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Archbishop Ireland Library, Circulation

“Not needed after” or “Cancel if not fill by” date or “Why you need to allow time for shipping and handling”

Have you ever bought a gift for someone online, only to have it arrive after the important event? Doesn’t that just ruin your day?

Wouldn’t it really ruin your day if, oh, you had a grade hanging on that package which never came?

When you want an item from another library, make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot! As you fill out the request, you will be asked to provide a “CANCEL IF NOT FILLED BY” date.  CLICnetRequestNNA

Be sure you give us enough time! For items currently on the shelf, we need at least a few days to get it to your library of choice. For items currently checked out by another patron, place a date further out, as they have a right to the book until their due date comes.

If your cancel date is too soon, your order will be canceled! Give us time to fill the order, and we’ll get it to you on the double.

~ Mason M.,  Ireland Library Graduate Student Staff

Circulation, Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

UPDATE: O’Shaughnessy-Frey to Rearrange its Books and Periodicals Collections

Captu2re While it is commonly thought that academic libraries hibernate in the summer months, this is quite the misnomer for the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library these last few months.

As some of you may have noticed we are in the middle of a massive book and periodical rearrangement in the building. Our goal with the project: move ALL bound journals to the Sub Level of the library and start the book collection on the Lower Level, extending up to Level 4.

As the Fall semester begins in less than two weeks the following book call number ranges will be on these new floors:

Level 4: PQ – Z 

Level 3: HX – PN

Level 2: will eventually hold E – HV, but this will be an ongoing shift throughout the fall semester

Lower Level: will eventually hold A – D, but this will be an ongoing shift throughout the fall semester

Note that Periodicals with titles that begin S – Z have been shifted from Level 4 to Sub Level. 

If you have questions or comments about this project, please let us know.

See the Library’s March 12th, 2014 blog post for more details on the project

Archbishop Ireland Library, Circulation

Far from campus?

Outside7CountyMetroSummer is wrapping up.  Did you spend time on-campus working towards a graduate education degree and are lamenting that you’ll be far away from campus and easy access to resources for your studies?

If you’re outside of the seven-county metro area, you’re in luck!  UST Libraries offers distant students the following services:

  • Electronically scanning and delivering book chapters and articles from periodicals.  Make a request through ILLiad.
  • Discussing research topics, little and large, via online chat or over the phone, 651-962-5001.
  • Mailing books from our circulating collections free of charge.  Check out the “Interlibrary Loan for Distance Students and Faculty” section here.
  • Plus mailing books other libraries lend to us for us.  This includes CLIC collections in addition to our local region and beyond!
  • And, of course, accessing our ever growing collection of e-books, full-text articles, and online reference works is as easy as logging into your email through the proxy server.

If you are finished with all of your course work and working on your final project or thesis, be sure you are considered active and “on the books” so your access to these resources isn’t cut off!  Each academic department handles this a little differently, so contact your registrar for details.

Best wishes on teaching this fall and on your own studies!

~ Mason M., fellow graduate student and Ireland Library student staff

Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, Circulation, Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Services

New Walk-in Borrowing Policy with Macalester!

DeWitt Wallace Library Exterior 2010 North Side

 

The University of St. Thomas and Macalester College libraries announce reciprocal walk-in borrowing policy.

Active Macalester patrons can walk into any UST library with their current Macalester ID and register it to check-out 6 books from the general stacks for a 4 week loan. One renewal is allowed for another 4 weeks. See the online policy here.

Active University of St. Thomas patrons can walk into the DeWitt Wallace Library at Macalester College with their current UST ID and register it to check-out 6 circulating items. Book loans will be 4 weeks long, with one 4 week renewal. DVDs and CDs will be checked out for a 1 week loan.

For more details on this change, see the June 4th blog post, “New Process for Requesting Materials from Macalester

Archbishop Ireland Library, Circulation, Libraries, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

UST Libraries Food for Fines (2014 Results)

The O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library and the Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library wrapped up their annual Food for Fines drive this past week.

2014_Food for Fines

 
UST Library patrons donated a total of 927.2 lbs. of canned food. Donations went to the Emergency Food Shelf at the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches.

