Final Day of Internship

I completed the final day of my internship on April 20. I finished testing the federated search and wrote a brief report of the test and made recommendations. Several of the databases that were supposed to be included in the federated search were not being included, which was leaving out a great deal of academic articles. Also, FirstSearch was returning many, many items and most of them were not relevant. I suspect that there is a problem with translating the search from the federated search to OCLC.

Total hours completed 135

Federated Search: Learning and testing

This week I am learning about federated searching in general (journal articles,websites), learning about 360Search (tutorials, FAQs, Best Practices) and testing 360 search as we have it configured at MCU.

I have found some interesting results and find that at times the federated search is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Tues 6.5
Thurs 6.5

Federated Search

After testing I believe the "The" problem is fixed and the updating print holding in Serials Solutions is complete.

I returned to the federated search project and continued to evaluate which of our databases have 360Search connections and which would be link only. I completed lists of our databases, the ones we are currently configured for in subject searches and for federated search and the status of the connections for each. The next stop will be testing different combinations of databases in different federated searches (keyword, subject, etc).

Next week is Spring Break. I will not have my usual internship on Tuesday and Thursday but I do plan to visit some academic libraries.

ABCs of Military Sources

I attended a presentation on "The ABCs of Military Sources" last night which was held in conjunction with the DTIC conference that is going on this week. It was a very useful and fast paced introduction to a large variety of military sources, including military universities, military archives and historical documents, and miltary publications available online. (That's not technically part of my internship)

Today I worked on fixing a problem we have with many of our periodicals in Serials Solutions showing a title that begins with a "The." Unlike the catalog which automatically remove initial articles, Serials Solutions keeps them and lists all of those titles under T. This makes it difficult to find the item unless you search with the "The" which we usually tell people not to do. So the solution to the Serials Solutions problem was to go in and edit each title. This was only a problem for those titles which were unique to MCU and which had been entered with a "The" I did keep three "The" titles because I checked on the print copy and the "The" was there. One example was "The old schoolhouse."

Because Serials Solutions updates my edits overnight, I will not be able to test today's work until my next internship day on Thursday.

eBook Summit

I attended an eBook summit on Thursday instead of my internship. There was a speaker, small group discussions, and a panel for questions. Academic, government, and corporate librarians were on the panel and in the audience so there was a mix of ideas and experiences. I am pretty sure I was the only student.

My small group discussed the advantages and challenges of eBooks. I was familiar with most of the ideas discussed, but I did learn about the advantages/disadvantages of the variety of ways that eBooks can be acquired: (purchased or leased) and (individually or by collection) and (put in a catalog and/or put in a database)

One thing that really surprised me was that one government organization's library catalog displays who has checked an item out so that if you really need a book and it's checked out, you can go to that person and ask for it. I am surprised that they would do that, even if the collection is only professional books. But it does make sense.

0 hours

Virtual Branch projects continue

I did a little research and straightened out some problems Serials Solutions. I am still working on issues with SS including "The" and "A" in our print periodical holding.

7 hours
TOTAL so far = 102 hours

A new Serials Solution Project

Today I started a new Serials Solution Project. I am working on reviving the federated search (called 360 Search in Serials Solution). The Library had used the federated search approximately two years ago with unsatisfactory results and I am trying to improve and revive it.

Today I created an excel spreadsheet with three columns:
1. The serials that Serials Solutions can include in the federated search
2. The serials that MCU library holds
3. The serials that MCU had used in the federated search in the past.

I color coded each of the MCU serials titles to indicate if Serials Solutions can include it in a federated search or if S.S. could only display a link to the database which the user would have to search separately.

Next week I will discuss progress so far with my supervisor and proceed to the next step, which I think will be "turning on" the federated search and testing to see which serials we want to include in the overall federated search or in subject specific federated search.

7 hours.