All the materials that were due June 25, 2008 have been automatically renewed through January 28, 2009.
Graduate students can review their list of checked out materials through My Account in InfoHawk and contact library staff at lib-maincirc@uiowa.edu if you have any questions.
You are welcome to return any books or other checked out materials to Hardin Library for the Health Sciences or any of the other branch libraries on campus.
The Main Library is currently closed.
Before the Main Library can be re-opened there are several critical steps that must be completed.
The fire safety panel that was removed during the evacuation must be re-installed and operational.
Environmental safety engineers will take air samples throughout the Main Library building with extra concentration of samples from the lower level. These air samples will be sent to the lab for analysis.
Once the environmental quality assessment is a complete, a team consisting of people from UI Police/Public Safety, Facilities Management, ITS and Risk Management will collectively make the decision for re-occupancy.
Until that time, Libraries staff is working to provide the best services possible. Since the length of time before we are able re-occupy the Main Library has extended, Libraries IT staff has reinstalled critical interlibrary loan servers which will facilitate online requesting, processing and receiving of materials that may be housed (and currently inaccessible) in the Main, Art and Music libraries.
Hours at some of the branch libraries have been extended to provide students with quiet study space during the summer session. If you received a notice of materials being held for you at the Main Library prior to June 13, those materials are available at the Lichtenberger Engineering Library.
We will continue to update this website with information as it becomes available.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.