 
Library patrons were able to donate canned food in exchange for the waiving of overdue fines (1 can = $2).

 
Over the past 5 years we have donated a total of 3,344 lbs. of food. Our first year in 2009 we donated 156 lbs.

 
Previous recipients have been the Franciscan Brothers of Peace and Francis Basket Food Shelf.

 
Thank you to all who participated in this semester’s drive!

News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Services

Cell Phone Charging Stations in the OSF Library!

charger

Is your cell phone almost out of battery power? Got to call home to mom? Forgot to bring your cell phone charger? Now you don’t have to worry when you’re in the Library!

The O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library now has two cell phone charging stations. One is located on the main floor by Coffee Bené and the other is by the Lower Level computer lab.

The charging stations can power 8 devices at once — 4 Apple (includes iPhone 5), 3 Micro, and 1 Mini. A 10 minute charge will produce a half hour of cell phone use.

 emily charger

 

 

 

Archbishop Ireland Library, Circulation, Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

New Borrowing Policy for Alumni, Neighbors, and Friends

The UST Libraries will be changing to a new computer system over the next few years.  In advance of this development, we’re changing the lending policy for our books (and other physical materials) or alumni, neighbors, and friends borrowing card holders.  Your new borrowing period will be 28 days in length, with one additional 28-day renewal available one week before the due date if there are no other hold requests waiting.  A six (6) item material limit remains.  Review other restrictions by patron category on the libraries’ “Borrowing” page.  These privileges are effective Monday, March 31, 2014. 

If you have recently moved or changed your email address or phone number, please take a moment to contact the circulation desk of the UST library you frequent and update your contact information with us. 

Thank you for being part of the UST Libraries’ community of users.  As always, everyone is welcome to use our building and resources when we are open.  Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this or any other library policy. 

Contact us by email at circulation@stthomas.edu or call:

  • O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, St. Paul (North Campus):  651-962-5494
  • Ireland Library, St. Paul (South Campus):  651-962-5450
  • Keffer Library, Minneapolis:  651-962-4642
News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Services

Therapy Pets Here for Midterms!

Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 9.38.16 PM

The ever-popular Library Therapy Pets will be in the OSF Library rotunda

6-8pm on Tuesday, March 18th.

The Ides of March and Midterms fall very close together this year, so we thought you might like a little snuggle from a friendly dog to help make it through.

Or maybe watching a few hops from a fluffy (and amazingly talented) agility bunny will inspire an extra boost of energy to power you through finishing that page of APA citations!?

Either way, everyone is welcome to take a few moments’ break from midterms stress in order to receive some fluffy encouragement.  What’s not to love about spending time with other animal lovers?

As always, remember that library staff are available to assist you find any information you need to complete your work.  Please don’t hesitate to ask!

Libraries, News & Events, Services

Federal Government Shutdown affects Research

It’s happened: the Federal government has shut down.

For those of you doing research today, you may start to encounter a screen that looks a lot like this one:

census.gov

Because of the shutdown, many websites funded by the federal government are currently also down, including statistical organization websites, public sites, blogs, online surveys, and more. Many of them are used by UST researchers on a regular basis.

Below is a list of websites linked to on our subject guides that we currently know of that have been affected; we will try to keep it up-to-date with anything new we discover. 

If you would like assistance finding alternative resources for your research, please feel free to contact any UST Librarian.

Resource Status
American Community Survey Shutdown
American Factfinder Shutdown
Bureau of Labor Statistics (including Consumer Expenditure Survey) Up, but not being updated
Census Bureau Shutdown
Department of Energy Up, but not being updated
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Website is down, but content is still available via the ERIC database (EBSCO-owned). No new data is being uploaded to EBSCO.
Fedstats Shutdown
Library of Congress Shutdown – Interlibrary Loan will also NOT be available from any federal library, which could potentially cause delays
National Center for Education Statistics Shutdown
PubMed Up, but not being updated
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Shutdown
United States Geological Survey (USGS) Main site shutdown; some critical subsites still live

Archived versions of these websites can all be viewed on the WayBack Machine (waybackmachine.org).  Other options for alternative sources of information can be seen on this list compiled by the Pew Research Center.

More information about the shutdown and available government services can be found at USA.gov.