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SULAIR NEWS – May 27, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  1. Reference Forum - Wednesday, May 27, 2-3PM - From the Other Side: When the Librarian Becomes the Patron
  2. SULAIR Technology Chalk Talk on OCLC Grid Services: Thursday, May 28, 2-3PM
  3. Common Sense Computing: Tips for Secure Computing from SUL Tech Support
  4. Stanford Authors Published in Library Trends
  5. New Book by Dongfang Shao
  6. *** Reference Question of the Week ***

1. Reference Forum - Wednesday, May 27, 2-3PM - From the Other Side: When the Librarian Becomes the Patron

The next Reference Forum will be on Wednesday, May 27, 2-3pm in the IC Classroom, which is located behind the IC Desk in the East Wing of Green Library. (See map, where the IC Classroom is labeled "Instruction Room.")

Special guest Shinjoung Yeo will talk on From the Other Side: When the Librarian becomes the Patron.

After nearly 10 years working in libraries, including 3 years as the Coordinator for Reference Services & Communication Bibliographer here at Stanford, Shinjoung enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She has agreed to share with us her experiences (the good, the bad, and the ugly) from the other side of the reference desk.  Come and hear Shinjoung's perspective on how patrons experience libraries and library services.

If you would like to be on the email distribution list for future Reference Forum announcements, please go to https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/libref-forum and Subscribe to the list.

--submitted by Chris Bourg
2. SULAIR Technology Chalk Talk on OCLC Grid Services: Thursday, May 28, 2-3PM

This Thursday, the SULAIR Technology Chalk Talk will feature Roy Tennant, Karen Smith-Yoshimura and Merrilee Proffitt from OCLC  presenting on OCLC's Grid services.

What: OCLC Grid Services: Library Data and Services in a Networked World
When: Thursday, May 28, 2-3 PM
Where: Green Library, SSRC Seminar Room

OCLC Grid Services provide a new way to access library data and OCLC services. They allow organizations to access OCLC data at the network level, rather than through pre-defined user interfaces, in order to implement more customized, specific services and functions. This allows libraries and other service providers to build OCLC data and functions into their own applications, providing a richer resource for patrons.

Current Grid Services include:

  • WorldCat Search API, allowing search & retrieval of WorldCat records through other applications
  • xISBN, for any given ISBN, returns a list of similar ISBNs
  • xISSN, for any given ISSN, returns a list of similar ISSNs
  • xOCLCnum, for any given OCLC or LCCN number, returns a list of similar OCLC numbers
  • Metadata Crosswalk Web Service, transforms a record in one format to another (e.g., MARC -> MODS)
Grid Services have been used to create iPhone and FaceBook applications that search OCLC data, Google Maps mashups of holdings information, feeds of OCLC searches into RSS readers, citation services that return bibliographic information for a volume in one of a handful of predefined formats, and more.

More about OCLC's Grid Services can be found at:

http://www.worldcat.org/devnet/wiki/Services

--submitted by Tom Cramer
3. Common Sense Computing: Tips for Secure Computing from SUL Tech Support

In this first in what we hope will be a series of Common Sense computing tips, the SUL Tech Support group would like to share our Top 5 tips for secure computing:

  1. Stepping away from your computer for just a few minutes? Use the windows key on your keyboard and the “L” key to lock your machine. When you return, use the combination “Control+Alt+Delete” to log back in.
  2. Mac users: consider setting a hot corner to lock your computer using the System Preferences-> Security and System Preferences-> Desktop and Screensaver menus.
  3. Leaving your desk for more than a few minutes? Use Stanford Sustainable IT settings, or manually set your machine to sleep or hibernate. This locks your machine and also saves energy!
  4. Remember your passwords yourself! Don’t save passwords in your Internet browser or email client. Also, the most insecure password is the one written on a Post-It note stuck to your monitor!
  5. Create hard-to-break passwords. Include capital and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols where you can. Check your password at: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx
Need help? Contact your Expert Partner for help implementing these suggestions.

--submitted by SUL Tech Support
4. Stanford Authors Published in Library Trends

Congratulations to Tracey Erwin, Vicky Reich and David Rosenthal for their articles just published in the Winter 2009 volume of Library Trends. The entire journal is dedicated to articles about the Library of Congress's National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.

The two articles are as follows:

Katherine Skinner and Martin Halbert's article, "The MetaArchive Cooperative: A Collaborative Approach to Distributed Digital Preservation" includes a long discussion of their implementation of a LOCKSS network to preserve their digital collections focused on Southern culture.

Good work, all!

--submitted by Julie Sweetkind-Singer
5. New Book by Dongfang Shao

Collected Essays on Chinese Studies by East Asian Studies Librarians in North America, a book in Chinese co-edited by Dongfang Shao, Director of East Asia Library and Professor Guoqing Li, Chinese studies librarian at the Ohio State University Library, was recently published by a prestigious academic publisher, Guanxi Normal University Press in China. Professor Ying-shih Yu of Princeton University, one of prominent scholars in Chinese history and philosophy, wrote the foreword to this volume.

This is the first of a series that Dongfang will continually edit and publish. The series intends to promote scholarship of Chinese studies and to publish selected research articles written by East Asian Librarians throughout North America, many of whom are active researchers in various fields.

The topics published in this volume range from the constitutional movement in late Qing period, intellectual life in the Tang Dynasty, Chinese poetry, linguistics and aesthetics, ancient Chinese text on Daoism and Manichaeism, and more. Dongfang also contributed an article on an ancient Chinese historical chronology, the Bamboo Annals, in this volume.

--submitted by Zhaohui Xue
6. *** Reference Question of the Week ***

Question: Who was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from Stanford?

Answer: Two women shared this distinction in 1896: Mary Roberts Smith (who went on to join the Sociology faculty at Stanford) and Kathryne Janette Wilson.

This information was located in Stanford’s Annual Commencement Order of Exercises, which lists the names of graduates and the degrees they earned. Print copies are available in the University Archives. The Orders of Exercises for 1948-2001 are available online via Stanford University Publications.

Answer provided by Aimee Morgan, Assistant University Archivist.

You can find more reference questions and answers at the Information Center Web site.

To contribute to the Reference Question of the Week feature of SULAIR News, submit your question and answer through the SULAIR News online submission form.

--submitted by Editorial Staff
SULAIR News is an electronic publication of Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources issued weekly. Copy deadline is 12:00 NOON Friday for publication on the following Wednesday. Submit items for publication via the online submission system.
Editor: Eleanor Brown, Eleanor.Brown@stanford.edu
Last modified: May 10, 2006
   
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