Caval continues to keep me enthralled.......
Worked in digitising this morning and the time just flew by. I think I did ok, Emily seemed happy with what I was doing. Using the BSE program to make the pages read properly, and there were a lot of pages....with lots (and lots) of appendices...I thought I was nearly finished when I got to the bibliography, but nnoooo there were still over 50 pages to go...
After lunch I got to talk to Katura, who is in charge of all of the MK stuff. MK provide the library industry with self service and return sorting systems, and Caval is the Australian distributor - Katura is the helpdesk contact at the moment, she also is a major contributor to any tenders, quotes,etc., for the MK products.
The MK website is in German, so I can't put up a link, but here is a link to 2 youtube videos for the products:
MK Sorting systems
MK Lib Dispenser
And here is one from the Caval website for a full overview of the MK sorting system :
MK System overview
Katura also has a library background, and worked in the CSIRO for 22 years, in a variety of departments and in a variety of positions, but is very keen on working in project management.
I spent the last hour of the day with the IT guys, talking to them about their typical (?) day - so I could at least get some sort of idea of what they do. Typical tech dudes!
What I really pick up from this placement is that the people all sort of evolved into their positions as the company grew and evolved. And it is a continuing process, with things changing all the time.
Till tomorrow..........
Showing posts with label caval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caval. Show all posts
Monday, 25 August 2014
Wednesday, 20 August 2014
Day 3 on Work Placement
Short day today, for many reasons, primarily that I had to pick No. 4 up from Tafe, so had to make sure I was back in time to do so. Started at 10, finished at 1.30 (didn't stop for lunch or it would have been 2).
First stop today was a meeting with the CEO, Mike. He's been CEO for 2 years now, but recalls first being involved with Caval many years ago, when he was in a Head Librarian position at University. Caval has grown a lot, and diversified many times since those days.
As a not for profit organisation, it's really about finding a balance - the member libraries don't pay for certain services, other organisations do, the foreign language cataloguing fluctuates; it is quite a niche market, and Caval is able to offer a more personal touch than a lot of companies, with particular emphasis being placed on the level of care they're able to give. For example, for sight-impaired students, they are able to offer a copying service where the student can manipulate the text in a book so they can read it (copyright exceptions are available for that). The quality level is second-to-none, it really is top-notch. There is no 'it'll do' approach here, it has to be right.
I spent the last couple of hours working with Theresa, in Inter Library Loans. Terri would have been proud! I was shown the cycle of receiving requests, processing them, sending them out & receiving them back in. There are several programmes used, depending on the organisation. Relais is the main program. Aleph is another, whilst there is currently one being used as well from Libraries Australia, but they are trying to get that customer to transfer over to Relais. Caval offer customer support for the Relais system, and there are several people working on enabling it to integrate with Bonus (another system run by several University libraries)
And the storage area is so sophisticated, when Carm1 was built, International companies came to inspect it, not surprising considering the amount of planning and technology that was involved. For long-term storage of books, there is a specific set of criteria which has to be adhered to - the boxes need to be acid-free; the temperature must be constant; the humidity has to be at a particular point that the pages don't dry out but also no micro-organisms get to work; they are stored in the dark as light also effects them. That research also applies to Carm2, but as it is more recent there were slightly different criteria, due to fire hazard restrictions, and experience!
One thing I am curious to see is how the marketing is done - how do they get new business? I understand from an academic point of view, but Caval also offers end-to-end service now, where a (public) library will want for example : 1000 French novels, 2000 Japanese fiction, 150 Japanese non-fiction, 200 Hindi fiction etc. etc. I am keen to see how this is approached. I hope I'll get to see that next week, as tomorrow I think I'm in the end-processing section all day. I think that will be similar to what I did at protect-a-book last year, for a couple of days.
