By Nicole Morgan, Services and Support Associate
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askON to Launch TEXT Service in September
By Siob�n Linnen, askON Training Associate
OCLS is pleased to announce that our askON virtual reference service is transitioning to a new, web-based platform, which will go live in September. The new platform, LibraryH3lp, offers many exciting features including in-platform access to library profiles, askON policies, tools, and resources. The system also streamlines the chat process, allowing college staff working on askON to easily pick up chats, access and create canned messages, and communicate with colleagues from within the platform.
During our askON TEXT Pilot in 2013 the askON Steering Committee determined that there was a need for a text reference service to be delivered in parallel with the askON chat service. We're excited to report that LibraryH3lp offers us the ability to chat and text simultaneously with visitors from participating colleges. Text reference is an easy way for college libraries to connect with their students while they're on the go, provide fast answers to questions about library info, ready reference, renewals, loan periods, and remote access issues. For assistance finding books and online resources, students can continue to reach askON operators through our world-class chat service.
Training on the new platform began in April and will continue until the end of June. The Site Coordinator video training series will be released in June, and staff training videos will be released during the summer to allow askON staff to review the platform before the service goes live in September.
Please contact Jan Dawson if you have any questions about the new platform or the askON virtual reference service.
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Implementing CoRE at Fleming College
By Marcia Steeves, Copyright Technician, Fleming College Library
Fleming College Library's initial interest in the digital repository project stemmed from a collection of archival photographs in our College's Archives. A wide selection of the photographs had been scanned by a team of Archive volunteers over the past 6 years, but other than being stored on our local network we had no way of making them accessible to our students, staff, faculty and community at large.
The CORe repository provides us with a perfect, accessible means of sharing College history with a wider community. Beginning with the digital photographs, we hope to eventually include digitized yearbooks, promotional materials, and other memorabilia in preparation for the Fleming's upcoming 50th Anniversary.
In consultation with faculty from various academic areas, we found a number of ways that the repository can meet their needs in the classroom as well. We will be including areas for student projects, academic related photo collections and more to enhance access and resources for our programs. Even students on placements overseas will have access to past student projects to support their research or use as examples. Our Arboriculture and Fish & Wildlife Programs will be able to share and use photographs from the repository in identification exercises both in the field and in the classroom.
We look forward to the opportunities this project will bring to the library at Fleming and more importantly to our students.
Copyright Technician, Fleming College Library.
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Staff Profile: Ali Awais
In May, Ali Awais joined OCLS as an Information Technology Systems Analyst. Ali came to Canada in 2009 and attended Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology for undergraduate studies. He continued his studies at Ryerson University where he is working on a Masters of Engineering degree in Computer Networks. Ali is very keen and enthusiastic to learn library and eResource systems. He will be working very closely with OCLS IT team to implement and manage computer systems in support of OCLS' services to Ontario colleges. In his free time, Ali likes to study, learn new technologies, shop and play cricket.
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Integrating COLLECT with Library Discovery Layers: Pilot Project
By Zack Osborne, IT Systems & Services Coordinator, OCLS
An exciting pilot project has been underway to explore the viability of integrating COLLECT with popular discovery services used by college libraries across Ontario. Discovery layer and web-scale discovery is changing the landscape of how libraries curate, access, use, and promote visibility of library content. Discovery layers have become ubiquitous among academic libraries, and they facilitate how users connect with library content and electronic resources through a single search interface. Building upon the purpose and capacity of the discovery layer to harvest, connect, index, and/or include records in search results or facetted lists, OCLS and six pilot college libraries are exploring ways to integrate our province-wide central repository. The six sites currently involved in the project include; Centennial, Confederation, George Brown, Georgian Humber, and Sheridan colleges. The discovery systems in use at the pilot sites that are being tested for integration of COLLECT are Ebsco Discovery Service (EDS) and ProQuest's Summon. Read more.
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eBook Consortium Project Update
By Jessica Pierre, eBook Project Coordinator OCLS
The Colleges' eBook Consortium aims to equalize the Ontario colleges' access to eBooks while reducing labour and costs for their libraries. June brings us to the end of Phase 2 of the project (there are 8 phases in total), where lots of new developments are taking shape. Our task forces have been working hard to create a workflow for the acquisition of eBook collections, develop workflows for record editing, and the selection of a metadata repository for eBook records, while developing an engaging marketing strategy to ensure faculty and students know where and how to access the new collections. Stay tuned for more updates.
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