its current capabilities and limitations, our patrons are very receptive to this new service. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm among some speed-of-light users has resulted in an unusual number of alarms going off at Circulation.

Not even Gaby's manicured nails could draw the attention of some Express Checkout patrons. A picture is not always worth a thousand (printed) words. One overzealous patron rushed up and began using the checkout by running his library card along the DVD unlocker and couldn't understand why nothing was happening!

Moms have suggested having an additional Express Checkout in the Children's Room to make more efficient use of their time while their children are in story time. Other patrons like the privacy aspect of this service. There goes our fun!

For those of you who have not as yet used the Express Checkout, try it out soon. We are looking for feedback from as many people as possible, so leave a comment below.

Snacker of the Month

I'm pleased to announce that Gail Finegan is the winner of the August snacks drawing! Gail has chosen to receive my homemade brownies, with frosting, for her Snack of the Month.

You, too, could receive homemade snacks, if your name is chosen in the Snack of the Month drawing. All you have to do to be eligible is to leave a comment on the ILuvSnacks blog! Ask us a question about the new ILS. Tell us what worries you about the transition to a new system. Tell us a joke, or share a snack recipe!

In the meantime, be extra nice to Gail, and maybe she'll give you a brownie.

Great Service Comes From the Heart

Hopefully Andrea will forgive me for stepping on her Queen of Inspiration toes. She's on vacation so maybe she's having too much fun to notice...

I met Marcy Rodriguez, the new Senior Manager of Youth, Outreach and Branch Services yesterday. She's nice and smart, and I predict she'll fit right in. While we were talking about telephones and network drives, she commented about how friendly and welcoming the staff has been to her.

I felt so proud to work at Cook Memorial Public Library District. We are friendly and the little extra efforts we each make every day create an environment with a personal touch that is rare and it was nice to know that it makes a difference.

Then today I saw a short video that illustrated what's special about our library. It tells the story of how one employee transformed the grocery store he worked at. It demonstrates that small gestures can make a large impact. When it was over, I thought about our library and I felt compelled to share it all with you. With so much change going on, I find that some days I feel a little rough around the edges. Stories like this help me through the tough spots.

If you have a inspirational library story to tell, feel free to share it with a comment!