I feel like I spent half the day in the car. I'm so tired. An hour there, an hour home, then 15 minutes after I got home I left to pick up the youngest, dropped off Louise, dropped off Katherine, headed straight back out to pick up Sarah, came home & had some crackers, back out again for a 5.30 appointment at the doctor - where I didn't get seen till 6. So now I know why I have so much pain. I have an official diagnosis now, of fibromyalgia. What does that mean? Here is a definition I found on the web, which pretty much explains it:
Fibromyalgia causes you to ache all over. You may have symptoms of crippling fatigue -- even on arising. Specific tender points on the body may be painful to touch. You may experience swelling, disturbances in deep-level or restful sleep, and mood disturbances or depression.
Your muscles may feel like they have been overworked or pulled. They'll feel that way even without exercise or another cause. Sometimes, your muscles twitch, burn, or have deep stabbing pain.
Some patients with fibromyalgia have pain and achiness around the joints in the neck, shoulder, back, and hips. This makes it difficult for them to sleep or exercise.
First stop today was a meeting with the CEO, Mike. He's been CEO for 2 years now, but recalls first being involved with Caval many years ago, when he was in a Head Librarian position at University. Caval has grown a lot, and diversified many times since those days.
As a not for profit organisation, it's really about finding a balance - the member libraries don't pay for certain services, other organisations do, the foreign language cataloguing fluctuates; it is quite a niche market, and Caval is able to offer a more personal touch than a lot of companies, with particular emphasis being placed on the level of care they're able to give. For example, for sight-impaired students, they are able to offer a copying service where the student can manipulate the text in a book so they can read it (copyright exceptions are available for that). The quality level is second-to-none, it really is top-notch. There is no 'it'll do' approach here, it has to be right.
I spent the last couple of hours working with Theresa, in Inter Library Loans. Terri would have been proud! I was shown the cycle of receiving requests, processing them, sending them out & receiving them back in. There are several programmes used, depending on the organisation. Relais is the main program. Aleph is another, whilst there is currently one being used as well from Libraries Australia, but they are trying to get that customer to transfer over to Relais. Caval offer customer support for the Relais system, and there are several people working on enabling it to integrate with Bonus (another system run by several University libraries)
And the storage area is so sophisticated, when Carm1 was built, International companies came to inspect it, not surprising considering the amount of planning and technology that was involved. For long-term storage of books, there is a specific set of criteria which has to be adhered to - the boxes need to be acid-free; the temperature must be constant; the humidity has to be at a particular point that the pages don't dry out but also no micro-organisms get to work; they are stored in the dark as light also effects them. That research also applies to Carm2, but as it is more recent there were slightly different criteria, due to fire hazard restrictions, and experience!
One thing I am curious to see is how the marketing is done - how do they get new business? I understand from an academic point of view, but Caval also offers end-to-end service now, where a (public) library will want for example : 1000 French novels, 2000 Japanese fiction, 150 Japanese non-fiction, 200 Hindi fiction etc. etc. I am keen to see how this is approached. I hope I'll get to see that next week, as tomorrow I think I'm in the end-processing section all day. I think that will be similar to what I did at protect-a-book last year, for a couple of days.
I feel like I spent half the day in the car. I'm so tired. An hour there, an hour home, then 15 minutes after I got home I left to pick up the youngest, dropped off Louise, dropped off Katherine, headed straight back out to pick up Sarah, came home & had some crackers, back out again for a 5.30 appointment at the doctor - where I didn't get seen till 6. So now I know why I have so much pain. I have an official diagnosis now, of fibromyalgia. What does that mean? Here is a definition I found on the web, which pretty much explains it:
Fibromyalgia causes you to ache all over. You may have symptoms of crippling fatigue -- even on arising. Specific tender points on the body may be painful to touch. You may experience swelling, disturbances in deep-level or restful sleep, and mood disturbances or depression.
Your muscles may feel like they have been overworked or pulled. They'll feel that way even without exercise or another cause. Sometimes, your muscles twitch, burn, or have deep stabbing pain.
Some patients with fibromyalgia have pain and achiness around the joints in the neck, shoulder, back, and hips. This makes it difficult for them to sleep or exercise.
