Over the last few months, a small working group of CUG (Christine Drever, Gail Horbay, and Brenda Butler) has been investigating fines in academic libraries through reading the literature, conversations with other Canadian academic libraries, and looking at our local situation. The working group’s report with recommendations was presented to CUG in March, followed by further discussion at the Dean’s Team. The efforts of that working group and of CUG as a whole have resulted in improved client-focused service and a reduction in service barriers.

Beginning Thursday 1 May:

• the loan period for regular stack items has been increased to 30 days (from 3 weeks).
• fines for overdue regular stack items have been removed; however, there are still fines on overdue recalled, reserve, and ILL items.
• the time period between when an item becomes overdue and when a BFR is issued will be reduced to 30 days (from 52 days).
• library staff will encourage clients to place requests on desired items that are currently out — thus generating a recall notice and revised due date.

Thank you CUG and Gail, Brenda, and Christine for your work in bringing these changes to fruition!

After days and days of laborious, strenuous, and exhaustive planning the time is nigh! The Murray Library is proud to announce that the much anticipated sequel to the “Take a Break with US” has opened with a BANG today. And what a bang! So far as we type our count is at over 80 students that have come in to peruse our activities and partake in our complementary libations. Not to toot our own horns but… TOOT TOOT!  

It’s here at the Science Library!  This glorious whiteboard creation (courtesy of the very talented Maricris) greets visitors as they enter the branch. Many of our clients have embraced the opportunity to take a selfie with Spring and smiles are breaking out all over!

Did you know that Outlook may be used as an RSS feed reader? And that you can get new posts to come either directly to your email or to a separate RSS Feeds folder? Here’s how you do it:

1. On the internet, find the blog you would like to follow. Find the RSS Feed link to the blog and click on it. On the BranchingOut blog, this is located along the right side of the Welcome page and is called “Entries RSS.”
   

2. Copy the URL at the top of the new page that opens up. It should contain the word “feed.”
   

3. Now, leave the blog and open up Outlook. Find the RSS Feeds folder in the list of folders along the right side. Right click on the folder and choose the “Add a New RSS Feed…” option.
   

4. A box will pop up for you to paste the RSS feed URL. Paste the URL the you had previously copied, and hit the Add button.
   

5. Another box will pop up asking you to confirm that you would like to add this feed to Outlook.
   

6. At this point you have two options:

   1. Add the feed to the RSS Feeds folder where you can go in and check it at your leisure. If your feed contains posts that you have not read the blog title will be in bold with the number of unread posts indicated by a number.
      For this option, simply click on “Yes.”

   2. The second option is to add the feed so that new posts go directly to Inbox. For this option, you must click on “Advanced.” This will bring up another box giving you the choice of folders to which your feed may go. Clicking on “Change Folder” allows you to choose to which Outlook folder you wish your blog feed to go. Click on it
      Up pops another box with options to change the folder to which your blog feed goes. Choose the Inbox in order to get new blog posts to come directly to your email.
      
      And hit OK.And hit OK again. Then hit Yes. You have now added a blog feed that will go directly to your Outlook email inbox.

Stevie: For March, Laurie and I are going to do a shared review of what’s gone down at the University Archives and Special Collections. First off, let me introduce you to Buzz, the newest member of our back corner team.

 Buzz is also known as “The Stig”, or “Astronaut on a Camp Stool Drinking Space Lemonade”. He was culled a long time ago from a collection in which he wasn’t the best fit (as is sometimes necessary given the realities of three dimensions within which all libraries operate), and rather than letting him be destroyed, I squirreled him away next to my desk. In fact, after being mesmerized by his sunshiny demeanor, and hearing about his ultimate fate of disposal, I may have uttered a prolonged “nooooooooo” and run off with him.

Laurie: For most of us this winter has been long and cruel with an excessive helping of frozen solid.  I didn’t see the exciting rescue of our Buzz but one morning I was greeted by Stevie and her fantastic Stevie grin.  She introduced me to Buzz and instantly our winter was better.  Some days life in the Archives is like being Indiana Jones, discovering treasures – but without the bullwhip and the bad guys.  Personally, Buzz has been fun but he’s also a great example of how the materials in UASC can be unexpected and unforgettable.

Also this month:

• Clowns: Patrick Hayes has been working with a group out of Los Angeles, supplying images of the Harlem Clowns, a group formed by Mr. Al Pullins, one of the first original five Harlem Globetrotters. The Harlem Clowns traveled the globe, playing basketball for charity–including a game against our own U of S Huskies. The people Patrick has spoken with hope to have Al Pullins inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in recognition of his charitable work, and the foundations he laid within the basketball community. Visit their Facebook page, or sign the petition.
• In the News: Portions of the Diefenbaker Collection were featured on a March 22nd episode of CTV’s W5, titled Seeking the origins of the Maple Leaf flag, finding the soul of our nation. Hundreds of potential Canadian flags were proposed during the years in which the flag debate took place, a variety of which were presented to Mr. Diefenbaker (himself a staunch defender of the Red Ensign). To read more about the W5 report, please visit
  http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/w5-seeking-the-origins-of-the-maple-leaf-flag-finding-the-soul-of-our-nation-1.1738784#ixzz2wzkQZQjD

  and click here to see  the gallery of proposed flags.

• Trans* Awareness Week spotlight featuring relevant Trans* items from the Neil Richards Collection
• Planes, Trains, Automobiles . . . and Boats: For those of you who haven’t had a chance to visit our ground floor and third floor Murray Library display cases lately, please do! They contain a delightful array of travel-related ephemera ranging from the twenties, to the world wars, to fifties kitsch and beyond.
• Index of Wrestling Photographs posted this month
• Collaboration with a museum in Scotland