Beginning today, Friday, July 22, 2011, we're preparing for this weekend's upgrade to the library catalog. Between now and Monday, you may find that you can't open the catalog. Or if the catalog opens and you try to search for books and videos, you may get a "Sorry, could not find anything" message.
If you experience any of these problems, please wait 15 minutes and try again. If the problem persists, feel free to give us a call.
Also, you may notice that we're checking books out the old-fashioned way: by manually recording your name and the titles of your books. After Monday, July 25, this will no longer be necessary, as the catalog will be upgraded and working better than ever!
Thank you for your patience this weekend. As always, if you have questions don't hesitate to call the library reference desk at 313.927.1346.
Showing posts with label downtime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downtime. Show all posts
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Catalog may be briefly unavailable Thurs, July 14
The library catalog may be briefly unavailable during the afternoon of Thursday, July 14. If you run into any problems searching for Marygrove books, ebooks, or videos, just call the library reference desk at 313.927.1346 - we'd be happy to help you (and we apologize for any inconvenience)!
Keep in mind that you can also use WorldCat or MeLCat to search for Marygrove materials.
Keep in mind that you can also use WorldCat or MeLCat to search for Marygrove materials.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Email outage = blessing in disguise?
This morning the campus community received a phone message explaining that our email system was down and our provider was working to find a solution as quickly as possible. My first reaction, I admit, was something along the lines of,
Yesterday I returned to Marygrove after my delicious summer vacation, during which I visited New Orleans for the first time, accompanied my niece on a few college visits, and waged war against the squirrel who uproots my pepper plants and throws them over the porch wall. And then laughs at me.
During my vacation I did a little work from home so as to minimize the work I'd have to tackle upon returning. Still, it took me all day to sort through my email. If you're anything like me, you use email for so much more than communicating with others. I use email as my to-do list, my calendar, a way to store passwords and documents I'm working on. (I know, I know, that's what a flash drive is for. But sometimes I don't have easy access to my flash drive. Sometimes I'm not logged onto a computer as myself and so can't get to the My Documents folder. Sometimes - well, you get the point.) At times my email even serves as a memory-nudger; recently I searched my email for a price quote I received last year from a database vendor.
As essential as email is, I don't believe that spending all day sorting, tagging, deleting and responding is a productive use of my (or your) time. As I frantically plugged away yesterday, wondering when I'd be able to move on to other work, another 50 or so emails arrived. Many had no direct relevance to the work I do.
So, no, I'm not horribly upset that our email is down. I get a day's reprieve!
In the meantime, given that email outages on campus are very rare, I'm trying some new techniques to reduce feelings of despair and distraction:
"NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!"I despaired of getting anything done today. But then, on second thought, it occurred to me that this might be a blessing in disguise. Let me explain...
Yesterday I returned to Marygrove after my delicious summer vacation, during which I visited New Orleans for the first time, accompanied my niece on a few college visits, and waged war against the squirrel who uproots my pepper plants and throws them over the porch wall. And then laughs at me.
During my vacation I did a little work from home so as to minimize the work I'd have to tackle upon returning. Still, it took me all day to sort through my email. If you're anything like me, you use email for so much more than communicating with others. I use email as my to-do list, my calendar, a way to store passwords and documents I'm working on. (I know, I know, that's what a flash drive is for. But sometimes I don't have easy access to my flash drive. Sometimes I'm not logged onto a computer as myself and so can't get to the My Documents folder. Sometimes - well, you get the point.) At times my email even serves as a memory-nudger; recently I searched my email for a price quote I received last year from a database vendor.
As essential as email is, I don't believe that spending all day sorting, tagging, deleting and responding is a productive use of my (or your) time. As I frantically plugged away yesterday, wondering when I'd be able to move on to other work, another 50 or so emails arrived. Many had no direct relevance to the work I do.
So, no, I'm not horribly upset that our email is down. I get a day's reprieve!
In the meantime, given that email outages on campus are very rare, I'm trying some new techniques to reduce feelings of despair and distraction:
- reading and responding to email during a strict half hour in the morning, mid-day, and late afternoon (as a non-administrator, I have the luxury of spending the rest of my time *logged out*)
- using websites like BaseCamp and Google Docs to manage my projects and collaborations
- picking up the phone or visiting someone's office rather than sending an email and waiting for a response
- using social media such as Facebook and Google Reader to share interesting headlines with my colleagues
- using the library's zine or blog to communicate our news to the campus community
- Five Methodologies to Deal with Email Overload (ReadWriteWeb): http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/five_methodologies_to_deal_with_email_overload.php
- How to Take an Email Sabbatical (Danah Boyd): http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/07/06/how-to-take-an-email-sabbatical.html
- Is It Time You Were Reliably Unreliable? (Chronicle Of Higher Education): http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/is-it-time-you-were-reliably-unreliable/27890
- Reducing Email Overload (Productivity 501): http://www.productivity501.com/reducing-email-overload/6686
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Gale databases unavailable 12 am-12 pm on Saturday, June 4
Gale will be performing infrastructure maintenance during a twelve hour period on Saturday, June 4, 2011. The window will take place from 12 am to 12 pm. During this time, all Gale products and services will be unavailable, including:
- Academic OneFile
- Agriculture Collection
- Biography & Genealogy Master Index
- Books & Authors
- Business & Company ASAP
- Business & Company Resource Center
- Chilton Online Auto Repair
- Communications & Mass Media Collection
- Computer Database
- Criminal Justice Collection
- Culinary Arts Collection
- Diversity Studies Collection
- Educator's Reference Complete
- Environmental Studies & Policy Collection
- Expanded Academic ASAP
- Fine Arts & Music Collection
- Gardening, Landscape & Horticulture Collection
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Issues Collection
- General Business File ASAP
- General OneFile
- General Reference Center Gold
- General Science Collection
- Health & Wellness Resource Center
- Health Reference Center Academic
- Home Improvement Collection
- Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Collection
- Information Science & Library Issues Collection
- Informe
- Insurance & Liability Collection
- Junior Edition
- Kids InfoBits
- LegalTrac
- Literature Resource Center
- Military & Intelligence Database
- Newsstand
- New York Times
- Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Collection
- Pop Culture Collection
- Psychology Collection
- Religion & Philosophy Collection
- Small Business Collection
- Student Edition
- U.S. History Collection
- Virtual Reference Library
- War & Terrorism Collection
- World History Collection
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