Audiobook Invoices Sent Via NHAIS_L

New Hampshire Downloadable Audiobook Consortium Members:

Do-it-yourself invoices were sent out for the 2008 surcharge via NHAIS_L today. If you do not subscribe to NHAIS_L, please contact me (Bobbi) directly for the invoice. If you have questions about filling out the invoice, feel free to ask me. If you have questions about the surcharge, please contact the State Librarian, Michael York.

If your library is in the process of joining the Consortium, please disregard the surcharge.

Reference Site: What Bird

The librarian blog, Infodoodads, wrote about a very interesting site for identifying birds, whatbird.com. Instead of rehashing what was written, take a look at the original post. You might find a new blog to add to your reader!

Hint: To quickly see all birds found in NH, click on the "Browser" link at the top of the page and choose the New Hampshire link.

Labels on CDs and DVDs

On June 23, 2008 Sandra at Tracy Memorial Library sent this inquiry to the NHAIS list: "We have a patron who claims that our foil-back label, which we use to identify our A/V material as belonging to us, curled up while in her car's CD player, perhaps due to heat, and caused much damage. Has this happened to anyone else? These labels are supposed to adhere permanently and resist heat.We started using these foil labels because we thought permanent markers were not okay to use on CD/DVDs. But now I see that there are CD/DVD marker pens specifically for this purpose. What's the deal?"

Here is her summary of the responses:

I've received enough feedback to determine that CD & DVD labels are a bad idea, esp. with CDs and cars and heat. Please, if your library hasn't started using them, don't. So while we are going to discontinue, we aren't going to try to go back and remove all the labels already in place. This can damage the discs and take up infinite time. The safest marker to use is non-solvent based (i.e., water-based), permanent and felt-tipped; write in the clear inner hub of the unused side.
Very helpful is the Council on Library and Information Resources 'Care & Handling of CDs and DVDs: A Guide for Librarians and Archivists' , esp. sections 5.2.5 and 5.2.7. Thanks so much. Individual responses are below.
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This happens all the time. Use a permanant marker instead.
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Any marker works. Don't put it on the business side of the item being played, and you'll be all right.
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Oh yes, we had that happen to us. Same thing, a patron got a CD stuck in her player in her car and the dealership told her that the label was the culprit. Luckily, her car was still under warranty and they didn't charge her so she didn't have to charge us to get it out. We no longer use the labels. I just use an extra fine point sharpie and mark the CDs and DVDs with that. I have not had a problem using the markers. It's crazy. Those labels are fairly expensive.
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I have a great volunteer who used to work for the Dept. of Defense trouble-shooting missiles and rockets and such. His job was to look for things that would go wrong. He's wonderful here - does a ton of work for us - but he can drive me crazy with Things That Might Go Wrong.
When I started using the foil-backed labels he said, "Great, until they come off in someone's machine and they sue you." Oy vey. So I've lived in fear for four years. NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. Yet. (And, of course, I've just jinxed myself.)
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We had this happen (several times) once people had multiple disc players in their vehicles. At least two users had to send their players out to have them removed by professionals. We no longer use those labels except on DVDs. We write the name of our Library on each disc with a permanent marker.
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My cousin just bought a new Ford and the (6) cd player had a warning (exact words forgotten) about not playing cd's with stickers on them. Obviously many of our audio cd's get used in cars, and we have used stickers for audio books and music on cd. Trying markers now - but which marker and where to mark?
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Heat (or illegal copying) run afoul with any library label system It is ok to right with markers (on the unused side) of any DVD or CD.
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You can write on the tops as long as the DVD is not used on both sides. There are some DVD's that have Wide Screen on one side and Full screen on the other. You cannot write on those. I usually write around the center hole. And a Sharpie works fine.
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I know that sometimes labels cause a spin balance problem and make it impossible to read teh disc (the NHSL just had this trouble and asked me for replacements to a newspaper archive cd set I had provided)
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We have always used permanent markers with no problems so far.
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We use the markers because labels can be affected by heat and can cause an imbalance so they do not play correctly.
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Square foil backed labels on our CD's and DVD's have been a cause of problems for us. Twice a patron came to us saying she had to have her CD player serviced because of the labels. Once she had to have her player replaced and once she presented us with a copy of the bill which stated the label was the cause of the malfunction. She asked for some restitution. (She didn't get any.)
We took all the CD's off the shelves. It is taking a long time to remove these labels with Goo Gone and we write our library name with magic marker on the disc. I have tried to get volunteers to help and too much of the time the disc gets ruined or they use too much Goo Gone leaving a mess. The problem is that the square label makes the disc spin off center. Then the label catches on the player and gets stuck. We have had no problem with the round labels used on the center of the disc. These we only use when black magic marker will not show up on a dark colored disc.
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We use pre-printed labels from Gaylord and have not had any trouble. We've also used the paper labels and Dymo label maker, no problems there either. I wonder how long the CD sat in her hot car before she inserted it into the player?
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We have had this discussion here and I submit that there is no reason why one has to mark each disc and risk any issues. If a patron has checked out a CD book or DVD or bluray, then this should be enough for them to find the item(s). Of course, the package is clearly marked with all the library contact information both on the outside and inside. (we put a label on the back and inside the CD and DVD boxes. Even with "sharpie" pens you can damage a DVD ...less on an issue with CD's

Network problems resolved Monday

Monday, June 16, 2:45 p.m.: Network problems which affected NHU-PAC searching earlier this afternoon appear to be fixed.

