Hamilton Centre, RASC Forum
The Centre => Announcements => Topic started by: Abigail.Hughes on November 22, 2018, 05:27:07 PM
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Our club library has now entered the 21st century with an online database, accessible by everyone. All of the club books are now visible online at https://raschamilton.libib.com/ (https://raschamilton.libib.com/). With the books available to browse online, a new lending system will be inaugurated to accommodate members and promote accessibility. The new system will be run through the email address library@hamilrasc.ca.
Process:
- The member will email library@hamiltonrasc.ca with the title and author of the book they wish to borrow
- Within 48 hours, the librarian will respond notifying the member if the book is available
- If the book is not available, the member can request to hold the book and be emailed when the book is returned to the library
- Once the book is available, the date and time for pickup will be arranged
- Member can return books at club meetings or arrange a time to drop off the book
Members can arrange for books to be brought to club meetings for pick up. You are also encouraged to email their reviews of the books which will be visible on the online catalog.
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Abigail,
This is simply amazing. You have certainly gone above and beyond the call of duty with this exciting endeavour. And books that have sat on shelves, collecting dust, for years are now more easily accessible to members. Kudos to you.
Thanks
Ed
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Wow! Abigail, great job on this initiative. Really want to thank you for taking on this project.
Chris
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Taking some time to dive deeper into some of the club posts and came across this one. What a great idea Abigail! I see the post is from 2018 so I'm wondering a couple of things:
Is this system still up and running and how it's being managed?
Who is the librarian, currently?
When was the last time the library updated?
What needs to be done to ensure continuity of the program?
Can anyone show me how it all works? I'm thinking this might also be a good way to track equipment once it's all inventoried...
Looking for ways to make all the great resources of the club accessible.
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Victor, you are so keen about helping the club out. Not sure how often Abigail reads the Forum. She took on many roles a few years back, making the Hamilton Centre that much better, more inviting and more efficient. Maybe when we reconvene in the Fall (fingers crossed) you will get answers to your questions.
Ed
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Not sure how many will read this but hopefully we can spread the word.
As you may know, the Centre has a lot of assets that are uncatalogued, and therefore under utilized and perhaps not so easy to access. To solve this and provide value for membership dollars a number of us are working on creating a lending library for all our stuff (books, scopes accessories and everything in between).
Abigail laid some great groundwork for the book library side of things and we're going to use that to expand the offering. There's a lot of work to be done to take our existing inventory and update it so that it can serve as the basis for what members can access.
I've found two websites that work together to reach the objective of a user friendly library reservation system. One of the site is called TinyCat (https://www.librarycat.org/ (https://www.librarycat.org/)) that acts as a cataloging system for small libraries. While it is book centric, I believe we can make it work for our purposes as it shows an item, description, status and few other fields.
The other site is LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/ (https://www.librarything.com/)). It's the database backbone from which TinyCat provides the lendable assets. All of this for an almost ridiculously low cost.
Over the coming months we'll be building on the work of Eric Goldring and Bob Speck, who created an Excel catalogue of many of the scopes and accessories we own. From there we'll cross check to see what we still own, what's been sold or missing and/or unaccounted for. Once everything is properly inventoried we can load items into the library database and mark them for checkout. We'll do a bit of testing to make sure everything works and hopefully do the big reveal towards the end of the summer.
Some of this work will also include earmarking equipment that isn't immediately useful or necessary in carrying out maintenance on other Centre equipment. Such equipment we'll look at giving members first access to acquiring them. The rest will be sold through various channels so we can reinvest in loaner scopes or other equipment.
This is very exciting and I think much needed.
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Victor, this is a great plan. Kudos to you and the others helping you.
Ed
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a quick question The June book review is on CCD cameras call The New CCD Astronomy. I looked for it in the library but their is no listing for it. Is there a link on the home page for the library? If do I have to log in to see it? I am not able to login to the main web page but can login to the forums.
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Hi Chris,
I don't have a link to the library on the website yet as things were in flux on a final online catalogue....
@Victor, do we have a link I can add to the site?
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Before we publish the site, could someone please try this link and email me a screenshot of what happens (before you enter any information)?
victor.abraham77@gmail.com
Try this site: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HamiltonRASCAdmin/ (https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HamiltonRASCAdmin/)
If you require a Barcode or Patron ID - it's your 5-digit RASC member number.
I'm hoping that if you enter your member number it brings you to a screen that looks like the one I've attached.
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Victor,
Done. I used Edge for this one. If you need me to do Chrome as well, let me know.
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Victor,
Great job getting all the books into the library! How did you get me photos of the books look so good?
Bruce M
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I entered each one manually in Library Thing and it accesses a number of databases. Mostly it goes to Amazon.com but there are a few others. Most of the books I was able to find this way. Occasionally I had to do a Google search to find it and the ISBN. Once I had the ISBN Library Thing was able to find almost all of them. Only on a few did I have save images and then crop them.
