Evasive Talent

According to a certain artist, Dave Archer can dodge questions like Keanu Reeves dodges bullets. Not one to believe "artists", we put this talent to the test. So, we went where no one has dared to go. We've asked the MOST personal questions to Mr. Millennium Contestant Dave Archer...aka Mr. Evasive. Below is an actual excerpt from the conversation--we know you will be amazed at his answering techniques...

Dave, do you have a girlfriend?

I care deeply for nature - ostriches in particular. Which makes my wearing of these ostrich-skin boots all the more heartless.

How much money do you make?

Accepting a salary would disqualify me for NSLS Volunteer of the Millennium award. I’m told that I am fortunate, however, to be the only staff member exempt from overdue fines.

What do you think of your boss?
My boss defies the rules by selling the steak AND the sizzle!

What’s your favorite food?

Whatever food product is in slot #3 of the staff lounge vending machine – it takes those pesky Canadian Loonies don’t ya know.

What’s your stance on overdue fines?

If elected Mr. Millennium, I will favor the incentive-laden approach such as: ‘Return a book on time, get a hug.’

Do you believe in corporal punishment for people who dog-ear pages in library books?

I’m more concerned about those ‘gently-used’ earbuds returned with the PlayAways.

What’s the gross national product of Djibouti?

741. The economy is based on service activities connected with the country's strategic location and status as a free trade zone in northeast Africa. Two-thirds of the inhabitants live in the capital city; the remainder are mostly nomadic herders. Scanty rainfall limits crop production to fruits and vegetables, and most food must be imported. Djibouti provides services as both a transit port for the region and an international transshipment and refueling center. Djibouti has few natural resources and little industry. The nation is, therefore, heavily dependent on foreign assistance to help support its balance of payments and to finance development projects.

Is the sky blue?

There is no such color as blue.

What color is your shirt?
Blue.

What’s the date today?

If elected Mr. Millennium, today will be the best day of my life.

So, do you think he has the talent it takes to be Mr. Millennium? Comment!

Word of the Week

Index

The word index can mean a lot of things to a lot of people – even in library land!
In the new Millennium system Index refers to the criteria you search by. If you go back a few Words of the Week to the word Record you can see that each record contains certain types of information. The information in each record is organized or “indexed” in a way that allows Millennium to easily search for specific types of information.

This leads us to Indexing. Indexing is the process that Innovative Interfaces, Inc. (the maker of Millennium) went through to set up our database. Innovative’s data analysts took a look at the data from our GEAC system and figured out which part (or “field”) of each bibliographic record was the title, which was the author, and so forth. Then they took the information from certain fields (author, title, and call number, for example) and made a list of every piece of information from every record for each of those fields – in other words, an index!

When you do a search in the Millennium database (whether using Encore, WebPAC Pro or the Millennium staff client), Millennium looks for your term in one or more indexes. If you do a title search, Millennium checks for your terms in the title index. An author search checks the author index, and so forth. Other pieces of information you can search (also known as indexed fields, because they are pieces of data – a.k.a. “fields” – that are included in an index) are the subject headings, ISBN, and call number.

Indexes are important in our patron data, also. Because our patron records are stored in a database, and we need to retrieve a particular patron record when that patron is standing in front of us at the circulation desk, fields like the patron’s name and barcode are indexed, so that we can search for one of those pieces of information to find the right patron’s record in the database.

Mary Andrew contributed to this week’s WOW. Thanks, Mary!

As Fabulous as Millennium

The incredibly talented Deb L. possesses the astounding ability to transform herself before our very eyes. On Halloween, you may have seen her transformation from lovely library lady to Thrift Store Bag Lady. Today, witness her transforming to the opposite end of the glamour spectrum -- to goddess of the silver screen.

The competition's heating up in the Mr. / Ms. Millennium contest. Who will be the winner? You decide!

Word of the Week

OCLC
People in Library Land toss this term around quite often. But what is OCLC? OCLC is actually a non-profit organization who exists to give libraries greater access to information while reducing costs. What does this mean to us chickens at Cook Library? Lots! This is where the library gets most of its catalog records. Why start from scratch when cataloging a book or DVD when it’s already been done and ready to go? After all, OCLC owns the Dewey Decimal System! These are uniform records all set up to work with computer systems.
But there is much more to OCLC than just cataloging. OCLC maintains NetLibrary, our eBook and eAudiobook provider. OCLC provides access to online indexes of journals, and documents. We might not subscribe to The Journal of Parasitology, but we can quickly retrieve complete articles from the journal through OCLC. OCLC gives our Interlibrary Loan Department access to material across the country, and this brings us to Worldcat. Worldcat is just what it sounds like; a library catalog including holdings from libraries around the world! We can see titles owned by libraries from Fremont to Freiberg, Germany!

