Archive for the ‘Website’ Category

Help us name our search box!

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

It’s a snow day in here in Frankfort, but we were too excited about our big news to stay home. Our EBSCO Discovery Search has been up since the end of January, in a soft launch mode while we worked out any glitches.  The official release has happened and we’re also pleased to announce our NAME THE SEARCH contest. We are having a contest to give students, kids, parents, librarians, any Kentuckian, the opportunity to dream up the moniker for our new search.  Maybe it’s an acronym, or a nifty play on words, or maybe it’s something short and to the point.  Who knows?

Contest details and the entry form at located at http://www.kyvl.org/NametheSearchContest.shtm.  Entries will be accepted through the end of March.  KYVL will be giving away new devices provided by sponsors, including an iPad2, to highlight mobile access of the new service.  We’ve got an iPad2 from EBSCO.  A Google Nexus 7 from EQUELLA.  And a nifty CODi vertical messenger laptop/tablet bag from Pomeroy.   So far.  We are still collecting prizes so there may be more to come.

Check out the search.   Submit a name.  You could be famous.

(P.S. Don’t forget to get out there and build a snow person before it all melts away.)

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KYVL’s new discovery tool – up and running!

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

KYVL’s pilot of the EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) is once again up and running.

Please take some time to experience this new tool by searching via the big blue boxes on the KYVL web site. Don’t forget to visit our Training page and sign up for one of our training sessions on EDS.

As always, we welcome your feedback – please submit any questions and/or comments through our Contact form.

Posted in Databases, News, Training, Website | Comments Off

KYVL’s new discovery tool and training opportunities

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

We are pleased to announce that KYVL has just launched our pilot of the EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) – a new service designed to make searching even easier. EDS allows KYVL to pull together all of our high quality resources and make them accessible through one interface. Our big, blue and easy-to-use search box is now the front end for a sophisticated search system that removes the guesswork in searching. We have created search boxes that are age appropriate and others that are based on areas of interest, allowing even easier access to magazine and journal articles, e-books and newspapers.

All KYVL members will have the opportunity to attend live and online training sessions featuring this exciting tool. Please visit our Training page to register.

We hope you will enjoy using KYVL’s EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS). We welcome your feedback – please submit any questions and/or comments through our Contact form located at: https://kyvl.custhelp.com/app/ask.

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Scheduled Downtime – May 7-8, 2012

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

The KYVL proxy server will be down for maintenance, beginning at 11 PM Monday, May 7 until 8 AM Tuesday, May 8. This will prevent users from logging in to KYVL from home and accessing the resources through our website.

If you need to access the databases during this time, you may go to the vendor websites directly using the links below. Your KYVL username and password should work at all of these sites.

EBSCO
ProQuest
Grolier

All other KYVL sites and resources should remain available during this time.

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Retiring the Internet Research Guide and MetaLib/SFX

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

As part of KYVL’s Strategic Plan 2010-13, we continue to streamline our work, address inefficiencies and offer the best possible service to you and the Commonwealth. We believe that the services we provide should be as high quality as possible. This standard applies to the organization and content on our website in addition to our research databases and other services. To maintain a high standard of service to our users, we will be making two significant changes to the KYVL web site.

First, and after long debate, we have decided to discontinue the Internet Research Guide (formerly known as the Virtual Reference Desk) and remove those pages from our site. The IRG requires constant vigilance and a level of upkeep inconsistent with priorities defined by the current strategic plan. We also feel that we should not duplicate the efforts of the many talented librarians who are already creating LibGuides, bibliographies and custom Google searches that serve a similar purpose. KYVL is deeply indebted to all the subject matter experts who have contributed to these pages during the last 10 years.

Second, we will be discontinuing our use of the MetaLib federated searching tool and SFX link resolver. For the foreseeable future, the blue search boxes will be replaced with custom search boxes linking directly to our EBSCO resources. In the short term, we believe this change will result in easier access for our users and more efficient administration for our staff. We will be investigating discovery (or search) options to encompass all our licensed resources as part of the strategic plan.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions about these changes. We look forward to putting the time saved into new initiatives for the benefit of all.

