UBC The Library UBC Library Staff BULLETIN No. 269 www.library.ubc.ca/staff/bulletin Spring 2004 ILS Project Wrap-up Way back in the Fall of 2003 when the UBC Library formally embarked on the implementation of the new Voyager Integrated Library System, we boldly announced that we would 'go live' on Monday, May 3, 2004 at 12:01 pm precisely. And we did! Oh, all right - actually we went live earlier than that. The various technical services areas started working in early April on the new system. Even circulation had a 'soft go live' on Friday afternoon, April 30. And the new version of the online Web catalogue was available for sneak previews by Library staff for several weeks before May 3. The main reason for our successful implementation is a very simple one. We had a lot of very good UBC Library staff who worked long and hard on an incredible and extensive variety of tasks that all had to be completed under a very demanding timeframe. It would be a very lengthy list if everyone who made a significant contribution was mentioned in this article. And worse, there would be the risk of inadvertantly over-looking one or two people. Aproject of this scale touches everybody who works at the Library and all of you played a part in ensuring its success. Even successful projects have their rough spots and we quickly learned to identify them as the 'flaps du jour'. Many of these were often very arcane, technical, or module-specific problems; although we did have several 'flaps' that revolved around cookies, both the Web and edible varieties. The 'flaps du jour' term was an apt one because most of these problems were solved almost as quickly as they arose. After our official 'go live' on May 3, there were a few more surprises. Thankfully they were all relatively minor and quickly joined the list of the successfully resolved. Jane Shinn and Catherine Quinlan make history: the first book is checked out on the new system. 25 Year Club So what about the DRA system? It will officially shut down on June 30, 2004. For those of you with a sentimental attachment to the old system you will be relieved to know that some key serials and accounting data will persist in a special 'snapshot' file on the new Voyager ILS. DRA served us well during the past 7 years. But it will be nice to go into the Fall 2004 term with a new system able to handle the increasingly heavy loads we encounter with each passing year. contributed by Brian Owen These six people, as well as 53 from other campus units, were inducted into the Club at a dinner hosted by Martha Piper on May 11. Debbie Lim, Anne Miele, Puran Gill, Winnie Wong, Francis Wong, and Suzan Zagar are joined by Catherine Quinlan. For the Researcher in All of Us! How did a Nova Scotian missionary end up serving in WWII with Korean officers in the British Intelligence Special Forces? Elsa Dickson (Main Circ) was interested in the answer to this question because the Nova Scotian, Capt. Roland Bacon, was her father. A research project was born! Elsa received information on her father from a number of different sources, including the British Library in London, Special Ops Exec (SOE) in Whitehall, the Canadian veterans of the B.C. Burma Star Association, and even our own UBC Library! Armed with archival photographs, Capt. Bacon's Service Record, and first-hand accounts of wartime missions and conditions, Elsa began to piece together the story of her father's adventures. More key details were revealed when she answered a request for information from British author Nicholas Rankin of the BBC-London. His recently published book, "Telegram from Guernica", includes details of Capt. Bacon's experiences with Korean intelligence officers in India and Burma. And, to wrap it all up, in October of 2002, the Department of Veteran Affairs of the Republic of South Korea invited Elsa for a ten day visit. She attended memorial services and visited a display that featured photos of Capt. Bacon with the Korean officers of his unit. What a way to bring Elsa's research question to a close! Late Breaking News As we go to press, we have learned that Martha Whitehead (Head, Info Services) is leaving UBC to take up the position of Associate University Librarian at Queen's University. It is with great sadness that we bid Martha farewell and all the best with her new challenges. Stay tuned for details on Martha's farewell reception. BRANCH PROFILE Everyone loves to Snack at the MacMillan Library! Over the last two