CCS News
JANUARY 9, 2009
FROM THE COMPUTER ROOM:
Lucien spell checker – we were not aware of this until right before the New Year holiday when Lucien sent us a message. Their spell checker was down for nearly two weeks but it is fixed now. Our trial is nearly ended (it was extended for a month in apology for the service interruption) and we will be considering whether to license this service. We learned from Lucien that in our system we do over 14,000 iBistro queries per day on average.
NSLS RBP data – we had word earlier this week that the NSLS RBP data had been posted incorrectly by NSLS. They had added together two months’ worth of our data. NSLS tells us this was fixed as of Jan 6.
Computer Operator – one of our night operators is considering a career change and relocation, and we will be searching for a new computer operator to start very soon on the Tuesday and Thursday evening shifts. Do you know a good person for this position? If so please let Linda know. The complete job description is available from her.
SUBJECT HEADING CHANGES WORTHY OF NOTE:
There are 2 subject headings changes worthy of note concerning children’s materials. What was “Radio programs for children” is now “Children’s radio programs”. The big change (or the one with a lot of materials in our database) is from “Television programs for children” to “Children’s television programs”. All affected bibliographical records in our database have been changed, and there are references that will redirect catalog users.
The singer, songwriter Cat Stevens or Yusuf Islam also had some work done in our catalog. Since he changed his name a while back, all headings were found under Islam. But it was decided recently that Cat Stevens and Yusuf Islam are really 2 separate identifies of 1 person, and so now works by this author are entered under the name used in the item. All affected bibliographical records had their headings changed back to “Stevens, Cat, 1948-“, but you can still search for works by him under “Islam, Yusuf, 1948-“ (and there are references between the 2 names).
--Virginia
Virginia R. Seward
CCS Authorities Librarian
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that an outdated version of the Staff Core Competency training document was mistakenly posted to the CCS web page and it’s been replaced with the correct item? The original document was developed by a committee of CCS librarians in June of 2001, but it didn’t cover hardware functions, web applications, and Sirsi modules that are commonly used today. In 2007, the Continuing Education Steering committee collaborated to rewrite the Staff Core Competency Assessment to incorporate skills that are needed now but didn’t exist at the time the first version was created. It now includes such things as:
- Generic computer skills: Printer maintenance, portable storage devices, backup systems, and email.
- Office Equipment: Copiers, fax machines, scanners, and telephones.
- General Software usage: MS Windows basics, web browsers & search engines, files & folders, basic network operations, online calendars, word processing, and spreadsheets.
- Sirsi operations: Acquisitions, circulation, cataloging, serials, and iBistro.
- General troubleshooting issues.
The document is now called “Staff Core Competency Skills Assessment” and replaces the obsolete version on the CCS web page.
The Core Competency Assessment was designed to help library supervisors evaluate the knowledge, personal attributes, and technical skills of newly hired employees, or to verify that current staff have achieved a specific level of competency through training. It can also be used as a checklist of topics to be covered when training newly hired staff. It’s intended to be a comprehensive inventory of skills an employee might need to do a range of library jobs, so few if any employees will have all skills addressed in the document. To use it effectively, supervisors should review it and delete areas that aren’t relevant to the library position being assessed. You’ll find the Staff Core Competency Skills Assessment in the Sirsi Resources section of the CCS web page, under the New & Noteworthy heading. – Ken Victorson
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
CCS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK:
Wed., 1/14, 10:00, CCS: Executive Committee
Thur., 1/15, 9:30, Des Plaines: PAS
Fri., 1/16, noon, Jameson’s: Technical
Group Chairs lunch
