Omni Expands Access Across Ontario

In 2019, Queen’s University Library (QUL) implemented a new academic search tool called Omni. Omni was part of a radical collaboration between university libraries across Ontario, with the goal of bringing library users greater access to the collections available across all participating university libraries.

We’re pleased to announce that as of August 2^nd, 2022, both McMaster University and OCAD University are now fully patnered with the Omni consortia, bringing the mebership to it's full compliment of 18 institutions. Students, staff, and faculty can now use Omni to quickly and easily request shared physical resources from across all 18 Omni partner institutions, a remarkable collection of nearly 25.3 million resources.

To request an item in Omni, login to your library account and perform a search in the Queen’s + Omni Libraries search. Omni searches across all 18 partners for that item and when it finds an available copy, you’ll be able to place a request, whether it is available at Queen’s or not. Omni automatically finds the item at one of our partner libraries, who will then send it to Queen’s, at no charge to you.  You will be notified when your item is ready for pickup and you will enjoy the same 120-day loan period, the same as if you were borrowing a Queen’s item. While delivery times can vary due to a variety of factors, the anticipated average delivery time is 7 to 10 business days. 

RACER is still available for requested physical resources not available at any of the 18 Omni partners, as well as all electronic resource requests not found through RapidILL.

The Omni academic search tool is one element of the Ontario Council of University Libraries’ Collaborative Futures project seeking the development of a shared vision of the future of library management systems in Ontario’s academic libraries - a vision that articulates new possibilities and builds on a decade-long history of collaboration and cooperation.

This vision involves radical collaboration to help OCUL libraries face the challenges of today - the transformation of scholarly communication and higher education, rapid developments in information technology, and declining or limited resources.

For tips on getting started with Omni please see the QUL website. 

We’re excited to be able to offer our staff, faculty, and students access to request physical resources from across all Omni partner institutions.

For more information, please contact us: library@queensu.ca