Flight Path:
Home to Airport: 4 hours before flight time
Jed – DXB: 3 hours flight time (Lay-by 2 hours)
DXB – JFK: 14 hours flight time (Lay-by 4 hours)
JFK – AUS: 3 hours flight time (Destination)
I’ll leave you to do the math on how long I was on the trot ……
AUS: One really tired Electronic Resources Librarian
Arrived in Austin on 2 April after a long flight from Jeddah. The journey was smooth. Passing thru immigration at JFK, NY, was quick and the luggage came thru all the way to Austin. Checked in at Hampton Inn, near Uni of Texas, Austin.
Working in the field of Electronic Resources in a Graduate Research Library can be very challenging at times. One of my responsibilities is troubleshooting access issues. Electronic resources cover the whole works: electronic books, electronic journals, full-text, A&I and image databases and many more. Most often these access issues touch on:
Open URL
Authentication settings
Off or On Campus Access
IP Addresses
Browser Compatibility
Site Down (Broken Links)
Knowledgebase
Vendor Admin modules
Patron Confusion
Internal communications
Staff Training
Partial Open Access
Metadata
and the list goes one ….
The last few weeks have been pretty busy. I was inundated with a number of inquiries/issues via emails, phone calls and our online reference system, Libanswers. At one point, one of our electronic resources were disrupted due to excessive downloads.
Ahh .. excessive downloads … there are lots of reasons for this to happen. Sometimes, users deploy smart technologies to trawl (search and download) for articles. In some instances, I discovered that the cause of this was the Find Full-text Feature in Endnote. This actions would trigger an alert that warns the electronic publishers of this violation. When this happens, the publishers either forewarn us to follow up and investigate the matter; or they just ‘pull the plug’. The latter are the ones that irk me. Perhaps, there could be some form of standardization to address this matter.
On our part, we try to be pro-active as possible. Informing our users not to download excessively during our training sessions. Telling them the electronic resources usage policy. Putting put signs and posters. Sending email alerts to the community and the list goes on …..
I remembered the day when I flew out to the Middle East. (That was almost more than 5 years ago). The start of my new adventure; something that I should have done a long time ago. Lots of emotions on that day. Family, relatives and friends at the airport. Teary eyed. I was half awake; couldn’t sleep the night before. Knew that being away from my wife and kids would be a difficult phase for all of us. The opportunity was too hard for me to turn down. After all, I needed that change in working environment. Alhamdulillah, this came along ….
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Emirates had a good in-flight entertainment system. ICE. But, no matter what movies I selected, thoughts of my family kept playing in my mind. Worse of all, I could not sleep that well-enough and forgot to hydrate myself during the long journey 😛
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My stop-over in Dubai. Headache – got to rest. The cause: Lack of water in-take and not sleeping enough during the flight.
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By the way, the Nike shoes lasted quite long. Served me well. But alas, I had to dispose of it after it became too worn out. Am glad to get those pair … one of the best that I used so far ….
Rain D Librarian 