• MELANIE HEMINGWAY, Outreach Services

MAY is OLDER AMERICANS MONTH 

This year’s theme is “Choices For Independence.” 

How about starting, if you don’t already have one, a Seniors’ Advisory Council for your library?

Give them a chance to voice their thoughts and ideas for Senior programming and ways to meet the literacy needs of older adults in your community.

For further ideas, go to: http://www.aoa.gov/press/oam/oam-2006.asp

 

•  JAN AGUIRRE, Specialist & Training Coordinator

Reminder: 

If you have registered for a training workshop and find you unable to attend, please let me know as soon as possible. The classes fill up fast as there are only 10 slots available. I have people on a waiting list in case of a cancellation. You can send me an email or leave a voice mail message if I am not available or if it is after hours.

Thank you!

 

Polaris “Tip of the Week”

I am still struggling to understand the numbers generated by various Polaris monthly circulation reports and why they vary from report-to-report. I will attempt to explain four circulation reports, how their numbers are generated and what they mean. I will be using Poplar Ridge as an example.  

• The Circulation By Items Loaning Branch report gives the number of items circulated at Poplar Ridge that are owned by any library. This report should be run the first week of the month for the most accurate results.

• Notice the total number under the Loaning Branch: Poplar Ridge (864). These would be items owned by POP and circulated at POP.

 

• The “Grand Total” under the Items column is a total of all items circulated at Poplar Ridge regardless of who owns the item (1321) The Grand Total under the Circulation column is the total number of checkouts and renewals (1537)

 

• The Circulation By Items Assigned Branch report gives the number of items owned by Poplar Ridge that have circulated throughout the System. This report should be run the first week of the month for the most accurate results.
   

• Notice the total number under the Loaning Branch: Poplar Ridge (864). This matches the number from the previous report and it should. This number in both reports reflects the number of Poplar Ridge owned items that circulated at Poplar Ridge.

  

• The Grand Total under the Items column is a total of all items circulated throughout the System owned by Poplar Ridge (932). This is distinct item records, therefore if the same item was checked out more than once or renewed; it is only counted once in the total item count. The total number under Circulations (1113) in the total number of times these items circulated throughout the System.

So if you subtract 864 from 932 you have the number of Poplar Ridge unique items that circulated throughout the System (68)

 

The Circulation Summary Statistics

• This report displays the total number of Checkouts and Renewals of all items loaned by Poplar Ridge

• The total number of Checkouts is 1348 and the total number of Renewals is 189. The sum of these two figures gives you total circulation 1537. This number matches the Grand Total circulation figure in Circulation by Items Loaning Branch Report

  

• The Items Circulation by Collection Report displays the number of items, checkouts, and renewals of all items loaned by Poplar Ridge by collection code. Total items = 1321. This matches the total items figure in the Circulation by Items Loaning Branch Report. Total Checkouts = 1348. This matches the total number of Checkouts in the Circulation Summary Statistics report. When you add checkouts (1348) and Renewals (189), you get 1537 which matches the Grand Total under the Circulation column in the Circulation By Items Loaning Branch report.

 

• So to find out how many items you have circulated in a given time period, use either the total number displayed under the Items column in the Circulation By Items Loaning Branch report OR

• Use the Grand Total under the Items column in the Item Circulation by Collection Report.

• To find out your total circulation statistics, including renewals, use the Grand Total Circulation under the Circulation column in the Circulation By Items Loaning Branch report OR use the Grand Total figure in the Renewals and Checkouts column in the Item Circulation by Collection Report.

 

 

•  LINDA BEINS, ILL/Reference Coordinator

 ILL NEWS
Jan DeRyke has joined the FLLS as a new Shelving & Collections Page. As one of the two people who unpack the member library delivery bags every day and redirect material to the appropriate person or library, Jan will be an important addition to the ILL Dept. Jan will also be one of the staff responsible for pulling and processing deposit collections.  Welcome Jan!

I will be assessing the Southern Route libraries’ satisfaction with the current courier service. Please complete the survey when it arrives in your delivery bag. Your feedback will help us improve delivery service.

 

Reference
Tomorrow, May 6, marks the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud. Freud was born in Freiburg, Moravia (now Czechoslovakia). He lived in Vienna from 1860 until 1938. Unlike his four sisters who died in Auschwitz, he escaped the Nazi terror and lived the last year of his life in London. In honor of this cultural icon I searched our electronic databases and was amazed at the information available. Among what I found:

Grolier On-Line had four encyclopedia entries, one each from Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Americana, New Book of Knowledge and the New Book of Popular Science. The Websites tab brought up 31 web links which included: a traveling Library of Congress exhibit about Freud http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/; a history of hypnosis http://www.infinityinst.com/articles/history_hyp.html; and original texts of Freud’s work http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/index.htm. You can find a photograph of Freud with his dog (Media tab) and links to a variety of articles about Freud.

Health Reference Center had 69 full-text articles.

Literature Resource Center offers an extensive biography of Freud, had reviews of his work at the time of their publication as well as current essays on the value of his work. This database also had links to selected websites including early translations of his texts.

Twayne’s Author Series includes a lengthy biographical entry and critical analyses of his major works.

General Science Collection listed links to 37 full-text articles, including Freud returns/ Mark Sohm, Scientific American; May2004, Vol. 290 Issue 5, p82-88, which suggests that current neuroscience research meshes well with Freud’s theory of conscious and unconscious memory.

Among the articles in Custom Newspapers is a May 2, 2006 story in the Daily Telegraph (London, England) about an interview with Freud’s last living patient who claims that Freud “saved her life”.

Primary Search has several articles for school-aged children. Each article includes a reading level indicator

Hundreds of articles can be found on both MasterFile Select and Infotrac. Skimming the titles and abstracts of many of these articles, it is apparent that regardless of whether you embrace any of Freud’s theories, he had an enormous influence on our culture and this legacy will continue.

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• Directors’ Advisory Council (DAC) members: 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding FLLS library service, you are welcome to contact a DAC member from the list below. 

Beverly Dann, Waverly Free Library
Janet Steiner, TCPL, Ithaca
Judy Barkee, Ulysses Philomathic Library, Trumansburg
Kay Zaharis, Cortland Free Library
Lois Maki, Newfield Public Library
Mary Frank, Peck Memorial Library, Marathon
Sally Otis, Hazard Library, Poplar Ridge
Stephen Erskine, Seymour Library, Auburn
Susan Robey, Groton Public Library