Mid-York Library System

ILL/REFERENCE ‘NOOZE

Take with coffee or chocolate, once per season. Your tipsheet for less confusion, better service.

Summer 2000

This is light season at Interlibrary Loan. Schools are closed, students and teachers are out having fun. This is good news for everyone requesting an item ILL. I have more time to give individual attention to each request. And if your customer wants 20 books by a particular author, I have time to request them the same day.

But though I do have more time to verify requests, please do try to give me all the information your customer gives you, especially full author name, title, and hopefully, DATE of the book. Don’t waste YOUR time looking through our databases for an exact match, just send it in with all you can.

The correct journal title and exact date are imperative for filling your photocopy requests. Volume and number and page numbers, author & title of the article wanted are great, but if your customer has only the subject of the article, as long as the journal title and date are correct, I can verify and request it.

Eric Documents (ED#s on the Eric database) are educational documents, usually book-length. They are not articles OR books, and people have had questions about how to request them. Send them in on book forms, and please give the ED# as well as the author and the first few words of the title. That’s all the information we need to request them. They’ll usually come to you from New York State Library, free, in a few days. However, they are only available free on microfiche.

With photocopying comes copyright considerations. The rules are complicated. One rule is, a library cannot copy more than 5 articles from any journal in the most recent 5 years free. With the sixth copy, the library needs to pay copyright fees. Mid-York belongs to the Copyright Clearance Center and we pay for the sixth, et cetera, articles through them. Your library, and your customer, pay nothing. Another rule is, you cannot copy "a substantial portion" of any one journal issue, or a book, without paying copyright fees. Again, we pay the fees here—or we suggest your customer buy a copy of the journal issue s/he needs! If you have a paper or database subscription, you can copy as much as you like for one-time use, free.

The main thing your library needs to do, is keep records of the articles you have actually received, for a period of 3 years plus the current year (and not more than that). That’s the law. We do that at Mid-York, but member libraries should keep their own records.

You should know that everything on the Web is copyrighted. Yes, copyrighted, whether it says so or not. On some Web pages will be explicit permission to copy material. If it isn’t given, you don’t have it. Linking to pages is almost always OK, unless it specifically says you may not.

If you have any questions about copyright, call the ILL or Reference Department at Mid-York and we will try to find you an answer.

Speaking of Web pages, Mid-York ILL has a presence on the Web! Since Mid-York’s Intra-Web page (for member library staff and customers only) is not yet ready, the ILL page currently can be reached through the Mid-York Reference Index page. On it are procedures and suggestions for making your ILL work easier.

WE TAKE SUGGESTIONS: for this sheet, the Web page, and for ILL procedures in general. If something might work better than it does for you, we want to hear about it. Please drop me a line in the Mid-York bag, e-mail or local carrier frog. We might even print the suggestions we adopt (with proper credit given!). We also welcome heartwarming ILL success stories. We will accept angry diatribes, anonymously only.

--Jill Grundfest

SUMMERTIME WORKSHOPS

Well since we generally don't have to worry about too much hot weather here in central New York and there aren't many beaches it is hoped that you will remember that the Reference and Automation Departments are offering a spectacular alternative. Each library should have received a Technology Training Schedule featuring workshops on electronic resources and web-authoring. Some of the workshops are filling quickly, so if you are planning to come please let us know quickly. If you call or register and there is a long waiting list we will try to offer a second session. Send email or the print form to Diane Berry <berry@midyork.lib.ny.us> to register or call to check on space availability. If you need another copy of the schedule let us know that also.

FIRST SEARCH RENEWAL

Many of you have already subscribed to OCLC's First Search service. This past year the subscription was free to member libraries and will again be free for the 2000-2001 year. If you have never signed up for First Search and would like to do so, please contact Beverly at <myls_ref@midyork.lib.ny.us>. This resource provides access to a number of extremely useful databases including World Cat, which is a list of all the holdings in the OCLC database and ArticleFirst which is a citation index to over 12,000 journals. ArticleFirst does not provide full-text but is extremely useful for verifying citations, as is World Cat. NetFirst is another unique database in the First Search suite. The database features hot-linked access to web pages on a variety of subjects which have been cataloged and annotated by librarians. Wilson Select (another general full-text periodical database similar to EBSCO) is an added special feature, along with Medline, ERIC and GPO Access and the World Almanac. NOTE: One of the workshops this summer will provide hands-on training for First Search…if you aren't sure if you want to subscribe or want to see what it's all about.

