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February 2010
Upcoming Events
2010 Calendar
March 9, 2010, 2-3 p.m.CT
Special WiLS Hour: ILLiad 8.0 Starter Kit (Free for everyone! Register here.)
This instructional webinar is free to all ILLiad users and will cover technical setup, workflow shortcuts, navigation changes and pitfalls to avoid when getting started with implementing ILLiad 8.0. The session will help your library get set up to use ILLiad 8.0 alongside 7.4, so you can compare them and decide if 8.0 is for you. WiLS Staff has used and tested ILLiad 8.0 and will provide insight into how it can enhance your daily resource sharing work. Service Level One WiLS Members are eligible for further support, if needed, after ILLiad 8.0 is up and running.
March 16-18th, 2010 — 12:30-2 pm Central
ILLiad Custom Reports with Microsoft Office (Registration will be posted soon)
These sessions will focus on the use Microsoft Office tools to extract data from the ILLiad database and publish reports. This class includes three 90 minute sessions — taught on consecutive days. Following the live sessions from Atlas Systems, an archive will be made available for them for three month.
Day 1 topics:
- Get to know the ILLiad SQL database (ILLData)
- Commonly used tables and fields in queries and how the relationships between the tables affect queries
- Most important fields for reporting
Day 2 topics:
- In-client custom searching and exporting to Excel
- Setting up the ODBC link to access the ILLiad database from your local machine
- Connecting via Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel
- Creating basic queries in Excel
- Filtering data in Excel
- Creating Pivot tables and charts with ILLiad data in Excel
Day 3 topics:
- Creating more complex queries in Access
- Exporting from Excel to Access
- Using exported data for Microsoft Word mail/email merge
- Q & A
April 9, 2010 — Midwest Interlibrary Loan Conference
The 3rd conference will be held at Loras College, Dubuque, IA on Friday, April 9, 2010! Register Now!
October 5, 2010 — WiLS Annual ILL Meeting
Mark your calendars for the fall annual ILL meeting. Details to follow in late summer.
Resource Sharing News
Gimlet - New Online Tool for Library Desk Statistics
A new Madison-based startup offers libraries a powerful tool to improve their customer service and gather reference statistics. Gimlet is an online, hosted database to record questions and answers (Q&s) received at service points within your library. It records basic information for reporting, such as the total count of questions for the month, and it also helps chart when a reference desk is busiest -- so you can staff appropriately. However, its greatest benefit is the generation of an internal knowledge-base of answers, recording the full-text of Q&As that can be easily searched by any staff member.
The UW-Madison libraries recently adopted Gimlet, the commercial offering of two university employees who built their previous, in-house reference statistics tool: LibStats. Eric Larson and Nathan Vack, the co-creators of Gimlet, say they decided to build the new tool as a hosted service after witnessing many libraries with overburdened IT staff having trouble trying to install or run similar software on their own.
In its short time as a product, Gimlet has attracted universities and community colleges, as well as public and special libraries. You can sign up to use the service for free, with access to optional reports costing $10/month. Lastly, there's no need to worry about vendor lock-in. At any time, you can export your entire database should you wish to stop using the service. Libraries with questions can contact Gimlet via email at support@gimlet.us.
- Eric Robinson
WiLS ILL Coordinator
Wisconsin State Historical Society Reading Room
After months of noisy and labor-intensive toil, all spaces of the Society's grand Library Reading Room are again available to the public. Patrons and staff endured cramped spaces, dusty conditions and the sights and sounds of daily construction work, but it was all worth it.
Visitors who knew the room in the past will find it transformed when they visit again. A replica of the original stained-glass ceiling and banks of ornately trimmed ceiling coffers, new and restored furnishings, a fresh coat of paint, and re-creations of the original bronze wall sconces give the room a warm and elegant tone.
The Library Reading Room's lobby also has undergone a transformation, with a massive new wooden circulation desk and a restored ceiling. The Society is planning events in the coming months to introduce its members, patrons and the public to the restored and renovated spaces. | 
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OCLC for ILL
WiLS - OCLC Training Portal
WorldCat Resource Sharing Basics Online course (see details) This course covers the basics of using the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing system for Interlibrary Loan. The course in online format will be delivered over 2 days consisting of two hour long sessions as a lecture demo with hands on homework exercises of about another 1 hour per day. There is a supporting website included.
Online course dates (1- 3 pm Central Time each day):
February 15 and 17, 2010
WorldCat Resource Sharing Tricks Online course (see details)
The on-line webinar version will be delivered over 2 days consisting of two hour long sessions as a lecture demo with hands on homework exercises of about another 1 hour per day. There is a supporting web site included.
