K-State Libraries: Fiedler Library Blog

Short notice: DARS shutdown

Per the Provost's Office:

Beginning at 5 p.m. Feb. 15, the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS)
will be shut down in KATS and K-State Online through Feb. 21 to complete
the conversion to the new student information system known as iSIS. DARS
will be available in iSIS and K-State Online starting Feb. 22. If you
will need a DARS report (Advising Report) during this down time, run the
report before 5 p.m. Feb. 15.  For the transition schedule to iSIS see:
http://kats.k-state.edu/transition-schedule.html.

Amazing Technology!!! Online Fiedler Engineering Library Laptop reservations!!

This is really for your convenience: Students, when you need a laptop, go online and reserve one for yourself just like the way you reserve study rooms.

From Fiedler Library home page, just click on “Fiedler Library laptop checkout“ link right above “study room sign up online” near the top of the page.  The actual URL for reserving laptop is https://www.engg.ksu.edu/laptop/

Curious minds would like to know how and why!  Students from Personal and Professional Development classes worked on this project last semester. The final project was approved. With the help of Mark Clarke, Computer Information Specialist in Engineering Deans’ office, this program was developed. Black and Veatch Corporation funded the cost of this project too, like they did before for “study room sign up online”.

The program is up and running.  Reserve laptops from anywhere and come to the library when you are ready to check out.  You have to bring your student ID to check out a laptop. The rules are already explained in that laptop reservation page. Also, you can reserve one several weeks ahead.  On that day you are scheduled to check out one, you will be notified by an automated message that a laptop is being reserved for you.

If you do not need one at that point, please go ahead and cancel your reservation.

We hope students would very much appreciate this new feature added to Fiedler page.

We thank Dean Roberts and students who worked on this project, and Mark Clarke.

Also, we thank Black and Veatch Corporation who funded his program. Send us your comments. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us.

Asha Muthukrishnan

Engineering Career Fair

For the second year, Fiedler Library will be hosting space for visiting employers for the Engineering Career Fair Tuesday, February 12.  We apologize for the interruption of the normal study environment that the library provides, but we know how important it is for Engineering students to be able to make contact with the employers.  Without the space in Fiedler, about 20 fewer employers would be coming to the career fair.  There simply isn't space for them anywhere else.

Thanks for putting up with the noise and disruption, but at least it is GOOD noise and disruption!

Password change update time again

A reminder from the College of Engineering Computing Services:

This is an early reminder that Wednesday February 13th, 2008 is the deadline for changing your K-State eID password for this semester. K-State eID passwords must be changed between January 1st and February 13th, 2008 or they will expire.

Here is our four-step checklist for semester password changes.

1. To change your K-State eID password, log into the eProfile (eID) page at:  http://eid.k-state.edu

If you miss the deadline or cannot log in for some other reason, contact the K-State IT Help Desk by phone (532-7722) or in person (214 Hale Library; bring a photo ID).

2. After changing your K-State eID password, please update your College of Engineering password to match your new eID password at:  http://password.engg.ksu.edu

Your College of Engineering password is used in the Engineering computer labs and Fiedler Library, and on BAE, ChE, CE, DOE, and EECE computers.

3. After using the password.engg.ksu.edu page, log out and back in to your computer to ensure access to network drives.

4. Update your password in any applications that connect to K-State resources using a "remembered" or saved value of your eID password, particularly email clients.

If you encounter problems, please give us a call at 532-4643, or email us at support@engg.ksu.edu

IEEE upgrade for Saturday Jan. 26 cancelled

Although IEEE previously announced a day-long upgrade for IEEE Xplore, it will not take place as planned this Saturday, January 26.  Service will be uninterrupted.  The date for the planned upgrade will be announced later.

Welcome Back!

Mother Nature has greeted us with challenging weather (yet again) for the beginning of the spring semester. Here's hoping you all make it to and from class safely in the cold, slick stuff.

Fiedler Library is humming right along with pretty much everything the same as it has been.  However, there are always things that are good to mention just in case communication has hiccuped somewhere along the line.