Network problems Monday p.m.

Monday, June 16, 2:20 p.m.: We're seeing some problems with the state's network this afternoon which may have an adverse impact on the NHU-PAC. The NH Office of Information Technology has been notified.

Lost Books - May 2008

The book I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU was sent to Kingston from Brentwood. It has never arrived. We would appreciate your keeping an eye out for it. Thanks, Patti.

Nichols Memorial Library
169 Main Street
Kingston, N.H. 03848
tel 603-642-3521
fax 603-642-3135
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Lebanon sent the Princess Mononoke DVD to Milford (Wadleigh Mem.) and now she is lost. If anyone sees her, please either send her back home or route her on to Wadleigh. And please ask her to call or email when you find her. Thanks. J

Susanne
Lebanon PL
448-2459

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This list is also available at http://nhaislostbooks.pbwiki.com/ To edit wiki you need a password. Contact Mary Cronin at Madison Library to get the password if you don't have it.

Looking for Lost, Searching for AV

Including performer names in your searches for AV materials is an easy trick to narrow your results, especially in the ILL program, whose searching does not include format or date limits found elsewhere in the NHU-PAC.

A recent request on the NHAIS-ILL list asked for help locating a TV series on DVD, Lost: The Complete First Season: “I have tried a 100 ways to find it on NHUPAC...saw it once...can't find it again...even on advanced search!” With hundreds of works including the word in the title, Lost is a challenge to find. The "Complete...Season" part of the title is cataloged in subfield 245n, which is not indexed in our system so including those words won’t help your search. [Update: NHU-PAC indexing was changed in 2011 so this subfield is now searchable.]

Here's one way to find this particular title in NHU-PAC's ILL program: go to the ILL program's Advanced Searching page and search for

Title contains Lost
and Author contains Naveen Andrews

Performers are indexed in the same subfields as authors and in this case you could use Jorge Garcia or Matthew Fox or the names of several other actors featured in the show. Using Matthew Fox instead of Naveen Andrews, however, will bring up a few extra hits such as The Lost World with James Fox and Matthew Rhys or Egypt: Rediscovering a Lost World with Laurence Fox and Matthew Kelly.

Remembering that performers are indexed the same as authors can be handy in narrowing your searches for AV materials. Why wade through hundreds of hits for Pride and Prejudice when you're after the recent movie with Keira Knightley or the MGM version with Laurence Olivier and could have searched those names as authors in combination with the title?

Anytime you're having trouble finding things in the NHU-PAC, remember that the NHAIS Help Desk can provide assistance at nhu-pac@dcr.nh.gov or 271-2141.

NHUPAC server

For all you patient people pondering possibilities:

We, i.e. SirsiDynix and myself have RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) to NHUPAC. There is a slight problem remaining which should be easily resolved. It is: NHUPAC is within the State's DMZ for computers. This means that it can be reached from the outside but it, the server in the DMZ cannot reach servers on the other side of the DMZ wall without special access being arranged.

NHUPAC, the server needs to be able to telnet to PARK, the database server. The special permissions to allow NHUPAC to telnet into PARK have not yet been established. This is a simple two line change in the access lists of the Cisco 6900 router.

The new NHU-PAC server is really close to being set up and ready to serve the New Hampshire Library community, there are just a couple of obstacles in the way.

We thank you for your patience.

Charlie

Patricia Lindner (1963-2008)

NHAIS Services suffered a terrible loss this past week with the passing on May 27 of our friend and colleague Trisha Lindner. There will be a memorial service for Trisha here at the State Library at 6 tonight (June 4, 2008).



Trisha worked as a page at the Concord Public Library until the Summer of 2001 when I hired her to join NHAIS Services. She left for a while to try her hand at being a restaurant owner -- her love of and skill for cooking made this appealing -- and returned to us when she had gotten that out of her system. Trisha loved animals -- pigs, dogs (especially Pavlova), and even bats -- and in lieu of flowers her family has asked that donations in her memory be made to the NH Humane Society.

Trisha will be missed terribly by all of us. I invite those of you who share in this loss to add your memories and thoughts to this posting as comments.

NASA Microblogs!

Microblog (Noun): A blog that only allows for very, very small entries - usually 140 characters or less.

I'm the first to admit that I am not a huge fan of microblogging (AKA Twittering, named after the most popular microblogging service, Twitter). Why not? Well, too many Tweets (really, I am not making this up!) are simply too silly to be all that interesting. For example:

• "I just woke up."
• "I'm at work."
• "I'm updating my Facebook page."

Truthfully, I'd probably like microblogging more if I were of an age where I needed to know everything my friends were doing at any given time. However, I'm not. And that makes Twitter a little superfluous to me. Or so I thought...

But just when I thought Twitter was beyond my interest level, I found out that NASA is using Twitter to keep people up to date with the Mars Lander. Ok, even I have to admit, that is pretty darn cool. Especially considering that they've found ice on Mars! You, too, can keep track of the Mars Lander on Twitter.



Who else of importance besides Phoenix, the Mars Lander, is Twittering? To start, all of the presidential candidates, but, really, wouldn't you think this is probably being written and submitted by a lowly Web 2.0 savvy staffer? Another interesting Twitter user is House Floor, which provides live updates from the House of Representatives.

Some public libraries are using Twitter to push out announcements to their followers. Check out the Houston Public Library's Twitter page for more inspiration.

It was refreshing to see Twitter being using for such great projects!