Library Catalogue Upgrade January 20-22, 2009

In order to load upgrades and implement enhancements, The UVic Libraries Online Public Access Catalogues, Law and Main (OPAC), will be unavailable from Tuesday, January 20 – Thursday, January 22, 2009.

The Main catalogue, the Law catalogue and the Reserve system will be unavailable for consultation while the upgrade is in progress. However, users will still be able to search the collection using the Libraries’ backup catalogues and reserves list:

Main Catalogue ( http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/backupcat/mcpherson/ )
Law Catalogue ( http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/backupcat/priestly/ )
Reserves ( http://webapp.library.uvic.ca/reserve/ )

These URLs will be accessible from the Library’s home page during the upgrade. Please note that the back-up catalogues will not include the circulation status of items in the collection.

All other resources on the UVic Libraries Website and Law Library website will be available.

Library materials will continue to be signed out at the Loan Desks.
Assistance is available at the Loan Desks, the McPherson Library Help Desk (telephone 250-721-8274) and the Diana M. Priestly Law Library Reference Desk (Telephone 250-472-5023).

We apologize for any inconvenience this service disruption may cause. We look forward to providing improved service and functionality in the upgraded online catalogue.

For more information contact:
Ken Cooley, Associate University Librarian
IT and Technical Services

ILL unavailable May 2, 4pm to May 5, 12 noon

The Relais ILL requesting form will be unavailable from Friday May 2, 2008, 4:00 pm. to Mon. May 5, 2008, 12:00 noon. Relais is being upgraded to Relais V2008. Sorry for any inconvenience. There will be a note to this effect on the ILL gateway page. The form will also be unavailable from the SFX menu page.

Library Online Systems will be down Feb 15-16, Feb 22-23

Kathryn Paul, Reference & Collection Services, sends the following message:

Library online systems down:
Friday, February 15, 10:00 pm - Saturday, February 16, 6:00 pm and Friday, February 22, 10:00 pm - Saturday, February 23, 6:00 pm

Due to electrical upgrading in UVIC Information Systems, almost all systems will be down during this time. This includes the library catalogue, research databases (on and off-site),email, internet access and public computing.

As the outage will significantly affect network services, it is not known at this time whether we will be able to maintain access to our backup catalogue. However, staff in the library will do their best to assist you.

The official notice (from UVic IS) is available here (PDF) Download file

Kathryn Paul
Information Services and Web Redesign Librarian
University of Victoria Libraries
McPherson Library

Online Catalogue Has Changed... Have a Look!

Our online catalogue (http://gateway.uvic.ca/top/main.html) has changed. Have a look!

In early June, we upgraded the software that runs our Libraries Integrated Library System. This gave us the opportunity to include several changes and enhancements to the online catalogue. Many of the changes that you see in the catalogue are the results of feedback we received from our Libraries Website survey done in February 2006.

Here are the major changes that you can now see:

1. The default search in the Main Catalogue has been changed to “Keyword anywhere” rather than “Title”. This search provides a way for the novice user to throw in a few words and get some results quickly. In most cases, the user will rarely get the message “Your search resulted in no hits”. Results are then sorted by a relevancy formula that “brings the good stuff to the top”.

2. “Keyword (with boolean)” allows the user to search using the connectors and/or/not and to construct more complex searches. This search type is now the second option.

3. “Author keyword” and “Subject keyword” allow users to search keywords in author headings and subject headings without having to guess the correct author heading or Library of Congress subject heading. There is more chance for success.

4. Call number searching is much faster than it used to be.

5. Items now have links to both Open Worldcat and Amazon. Both of these services provide users with additional information about an item, such as table of contents, chapter headings, book reviews and more. Users will be able to tell whether a particular book is really the one that they want.

6. Our library system is now “Unicode compliant”. This greatly improves the display of non-Roman characters such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Displays of records in other languages which use special diacritics for their romanized transliterated forms, such as Arabic and Hebrew, are also improved. If you want to see what this looks like, try a “Title begins with” search: Zhongguo zheng zhi si xiang shi

7. The results list displays the format of the item in the right-hand column. Users will be able to tell at a glance whether an item is a book, journal, video, CD etc.

8. The ability to limit a search is now more visible (no drop down menus) and will offer a way to quickly narrow a search. We have added three new limits – 2000- (for very recent material), Music scores, and CD’s/Vinyl. Do a keyword search on “greatest hits” and limit to CD’s/Vinyl. You will be surprised!!

9. New search examples are included at the bottom of the Basic search page with a link to more tips and search examples. http://gateway.uvic.ca/top/more.html

10. Coming soon: Call numbers will be linked to location maps so that a user will immediately know on which floor that item is located.

Comments? Send your comments about these changes/enhancements to http://uviclib.uvic.ca/top/site_feedback.html Thanks!

Catalogue Service Disruption May 30 - June 6

Notice of Service Disruption: UVic Libraries Catalogue
Tuesday, May 30 – Tuesday, June 6, 2006

The Main UVic Libraries Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) will be out of service from Tuesday, May 30 – Tuesday, June 6, 2006. The system will undergo an extensive upgrade during this time.

We have put a Main Back-up Catalogue in place temporarily. Only simple searching is available. Please note that this catalogue does not show whether or not items are checked out. For Law materials, you can also search the Priestly Back-Up Catalogue.

All library materials will continue to circulate normally. All resources on the Gateway will be available, except the Main catalogue, the Law catalogue and the Reserve system.

The UBC (www.library.ubc.ca) or SFU (www.lib.sfu.ca) online catalogues may be searched for call numbers for books and journals. The call numbers used at UVic will be similar to those used at UBC and SFU.

Once the call number has been determined, patrons can search in the UVic stacks to determine if the item is held in the Library.

Media call numbers can be searched through the Electronic Library Network.

Help is available at the Loan Desks, the McPherson Reference Desk (telephone 721-8274) and the Priestly Law Library Reference Desk (telephone 472-5023).

We apologize for any inconvenience this service disruption may cause UVic Libraries’ patrons. We look forward to providing improved service and functionality in our online catalogue.

Catalogue Unavailable

The Voyager Catalogue will be unavailable starting sometime after 9:00pm Monday until early Tuesday morning, due to a planned power outage. We apologize for the inconvenience.

McPherson Library Wireless Network Coverage

Computer and Systems Services (CASS) is now supporting wireless coverage throughout the McPherson Library. Areas of coverage can be viewed at:

http://gateway.uvic.ca/lib/admin/wireless_coverage/default.html

The UVic Wireless Network allows students, staff, and faculty to connect laptops, PDAs, and other wireless devices to UVicNet and the Internet at high-speeds. All you need is a laptop, PDA, or other wireless device with a Wi-Fi compatible card, a web browser, and a Netlink ID. Information on connecting is available at:

http://web.uvic.ca/wireless/connecting.html

Further information on wireless access at UVic is available at:

http://web.uvic.ca/wireless/index.html

Please keep in mind that a wired connections still provide a more reliable, more secure and much faster access to the internet. If you have any questions regarding coverage or setup of wireless please contact the CASS Help Desk.

Wireless Network in the Library

Starting January 12th 2004, regular Wireless service will be offered on the 3rd floor and 3rd floor Mezzanine of the McPherson Library. This service will be expanded to other areas of the Library in a second phase.

How to get started: http://web.uvic.ca/wireless