REFERENCE WEB PAGE

Just a reminder that the Mid-York Web Site features a Reference Section. If you go to http://www.midyork.org, on the left you will see a row of buttons. Click on Reference. If you scroll down after you read the introductory material you will find links to Reference Rebel's Website of the Month, a list of Ready Reference Websites, Answers to Frequently-Asked Reference Questions, and a link which is currently under construction, to Of Interest to Librarians (which will include an online version of this newsletter). These pages are primarily intended for the general public and I would appreciate any input or additional suggestions for new links to be added. Just email Beverly at myls_ref@midyork.lib.ny.us

REFERENCE TIP OF THE MONTH
How can I find an address for a particular company? You have several options:

1. If it is a medium-sized to large company you can check the Company Directory available in EBSCO. You will find Company Directory on the black bar at the top of the screen once you have logged into a particular database.

2. Many of the databases available through Dialog@CARL have company directory information. When you enter the Dialog@CARL database you will see a menu bar on the left hand frame. If you click on "Company Information," you will be presented with a number of sub-topics on the left and a pull-down menu on the right listing on a number of databases which give company information. All of the Kompass databases and the Standard and Poors Register-Corporate are both good places to start.

3. You can guess the URL of the company. For example, if you want information on Nike Corporation-it is logical to assume that the web address would be http://www.nike.com. However, it can be difficult to find an actual mailing address in many web sites. Good places to look include links to "customer service," "shareholder services" or "investor information" links. Links to Contact Information often only provide an email contact.

4. For small, medium, and large companies you can enter the name of the company in one of the many "Yellow Pages" available on the web. Some examples include http://www.switchboard.com, the yellow pages at http://www.lycos.com, and http://www.yellowpagesinc.com.

5. Conduct a search engine search. You will often find that small companies as well as large have their own web pages. Alta Vista at http://www.altavista.com is a good place to do this. Put the name of the company in quotes preceded by a plus sign and then add any additional information you might have (e.g. state, type of business) as individual words or phrases preceded by a plus sign. For example if you would like to know the address or contact information for Xylos Woodworking you would go to AltaVista and enter a search like this: +"Xylos Woodworking" +"New York"

POEMFINDER

The Reference Department has purchased a trial subscription to Poemfinder, a new online resource for identifying poems. If you get a thorny poetry question, send it along to the reference department through the usual process (email or a phone call) and we will see if we can help your patron out with this new resource. The resource includes full text searching of the poems it includes in its database, plus first and last line searching along with the traditional author and title searches.

NEW REFERENCE BOOKS IN POOL COLLECTION

As mentioned in the June MYLS Reporter, we have been obtaining new professional books. Of special interest regarding reference service:

Recommended Reference Books for Small and Medium-sized Libraries and Media Centers 2000 by Bohdan S. Wynar (2000, Libraries Unlimited, ISBN: 156308838X)

Rethinking Reference: The Reference Librarian's Practical Guide for Surviving Constant Change by Elizabeth Thomsen (1999, Neal Schuman, ISBN: 155570364X )
Please feel free to borrow any of these titles which we will mention in this column.

INTERNET BOOKS IN COLLECTION

We also have purchased some new Internet books for the Mid-York Reference Collection which you are also welcome to borrow for in-library use for one-two week increments.

Harley Hahn's Internet &Web Yellow Pages: Millennium Edition by Harley Hahn (2000, Osborne/McGraw Hill, ISBN: 007212170x)

Cyndi's List: A Comprehensive List of 40,000 Genealogy Sites on the Internet by Cyndi Howells (1999, Genealogical Publishing, ISBN: 0806315563) Note: largely a print version of Cyndi Howells' extensive and extremely well-respected web site Cyndi's List available at http://www.cyndislist.com

Genealogists Virtual Library: Full-Text Books on the World Wide Web, by Thomas Jay Kemp (2000, Scholarly Resources, ISBN: 084202865x) Note: Clinton and Beverly Choltco-Devlin were fortunate to meet Mr. Kemp at the PLA conference this past spring and he sent Mid-York a copy of his book for free.

Government Information on the Internet, Third Edition by Greg R. Notess (2000, Bernan Press, ISBN: 0890592470)

HEADHUNTER'S GUIDE

We are in the process of updating the Headhunter's Guide to Genealogical Resources in Central New York. Within the next few weeks you will be receiving a copy of the page for your library from the 1992 edition and we would like to you to make any corrections that are needed and return it by the date indicated on the cover letter. We are hoping to finish this project by the end of Fall 2000 so your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

CORE COLLECTION - UPDATE IN PROGRESS

We are also in the process of revising the Core Collection of Recommended Reference Resources this summer and fall. If you would like to add anything to this resource, please send your suggestions to the reference department via email (MYLS_REF) or through the delivery.

FINAL NOTE: If you have any suggestions for this newsletter we would greatly appreciate them. If you would like to see particular topics covered or have recommendations for great reference or Internet books or websites all would be most welcome. We were also thinking we could have a column about reference success stories (or even funny ones). Your submissions would really add a lot. Thanks.

–Beverly Choltco-Devlin