Adobe problems

Hello!

We are currently experiencing to Adobe problems where when you try to open an adobe document from the web it says you need to give the certificate permission or something similar, ITS thinks they fixed it.  If you do run into this problem have the patron or yourself go down to the bottom right-hand part of the screen and right click over the Zenworks icon and select refresh.  After that have them retry the adobe document, if that doesn't work, please have me send in a help ticket with that particular computer number.

Thanks!
Heidi

Article for Gems' class - Non-Athletic China

It has come to our attention that many students are having trouble finding an article that Gerry Gems is asking them to read for a class. The article is listed in their syllabus as:

Caspar, Whitney, "Non-Athletic China", Harper's Weekly, 42 (February 12, 1898), 189-190.

We do have access to this article and it is in the HarpWeek database, but the date in the citation they have in their syllabus is incorrect. It should be February 19, 1898. Also, the title of the article is not "Non-Athletic China." The title as listed in Harp Week is actually "AMATEVR SPORT" but that seems to be a recurring column in the publication and "Non-Athletic China" is a subsection of the February 19th edition.

The best way to find this article is to go to Search in HarpWeek and do a "Full Article Text Search - Standard Search" for non-athletic china. You should receive two results. The first on is actually from February 12th, but it's just a preview that says that the article will be published in the next issue. So choose the second one from February 19th.

Viewing PDFs in Firefox

We seem to be having a number of issues with Adobe Reader/Acrobat and I've got a few tickets in to ITS about them. There's one though that could potentially cause some issues with our databases. It seems that many, if not all, computers are downloading PDF files instead of allowing them to be viewed in the browser when using Firefox.

I've found a temporary workaround for this but it will be on a user by user basis.

Go to Options in Firefox. This will either be located under the rectangular Firefox button in the upper left of the screen or under the Tools menu in Firefox.

When the window pops up, go to the Applications tab.

Look for either Adobe Acrobat Document and/or Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Document.

Make sure it is set to "Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox)".

You can try this fix on your own login as well, if you'd like to try it out before you need to help a student with it.

If this doesn't fix the problem please let Heidi or myself know so we can either try to identify if it's one of the other known problems or something new that needs to be reported.

Aimee

Printing from public computers

We will no longer be charging for print jobs printed from the public computers in the lobby. This is a trial for spring term only to determine if any potential downfalls of this policy. In the meantime we will be tracking number of pages printed. There will be a clipboard next to the printer behind the ISD. We do ask that you log how many sheets are picked up when someone comes to the desk to pick up print jobs from that printer. Your best estimate is also ok if it's a large number.

We are not advertising this policy change, but I have removed the sign from the public computers. Please continue to encourage any students whom you are helping at the public computers to email articles to themselves if they want to access them later.

Aimee

Mother's Room and Bookdrop Key

Hello!

We now have a key available for the mother's room and the bookdrop.  First student of the day will find the key in the cashbox and can use it on the bookdrops outside.  Always be sure to return the key to it's place when finished using it.  If you lose the key you will be responsible to replace it.

If a patron comes to the front desk asking for the key to the Mother's room you can find the key in the cashbox.  Please take their ID (or something important) as collateral like you would for the headphones or scissors and place the ID in the cashbox.  Once the patron returns the key you can give them their ID back.

This is a totally new policy so you may get questions about it.

Thanks!
Heidi

Blackboard pdf link not working?

If a student comes to the desk complaining that they click a link for their reading on Blackboard and a tab opens but then closes and nothing else happens please check to see if they are using Firefox.  If they are, Firefox is blocking pop-ups.  The way to fix this is to go to the menu in the top left-hand part of the screen, then select options, then select content tab, then go to the area about pop-ups and select the exceptions button, put the blackboard website in there.  That should fix it!

Let me know if you have any problems,
Heidi

Laptop policy for EDN classes and events

I just wanted to take a minute to get everyone up-to-speed on polices and procedures for the laptops that we lend to students, as they're also becoming popular for education department classes and events.

In order to have access to use our laptops for an education class or event, a faculty or staff member from the education department must make arrangements with Belinda or myself a head of time. If they will need the laptops for longer than the normal 3 hour check-out, a faculty or staff member from the education department must come to the library to pick up the laptop(s) themselves. They cannot be given to a student unless they are just being check out for three hours and you cannot check-out more than one per student at a time (i.e. they can't send over one student to pick up laptops for a whole class even if they'll have them back within the 3 hour period).

While we really can't stop people from taking these laptops out of the library, they were originally purchased for education students to be able to have access to certain softwares and for education classes to use during meetings in the Tyson Center and for technology trainings.

If anyone has questions about these policies please feel free to direct them to myself, Belinda, or John.

Aimee