Announcing the Voyager Blog

From ExLibris:

The Voyager Product Groups of ELUNA and IGeLU and the Ex Libris Voyager product managers are excited to announce the activation of Enhancement blogs!

The blogs may be accessed via SupportWeb via the following link:

https://support.endinfosys.com/cust/voy/enhance/blog/

Previously submitted enhancement statements shaped the categories and major areas of functionality listed for comment. The opening statement on each blog is designed to start a discussion about a topic currently under consideration for enhancement in Voyager 8.

Blog topics are:

* Acquisitions workflows
* Media Scheduling
* OPAC requesting features
* Patron fines and fees
* Shelf-ready processing & Bulk Import

Each blog will be moderated by at least one Voyager customer who has volunteered to do so. We encourage you to participate actively in this process by posting your thoughts on those topics important to your institution and to respond to the postings of other Voyager customers.

Once you have logged into SupportWeb, you will need to register on the Blog in order to post comments under your own name.

Comments will be accepted through 12 am (Central time) on November 9, 2007.

We look forward to your comments. If you have any questions about the blog process, then please contact us.
Rest assured, I will be participating on this blog.

Library Staff Training Survey Results Posted Here

A few weeks ago I volunteered to teach a series of brief courses on technology and Web 2.0. I asked the library staff to select their top 3 areas of interest from a list of topics that I provided. The top picks are:

1. Podcasting
2. Google Custom Search Engines (a tie)
3. Meebo / Reference Chat

Runners up were:

1. Librarians and Facebook
2. Search Tools beyond Google

I will be conferring with staff on both campuses regarding a dates and times that work best for holding these training sessions. I would also like to thank those of you that volunteered to co-teach some sessions. I will be be in touch…

FDU Library Survey — An Update

So far almost 300 people have taken the Library Survey. Slightly more than half of the responders are Undergrads, and approximately one quarter are faculty or staff. We are impressed that not only are people taking the time to complete the survey, but they are also taking the time to include some comments on Library web-services and the Library in general. We are getting a lot of valuable feedback. Thank you!

Professional Development

I am pleased to say that I am starting to take a more active role in some of the region’s professional organizations:

• Mary Mallery, of MSU, recently invited me to join the NJLA Technology Committee. You can read about the committee members and their charge at http://www.njla.org/njacrl/tech/techcomm.html
• At the end of this month I plan to attend the annual regional EMA (Ex Libris Mid-Atlantic Users Group) meeting at Rider University, and I volunteered to moderate a session — Voyager Plugins: Choices and Requirements.
• Lastly, through my participation on the VALE Website Committee I got to launch the VALE Conference Blog, and have volunteered to conduct a focus group at the next VALE conference.

I think that it’s important for librarians to get involved in their professional organizations. We learn so much by meeting librarians from other institutions, and by sharing information about what we are working on and what we need to do to continue to improve the services that we provide to our patrons.

Take the FDU Library Web-Services Survey

This week the Library Web Team — Mary Marks, Brigid Burke, Mitch Weiss and myself — launched what I believe is the first web-based survey on FDU Library web-services. The term web-services refers to all library web-based resources and not just the Library website. Please take 5 to 10 minutes of your time to complete the survey. Your feedback is invaluable to us.

Library Survey