Library News – Page 62

Main Library Flood Update – June 23

The Main Library is currently closed.

Re-opening the Main Library has been a priority for Facilities Management. Sandbags were removed, and crews have been working to remove floodwater and clean the resulting “muck” from the lower level. A fire panel that had been removed in the flood evacuation must be re-installed and the air quality must be tested before the building is approved for occupancy.

Once the Main Library is accessible to library staff, we will begin returning materials to the lower level storage areas. Currently the third floor is impassable because of stacks of boxes, and the second floor reading rooms are filled with stacks of books on the tables and floor.

Meanwhile Main Library staff who have been temporarily relocated to other libraries on campus, are working to resume library services as best as possible. No library staff are allowed in the building currently (except to check building conditions). Most of our online resources are still available and any materials needed for teaching and research that are currently located in the Main, Art or Music libraries can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. See previous entry for contact information.

We hope to return to the Main Library very soon and will continue to update this site with news and information.

Holds, Recalls and Reserves at Engineering

While the Main Library is closed, we have made temporary arrangements for holds, recalls and reserve materials.

If you received notice before Friday, June 13 that materials were on hold or had been recalled from another user for you, those materials were moved to the Lichtenberger Engineering Library in the Seamans Center.

Course Reserve materials were also moved to the Engineering Library.

If you have questions about these types of materials, please contact the Main Library Circulation at lib-maincirc@uiowa.edu or the Main Library Course Reserves at lib-res@uiowa.edu.

Got Books? Need Books?

You can return library materials to any of our campus libraries (except the Main, Art or Music libraries), no matter where you checked them out. PDF of a map of campus libraries.

If there are materials in the Main, Art or Music libraries you need for your research or teaching, please contact the Main Library Interlibrary Loan Department. Currently our online request system is not operational, but we will take requests via email at lib-ill@uiowa.edu.

Resources and Librarians are Available Online

Though the Main, Art and Music libraries have been evacuated because of flooding and the other libraries on campus are closed this week, the work of a research institution like University of Iowa continues.

The electronic resources to which the UI Libraries subscribes are available online; however the discovery tool we use, Smart Search, is currently down. You can Find Articles or search databases.

Librarians and other library staff are intermittently monitoring email reference from their homes. If you have an question or need help navigating our electronic resources, please Email a Librarian.

For flood related questions, please see the University’s Flood Information website.

Don’t Return Books to the Library Yet

During the temporary closing of the University campus, library books that are either overdue or have been recalled by another library user should not be returned. If you have checked out University library materials, please keep those materials in your possession.

We will waive any fines accrued during this time.

Once we return to campus, Libraries staff will announce where library materials may be returned.

No Volunteers Needed at Main Library

Volunteers in the Main Library moved thousands of books yesterday and through the evening. Operations have concluded at the Main Library and it is closed.

Historical Images of the Iowa River

In the local newspapers and on the evening news, we’re seeing images of the Iowa River breaching its banks. As we know, this is not the first time.

The Iowa Digital Library has images and descriptions of previous floods in the Irving Weber’s Iowa City Digital Collection, from the Iowa City Town and Campus Scenes Collection; as well as some editorial cartoons by Ding Darling.

Of course there are also historical images of the Iowa River in less destructive times, which may help us look ahead to the time when the sandbags are gone and the river returns to its banks.

Using Special Collections During Flood

Some Special Collections materials stored in the Main Library’s lower level are in the process of being moved as a precaution against a rising water level. This shift in location may make some collections difficult or impossible to retrieve through the duration of the flood.

Researchers and scholars who expect or wish to use Special Collections materials should contact the department at 319-335-5921 or lib-spec@uiowa.edu to confirm that specific materials will be available to them in a timely way.

Flood Preparations at Main Library

Libraries officials have met with engineers from Facilities Management to determine steps necessary for securing the Main Library and it’s collections against the rising flood waters. The area of most concern is the lower level storage facilities which include Special Collections materials.

Beginning at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, June 11, the fifth floor study lounge in the Main Library will be closed. The lounge will be used as a temporary storage space for materials at risk of being flooded in the lower level.

Crews of students will be moving these materials using the Elevator D near the South entrance. We encourage people using the Main Library to utilize the other elevators in the building.

Further information about flood preparations in the Libraries will be posted here on the Library News.

RefWorks Enhances Features

With an update in May, RefWorks, the web-based citation management tool used in the UI Libraries, now has even more features.

First, Write-N-Cite III (the tool that allows RefWorks and MS Word to interact) is now generally available (previously it was in beta). Key things you should know about Write-N-Cite III (WNC III) are:

Required for users running Vista and/or Word 2007 and is optional for other users
Single-document formatting (instead of the unformatted and “final” formatted versions that Write-N-Cite II (WNC II) created)
Faster formatting, especially of large documents
Offline capabilities (you can download a copy of your database and then insert citations even when there is no internet access)
Documents created with WNC II (the previous version) need to be converted before they can be used with WNC III

For more information on using WNC III, please contact us or look at the instructions at http://www.refworks.com/Refworks/help/Refworks.htm#Using_Write-N-Cite_for_Windows_III.htm

Second, Write-N-Cite 2.5 for Mac is now available. This update allows WNC to work with the Leopard operating system and Word 2008. No other major features were added.

Finally, you are now able to attach documents (Word files, PDFs, JPEGs, etc.) to a RefWorks record. This is useful if you want to keep a copy of the article with the record on the RefWorks server. There is a 100mb upload limit (this should cover at least 100-200 articles in most cases). The RefWorks administrators can increase this limit on a case by case basis. More information can be found in the RefWorks FAQ at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/find/refworks/#9.

If you have any questions, please contact either Steve Ostrem in the Main Library at 335-5521 or Jonathan Koffel at the Hardin Health Sciences Library at 335-9731.