If something was an older edition than what Amazon commonly displays then sometimes it was a matter of switching from hardcover to paperback. I have tricks!
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John, I use both Chrome and Safari. Is it possible to get those browsers connected? No pressure.
Please and thanks
Ed
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With John’s feedback I’m reasonably certain that what I described is exactly what happens. Every member (membership list as on July 1) can access the library. At this point I have it set so anyone can put something on hold. Once I get a notification that some thing is on hold I can sign it out and make arrangements to get it to you.
I will be adding another admin so we can spread the responsibility out.
There’s still a bit more work to do before an official launch and tutorial, but for all intents the site is ready to go. Much thanks to Rhea for spending countless hours matching hoots and cataloguing equipment.
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John, I use both Chrome and Safari. Is it possible to get those browsers connected? No pressure.
Please and thanks
Ed
Ed, I've checked and it works on Chrome and Safari as well!
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Congrats!!!! Jane is the first official patron of the new digital library!!! She reserved an eyepiece a few days ago and we made the exchange yesterday.
I encourage everyone to go in and see what we've got. If you want to try a piece out please put it on hold and I will receive a notification at which point I'll reach out and we can make arrangements for pick-up.
The rules, as I understood them, were that items could be borrowed for up to 30 days. I've made an executive decision to extend that to 60 days, to allow borrowers to fully enjoy the equipment. Given that we've had less than ideal viewing conditions this year, it seems fair to extend the time allowed. If no other requests come through for a particular item then the time can be extended.
Also coming soon... As announced at our last general meeting, some items will be up for sale soon. I think we'll post them on the forum in some format.
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Kudos to Jane for being the first to borrow from the online library.
Ed
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Congrats!!!! Jane is the first official patron of the new digital library!!! She reserved an eyepiece a few days ago and we made the exchange yesterday.
I encourage everyone to go in and see what we've got. If you want to try a piece out please put it on hold and I will receive a notification at which point I'll reach out and we can make arrangements for pick-up.
The rules, as I understood them, were that items could be borrowed for up to 30 days. I've made an executive decision to extend that to 60 days, to allow borrowers to fully enjoy the equipment. Given that we've had less than ideal viewing conditions this year, it seems fair to extend the time allowed. If no other requests come through for a particular item then the time can be extended.
Also coming soon... As announced at our last general meeting, some items will be up for sale soon. I think we'll post them on the forum in some format.
Victor,
Do we have an official address and instructions I can post on the website?
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I would recommend two different posts:
- On our public website post a quick blurb about the digital library with over 280 items accessible for members to borrow. Maybe list some of the items (everything from telescopes and eyepieces to counterweights and specialty accessories) I would recommend against posting the link publicly
- Send out the website link via an email blast to the membership with the instructions.
The instructions are:
- Access via the link: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HamiltonRASCAdmin/ (https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HamiltonRASCAdmin/)
- Enter your 5-digit RASC membership number when prompted (reach out to outreach@hamiltonrasc.ca if you do not have or do not remember your member number.
- Finding items is as easy as waiting for the pictures to scroll by or by typing your request in the search bar.
- You can inquire about items or put them on hold to reserve them.
- You'll be contacted to make arrangements for pick up.
- Your borrowing date will start from the date of pick up and last for 60 days, at which time you'll receive a reminder to return the item(s).
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Victor,
Great work putting the lending library in place.
Bruce M.
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Oh one other thing for the posts (both website and email to members). The initial target for this was September for our new year, but with the help of Rhea Sekhon, our intern, we were able to get it up and running a whole month sooner!!!
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Giant Kudos to Rhea!!!
Ed
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6 New Titles Added to the Digital Lending Library
In addition to the 167 books, 110 accessories and 14 telescopes in our library, we now have 6 new manuals for Questar telescopes.
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13 new items added to the library. A variety of cables donated by Dave Dev.
You can search by "cable" to find them.
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25 new items added to the library.
Including some really neat additions, like:
- a Tasco 15TE-5 76mm refractor, generously donated by Bob Prociuk. Sadly this scope has been hiding in a box in virtually brand new condition. It's a very capable scope from an era when quality was still a top concern for manufacturers
- a vintage Bausch & Lomb Criterion 8" SCT
- a variety of guides from the McLaughlin Planetarium
- a second copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson's book on Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
- a book on the 2024 Solar Eclipse
- and a book by our latest monthly meeting speaker, Dr. Mark Tovey, featuring a collection of astronomically related poetry
New items being added weekly so go check it out: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/HamiltonRASCAdmin
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Great work Victor. You're soon going to have a world class astro library.
Ed
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Well I'm hoping it becomes univers-al. ::)