Monthly Archives: October 2013

This is it!  The final challenge of the 2013 ACLA eResource Challenge!

Congratulations to those of you who have stayed on top of all the challenges. (Impressive!)  For those of you who have remaining challenges, there’s still time!  All responses received by midnight on Sunday, November 3 will count towards team participation and, for those of you on a team, prize entries (if you submit your contact info).

Let’s finish out the Challenge with Zinio, the digital magazine service we offer.

The Challenge:

Zinio has recently made some upgrades.  These include the ability to:

• browse before logging in
• checkout back issues (back to the beginning of our subscriptions)
• checkout multiple issues before viewing (rather than checking one out, going back to the site for another, and back again for a third, etc.)

All of these are great improvements, but there are a couple of things we still get asked about regularly.

First, if you recall, patrons are required to have two Zinio accounts.  The first is a library Zinio account and the second is a consumer Zinio account.  They can use the exact same email address and password.  In fact, we strongly recommend that they do.  We’re hoping most of you have already gone through this process, but if you haven’t, please do so now.  Really.  It’s worth it.

Now that everyone is all set with their Zinio accounts, let’s get to the tricky questions:

The Scenario:

A patron calls because they have just checked out some magazines but are taken to a screen that says their cart is empty and prompting them to purchase magazines.  Help them find their free checked out magazines!  (The screen shot below may help you.  You might also try to recreate the experience.  Here’s a tip: be sure you are logged out of your consumer Zinio account before checking out magazines.)

The patron also mentions that they would like to stop receiving advertising from Zinio, but they would like to receive notification when a new issue of their checked out magazines becomes available.  What can you tell them?

Follow this link to complete the challenge.

This is the final database challenge of the competition!

Congratulations to those of you who have stayed on top of all the challenges. (Impressive!)  For those of you who have remaining challenges, there’s still time!  All responses received by midnight on Sunday, November 3 will count towards team participation and, for those of you on a team, prize entries (if you submit your contact info).

The Scenario:

A patron stops in and says, “I was walking downtown this summer and there were what seemed like hundreds of people walking around in animal costumes!  There was a sign that said “Welcome Furries!” What are Furries and why were so many in Pittsburgh?”

Follow this link to complete the challenge.

The first four challenges all involved ebooks.  Now let’s take some time to explore e-audio.

The Scenario:

A patron is looking for downloadable audio books for a  short road trip.  He wants one fast-paced title for each leg of the trip.  It will take him between 4 and 5 hours each way.

Follow this link to complete the challenge.

OK, Challenge participants, let’s get down to business!

The Scenario:

A student is doing a presentation on the H.J. Heinz Co. for one of his college business classes. He needs to include some information about competitors to Heinz.

He’s concerned that his presentation will be too dull, so in order to spice it up he also wants to find:

• three products other than ketchup that the company makes
• a slogan used by the company in the past
• a list of historical facts about the company

Follow this link to complete the challenge.