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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Subject and study guides upgrade coming soon!

Our subject and study guides web publishing platform is being upgraded on 6 July 2015.

This upgrade will change the look of the guides slightly. You can see the BETA test site here: http://unitec.beta.libguides.com

Please feel free to email your feedback to libadmin@unitec.ac.nz

Benefits from the upgrade include:
  • Display automatically resizes to suit size of device you are using e.g. Mobile device
  • Databases A-Z integrated into the platform
  • A content management system (CMS) which makes it easier to keep the guides updated as it includes a central asset list for web links and documents in the guides
  • CMS functionality enables separately branded groups of guides

Academic staff if you would like additions or changes made to the content of the guide for your teaching area please contact the Knowledge Specialist for your area.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Changes to Waitākere library during the mid-year break 6-19 July 2015




During the mid-year break, the Waitākere campus library is undergoing a renovation project. The library is re-establishing itself as a stand-alone library across the whole of level 3. The move will mean that the Waitākere Unitec Library’s collections will be on one floor, we will no longer have books on level 2.
There will be some disruptions to service during the move which will mean:
·         Only the Course Reserve collection and online resources remain available
·         Level 2 and the Unitec General collection will be closed during this time
·         Increased activity and noise on Level 3 due to project works
·         Opening hours will be Monday – Friday 8am – 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am – 4pm
As a result of the move, you will have:
·         Increased study space
·         More computers
·         More study rooms
·         Improved access to Te Puna Ako student services

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Fran Skilton or Jo Barnes.

Friday, June 05, 2015

Library Databases A-Z is a-changing

We need your opinion on the new Databases A-Z prototype!

This will be hosted on a new platform (Libguides) from July 6th, but we would like you to help us to test it first.

We are decommissioning the old platform (Metalib) because it is too slow. It does not return enough results, and it needs a clunky server. But, it has a useful Databases A-Z feature. We know our users like this feature and that is why we’ve been working on developing a new Databases A-Z using the cloud based LibGuides application.

Next steps

Please give us your feedback on the new Databases A-Z before it goes live!

Here it is:  http://unitec.beta.libguides.com/az.php .

Send your feedback to: libadmin@unitec.ac.nz by Friday 3 July 2015 [ note originally feedback was due on 26th June but we have extended time for feedback until 3 July]

If you wish to compare it to the current Databases A-Z use this link to access the old MetaLib.

In summary:

  • Library Databases searching via MetaLib will be decommissioned on Monday 6 July
  • Library Databases searching will be provided by Articles-Express and a new Databases A-Z.

 

Background information and slightly more technical details

We have a new Library management system (Alma), and an upgraded version of the search function LibrarySearch (Primo). These core library systems are now hosted on the cloud so we no longer have to maintain production and test servers for these systems. 

Metalib is now the only locally hosted Library system. You may use this as the Databases A-Z function. We’ve reviewed MetaLib and decided that it no longer provides sufficient benefit to warrant continuing its maintenance and support.

So… we are decommissioning MetaLib from Monday 6 July.

Metalib allows federated searching across several databases at once. However, it’s search functionality is very slow and our recently upgraded ‘Articles-Express’ does much better.

Benefits of Articles-Express:
  • Returns search results much faster than Metalib.
  • Returns all results for which we have full-text access whereas MetaLib does not.
  • No need to login before searching whereas MetaLib requires login.
  • No server required whereas MetaLib requires a server. The current MetaLib server is 6 years old and frequently needs attention to load updates, patches or improve disc space.