Placing holds and "suspending them"

Many of you reserve items by placing them on "hold." One of the options when you log in and place a hold is to "suspend" them. The SAILS system is looking into changing the words used, because many of you have been confused.
When you "suspend" a hold, it means this:
Your place in the holds queue remains the same, but that you do not want to receive the item during a certain time period. For example, if you are going to be away the first two weeks in March, you would "suspend" your hold on March 1, and "unsuspend" it when you are going to be back, say March 17.
When you "suspend" a hold, we don't call you or email you during that time period. If you're leaving on a certain date and not sure when you're going to be back, you can leave the "unsuspend" date blank until you return.

Suspending holds is only used when you are going to be unavailable to pick up your hold. Those options should be left blank otherwise...Do not fill in those options for other reasons. When you place a hold, the system assumes you want the item as soon as possible. And, of course please ask us if you need help, or an explanation, or would like us to suspend your items for you.

Are you a procrastinator?

Collection of research material and fun resources about procrastination, including quotes, links to websites (such as procrastination societies and tests), theories, studies, and more. From a professor of human resources and organizational dynamics who has written scholarly publications about procrastination.URL: http://webapps2.ucalgary.ca/~steel/Procrastinus/index.php


Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII.

Live Homework Help

We're beginning to feel like a broken record, but we want the word out on Live Homework Help.
Here are some comments we received from students who used it in December:

"This program is a great way to get kids to ask more questions about stuff. This is excellent."
"Great service!"
"It was soooo helpful. Thank you."

42 Mansfield students used LHH in December, and 94.44% said they are glad the library provides the service.

As we've mentioned before, this is a pilot program, and will only be continued if it gets lots of use. We'd really like to see increased usage. Please encourage your student to use it, by clicking
Live Homework Help on the left on our www.sailsinc.org/mansfield home page. We welcome feedback too!

How Internet Search Engines Work

Try this link!

Describes how search engines find information, using software called robots (spiders) to gather words and notes and build an index. Discusses meta tags, ranking, and how an index may be built. Includes diagrams. From How Stuff Works.

Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII.

Our Display Case

A Mansfield collector is displaying perfume bottles, antique and collectible, for us to enjoy during the month of January.

Mystic Aquarium

As of today, we are offering passes to Mystic Aquarium. We have purchased passes, which have a substantial co-pay, for Saturdays and Sundays only.
This is a new pass for us, and we're going to see how usage goes. The Trustees funded the pass. Remember you may book passes from home by going to our web page!

Puppy Love

This is Riley, who just moved to Mansfield this week. Her family borrowed lots of library books about dogs! They especially enjoyed IT'S A LAB'S WORLD.

Food For Fines

Please bring in a non-perishable food item (or several) when you return overdue items during the weeks of February 11 and February 18, and we will "waive" your fines. This offer doesn't apply to museum passes, previously returned items, or lost/damaged materials. Now is the time to check under the car seat and bed, behind the couch, or wherever those overdue materials might be! All collected food items will go to Mansfield's food pantry, Our Daily Bread.
Questions? Please ask!

Youth Department Magazines

We wrote a while ago about all the magazines available in the adult department. It is the time of year when we renew our magazine subscriptions, so we thought we'd turn our attention to the magazines on the other side of the library! Our Youth Librarian, "Miss Kitty," says:

"The Mansfield Public Library Youth Department offers a wide variety of children's magazines that can be enjoyed in the library or checked out. Are you interested in science? Check out "Odyssey" or one of our many magazines that celebrates animals and nature. Do you like stories? We have "Cricket", "Spider", "Ladybug", and "New Moon", which is especially for girls. Girls will also enjoy "American Girl" and "GL." There are magazines for every interest, from sports to gaming to crafts. Adults may find something of interest as well, as we carry "Family Fun" and other publications for adults who love and care for children."

Remember, you may borrow magazines and take them home to enjoy!

Thanks for the Christmas goodies

So many of you brought in cookies and candy for the staff during the holidays! We enjoyed every last morsel, and truly appreciate your kindness. Thank you, and Happy New Year!

On Line Data Bases

By entering your library card number you get access to a large number of databases.