iCONN Times April 2012
2
connecticut’s search engine Volume 11, Issue 3 April 2012 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: iCONN Excels in Focus Groups P.1 What Users are Saying P.1 iCONN Budget Cuts P.1 iCONN Testimonial P.1 Direct Linking to iCONN P.2 Audiobook Updates P.2 Images & Readers’ Advisory P.2 Promoting Awareness P.2 Audiobook Training P.2 reQuest Billing P.2 T HE I CONN T IMES r e iCONN Excels in Focus Group Results Based on LSTA-related focus group meetings with public, school and academic librarians conducted in 2010 and 2011, iCONN, including the statewide library catalog, consistently ranks in the top tier of State Library services most important to libraries. In the most recent survey, a large percentage of respondents gave high scores (and many testimonials) to iCONN for: the degree to which the program has had a positive impact on library services in their library the degree to which the program has had a positive impact on library services statewide In the 2010 focus groups, when asked to state which three Connecticut State Library services were the most important to them, public, school and academic librarians designated iCONN, reQuest and the Connecticar delivery service as the top three. iCONN Testimonial The benefit to the ultimate users—researchers, recreational readers, business people—is incalculable. - Brian Rogers, Frank L. McGuire Maritime Library, Custom House Museum, New London iCONN Budget Cuts—Again In FY 2012, the iCONN database line item absorbed a mid-year 5% budget cut of $81K—with no loss of resources by using a combination of surplus money and LSTA funds. The reQuest line item wasn’t cut. The budget proposed by the Governor for FY2013, which combines the iCONN and reQuest line items into a single line item, was also cut 5% ($110K). To address this shortfall, we: secured commitments from all vendors to hold FY 2013 rates to current rates, even though all contracts allowed for increases secured a commitment from Gale to further reduce fees by $25K by eliminating Books & Authors plan to eliminate all cover art & professional reviews from reQuest ($33K) Together, these actions reduce the shortfall to $30K. If there aren’t sufficient federal funds to absorb the 30K, it may be necessary to cut another database. What Users Are Saying About iCONN Access to the databases through iCONN has had a tremendously positive impact on the quality of information our students now use for their studies and research projects. - Nancy Florio, Library Director, Canterbury School, New Milford iCONN brings information to my desktop that I would not have access to unless I had an expensive subscription to an information aggregator. iCONN definitely increases the value of a CT library card, indeed it is the most valuable resource available through my library card… - Dr. Peter Kramer, patron iCONN is fantastic! Thank you! - Tiffany Cunningham, patron
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The iCONN Times is a quarterly publication of iCONN - Connecticut’s research engine.
Transcript of iCONN Times April 2012
connect icut ’s search engine Volume 11, Issue 3
Apri l 2012
I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :
iCONN Excels in Focus Groups
P.1
What Users are Saying
P.1
iCONN Budget Cuts P.1
iCONN Testimonial P.1
Direct Linking to iCONN
P.2
Audiobook Updates P.2
Images & Readers’ Advisory
P.2
Promoting Awareness P.2
Audiobook Training P.2
reQuest Billing P.2
T H E I C O N N T I M E S
r e
iCONN Excels in Focus Group Results Based on LSTA-related focus group meetings with public, school and academic
librarians conducted in 2010 and 2011, iCONN, including the statewide library catalog,
consistently ranks in the top tier of State Library services most important to libraries.
In the most recent survey, a large percentage of respondents gave high scores (and
many testimonials) to iCONN for:
the degree to which the program has had a positive
impact on library services in their library
the degree to which the program has had a positive
impact on library services statewide
In the 2010 focus groups, when asked to state which three Connecticut State Library
services were the most important to them, public, school and academic librarians
designated iCONN, reQuest and the Connecticar delivery service as the top three.
iCONN Testimonial
The benefit to the ultimate
users—researchers,
recreational readers,
business people—is
incalculable. - Brian Rogers, Frank L.
