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Recent and forthcoming changes in University Libraries

From: Lesley Moyo (moyo@vt.edu)
Director for Research and Instructional Services
University Libraries

ONLINE

Addison - The Online Public Access Catalog has a new look and new features:
The new appearance in Addison follows the university's branding initiative. The new look and navigation options provided make the catalog more consistent with other university web sites and simplify navigation. Similar changes will be made to the library's websites over the course of this academic year. Follow this link for details of the new Addison features http://news.lib.vt.edu/libnews//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=639

Databases
EBSCO - Academic Search Premier, an enormous interdisciplinary database, has replaced OneFile and other general purpose databases formerly provided by InfoTrac. This change to a new provider was occasioned by a new contract awarded by VIVA (the Virtual Library of Virginia) after extensive trials had indicated that Academic Search Premier yields better results in almost all areas. Faculty are encouraged to try this database and to involve librarians in explaining this significant change to students. We now have a growing family of databases on the Ebsco platform. The EBSCOhost database is the recommended point of entry for these resources.

Classical Music Library - Both humanities instructors and music lovers throughout the university will want to check out this fully searchable classical music resource which includes tens of thousands of licensed recordings that users can listen to over the Internet.

Market Line - A new business database provided detailed and substantial market analysis at the industry, product, and country levels.

ILLiad - The interlibrary loan and document delivery service has some new features too:

1. Links to ILLiad in the ILL web pages now open the logon page in a new browser window, not within the ILL web pages frameset.
2. If you have forgotten your password, you can now instruct ILLiad to change it for you without calling the ILL office. When you click on the "Forget Your Password?" link on the logon screen, ILLiad will send instructions and an authorization link to the e-mail address you have on file in ILLiad.
3. Should you accidentally delete an electronic delivery file from your e-delivery menu, you can now cause ILLiad to restore the file without calling the ILL office. Of course, this can be done only within the normal 30-day retention period for those files.
4. Logon to ILLiad is at http://www.ill.vt.edu/illiad/

NEWMAN LIBRARY

New Entrance
The Newman Library main will have a new entrance as we reopen doors located on the Mall side of the building that were closed in 1983. This entrance will provides direct access to the second floor of Newman where a conglomeration of user services, including circulation and reserve services, reference assistance, instruction room, new book display, various computer workstations, and more are now located. The entrance will open on or after August 18, and is ADA accessible.

Learning Commons
The second floor has been redesigned to create a place with resources that support a variety of research and learning methods. It includes specialized workstations, collaborative workspaces, with user assistance available in close proximity

Reference/Research Assistance
Reference services have been reconfigured to provide better discipline-based research support to users. There are now two reference centers providing research assistance as follows: Science & Technology Reference is located on the fourth floor. Business, Humanities, and Social Sciences Reference will be relocated to the second floor as of August 18th. The two reference centers include librarians with subject backgrounds in the disciplines served. LiveRef questions received via our online chat service at (http://www.lib.vt.edu/services/liveref.html) is already being streamed to the respective reference centers. The phone contacts for the reference centers are - Business, Humanities & Social Sciences References: (540) 231-9232. Science and Technology Reference: (540) 231- 4122

Circulation and reserve services
Circulation and reserve services, including DVDs have moved from the first floor to the second floor immediately inside the new entrance. AV workstations have also been moved from 1st to 2nd floor for use with multimedia resources.

Shifted collections

1. Government Documents collection has moved from 2nd to 1st floor.
2. Current newspapers have moved from 4th to 2nd floor
3. Reference Collection for Science & Technology has moved to 4th floor next to the Science and Technology Reference desk
4. Reference collections for Business, Humanities and Social Sciences remain on the 2nd floor, but in a new location near the reference desk Assistance is available in locating material

Assistance with Microforms and Government Documents To accommodate the new services on the second floor, the government documents have been moved to the first floor, in the same area as microforms. Assistance will be available at the reference desks and part-time on the first floor.

Study Cafe
Sometime this semester construction will begin on a study café on the first floor of Newman Library.

ART & ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY
The library is now located on the first floor of Cowgill Hall. A spectacular new addition is the Circulation Desk that was designed and hand-crafted by Tim Castine, a member of the School of Architecture + Design. Follow this link to view a photo of the desk: http://news.lib.vt.edu/libnews//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=633. The Art & Architecture Library now also features a study area with new tables and chairs.

For any needs relating to research and instructional services, contact me at: moyo@vt.edu or 231-2708. For any needs relating to collections, contact Dr. Paul Metz at pmetz@vt.edu or 231-5663

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