So yeah, that pretty much covers it. Everything hurts. Not just aches, stabbing pain, sometimes stopping me in my tracks and making it hard to breathe. The way my doctor explained it was that the nerves around the joints where my muscles/tendons meet shouldn't be painful. My brain is reading the signals from those nerves as pain. In order to help stop that, he's changing my low-dose anti-depressant to a different one. There are 15 of them apparently, and we'll just keep trying till we find one that helps. But I have to lose weight and do gentle exercise, all as part of the 'program' to trick my brain into stop receiving those signals as being pain. I hope it works, coz it ain't no fun!
Anyways, I'm absolutely stuffed, so off to relax for the night.
Monday, 18 August 2014
Day 1 on Work Placement
SO, today I drove all the way over to Bundoora for work placement, to CAVAL, which is on the ground of Latrobe University. I was pretty lucky, the traffic wasn't too bad. It took me just under an hour - although if I'd gone the way google maps told me to go it would have taken at least another 15 minutes. Charles showed me a better way, which I'm half familiar with, so kudos to him.
It has to be one of the most interesting places I've ever visited, I'm going to try to write a little bit each day about placement, as Cathie wrote up a timetable for me, for today through to Thursday, which is really helpful. Cathie is in charge of the digitising section, she was very welcoming and helpful, and gave me the background information for the business - she's also the one who's organising for me to get together with the relevant people to show me around and give me a taste of what they do.
One of the things they do is use this amazing machine to scan books, which has adjustable clamps and a cradle (so the books don't have to be flattened - imagine if you had to flatten a really old book!) to hold them in the correct position. It has a page turner too, which can be slightly unpredictable depending on the book. Oh and the software involved - I was lucky enough to meet Emily, who is the person in charge of the machine - and she got me to QC one of the documents which had been scanned recently. Document? Well, it was nearly 200 pages, so yeah....I got to crop images, remove clamp marks, delete duplicated pages, etc.
I also got to speak with Lamis, a lovely lady in charge of the cataloguing section who is particularly involved with the LOTE section. She showed me the books with the rules in it which have to be applied in order to meet the criteria set by LOC. LOC really does rule the world! She is also in charge of the end-processing side of things, preparing books to be shelf-ready for various customers. I did this last year at protect-a-book, so at least I knew what she was talking about. I'll be spending at least a couple of days in that section, because they always can use an extra pair of hands.
Tomorrow I get to see the CARM section, where all the archives are kept. Cool!
I'm really tired, it's been a helluva long day for this old chook,
Till next time.........
It has to be one of the most interesting places I've ever visited, I'm going to try to write a little bit each day about placement, as Cathie wrote up a timetable for me, for today through to Thursday, which is really helpful. Cathie is in charge of the digitising section, she was very welcoming and helpful, and gave me the background information for the business - she's also the one who's organising for me to get together with the relevant people to show me around and give me a taste of what they do.
One of the things they do is use this amazing machine to scan books, which has adjustable clamps and a cradle (so the books don't have to be flattened - imagine if you had to flatten a really old book!) to hold them in the correct position. It has a page turner too, which can be slightly unpredictable depending on the book. Oh and the software involved - I was lucky enough to meet Emily, who is the person in charge of the machine - and she got me to QC one of the documents which had been scanned recently. Document? Well, it was nearly 200 pages, so yeah....I got to crop images, remove clamp marks, delete duplicated pages, etc.
I also got to speak with Lamis, a lovely lady in charge of the cataloguing section who is particularly involved with the LOTE section. She showed me the books with the rules in it which have to be applied in order to meet the criteria set by LOC. LOC really does rule the world! She is also in charge of the end-processing side of things, preparing books to be shelf-ready for various customers. I did this last year at protect-a-book, so at least I knew what she was talking about. I'll be spending at least a couple of days in that section, because they always can use an extra pair of hands.
Tomorrow I get to see the CARM section, where all the archives are kept. Cool!
I'm really tired, it's been a helluva long day for this old chook,
Till next time.........
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