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New Website for Ky Dept for Libraries & Archives

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Our friends at KDLA [the state library/archives] have announced a new website.  Per our colleague Nancy Houseal, State Library Services, in an email today:

“Have you seen it? KDLA’s new website (http://kdla.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx) was launched on March 15. It has a fresh look and was designed with you in mind! When entering the new site, look for the Librarians tab at the top left to find all information relative to you.

KDLA’s web address has changed slightly and many of your old bookmarks will no longer link to your favorite KDLA web pages.  Here is a handy list that will help you locate the State Library’s programming materials and resources:

Kit Request Form: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/askalibrarian/Pages/KitRequest.aspx

Ask a Librarian: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/askalibrarian/Pages/InformationRequest.aspx

Book Discussion Kits (all types): http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/BookKits.aspx

Thematic Kits (all types): http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/ThematicKits.aspx

Circulating Audiobook Collection: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/CirculatingCollections.aspx

Circulating Large Type Collection: http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/CirculatingCollections.aspx

Can’t find what you need on the new website or want to make a comment (good or bad) about the website? Please contact the Reference desk at (800)-928-7000, ext. 342.”

KDLA is a major financial supporter of the KYVL licensed research databases and a very good friend partner in resource sharing and other initiatives.  You can access the services of KDLA as a state employee or as a citizen of Kentucky.  If you are a university, public library patron or other, you have resources available to you as well, including using interlibrary loan to borrow materials at the state library.  We could go on and on regarding what KDLA offers you but see for yourself.

Visit ttp://kdla.ky.gov !

Happy Spring!

Your friendly KYVL Director,
Enid

Posted in KDLA, News, Training, Website, partnerships | Comments Off

Say Goodbye to the Old Website

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The time has come to say goodbye to the old KYVL website. We’ll be taking down all of the old pages tomorrow (Friday, August 14, 2009), with the exception of the How to Do Research Tutorial. For those pages that are used most often, we will put redirects in place that will hopefully keep folks from getting too lost. The rest of the pages will direct users to a 404 that will allow them to search for the content previously located at that particular URL.

If you have a page bookmarked, now is the time to change it to its sister page on the new site. If there’s a page you use all the time that you have been unable to find on the new site, please let me know ASAP and I’ll do my best to make that information available for you.

Thanks to all the folks who have been kind enough to give us feedback on the new site. We hope you’re enjoying having it as much as we’re enjoying working with it.

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Welcome to the New KYVL Website!!

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

KYVL is pleased to announced the launch of our new website! At this time, most relevant content from the old site has been migrated to the new one. However, the old site will remain available through the end of July to help ease the transition.

Why the change?
For some time, we have felt that our site could be more user-friendly and task-oriented and we have designed our new site with these goals in mind.

We’ve also added a number of features that we believe will improve the experience for all our users. Here are the highlights:

Consistant Navigation
Now, users can reach any major section of the site from any other page on the site simply by using the navigation bar at the top. No more compulsive clicking of the “Back” button; no more getting lost; and no more being forced to go back to our homepage and start over.

Help Center and Ask a Question form
KYVL’s new customer management system will let us serve our patrons needs better. Users can now search through our answers to frequently asked questions or submit a question of their own. The Ask a Question form will automatically route questions to the KYVL staff member best equipped to answer them. No more trying to guess who to email about a particular issue.

Internet Research Guide
The Virtual Reference Desk has become the Internet Research Guide. We believe that the new title better indicates the purpose of these pages.

Kentucky Resources Page
Many users, including citizens of other states, come to the KYVL looking for genealogical information or information specifically about Kentucky. As part of the new site, we have created a page centered on Kentucky resources, including links to the Kentuckiana Digital Library, KYVL’s Kentucky Stats pages, the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives and other sources of information about our Commonwealth.

KYVL Newsfeed

Finally, KYVL has created this blog to help us communicate KYVL news in a timely fashion AND to archive that information in an accessible format.

As always, we welcome all feedback regarding the new site. Please submit your comments and questions via our Ask a Question form and choose “Website Comment/Inquiry” from the Topic drop-down menu.

Have a great day and enjoy exploring the new site!!

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