No Lakes Region Van Tomorrow

Donna Gilbreth, Reference and Information Services Supervisor, NHSL, sent out this message today:
 
Tomorrow, Nov. 30th, 2012 we are cancelling the Lakes Region route due to driver illness. The libraries not receiving van service tomorrow are:

• NH State Prison, Concord
• Hill
• Bristol
• Newfound Regional High School
• New Hampton
• Meredith
• Center Harbor
• Wolfeboro
• Alton
• Gilford
• Laconia
• Sanbornton

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
And, just a reminder, that the State Library is open on Dec. 24th and Dec. 31st and we will be running regular van deliveries those days (hopefully!).

Brief NHU-PAC outages Tuesday 11/27 7:35am & 10am

There will be a brief interruption of NHU-PAC service starting at 7:35 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27.  Most NHU-PAC features will be available again within 10 minutes; Holdings Maintenance may take an extra 5 minutes to be restored.  Later, starting at 10 a.m on Tuesday, the ILL program will be briefly offline; the interruption will probably last no more than 2 minutes.

NHU-PAC e-mail

Wednesday, Nov. 21: Search results sent as e-mails from the NHU-PAC are not getting through today.  We're looking into the problem.  This does not affect e-mail notifications sent by the ILL program.

No CD van route Wed 11/21

The Capital District van route is cancelled today due to a series of unfortunate events (thank you Lemony Snicket, but it really is not that funny here right now). The van route is posted here (http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/capital_district.html) to see what libraries are affected. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

Donna Gilbreth

Supervisor, Reference and Information Services

New Hampshire State Library

20 Park Street

Concord, NH 03301

603-271-2060

donna.gilbreth@dcr.nh.gov

Reminder - No Van Delivery November 22 & 23

The NH State Library will be closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday on Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23.  There will be NO Van Delivery on those dates. 

ILL followup

Friday, Nov. 16: With a full week of uninterrupted connectivity to NHU-PAC's ILL server behind us (huzzah!), please remember to complete transactions for loaned materials that have been returned to your library (check under Request Inquiry for Requests made TO your library with status Returned).  By now, all ILL'ers should have taken care of canceling, receiving, and returning past requests as appropriate; if you haven't done this, please see the suggestions in last Friday's message.

NHU-PAC Friday: Yes, but...

Friday, Nov. 9, 8:45 a.m.: Came the dawn and our NHU-PAC ILL was still there...

It became possible to connect to the NHU-PAC ILL server, login, and conduct business as usual yesterday afternoon.  This continues to be true this morning.  However, as noted by in a message from Mary Russell yesterday, the parties working on this problem cannot explain the sudden return of service.  For that reason, we're still looking into the problem and you should be aware that connectivity could disappear again without warning.

Unlike the 2-week outage that started January 19, the ILL server kept running and processing requests since our most recent problems began October 26.  Many requests placed before the outage went unfilled but some may still be in pending status if there were at least 4 libraries in the lender string.  Use Request Inquiry to check for "requests made BY your library" in status "Pending" and cancel any that you've received through other channels or don't need anymore.

Next, check for "requests made BY your library" in status "Shipped" and set them to Received if appropriate--including any that you've already sent back to the lending library.  Then look at "requests made BY your library" with status "Received" and change any that you've sent back to Returned.  You might want to wait a day or two (allowing other libraries to do the above steps) before looking at "requests made TO your library" in status "Returned" to mark transactions Complete.

Questions?  The NHAIS Help Desk is here to help at 271-2141.

Current Situation with ILL

As several people on the NHAIS-ILL listserv have observed, the NHAIS ILL system is once again visible beyond the limits of the state network. We had not announced this yet because none of the people who are supposed to be working on this problem did anything to cause it -- it has become visible again by magic.

I have nothing against magic per se, but would urge a certain amount of caution because we don't know how long this will last. When it came back up before on October 26th we got about 15 hours of access before it went down again. To date nothing has been found to be wrong with either the ILL server (according to SirsiDynix) or the state network (according to NHDOIT).

So, if you have ILL's to receive/return/complete certainly log in and deal with those tasks. As far as new requests, you can place them or fill them, but keep good notes in case no one can see them by tomorrow and you have to re-do them via email.

NHU-PAC ILL still out Thursday

Thursday, Nov. 8, 8:15 a.m.: With the issue of cover images and reviews resolved yesterday, there's just one major issue left with the NHU-PAC--but it's a very big issue indeed: all users outside the state's intranet remain unable to connect to the ILL login page.

Meanwhile, the ILL program keeps rolling along, moving requests (placed by the morning of Oct. 26) down lender strings and sending notifications of unfilled requests when the list of potential lenders is exhausted.  If you haven't already done so, please check out Mary Russell's message from last Wednesday about coping with the current ILL situation.

Pictures, reviews restored

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2:50 p.m.: The pictures, reviews, first-chapter excerpts, and such that used to display when viewing details about an individual title in the NHU-PAC are back!  Their absence had to do with a server change made by Syndetics (a unit of Bowker) in the wake of last week's storm.