years, there have been quite a number of staff changes at the MacMillan Library. There are 4 new staff- Lorna Adcock, Julia Popo, Richard Peck Fedje and Gislene Guenard. With the help & valued experience of Eloisa Anton and Deb Wilson, the only staff with more than 2 years of service at MacMillan, we have made some exciting changes to our processes and procedures. Some of the changes are: in reference, 350-400 AGSC100 students have mandatory tours of the library (75 tours were given in Sept & Oct.); the course reserve and ILL/document delivery processes have been changed; catalogue records have been fixed; and most of the collections (book, serial, microfiche, reserve, VF, oversize) have either been reorganized, weeded or moved to provide more space and improved access. Also, an Ariel workstation, a book sale, a library display and soon-to- arrive scanner, donated by the graduate students of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, make up the cornucopia of services and events at MacMillan. All the staff now have ergonomic workstations; there has been minor construction in the circulation area to remove the laboratory countertop and sink; and, there are new blinds in the copy room. The MacMillan Library provides subject, reference, and circulation support to the Food Program at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. As a result, we have the opportunity to research many different kinds of snacks (cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing, dried jackfruit, chocolate and special treats that Eloisa brings back from her annual trips to the Philippines). Thank goodness we have three flights of stairs to climb on a daily basis to reach our desks! Snack anyone? Deb Wilson, Eloisa Anton, Lorna Adcock, (statue), Gislene Guenard, Richard Peck Fedje and Julia Popo. contributed by Lorna Adcock STAFF UPDATE January 1, 2004 - March 31, 2004 Welcome to Recent Hires Deborah L. Austin - Director, Human Resources UBC Library Anita Bidinosti - LA C (Temporary 50%), Humanities and Social Sciences Division Rita Dahlie - Head, Woodward Biomedical Library Stephanie Forgacs - Acting Senior Development Officer, University Librarian's Office David Harakal - LA B (Term), Law Library Katherine Kalsbeek - Term Reference Librarian (0.5 FTE), Woodward Biomedical Library Erika Luebbe - LA C (Term), David Lam Management Research Library Kristina McDavid - Term MD Undergraduate Resources Librarian, Life Sciences Jaimie Miller - LA D, Woodward Library Kjell Olson - LA B, Main Library Circulation New and Additional Responsibilities Megan Campbell - LA H, Technical Services Ramona Cowan - Term LA D (42%), Math Library Linda Dunbar - Reference Librarian, Education Library Katherine Kalsbeek - Term Reference Librarian (0.5 FTE), Rare Books and Special Collections Lome Madgett - LA C (Temporary), Technical Services, Serials Erin O'Connor - LA F (Term), Borrower Services (Koerner Library) Goodbyes Patrick Balena - LA F, Hamber Library Rachel Brown - Term Reference Librarian, Music Library Ron Burke - Acting Senior Development Officer, University Librarian's Office Marlene Hamakawa - LA J, Technical Services, Periodicals & Binding Melanie Hardbattle - Term Archivist (60%), Archives Jennifer Oey - LA C, Borrower Services (Koerner Library) - Sessional Cathy Rayment - Reference Librarian, Hamber Library Jenna Thomson - LA D, Woodward Library Welcome Back Rachel Chan - LA B, Rare Books and Special Collections Terry Horner - Librarian, Music Library Lynne Trudeau - LA D, Law Library Martha Whitehead - Head, Information Services Transferring to other UBC Departments Isgo Nercessian - LA C (Sessional), Borrower Services to Faculty of Arts STAFF HAPPENINGS Congratulations... ... to Mary Mitchell (Law Library) who was recently honoured by the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) for her outstanding service to the Association and her enhancement of the profession of law librarianship. For her achievements, especially her work as compiler of Periodicals in Canadian Law Libraries: A Union List, Mary received the Denis Marshall Memorial Award for Excellence in Law Librarianship. Some of you may remember Denis from his days in the UBC Law Library. On hand to see Mary receive this Award at the May 2004 CALL Meeting in Quebec City were Anna Holeton and Elim Wong. Congratulations, Mary! ... to Julia Popo (MCM) who will be married on June 12 to Scott Thompson. ... and to Diane Lee (Info Services) for completing