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COMPLETE SYSTEM SUPPORTED BY RENOWNED CUSTOMER SERVICE

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MANDARIN LIBRARY AUTOMATION NEWSLETTER    MARCH 2013 | VOL 6, NO. 3
 

OUR TECH SUPPORT STAFF
IS AVAILABLE 24/7/365
 
 


TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE:

 [email protected]  

+1 561 995 4010 opt 4

Toll Free  (USA & Canada only)

+1 800 426 7477 opt 4  

 

 

CUSTOMER SERVICE:

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MORE INFORMATION:

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  BookShelf 


Kadri TomsonCUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT:
Kadri Tomson, International
School of Estonia (ISE)

When Kadri Tomson started working at the International School of Estonia (ISE) about 12 years ago, the school library didn't even have a card catalog system. Kadri automated the library with Mandarin in 2003, and ISE upgraded to Mandarin CMS earlier this year, giving their library a digital voice for the digital age.

Kadri started working in early childhood education at ISE, but after returning to university to earn her qualifications as a teacher-librarian, she returned to ISE in that capacity for grades Pre-K through 9. Kadri also manages an information studies curriculum targeted to each grade, starting with reading appreciation and general organization in the earlier grades (Pre-K through 2), then moving into information evaluation by Grade 3, and full-fledged research projects by middle school.
Kadri Tomson, a teacher-librarian at the International School of Estonia,
works in the library with Jonas, one of her younger students.


"[The program] has worked quite well," Kadri says. "We are looking into integrating information studies into other curricula so it wouldn't be so much a stand-alone subject as something developed collaboratively with classroom teachers for every grade level."

ISE follows the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program, which adheres to an inquiry-based curriculum requiring strong collaboration between homeroom teachers and specialized teachers. ISE looks for one specific unit in each grade, "finding meaningful ways to collaborate, not just for the sake of doing it." And without any assistants in the library (ISE is a small school with only 140 students Pre-K through 9), this task has fallen mostly on Kadri.

"As a librarian I have to know the curriculum taught throughout the school," she explained. "I have to know what resources to purchase, I'm already familiar with what's being taught in classrooms. So I start by approaching the more willing teachers and identifying specific units that lend themselves to collaboration."

As that is underway, ISE upgraded from Oasis to Mandarin CMS earlier this year. Kadri says she is excited by the potential to centralize more school information in one place. She has already launched an ISE Library blog - http://iselibrary.blogspot.com/ - and hopes the Newsstand feature of Mandarin CMS will help her drive more school traffic there.

"I also like that I can display students' work, little projects, writing and pictures all in one place [with the Gallery and Video Stream features]," Kadri added. "Also, being able to add school events and promote library events all in one place [Calendar], it seems like it will be a great resource to get information out there." (Reminder: all CMS features can be managed directly from the CMS homepage using Easy Edit Mode)

"Parents, teachers and students all come into the library pretty often," she added. "Still I think nowadays it is important for us to be visible online as well, for people looking from the outside. It's nice to have a more centralized and professional look and layout."

Like many librarians throughout the world, Kadri is working to meet the digital challenge of getting her students to select quality information.

"Middle schoolers especially tend to look first to Google and take the first link to Wikipedia," she said. "We can't fight it, we can just educate and inform, and hopefully help lead to a shift in their minds. With academic research, students need to think a bit differently. There are so many resources; it's important to improve critical thinking and analyzing skills. So we try to make research as hands on as possible, incorporating the research cycle more collaboratively in the classroom."

Kadri says the school's information studies curriculum has helped, but also hopes that a stronger digital presence through CMS will help guide students to good information.

To wrap up with a fun example of international, cross-library collaboration, Kadri also produced a short slideshow of her library, using a catchy tune Gotta Keep Reading produced by Ocoee Middle School outside of Orlando. Enjoy!

"Working with you" -- moving forward we are hoping to profile a different Mandarin customer for every monthly newsletter. If you would like us to feature your library for a future "Customer Spotlight", please drop us an email at [email protected] with the subject line: Customer Spotlight.
We Are Now Featuring Video Tutorials
Under the Community Section of our
Website

These short videos will guide users through various features of Mandarin software. So far, we have video playlists for Mandarin CMS, Oasis/Web OPAC 2.80, and Oasis/Web OPAC 2.70. We will continue to add to video tutorials moving forward, please let us know if there are any specific features that you would like us to highlight next.

Please note that any video with "Playlist" in its title will include multiple clips strung together. Clicking the "Next" button at the bottom of the YouTube player will allow you  to skip ahead to the next segment. You can also preview and navigate between each clip in the playlist by pressing the Playlist button, also at the bottom of your YouTube player. Finally, you can view any or all of the clips in HD by clicking the "Quality" button, and selecting 720p. If videos are taking too much time to load on your Internet connection, try lowering the "Quality" setting.

Offline Circulation
circdesk
Continue to run circulation in your library if you lose electricity or internet connection. 
 

I. Using a portable bar code reader
(
TriCoderTM) for Circulation 
  1. Press the
    ON/OFF key on the TriCoder.
  2.  At the DATA COLLECTION prompt, press YES.
  3. At the PROGRAM NO.? prompt, press the white 0 key. The screen should now display ENTER DATA_.
  4. Use the Transaction Barcodes sheet* to scan the appropriate mode, and then scan patron and item barcodes as you would when using M3 or
    Oasis Circulation.
  5. When electricity or networking is restored,
    upload the transactions from the TriCoder:
    • Attach the TriCoder to a workstation.
    • In Circulation on the computer click on Upload Transactions.
      (In Oasis this is a link in the dock on the left;
      in M3 Circulation it is in the Tools menu.)
    • On the TriCoder go to UPLOAD DATA and press YES. The barcodes
      should upload into the text box on the computer.
    • In Oasis click Upload; in M3 click OK.
    • The transactions will process as they load.

  

II. Using a workstation or laptop computer with a bar code reader:

  1. Open Notepad on the computer.
  2. Use the Transaction Barcodes sheet* to scan the appropriate mode,
    and then scan patron and items barcodes as you would when using M3 or Oasis Circulation.
  3. Save the file with a .bc or .bar extension.
  4. When electricity or networking is restored, upload the transactions:
    • In Circulation on the computer click on Upload Transactions.
      (In Oasis this is a link in the dock on the left; in M3 Circulation it is in the Tools menu.)
    • In M3 click Open; in Oasis choose Upload transactions from file.
    • Navigate to the Notepad file and Open it. In Oasis, click on Upload.
    • The transactions will process as they load.

       

After uploading transactions, it is a good idea
to go to Library Transactions and view All Holds to see if any returns
processed in the upload created Holds for other patrons.

 

*Contact Mandarin Tech Support at [email protected] if you
don't have a copy of the Transaction Barcodes sheet.