Introducing Credo Reference

Have you ever wished you could have a reference book collection at home (other than that dusty World Book set from 1988)?  You're in luck!  Carmichael Library now subscribes to Credo Reference, an electronic collection of over 600 encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Credo allows you to search for a term in the entire book collection--but it can do a lot more to help you learn about a topic.  If you like to browse the library shelves, try the Find a Book link.  You'll be able to choose a book based on academic discipline like you would in a print reference collection. Many terms have Topic Pages, which are compilations of encyclopedia and dictionary entries, scholarly and popular articles from library databases, related images, and more.  Or if you're a visual learner, you can create a Concept Map to learn more about your term and related topics.

Once you've gotten background information about a topic, Credo helps you launch into the next phase of research.  Choose from the dropdown menu to continue searching your topic in the WorldCat Local Catalog or a library database.

We hope you enjoy researching with Credo Reference!  Please contact Lauren Wallis or Jason Cooper with questions.

Can't get enough of electronic reference?  Find more titles on Carmichael's Virtual Reference Shelf!

Checking out Weird Stuff in the Library

A recent blog post on NPR's The ProtoJournalist lists some surprising and odd things that libraries check out. Books, CDs, DVDs...sure!  But, did you know there are libraries that check out the following:

• Fishing poles
• Energy meters
• Puppets
• Heirloom seeds for your garden
• Camping gear
• Snowshoes
• Artwork to hang in your home
• Microscopes, telescopes and life-size human skeleton models.
• Board and video games

You may ask yourself, does Carmichael Library lend out any "weird" items? Why yes, we do. You can borrow bicycles, digital video cameras, audio recorders, and headphones!

Library Closed Sunday, June 30

Carmichael Hall will be closed on the weekend between the two summer semesters, Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30.

The library will open Monday, July 1 from 8:00 a.m. - 5: 00 p.m., and will return to normal summer operating hours on Tuesday, July 2.

For more details on our hours of operation, check our website.

WorldCat and ILLiad Issues Resolved

This is a quick post to update the UM community on a systems issue we reported here last week. The linkage between WorldCat Local and our ILLiad system for interlibrary loan has been restored.

In other systems news, we've updated our catalog and proxy software so that recently enrolled students will now have online access to their patron account and our subscription databases.

Temporary Outage Between ILLiad and WorldCat Local

For those who use the WorldCat Local catalog we launched last year, you've no doubt appreciated the ability to initiate an interlibrary loan request without having to key in all of the information manually. Unfortunately, an upgrade performed on our ILLiad system on Friday has temporarily disabled this handy feature. We're working on this problem, and we hope to have it resolved within the next few days. In the meantime, here's all you need to know about the recent upgrade:

• We’re still processing all incoming interlibrary loan requests. If you've previously bookmarked the ILLiad login page we now have a new address. To save time you may consider changing your bookmarks to https://montevallo.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/logon.html.
• For the next few days, when clicking from WorldCat Local into the ILLiad system using the request item button (pictured above,) you will need to manually enter the citation information to complete your request.
• You may contact Jason Cooper with any questions you may have regarding the ILLiad system during this brief transition.

As always, we look forward to assisting you with your interlibrary loan and other service requests.