• The print page allowance is now defaulting to 80 pages.  This is an increase from what it was at the beginning of the fall semester.  If you have several classes requiring that you print out a lot of material, please come talk to me so I can document the volume of printing required for classwork.
• The print page allowance will now count double-sided printing as *1* page!  In the past, if you double-sided print jobs, it still counted as 2 pages against your page count.  We encourage double-sided printing for a number of reasons, but there are two very important reasons--first, you don't use up your page allowance as quickly, and second, it saves paper!  Pages of printing are like pennies--they may not seem to be worth much individually, but once you calculate all the pages that are needlessly printed it adds up to a whole lot of paper.  Save trees and economize your print balance all at once!
• Pick up your printouts!  It is amazing and distressing how much paper is left unclaimed.
• If you have a print quality problem on a printout, please notify Fiedler Library staff as soon as possible. We can't get a problem fixed until we know about it.
• Logons and passwords are always a hassle at this time of year.  Oftentimes people who were able to log in easily last fall can run into problems now.  Simply come to ask for help at the service desk, or ask someone to let you update your password on a computer they are logged in to.  The page to easily get this taken care of is at  http://password.engg.ksu.edu   Simply type in your EID and your current EID password.
• If you find a chair is broken, please tell us.  Arm rests easily fall off when a bolt works loose, or the pneumatic support can fail on the roller chairs.  We can get the chairs fixed, but we need to know which ones are broken.
• Please clean up after yourself and throw away scraps of paper and other trash before you leave.  When you create the trash, you need to throw it away.

Best wishes for a successful semester.  I know you all work very hard, and the demands of classes are much greater than a lot of people realize.  Take care of yourself, eat healthy food, wash your hands, and get enough sleep to make the semester the best it can be!

Alice the librarian (and surrogate mom at times)

Fiedler hours extended Friday and Saturday for finals

Fiedler Library will be open until 7:00 p.m. Friday evening Dec. 14 and from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday Dec. 15 to accommodate students who will be taking finals on the delayed schedule.

Good luck on the finals! It's been a stressful week.

 

Alice the librarian

IEEE Trainer here on Tuesday, November 27

Wendy McCarville, a trainer for IEEE Xplore, will be at K-State the afternoon of November 27.  She will present a training session full of tips and tricks to for optimum searching of IEEE  Xplore at 1:30  in the Cargill Room, 1091 Fiedler Hall.  She will also give a peek at the upcoming enhancements to the Xplore database.

WASH YOUR HANDS!!

The best way to keep from getting sick is to wash your hands (well!!) and use a paper towel to dry them.  Air drying doesn't rub away any remaining germs when you wash.  This is the best way to prevent getting sick. 

There's too much stuff going around that you can keep from getting or spreading if you use common sense and wash your hands. 

Alice the librarian

Off-Campus access to K-State Library resources

Although there are many resources available through the K-State Libraries webpages that are free resources, there are many that are things that we pay for.  As a result, the contracts require that we make sure only K-State affiliated people have access to the stuff.  When you are on campus, it is presumed that you should have access and you can get into databases and electronic journals simply by clicking on the web link.  When you are off campus, the access is available only after you log in through our proxy server and authenticate yourself using your EID and EID password.

It is now set up that when you are off campus and click on something that is a resource requiring your EID, a pop-up box should appear asking you for the EID.  We have discovered the behind the scenes coding of the links has missed some web pages, particularly the branch library web pages. At Fiedler we have made an effort to update the coding and make access as easy as possible.  If you encounter a link that asks for a website specific ID and password instead of your EID, all you need to go is to the purple quick links bar at the top of the library web pages.  Click on either "databases" or "e-journals" and then find the same resource that was not working through the Fiedler page.  The EID pop-up box should work fine from the purple quick links bar.  In addition, we would *greatly* appreciate it if you would notify us at Fiedler that the web link is not working properly on our page.  You can either chose the Comments link at the bottom of the specific page or notify us through email at alitrus@ksu.edu or asham@ksu.edu.