More fun with emails

We've been battling with our library management system for a few days now and have finally succeeded in generating PINs for new students (to use the the library catalogue online) and an email message to send to the student with details of the PIN (and a few other logins too). We'll be sending this message to all new students imported into our library management system

The email looks like the following:

Please do not reply directly to this email, please contact library@dbs.ie if you have any queries

Dear Student,

This email contains details of some logins that you will need to access library and IT resources at DBS

You login to library PCs with your student number as both username and password (you will be asked to change the password upon first login).

You can access our ebook collection at http://www.dawsonera.com with your student number as username and date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy i.e. with no slashes as your password

A new PIN (Access Number) has been generated for you to provide access to the online library catalogue at http://www.heritage.dbs.ie. To manage your library account online login with your student number and PIN.
The new PIN is effective immediately.
If you have any questions please contact the Library.

Your new PIN is:


You can access all other library subscribed electronic resources via 'Search All Resources' on the library homepage, with your student number as username and date of birth (this time in the format dd/mm/yyyy) as your password.

If you have problems with any of the above, please contact the library.

Thank you,

The Library

Aungier St. 01 417 7572
Dame St. 01 417 8745
Portobello 01 478 7667

library@dbs.ie

We're still here

The academic year may have all but ended; the exams are over and the majority of the student population dispersed to the four corners of the earth, but the library endures. Don't think for a minute we're sitting back with our feet up drinking Earl Grey tea and eating Malteasers (it's actually ordinary tea and toffypops), your hard-working library staff have a variety of projects to keep them busy.

The annual stocktake is under way, in which we elucidate how many books are actually in the library. Allied to this is the weed of old stock, in which we decide whether we need that 1st edition of Exploring Corporate Strategy that was published in 1826. We're also thinking of ditching archiving our print journals to create a little more space in the library.

More ambitiously we're looking into the following (all, some or none of which may actually come to fruition):

RFID in the library. RFID stands for radiofrequency identification and is used for inventory tracking and management. Loathe as I am to link to Wikipedia, here's their article on RFID. For the benefit of the 3 readers of this blog who'll actually click that link, any RFID technology we use will be passive. What this will allow us to do is to expand our self-issue and return options.

PC and Study Room Booking. We are investigating methods of allowing students to book PCs and study rooms online by themselves, without having to call to the Issue Desk.

Virtual Reference Service We are hoping to pilot a virtual reference service whereby you go to the library website and chat with library staff via Instant Messaging. For an example of it in action, visit the UCD library website

Access Management This may be longer term, but we are investigating a single sign-on system for all DBS resources. It's called Shibboleth and sigh, here's Wikipedia's take on it. If implemented you will only need to sign in the one time to access resources such as Moodle, e-books and the library's electronic resources.

There's probably more, but I've either forgotten it, or it's so top secret, that I can't mention it in public.

Any news will appear here and also on the library's twitter account. See you in September! Alternatively, if you have left DBS, but are still interested in using the library, why not investigate our Alumni and External Reader Service

Passwords - a reminder

At DBS, there are a variety of resources available to the student. Here's a gentle reminder of how to access what's available.

Moodle: Moodle is a virtual learning environment. Here you might find material pertaining to your courses. What's there though very much depends upon the individual lecturer. What's probably there though is previous year's exam papers for you to cast your eye over. If you're looking for exam papers, don't look on your individual course, click the exams link instead and look at the appropriate area e.g. undegraduate arts or postgraduate business studies. Unlike other resources in this list you define your username and password. To access Moodle, you need to have an active mydbs.ie mail account account. Go here to activate your account. Please remember the answer to your security question and please choose a memorable username and password. Our IT department will love you for it. Here's a nice tutorial on Moodle.

PCs and Printing: To login to a PC and to print, you will need to have a student account. Your username will be your student number and your password will be your date of birth. If you don't have have an account set up, inform our friendly and efficient information desk staff know, and you should be set up soon after.

WebFeat: WebFeat is what we in the library use as an access management system, to allow access to all our electronic resources off-campus. Again, your username is your student number and password is your date of birth. Bulk uploads of new users are done on a weekly basis. If you do not have a WebFeat login, give your student number and date of birth to our issue desk staff or email the library. A temporary login can be supplied.

Dawsonera: Dawsonera is our electronic book platform. This is a bit more complicated, so pay attention! If you started before January, chances are you are set up on Dawsonera with your username being your first initial followed by your surname, or your first name followed by your surname. Thus, if your name is Brian Cowan, your username is probably bcowan or briancowan and your password is your student number. If you enrolled in January or after, your username should be your student number and your password should be your date of birth.

Library PC access and printing - redux

Last month we switched over to individual logins on library, and indeed all campus student network PCs. Students now login with their student id number and their date of birth, in dd/mm/yyyy format, with the relevant information taken from our management information system. It has recently become apparent however, that some students' date of birth has been entered into our management information system in American date format, mm/dd/yyyy. Hence, if you can't login to student PCs in the library, please try entering your password in the format mm/dd/yyyy. If that doesn't help, inform a member of library staff at the issue desk, and we should have the problem rectified within 24 hours.

Library PC access and printing

Over the summer changes have been made to the way students login in to PCs in the library and indeed the wider college campus. Instead of using "student" or "internet" to login, students should now use their student number and date of birth (in dd/mm/yyyy format). It should go without saying that you should log off after you finish your session. If you cannot login, (and are a DBS registered student for academic year 2008-2009) give your name, student number and date of birth to library staff. If you are not registered for 2008-2009, you should consider why you are in the library in the first instance. In time, the "student" and "internet" logins will be withdrawn.

We have changed, and hopefully substantially improved our print management system. We are now using a system named Papercut. You will be able to access your Papercut account once you have logged in with your user name and student number. All students have been given €2.00 free credit. You may now see the importance of logging off after you finish your computer session: if you don't log off, someone else will be able to print from your account. Top-up vouchers can be purchased at the library issue desk.