her M.L.I.S. Way to go Diane! Works in Progress Amber Lannon and Christina Sylka attended a Bloomberg seminar and are working towards achieving their "Bloomberg accreditation." Bloomberg is an online financial service that provides quotes and analysis of securities. Bloomberg also provides company information, industry data, market news, and economic data. Notes for the Keeping Terry Horner (Music) presented his British Columbia Sheet Music project at the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Music Library Association on April 23 and at the Canadian Association of Music Libraries on May 14. The web site for this wonderful sheet music resource is: www. library, ubc. ca/ \ JX^ \ music/bcmusic/ \ St< default.htm Behind the Desk at the Voyager Launch - Jane's Story Many of the issues that we uncovered that day have been solved; others are still works in progress. Will we ever forget the one foot long date due receipt? A remaining issue (as you can see in the picture) is the number of staff it takes to sign out a book in Voyager. Just hope the Admin isn't watching ! contributed, by Jane Shinn Borrower Services staff await the Launch! (left to right) Jane Shinn, David Winter, Lincoln Penner, Linda Wensveen, Alison Steeves, Peter Sykanda and Rowan Hougham It started off like any other day. Made tea, commuted to work, got up - not necessarily in that order. Arrived at work around the usual time. But this time there was a sense of excitement in the air. 'The Queen's coming again' I thought. Nope, there is still gum on the carpet and the windows aren't clean. Oh well. Let's get on with the day. The phone rang. 'Can I see you in my office?' So I walked over to The Office. There was a mass of people in The Office. The question was asked: 'Is it a go?' I thought, is what a go - are we launching some sort of space ship here? Well, it turned out we were. It was time to launch Voyager. It was an exciting morning; there was some tension in the air. There was lots of preparation, lots of action and lots of talk, but the circulation motto held firm: Don't Panic! We worked our way systematically through Friday morning. Around 11:30 am we noticed that there were a number of people loitering in the main foyer. Not quite the Queen's visit but impressive nonetheless. At 11:55 the word came from Systems - and the command was issued 'Click on Production.'And we did. The system gurgled and whirred. All the data that was supposed to upload uploaded and reports that were supposed to print printed! And there was the Voyager screen. Just like we all saw in training. By this time the crowd of on-lookers in the foyer had grown substantially larger. Then, the other circulation motto kicked in. 'Doors open, books in, books out.' Well the doors were open so we thought we would try the 'books out' part... The foyer was packed with curious onlookers. Among them was one person who actually wanted to sign out a book. So, we clicked on Charge and scanned the library card. Then we scanned the item. And, book out! The first few minutes went quite well and staff took turns helping users at the circulation desk. Next, it was time to key in the data that had been recorded manually over the previous days and also to discharge the twenty-four trucks of books that had accumulated. By the end of the afternoon everyone was quite experienced at charging and discharging. The following Monday all of the branches went live - one by one and with 'experienced' staff on hand. There were no major hiccups as staff throughout the Library clicked on Production for the first time. My Other Life Michael V. Smith f When he's not working at UBC Library Robson Square, mild- mannered Michael V Smith performs a popular stand-up improv audience-participation act as Miss Cookie La Whore. Whether entertaining the cabaret circuit or the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC, Cookie is the sharpest thing in heels this side of Winnipeg. Michael is also an accomplished writer, filmmaker, zinester and occasional clown. His first novel, Cumberland (PS8597.M5636 C8 2002) was shortlisted for the Amazon/Books In Canada First Novel Award. In May, he was nominated for the Journey Prize and a Western Magazine Award for his story "What We Wanted", published in UBC's Prism International. He's busy working on a number of short documentary videos, writing poems for an upcoming chapbook, and learning to juggle. Editor: kele fleming Design: Jill Pittendrigh