McGuire Maritime Library,
Custom House Museum,
New London
iCONN Budget Cuts—Again In FY 2012, the iCONN database line item absorbed a mid-year 5% budget cut of
$81K—with no loss of resources by using a combination of surplus money and LSTA
funds. The reQuest line item wasn’t cut. The budget proposed by the Governor for
FY2013, which combines the iCONN and reQuest line items into a single line item,
was also cut 5% ($110K). To address this shortfall, we:
secured commitments from all vendors to hold FY 2013 rates to current
rates, even though all contracts allowed for increases
secured a commitment from Gale to further reduce fees by $25K by
eliminating Books & Authors
plan to eliminate all cover art & professional reviews from reQuest ($33K)
Together, these actions reduce the shortfall to $30K. If there aren’t sufficient
federal funds to absorb the 30K, it may be necessary to cut another database.
What Users Are Saying About iCONN Access to the databases through iCONN has had a tremendously positive impact
on the quality of information our students now use for their studies and research
projects. - Nancy Florio, Library Director, Canterbury School, New Milford
iCONN brings information to my desktop that I would not have access to unless I
had an expensive subscription to an information aggregator. iCONN definitely
increases the value of a CT library card, indeed it is the most valuable resource
available through my library card… - Dr. Peter Kramer, patron
iCONN is fantastic! Thank you! - Tiffany Cunningham, patron
Page 2 Volume 11, Issue 3
The iCONN Times is a quarterly
publication of iCONN—
Connecticut’s research engine.
Find it on the Web at:
http://is.gd/uuzZnu under “Promotional Materials”
iCONN
786 South Main Street
Middletown, CT 06457
(860) 704-2220 or toll free
(888) 256-1222
Below are free training
opportunities for staff
and patrons from
Recorded Books:
Staff—1 hour
Tue, May 8, 2012 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT
Tue, May 29, 2012
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Patron—45 minutes
Tue, May 1, 2012
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT
To register click on the
links above.
OneClickdigital Audiobooks Training
Direct Linking to iCONN
Recent Updates to iCONN’s Downloadable Audiobook Service
Promoting Awareness of iCONN
A link to iCONN’s Testimonials was added to the main iCONN
landing page at iCONN.org.
A 60ft. iCONN banner was placed in front of the State Office Building
(near the Bushnell and State Capitol) during April 9-16. It will be placed
in the same location during May 28 – June 3.
iCONN and the Connecticut Association of School Librarians (CASL)
shared an exhibit booth at CEA’s New Teachers Conference on March 31.
Recorded Books has recently made improvements to OneClickdigital, iCONN's
downloadable audio book service:
In the OneClickdigital Media Manager for Windows, users can now see
which title is downloading and the progress of each title, and they can
download one title at the same time as they listen to playback of another.
In the OneClickdigital web site, users can now limit searches to only titles
that are available for checkout. This is available in the Advanced Search
tab and in the results/filter area of search results.
OneClickdigital has released a Media Manager plugin specifically for
the Mac.
OneClickdigital Apps for the iPhone, iTouch and iPad are now available
in the iTunes store. It requires OS 10.6.x or higher to download, install
and use.
Did you know that it's possible to link directly to iCONN's databases? For example, the
young school searcher can go directly to Kids InfoBits or Discovering Collection with
direct links. In public libraries, HeritageQuest is a link your genealogical searchers will
appreciate. And academic libraries may want to link directly to CINAHL with Full
Text for nursing students, and the ABI/Inform suite for business majors. These are only
a few of the databases you can link to in iCONN. The links are stored in documents
(Word or PDF, your choice) linked to from this Web page:
http://www.cslib.org/iconnsitemap/staff/urltable.aspx
They are divided up for academic, public, high school, middle school, and elementary
school libraries. Questions? Contact Eric Hansen at 860-704-2224 or
Invoices for 2012/2013
reQuest services will be
mailed:
After July 1 for pub-
lic, academic, and
special libraries.
After September 1
for school libraries.
reQuest fees will remain
at the current prices for
the coming fiscal year.
To change any of your
services, please contact
June 15. Renewal forms
will not be sent.
Coming Soon—Images & Readers’ Advisory
To partially compensate for the previous loss of AP Images and the anticipated loss of
Books & Authors on July 1, we worked with the iCONN Database Committee to
develop two directories of freely accessible resources:
Images—searchable libraries of images and photos with an emphasis
on “kid safe” and copyright-free resources
Reader’s advisory services—matching readers to what they want to read
r e Q u e s t B i l l i n g
