LIS Websites

The LIS Used Equipment Auction has moved to a new location. It is now available at http://lisauction.luther.edu.

Along with a new look and feel come a few differences in the bidding/purchasing process. Users will be able to browse all items available in the auction catalog, but will be required to register for an account or login in order to place a bid.

Successful bidders will receive an email with details on completing the transaction.

Anyone with a valid email address may register for an account, and will also be required to enter a billing address on account creation.

The library has collected a number of tools which introduce the research process and provide help in using common library tools.

• A log of changes to the LIS site made as a result of the first round of usability testing can be found here: http://lis.luther.edu/usability/updates. Volunteers will be contacted soon to schedule meetings for the second round of testing.
• Magnus received an upgrade to its system software.
• Archon was updated to the latest version.
• Research 101, an introduction to library research skills, is now available.

• Updates applied to core and supporting website modules.
• Development servers installed and configured.
• Usability updating has begun (a comprehensive report on usability updates will be included in next week’s report)

Several modules were updated to current versions.

A form for submitting reference questions via the web site was created: http://lis.luther.edu/research/AskUs

A collect of step-by-step instructions related to library tools and services was organized: http://lis.luther.edu/research/howto

Today an SSL certificate was installed on http://books.luther.edu. This will provide secure browsing for users who log in to their library profile at http://books.luther.edu/patroninfo.

Over the course of the Fall semester, the LIS website has been visited by users in 99 countries and 6 continents (we’re still working on Antarctica)!

Here’s a quick look at the countries making the most visits by continent:
Africa
Egypt and South African, tied with 6 visits

Asia
India, with 86 visits

Australia/Oceania
Australia, with 25 visits

Europe
UK, with 114 visits

North America
US, with 56,497 visits (Canada was a close 2nd with 113 visits)

South America
Brazil, with 7 visits

Updates were applied this week to core and supporting modules.

Also, a number of web applications supporting library functions were relocated to the LIS server.

Finally, the Libdata course guide system will go offline Friday, December 19, 2008. Data from this system is being archived, and is available from Ryan Gjerde.

The LIS website will be offline from 7:00 to 8:00 AM on Thursday, December 18, 2008 to undergo some routine system maintenance.

It is now possible to access the Research Pro database search from Encore without logging in, while browsing from an on-campus computer. After searching a keyword term in Encore, there will be a box labeled “Research Pro” to the lower right of the main search results. Clicking the link to “Show online database results” will send your current search to Academic Search Complete, Jstor, Project Muse, Google and Google Books.