On March 9th, QCARD is being replaced by the SOLUS Student Centre, and this will bring about changes to how student library fees can be paid.  After March 9th, any library fees or fines owed by students will automatically be transferred to student SOLUS accounts, and counted alongside tuition and other university fees.

As of March 9th, Students will need to start paying their library fines directly through the University Registrar (using the same methods used to pay tuition).

• Payment Methods for Tuition & Fees – students: pay your library fines using one of these methods

Library circulation desks can no longer accept payments.  Login to My Library Account to view any fines you may owe.

Non-student borrowers (faculty, staff, community borrowers, etc.) can still pay library fines via the circulation desk.  More information about paying library fines and fees.

If you have any questions about your fines, please contact the circulation desk at the appropriate library.

This news story is republished from the Queen’s News Centre site. (Source: http://www.queensu.ca/news/articles/living-library-literacy)

Grace Chen (left) and Kaleigh Smith move into Stauffer Library on Jan. 27.

During exams, many students say they “live” at the library. This week, two students will actually move into Stauffer Library as part a campaign to raise funds and awareness about literacy around the world.

Kaleigh Smith and Grace Chen will set up their four-person tent in the Stauffer atrium, where they will live for one week. They will only leave to attend class or for their daily 70-minute break. Friends and volunteers will bring them food and any other items they need.

“I’m finally following up on something I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years,” says Ms Smith, a third-year biology student. “Everyone here at university has access to an education, and I really believe that shouldn’t be a privilege for a select few.”

Queen’s Discover the Reality of Educating All Minds (DREAM) team created Live-in For Literacy five years ago. This year, nine universities across the country are taking part in the campaign. Their goal is to raise $27,000 to build six libraries in India through Room to Read, an international organization that works in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to develop literary skills around the world.

First-year Arts and Science student Grace Chen heard about DREAM and the campaign at an orientation week event and immediately wanted to get involved. She says raising awareness will be the biggest challenge the campers face.

“The main reason we’ll be there is because we want people to stop by our tent and listen to what we’re all about,” says Ms. Chen.

In celebration of the 5th anniversary of the event, Stauffer Library will be serving cake at noon on Friday, Jan. 28. The founders of DREAM, deans from several faculties and library staff will be in attendance, and all members of the Queen’s community are welcome.

“We always look forward to hosting Live-in for Literacy in Stauffer Library,” says University Librarian Martha Whitehead. “The students’ dream is to spread education and literacy, and what better place for that message than Stauffer? The DREAM team’s vision and dedication are truly inspiring. We’re delighted they had the idea in the first place and that it has continued and grown.”

The students will be accepting donations in the Stauffer atrium between Jan. 27 and Feb. 3. No donation is too small.

“Every little bit helps,” says Ms Smith. “One dollar is one children’s book in somebody’s hand.”

Get more information or view blogs and live webcam feeds of the campers’ week.

Due to a scheduled power outage at Dupuis Hall, the QCAT Library Catalogue will not be available between December 28-30.  The following online services will be unavailable:

• Searching for books and journals in the QCAT Library Catalogue
• Access to My Library Account (renew loans, view fines)
• Access to online Course Reserve listings

During the power outage, the library website, Connect from Off-Campus, and our Summon search tool will still be available, providing access to most electronic resources (online databases and journals) subscribed to by the library.

We regret any inconvenience this will cause, and look forward to full library web service resuming on December 31.

The Education Library and the Teacher Resource Centre are closed from Friday December 3 through Sunday December 5, and plan to re-open on Monday, December 6, 2010. Please check back for updates. Information about the tragic event of December 2 in Duncan McArthur Hall is available through Queen’s News Centre: http://www.queensu.ca/news/.

Join us for cake Tuesday, December 7 at 3:00pm in Stauffer Library

Queen’s University Library has once again received top marks from undergraduates in the medium-sized university category in the Globe and Mail’s 2011 Canadian University Report. The Library received an A, placing it ahead of all other libraries in its category. Queen’s has received more “A”s than any other large, medium and small university and is one of four universities with the most A+ marks. The survey of over 40,000 current undergrads at more than 50 schools across Canada gives Queen’s A+s and As in 15 categories, including quality of education, academic reputation, libraries, and university atmosphere. Overall student satisfaction remains at an A, and above average for medium-sized institutions. See Queen’s News Centre: http://www.queensu.ca/news/articles/queen-s-excels-globe-student-survey

Are you interested in working in one of the Queen’s Libraries during the 2010/11 academic year? We have a variety of positions available for students who qualify for the Queen’s Work Study Program.

For more information:

Visit our Student Employment Opportunities website and contact us soon! In most cases, Library staff will begin reviewing applications in mid-August, with interviews starting shortly thereafter.

You’ve told us what you want from a library search tool. Beginning today, we’re hoping that you’ll find that Queen’s Library offers an improved search experience with the introduction of Summon.

Summon streamlines the research process by enabling you to search quickly and easily across the catalogue and many of our electronic resources from a single search box. With Summon, you can discover and access reliable and credible library content – print and electronic books, single articles to entire e-journals, newspapers, theses, media and more.

Summon Features

• Single search
  Provides a Google-like search experience, so you can use one search box to discover credible and reliable library content.
• Relevant results
  Delivers search results in a relevancy-ranked list so the most relevant results appear at the top of the list.
• Results refinement
  Navigate and narrow search result sets using multiple methods, such as filtering, faceting and sorting.
• Full-text filter
  Results set can be limited to items immediately available in full text online.
• View and Export Citations
  Search results can be easily formatted and citations exported to bibliographic software like RefWorks or cut-and-paste into a Word document, printed or emailed.

New and Improved QCAT

For those who prefer the old-school search experience, we’re also rolling out some improvements to the QCAT Library Catalogue. Updates include:

• Use your NetID to access “My Library Account” (no more digging through your wallet for your barcode!)
• View item locations on library floorplans
• Permanent URLs to QCAT records
• Direct export to RefWorks
• Links to Google Books
• Fresh new design

Preview the new and improved QCAT (to launch in early August)

Tell us what you think!

Many of these changes were inspired by feedback from our library’s users. Let us know what you think via our feedback form, or share your comments below.

On Friday July 30, the library’s website will undergo a number of changes.  We are introducing two new library search enhancements that will improve access to the library’s collection:

1. We are introducing a new search tool named Summon that will allow you to search across our collections and find books, articles, media and more in a simple, powerful interface.  For a preview, see Summon in action at the University of Calgary.
2. We are releasing a new version of QCAT that will offer important new features such as the ability to export records to RefWorks, login to your account via NetID, and view the location of items on library floor plans.

We will be making extensive changes to the library homepage and other frequently-used library pages to incorporate Summon and the new version of QCAT.  We hope that the library website changes will help you find the information you need to do your research.

What is happening?

On Wednesday June 23, we will be performing an upgrade of the server that hosts the QCAT catalogue, circulation and acquisitions system.

How will this affect you?

All day Wednesday, the QCAT Library Catalogue and My Library Account will be unavailable (e.g. it will not be possible to renew books via the web). However, the Library website and other online services will continue to function normally.

Alternate arrangements during the upgrade

• Temporary QCAT Library Catalogue (coming June 23)

A substitute, backup catalogue will be made available from the Library website during the upgrade to facilitate basic searching of the Library collection. However, all circulation transactions will have to be performed off-line by library staff at circulation desks.

We apologize for the inconvenience of QCAT and online renewals being unavailable for more than a few hours. This system upgrade is necessary, however, to keep QCAT running effectively and efficiently over the longer term. Thank you for your patience!