It's a quick-and-easy way to check out books and other items.
How does it work? Simply swipe your student ID and scan your item. The screen shows the due date and gives you the options to print or email yourself a receipt.
Where is it? Right across from the Circulation Desk by the North Door on the main level of Ellis Library.
One of our priorities in Access Services is to constantly evaluate our services. We have had concerns about the high patron traffic that Ellis Library has during the regular semester and the long checkout waiting periods that frustrate our patrons. So, we identified a solution that will provide a more efficient checkout flow. After a year of planning and multiple conversations, Access Services is implementing the use of receipt printers at the Ellis Library circulation desk. We also discussed health concerns when using some receipt paper, so we found BPA Free receipt paper.
Process
Benefits
Please let me know if you have any questions,
Federico (Freddy) Martínez-García Jr, MLIS, MPA
What is Occam’s Reader?
1. Occam’s Reader is a technology that allows libraries to loan eBooks to one another. The eBooks are made available as temporary and time‐limited loans that are made accessible via the Occam’s Reader server, hosted at Texas Tech University. Libraries use the OCLC network and the ILLiad request management software in conjunction with Occam’s Reader. The library patron views the eBook using a web viewer that can be accessed using any device with internet capabilities. The viewer provides access to a simplified image of the eBook content.
2. There are three main components to Occam’s Reader:
· Discovery Tool for Borrowing Library’s Interlibrary Borrowing Staff ILLiad add‐on to identify and request a specific eBook title from the holding libraries
· Processing Tool for Lending Library ILLiad add‐on and Occam’s Reader proprietary software to transmit and convert the eBook content to the Occam’s Reader server plus integrated email availability and authentication notification to borrower
· Web Viewer for Library Patron Viewer to read the loaned eBook via a link to a secure server which requires authentication using a temporary URL and password
3. The end result is one specific book title being loaned to one specific patron for a time limited loan period via a secure system where access is granted for the specified item.
After the loan period is finished, the file is automatically deleted from the secure server. This follows the model of interlibrary lending, where the book is “returned” (no longer available to the borrower) at the end of the loan transaction.
Many of the Springer eBook URLs are downloadable as full eBook PDFs already (thanks to Springer), which saves the trouble of binding the chapter PDFs together in many cases.
The total number of eBook items in the dataset is 964,655. This total is live-counted on the discovery tool in case we ever add or subtract from the dataset at a later date. The 964,655 eBook items represent 113,854 distinct eBook titles, meaning that many titles are available at multiple institutions. Springer’s eBooks may be found here.
http://www.springer.com/shop. There is an advanced search option which you can use to limit to format, content, etc. We do not guarantee that all are available through Occam’s Reader, but many will be.
To put it in more exciting terms:
Occam’s Reader allows the discovery and lending of nearly 1,000,000 eBooks, representing over 100,000 distinct eBook titles shared between 33 GWLA member institutions.
As a member of the Greater Western Library Alliance, MU’s Ellis Library’s Interlibrary Borrowing Unit is happy to offer this service to our patrons for a one year trial period beginning April 2, 2014. We will check for electronic access first when a request is placed so that service will be faster because of no shipping time and no cost involved for the borrowing library. For additional information: http://www.gwla.org/Home/Announcements/OccamsReader.
Please save the dates of December 11, 12, 17 and 18 for the visits of the candidates for the Acquisitions and Collection Development Librarian position. We don’t know the exact times of meetings yet, but wanted everyone who is interested in hearing from and meeting the candidates to know the interview days. We will try to schedule the public presentations before lunch each day, and will be seeking volunteers for breaks with the candidates. If you are interested in going on a morning or afternoon break, or a lunch or dinner with a candidate, please let me know.
–Ann Riley
The Ellis Library Interlibrary Loan Unit will be a full participant, both borrowing and lending, in Relais D2D (Discovery to Delivery) as a part of a pilot project with several other of the Greater Western Library Alliance Libraries. It is similar to the way we borrow and lend MOBIUS books here in Missouri in the unmediated requesting process. Requests are sent only to a library that has an available copy showing in their catalog, therefore reducing turnaround time. Load balancing is used when building a routing list and the request is sent to the first library on the routing list without staff mediation. The “go live” date will be from mid-July through the first part of August so that the service will be up and running when the Fall semester begins. The profiling is completed but there is some behind-the-scenes work that is still being completed. The name of the new service will likely be BorrowITNow and we will probably have a tab on the ILL @MU page. When we are ready to go live and have everything in place for our MU patrons, we will let everyone know.
The Ellis Interlibrary Borrowing and Lending Units participated in a survey over the summer and received our certificate last week. “The Rethinking Resource Sharing STAR Checklist provides library staff an opportunity to review and reflect on the policies and processes that comprise the resource sharing service they provide. The STAR Checklist is designed to be aggressive, challenging library decision-makers to live on the front lines of rethinking resource sharing. There is no expectation that a single library will meet every item on the list. While aggressive, the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative also recognizes that achieving STAR status should be attainable.” (From the document accompanying the survey). Several SEC libraries have completed the survey. We have been grouped with Southeastern Libraries and are the 17th library in that grouping to have completed the assessment.
We scored 98 out of 128 points and received Two STAR status.
June DeWeese, Head of Access Services
We received a letter from Patrick Burns, Interim Dean of Libraries at Colorado State University, the home of the RAPID ILL System recently. In that letter, he told us some exciting statistics representing outstanding service to our university community.
In the calendar year of 2009, the University of Missouri, Columbia (Ellis Library) sent 8,931 article requests into the RAPID ILL System. Of those, 8,471 were filled, resulting in a 95% fill rate. In addition, MU patrons received their articles from other RAPID libraries in an average of 15.4 hours, including nights and weekends. Congratulations to Interlibrary Borrowing for their work in making this happen for our MU patrons.
June DeWeese