NHU-PAC Wednesday: still the same

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 8:20 a.m.: While work continues on the two major issues facing the NHU-PAC, there are no breakthroughs to report.  Users outside the state's network cannot reach the ILL login page and extra content (pictures, reviews, author notes, etc.) is not displaying when viewing details of individual records.

ILL librarians who have not done so are strongly encouraged to take a moment to read the suggestions posted by Mary Russell a week ago.

The ILL contact lists (sorted by town or HSA code) noted on the NHAIS Services ILL Resources page are current through the last update sent to the NHAIS Help Desk last Friday afternoon.  The Directory of New Hampshire Libraries is separately maintained by Darlene Reinhard of NHSL's Administrative Services section.  She notes that the PDF version is updated twice a year, most recently in September, while the interactive version of the directory is updated more frequently.

NHU-PAC Tuesday: same again

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 8:05 a.m.: Alas, there is no progress to report on two key NHU-PAC issues: users outside the state network's firewall cannot reach the ILL login page and extra content like cover images and reviews is not displaying when users view details of individual records.  ILL librarians are reminded to read the message Mary Russell posted last Wednesday for suggestions on coping with this situation. 

NHU-PAC Monday: the same

Monday, Nov. 5, 7:45 a.m.: The NHU-PAC begins the week in the same condition as Friday: most users cannot reach the ILL login page and cover images are displaying only on pages with multiple search results.  ILL librarians are reminded to read the message Mary Russell posted last Wednesday for suggestions on coping with this situation.

Friday morning: no change

Friday, Nov. 2, 7:55 a.m.: This morning finds the NHU-PAC functioning the same as yesterday morning: most users cannot reach the ILL login page and cover images are displaying only on pages with multiple search results.  ILL librarians are reminded to read the message Mary Russell posted Wednesday for suggestions on coping with this situation.

Van Delivery Service News, November 2012

The New Hampshire State Library will be closed on the following days in the month of November:

Monday, November 12, 2012, in honor of Veterans' Day

Thursday, November 22, 2012, Thanksgiving Day

Friday, November 23, 2012, Day after Thanksgiving

There will be NO VAN DELIVERY on those dates.

For a complete list of all of the holidays the State Library is closed, please visit http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/instructions.html (the van delivery instructions) and scroll down to "NO Van Service".

If for any other reason (e.g. bad weather) van service on a particular route(s) does not operate, libraries will be notified via an e-mail message and this blog. If your library does not receive van service on a particular day, please check your e-mail and this blog before calling the State Library.

Please remember to properly label each item which you are sending via the Van Delivery Service. This will help ensure these items make it to the correct destination in a timely manner.

If you need a refresher on how items should be marked for the van, please refer to the Van Delivery Service - Instructions, http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/instructions.html, and scroll down to number 3 of the guidelines, "Addressing material to be sent on the van".

To print a current van directory list arranged in alphabetical order by library, please use the PDF version which is available at http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/van_delivery/documents/vandirectory.pdf
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print this pdf file. If you do not have it installed on your machine, you may down load it for free from http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Due to the ever increasing load of materials transported by the New Hampshire State Library van delivery system, our vans can reach maximum capacity before the end of a van route, especially following long weekends and holidays. Our drivers can decline to accept materials if they feel they cannot fit them safely on their van. We are also asking libraries to please be aware of volume during times when there is likely to be a problem. You should prioritize your materials to be picked up, in case some items must be left until the next van pick up. That will allow us to immediately transport the most important items as quickly as possible.

If you have any questions you may contact Donna Gilbreth at 271-2060 or Diana DeCota at 271-2206.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Keeping up with happenings in NH Libraries

Many New Hampshire libraries publish blogs which (if they are updated regularly) are a great way to get information out to the public about what is happening in your library. For several years now the NHAIS Notes blog has included a list of "NH Library Blogs to Check Out." This morning I finished the transition of that feature from a static link list to a blogroll that displays the headline of the latest blog posts from each of these blogs.

To check out the latest news from NH library blogs (+ the NHLA blog) visit NHAIS Notes and scroll down to the bottom of the page where the 5 most recently updated blogs will appear on the right side. If you want to expand the list beyond the top 5 you can click on the link at the bottom right of the list that says "show all."

If your library is in New Hampshire and has a blog that isn't included in the expanded list please send me an email with the URL of your library's blog and I will add it.

NHU-PAC update: no change

Thursday, Nov. 1, 8:15 a.m.: The NHU-PAC starts the new month the same way it ended the old month: with the ILL program unreachable for most users and with cover images displaying only on pages with multiple search results.

ILL librarians should read the message Mary Russell posted Wednesday for suggestions on coping with this situation.  NHAIS Services received several updates to the ILL contact lists (sorted by town or HSA code) referenced in Mary's message.  All updates received by 4:15 yesterday afternoon are reflected in the lists currently available.