MONTEREY NEWS DIGITAL COPIES READY FOR VIEWING

Click above on the link and it will bring you to the Digital Archive. The Library, with the assistance of the Monterey News, the Digital Commonwealth, and the Internet Archive, has been working on digitizing all of the Monterey News. The rest of the collection will be available in the future, but for now enjoy the first 35 years!

Summer Internship Available— Click Here

For the past two years, The Friends of the Monterey Library has sponsored an intern for the summer to help with our summer reading program and programming.  There will also be opportunities to help with library projects if time and scheduling permits.  The time period for the internship is flexible, starting before or on the first Saturday of July, and continuing at least through the third Saturday in August.  The actual time spent each week is also flexible.  The most important time required will be to help out with the Saturday morning programming for the first three Saturday mornings in July, and the first three Saturday mornings in August. For the past two years we’ve had high school age interns.  Besides helping out with keeping the summer reading program, and the summer program performances, we also encourage the intern to lead a craft workshop or story hour.  So there is plenty of opportunity to be creative with making posters, coming up with ideas to encourage children to use the library in the summer, and learning about what goes on behind the library circulation desk!

TRY OUT ASPEN— OUR NEW CATALOG FROM CWMARS!

Click on this to link to new catalog which is live and will change on Monday

I had to learn the difference between an online public access catalog and a discovery layer interface over the past few months.  You don’t need to know those terms, but you will see a difference when you next decide to go to CWMARS and order one of the 8.1 million items in the catalog or check your account.  Simply put, the CWMARS catalog was an OPAC, and limited in many ways.  You may not know that all of the staff here used to cheat to find certain requests, that we just couldn’t simply find in our OPAC, by opening the Amazon bookmark.  Maybe you did that too.  The OPAC was designed to tell exactly what was in the system exactly as it was entered, and there was no room for error.

Why was that a problem?  Many of us have been known to remember part of a title, or part of an author’s name, or even misspell either of the above.  Even if we got that right, and managed to go exactly where we should have gone, sometimes we found the item checked out by someone else. Wouldn’t it be nice for someone to recommend a similar title that will satisfy our need for a mystery that included recipes and would be solved gastronomically?  Or what if we couldn’t wait for the recommended title to come on delivery next week?  With CWMARS, you could always look up the digital catalog with just a few more clicks, and compare the wait lists.  Of course we all get used to computers and software and their limitations, as long as we get what we are looking for. CWMARS has always worked to make the library experience easier to navigate, and more clearly understandable, as well as having an acceptable outcome. Ever since we switched to Evergreen, CWMARS has been looking to improve the catalog experience.

On March 4 we will all be looking at a new interface from CWMARS.  Googling CWMARS will now bring you to a new discovery layer that which will change your CWMARS experience.  It is designed to be intuitive, not always a priority in OPAC design.  Our staff has been training for several months now and will be ready to help you.  We think this will make the library content more accessible to everyone.

Aspen is the name of this discovery layer.  It is already in use in thousands of libraries.  The first thing you will need to remember is your username and password.  You will use your current name and password.  For many of us who use auto sign in, and have not written or stored your password where you can easily access it, this could pose a problem. If you want to check in with us before March 4 or whenever you have the chance, please do.  We can give you your username and reset your password. 

On March 4 when you click on the catalog on our website, your bookmark, or google CWMARS catalog(catalog.cwmars.org), you will go directly to Aspen. You will be able to select your home library (presumably most of the readers of the Monterey News will choose Monterey), and then you will sign in.  You will notice the difference right away.  You should see the Monterey Library logo!

The screen will show items by cover, and there are many lists preloaded for you to explore.  Categories like New Fiction, New Non-fiction, or NY Times Best Sellers.  And if you so choose you can make your own lists of items you’d like to check out.  You’ll be able to filter to the types of items you’d like to see.  If you would like to read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, all you’ll need to type in is Heaven and you’ll likely see the complete title below on a dropdown.  Click on that and you’ll see all the various formats available.  That means it will have the book, the audio, the e-book, the e-audio, the Kindle version, the large print and the playaway.

 How will this help?  If you need to get a copy of that for your book club, you’ll immediately see the availability of the different media.  When that title comes out as a movie, that will be shown as well.  If the print editions are not available, you will see if any other editions are.  No need to go to Libby to check out or put an e-edition or hold; you’ll be able to manage your digital resources as well as your print borrowing on one site. You will still manage your digital content on Libby, but borrowing can be part of Aspen.

If you look above the search bar of the home screen, you will see links to the Monterey Library home page, the events calendar, the Knox Gallery, and the Friends of the Monterey Library web page. All these links are active, as will be other links to other library related sites.  If you click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner, you will be able to access some of those links and many more as well.  You will see your account, including all items you have out, whether they are physical or downloaded, all your holds, and if any of them are ready to pickup or download.  You’ll be able to access the Commonwealth Catalog.

You will be able to create your own lists of what you have borrowed, and what you would like to borrow. There will be a button right alongside the NY Times Best Seller list that you will click to access your own lists.  If you use advanced search to look for gardening, cooking, or any other items, and then save that search, you will have a list of saved searches that you can check periodically to see if there are any new items that satisfy the filters of your search as the system will continually update your search. 

The main advantages of Aspen include searching improvements that are forgiving, e-content integration, and third party enrichment integration such as Novelist, NY Times Bestseller lists, cover images, and even Wikipedia author entries. An added bonus is your choice of a dozen languages to read the screen, as well compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It is up to you to decide how far you want to dive into the Aspen experience.  Many will simply want to search for titles and borrow or put a hold on that item, and that is the basic function. 

In order for everyone to feel comfortable with this new system as well as explore some interesting enhancements, the Monterey Library will be offering special live demonstrations during the week starting March 4.  Special hours available will include Tuesday March 5 10-11:30AM, Wednesday March 6 1:30-3PM, Thursday March 7 10-11:30, and 4-5:30PM, Friday March 8 4-5:30PM, and Saturday March 9 10-12noon.  We will be available during all open hours to answer questions, especially user names and passwords, but during those scheduled hours a second staff member will be available to demonstrate Aspen as well as answer questions. Stop in and see what I think is the biggest improvement in many years in CWMARS service!

Interested in having an event at the Monterey Library? Please read the policy below. If you have any questions about that, please email montereylibrary.com. If you’re still agreeable, than fill out the Building and Grounds Use Form.

TO BORROW e-MATERIALS CLICK HERE!

For details of other sources for electronic content— check out our Resources page!

WATCH THE CHILDREN OF MONTEREY CUT THE RIBBON AT THE GRAND OPENING!

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