This week’s WOW is brought to you by guest WOW-er Mary Andrew. Thanks, Mary!

Amazing Talents!

No matter where she is, or what she's doing, Mr./Ms. Millennium Candidate Katie Oakes can fall asleep instantaneously!

It's an art form first cultivated right here at the Cook Memorial Public Library District. Since discovering her unique talent, Katie has performed her amazing talent at the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, in the Oval Office, at the Emmys, and during an NFL game. Crowds near and far have been shocked at what some would call "an astounding feat".

According to one unnamed observer, Katie has a "real gift". Others say it's impossible to sleep undisturbed in such extreme conditions--yet after witnessing Katie's talents, admitted that "not only is it possible--but it's a miracle!"

Indeed, it is astonishing. But is it enough for Katie to win the Mr/Ms Millennium contest? You be the judge! Next week we will show you super talents from another contestant!

Word of the Week

Parameters:

Perhaps you’re wondering what’s going on with Millennium. We ILS folks talk about it a lot, but not much seems to be happening yet. What’s taking so long?

Although it seems like a lot of “hurry up and wait,” right now, the ILS Committee is hard at work setting up the parameters for Millennium. Parameters are rules that must be spelled out to tell the system exactly what to do in any given situation.

Parameters are used to determine everything that Millennium does automatically, such as:
· Assigning a due date (and making sure it’s the right one) when a patron checks out a DVD
· Printing overdue notices after the appropriate amount of time has elapsed, in the format we’ve specified, with the text we’ve specified
· Determining whether or not an item can be renewed
· Maintaining a list of patron holds
· Assigning an item that’s been ordered to the proper library, shelf location, and fund
· Printing a purchase order with the information we want to have on it

Think of our transition to Millennium like building a new library. Not only would we have to build a building, but we also would have to buy shelving, carpet, computers, tables, chairs, and copy machines. We’d have to hire staff and create a work schedule for them. We’d have to put in telephones, hang up signs, buy books, catalog the books, and put spine labels and barcodes on them. We’d have to put the books on the shelves and make sure they were in order. We’d have to do some publicity so the public would know about the new library and what its hours were.

Some of the parameters being set up are customizations — changing from the Millennium default to the specifics for our library district, so that they match the way we do things. Others are blanks to be filled in — meaning that until some information is entered, that part of the system will not function at all. All of them are essential to making Millennium work for us!

Mr/Ms Millennium Challenge #2

For the second part of the Mr/Ms Millennium Contest, we challenged our contestants to contact their inner-advertising spirit. We asked them to create an ILS slogan that we could use in public, that would get patrons excited to try Millennium. Our rules were simple:
the phrase can be short, long, asinine, funny, sweet, simple, bizarre, abstract, interesting, technical, inviting, invigorating...the possibilities were endless.

This is what the candidates came up with...

Katie Oakes:

It's better than chocolate, and fat free: Millennium!

Dave Archer:

I like “I heart Millennium.” Short & sweet. Another option is to incorporate some of the features of Millennium into the catchphrase. As you know, one of the features of Millennium is called ‘My Millennium’ which allows patrons to maintain reading lists, preferred searches, RSS feeds, manage reserves, etc. In the lead up to launch, we can promote ‘My Millennium Coming Soon’ or ‘Your Millennium Unveiled Valentine’s Day’ followed by ‘You’ll *heart it!’ (hmm...I think this is more than one slogan, Dave!)

Deb Lindahl:

Before Millennium, my life was like *Clem Kadiddlehopper...after Millennium, I am living like Sugar Kane from "Some Like it Hot!"
(*Baby Boomers will recognize this name from a clown character Red Skelton played way back when!)

What do you think? What's your favorite slogan? Or...can you think of a better slogan? Comment below!

Word of the Week / Snacker of the Month

First, the fun stuff -- Barb Jarvis has been selected as December's Snacker of the Month! She has elected to receive "something with chocolate in it." Congrats, Barb!

And now, the learning stuff (which is also fun, right?)... We're moving to a new format for the Word of the Week. From now on, check the I Luv Snacks blog for the new word of the week. A link to the most recent WOW, as well as (eventually, as I get them entered) to older WOWs, will appear in the right-hand sidebar.

So, without further ado, here's the Word of the Week!

Record:

A unit of information in the Millennium system. There are records for patrons, titles, items, and orders in Millennium.

Patron Record: contains identifying information for a patron, such as name and contact information, library card barcode, checked-out items, holds, fines and overdues.

Bibliographic Record: contains bibliographic information about a title in the library’s collection; that is to say: author, title, publication information, subject, and physical description.

Item Record: contains information about a specific copy of a title the library owns, such as the barcode, call number, and location.

Order Record: indicates that something has been ordered. This record includes information about how many copies were ordered, for what location, from which vendor, when, and with which funds.