Learning | Ombudsman

Ombudsman

Recently, a co-worker stumbled across the word ombudsman while she was helping the customer look up some federal government job titles.  We talked about what an odd word it is.  

I remember an Ombudsman's Office at my undergraduate alma mater; it helped people get through red tape with things like housing, financial aid, legal matters, and so forth. But I never really looked up the word, and wondered where it came from.

I did look the word up in the dictionary; you will find the definition and etymology at the end of this post.  I'm hiding it at the end, because I want to show you a few things about using SSJCPL's website, www.ssjcpl.org.

Consulting the library catalog

I started by searching the catalog. I used both the classic and shiny new beta catalog, and found the same results in each of them. (Try out the shiny new catalog, and let us know what you think! We are still testing it and tweaking it a little bit, but it won't be long before it's the default search on our site.)

The only result from a keyword catalog search for ombudsman was

The Baby Boomer's Guide to Nursing Home Care. 

The catalog suggested trying the term ombudspersons, which yielded a 1973 document from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare: Child advocacy : report of a national baseline study

Learning | What Was That Book I Read?

Often, customers will ask us if we have a record of the previous items they checked out.  Our software really doesn't keep a list of your past checkouts, but there is an easy way you can get some clues about your reading history, right here on the www.ssjcpl.org website. The trick is to already be logged into your library card account, before you search our catalog.

Log in to your account

Log into your library account using your library card and PIN numbers.  (Don't know your PIN? See if the last four numbers of your phone number work. If not, bring your card or picture ID into any library branch to view/reset your PIN.)

Tip: click on the picture to view the screenshot.

Click on Search/Home

Logging into your account will take you to a page for My Account options.  For our current purposes, just ignore all the links to view and manage your account.  

Instead, you need to act like you are searching for a book. On the dark blue line, click on the words Search/Home.

Click on More Favorites

This will take you to a page that looks very familiar.  It's almost like the one you see after you click on "New Search," after you have entered a term in the catalog search box on our home page.  

But there is one important difference: since you are logged in, it shows some different lists below the search box. These lists are My Favorite Authors and My Favorite Subjects.  The lists are short on this page, but if you click on the link for More Favorites, on the right, you will be able to view long lists of authors and subjects related to items you have checked out before.

Try clicking on an author or subject. This will generate a library catalog search for that term, and show you what books the library has--and allow you to place a hold on the items you want. 

I like to look at mine once in a while, especially if I'm not sure what I feel like reading next. Looking over the lists helps me remember some of the topics and themes I enjoy, and plenty of authors whose names I would not be likely to recall. If I click on the name, I see a list of books by that person, and can usually remember the title of the book at that point. 

Search results for "Yankovic, Al 1959-"