Online course dates:
February 23 and 25, 2010 1:00 - 3:00 PM Central Time each day
Fees
$100 Non-Level 1 WiLS Members (register)
$50 Level 1 WiLS Members (register)
For more information contact Mark Beatty
608.265.5719
e-mail mbeatty@wils.wisc.edu
Reference Service News
New resources to help you with your reference questions:
Databases recently added to the library website:
Black Abolitionist Papers
Thursday, February 04, 2010
See Helmut Knies
This database contains approximately 15,000 articles and documents written by Black abolitionists during the antebellum period in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The contents include correspondence, speeches, sermons, lectures by African-American leaders; articles and essays published in African-American, abolitionist, and reform newspapers; and related documents.
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The following new resources were recently added to the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections:
Each year, the UWDCC works with the Department of Instruction in order to digitize and make available on the web local history materials from public libraries and museums across the state of Wisconsin. The following projects were completed in 2009 under Library Services and Technology Act grants. Many thanks to the award recipients, DPI and the many staff members that make this partnership so successful. For more information about digital resources at UW, contact Peter Gorman (pgorman@library.wisc.edu) or Vicki Tobias (vtobias@library.wisc.edu), or visit the UWDC Web site.
Evansville, Wisconsin Digitization Project
The digital collection of materials from the Eager Free Public Library History Room includes Rock County, Wisconsin plat books from 1891, 1904, and 1917 as well as histories and memories that give accounts of settlement and Evansville's growth and prosperity. City Directories and photo collections of portraits, homes, and businesses are also included in the project as are Hall Family Circus images as are annuals of the Evansville Seminary.
Kenosha County History: Images and Texts, 1830s-1940s
The Louis M. Thiers Glass Negative Collection is comprised of over 1,000 glass plate photographic negatives. In 1938 Mr. Thiers gave his glass negatives, albums, notebooks and other items to the Kenosha County Historical Society. The stability of the glass plates has wonderfully preserved the images of people, homes, buildings, industries, domestic and recreational scenes, animals, landscapes, and events in Kenosha County, primarily from the late 1880s into the early 1910s. The Thiers collection complements the Society's C.E. Dewey Lantern Slide Collection, which was digitized in 2008.
Opening the Doors: Wisconsin Mental Health Heritage
The Winnebago Mental Health Institute admitted its first patient on April 23, 1873 and was known as the Northern Hospital for the Insane. In 1935, the facility name was changed to the Winnebago State Hospital and was changed again in 1973 to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. This digital collection contains annual/biennial reports authored by the physician superintendents to the State Board of Control as well as/ The Cue/, a newsletter written and edited by patients at the hospital beginning in 1968. All patient specific information has been deleted from this series of patient newsletters.
World War II Veterans of Mt. Horeb
This digital collection is an effort to honor the sacrifices and achievements of Mount Horeb veterans and to ensure their place in local history. The collection brings together several types of materials: books, photographs, audio interviews, slides, and personal scrapbooks and memorabilia. The Mount Horeb Public Library began this project by personally interviewing willing WWII veterans. Each of these men and one woman has compelling stories to tell about serving their country during WWII. Many had the opportunity to take pictures of a 1940s war-ravaged Europe, which are also included in the collection.
Historic Fort Atkinson
Lorine Faith Niedecker (1903-1970) was born and lived most of her life on Blackhawk Island along the banks of the Rock River, south and west of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, not far from where the river flows into Lake Koshkonong. She is considered a preeminent poet of the 20th century who wrote in the Objectivist tradition. Though she remained in Wisconsin, she corresponded with other poets of her day including Louis Zukofsky, Cid Corman, William Carlos Williams and Basil Bunting. Her poetry was published in numerous journals as well as 4 volumes of poetry before her death. This archive contains manuscript materials, notes, letters, text and audio interviews with people who knew Lorine, video productions about Lorine and numerous photographs.
Marinette County Local History
The Marinette County Library System maintains many resources that provide local historical information. Yearbooks and plat books are extraordinarily popular and receive so much use that they need to be preserved. This project contains plat books from the years 1905, 1912, and 1920 and yearbooks from 1919-1924. The Marinette County Local History Collection is collaborative project completed by the UWDCC and the Marinette County Library System.
Please let me know if anything above would be of use to you.
Thanks for using the WiLS Reference Service.
—Fran Metcalf, fmetcalf at wils.wisc.edu
Phone: 608.263.4981
Fax: 608.263.3684
Submit a reference request
A monthly publication with writing contributions by Fran Metcalf, Angela Milock, Joy Pohlman, Jane Richard, Eric Robinson, Bob Shaw, Al Wenzel, and Sheila Zillner.
Edited by Bob Shaw and Joy Pohlman.
Layout, graphics by S. C. Zillner.
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WiLS ILL phone—608.263.4981; email—wilsill@wils.wisc.edu
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