MULS Blog

With the recent stretch of cold temperatures across the region, it would be easy to think that Spring is far away. But as March begins, we know that the sun is fighting its way back, and soon it will be time for the Spring round of MULS training sessions.

Now is the time, as we begin planning, for staff at all our MULS participating libraries to consider their training needs and let us know how we can best help them keep their Local Holdings Records up-to-date.

We've now scheduled the Fall 2008 training sessions on Local Holdings Maintenance.  Fall is a busy time for many of us, so we want to be sure library staff can plan for MULS training along with their other conferences, etc.  You can see all the currently scheduled training sessions and register online via the MINITEX Training web pages.

We have scheduled the following MULS webinar sessions for this Fall:

Local Holdings Maintenance Part 1    Tuesday, 9/30/08    1:30 - 3:00 PM 

Local Holdings Maintenance Part 2    Tuesday, 10/7/08    1:30 - 3:00 PM

Local Holdings Maintenance Part 3    Tuesday, 10/14/08    1:30 - 3:00 PM

Local Holdings Maintenance Part 1    Monday, 10/20/08    1:00 - 2:30 PM

Local Holdings Maintenance Part 2    Monday, 10/27/08    1:00 - 2:30 PM

Local Holdings Maintenance Part 3    Monday, 11/4/08    1:00 - 2:30 PM

As we did last Spring, we will be allowing libraries in the Wisconsin (WiLS) library network to participate in these sessions; be sure to register early to assure yourself of a spot and please let us know if for any reason you decide to cancel your registration.  Someone else might be waiting for a spot.

Of course, if you would like LHR maintenance training but can't attend one of our scheduled sessions, please contact Dave Linton.  We'll do our best to help make sure you can get the training you need to keep your Local Holdings Records up-to-date.

Everyone understands that keeping our Local Holdings Records in OCLC up-to-date has benefits both for the local library and for other libraries that might wish to borrow  or obtain a copy  from our local resources.  With ILL playing a major role in meeting the needs of our users, and with OCLC making our holdings data available to a global audience, there is a high incentive to maintian our Local Holdings Records in OCLC.

If a member of your library staff needs training on how to maintain LHRs in OCLC, MINITEX provides multiple options to choose from.

1.  The MINITEX MULS unit will present a series of Local Holdings maintenance webinars, to guide staff through the process of updating LHRs via the OCLC Connexion browser.  These 90-minute sessions will cover all of the Local Holdings basics, and you can participate from the comfort of your own desk.  For detailed description of the session contents or to register for a webinar, connect to the MINITEX Training page.

2.  Archived versions of the webinar handouts and recordings of the webinar sessions are also available.  While these sessions don't have the immediate interactive benefits of a live webinar,  They cover the same material.  You can use the archived sessions and handouts to review training that you received in the past, or take in the training and watch demonstrations from a webinar session, whenever you have the time.  Click here to visit the MINITEX Archived Training sessions.

3.  MINITEX MULS staff can also present hands on training to library staff that would prefer to have a more traditional learning experience.  Hands-on sessions can be scheduled either in the Twin Cities or in other areas; all that's needed is a classroom with multiple computers and a sufficiently large group of learners.  If you are interested in this option, contact Dave Linton in the MULS office and we'll see if we can coordinate a session for those who are interested.

Beyond these various training sessions, of course, the MULS office offers ongoing support to libraries as they are working on their holdings.  If you run across a holding that you aren't sure how to represent in a LHR, or if you have other questions about to work with Local Holdings data online, we welcome your questions. 

Or if your staff doesn't have acess to OCLC (or simply lacks the time to do it) the MULS staff could undetake a project to update your holdings in OCLC for you.  To get more info on the MULS Updating Service, contact Dave Linton.

** IMPORTANT NOTE **

Recently we wrote about our archived webinar sessions :

Archived versions of the webinar handouts and recordings of the webinar sessions are also available.  [snip]  You can use the archived sessions and handouts to review training that you received in the past, or take in the training and watch demonstrations from a webinar session, whenever you have the time.  Click here to visit the MINITEX Archived Training sessions.  (Emphasis added.)

NOTE:  MINITEX webinar sessions are conducted and recorded using Microsoft Live Meeting service.  While you can access the Live Meeting website using any browser, their service is optimized to work with Internet Explorer.  With a non_Explorer browser, you can watch a version of the recorded session, but there have been reports of problems viewing the parts of the webinar where we do demonstrations in OCLC.  A black or gray box appears on the recording that blocks a portion of the display whenever the presenter uses shared applications, making it difficult to see the editing which is being demonstrated.

By contrast, if you connect to Live Meeting through an Internet Explorer browser, you get the option of watching the webinar online through the Live Meeting service or downloading the session to play back using Windows Media Player.  In either case, when using Explorer to view or download the recorded session, there have been no problems seeing the shared screens.

Naturally, we encourage everyone to use Internet Explorer to connect to Live Meeting.