Category: Announcements

Most of you have heard the news that in the next six months, the Summit catalog will be upgraded and improved.  We know you probably have questions and concerns about what this will mean for you and your research.    The Orbis Cascade Alliance has prepared answers to common questions about the transition to the new Summit.  We hope this FAQ will address any questions you may have but don’t hesitate to ask us if you need additional information.  We’re committed to making this transition as seamless as possible!

Reed’s CONTENTdm Digital Collections are back online. You no longer need to log in from campus to search and browse Reed’s CONTENTdm Digital Collections. (Though advanced “My Workspace” features do require login.) For off campus access to restricted collections, please use the library’s remote access proxy (http://web.reed.edu/cis/help/proxy-overview.html). If you have any questions or concerns, please contact contentdm@lists.reed.edu

If you are just getting started organizing citations for your thesis or a paper, help is here! In this session we will look at EndNote and EndNote Web, two fabulous citation management options available for the Reed community. We will overview some of the programs’ capabilities and how well they play with others. 4 p.m., Monday, September 22, or 2 p.m., Wednesday, September 24; meet in Library 17.

—Linda Maddux and Taylor Smith

We are making changes to Reed’s CONTENTdm system so that some collections can be made publicly available.  These changes will also affect how you connect to restricted collections, such as Art & Architecture, Classics & Humanities, and others.

The Classics Image Database and all CONTENTdm image collections will be unavailable as we implement these changes, from Thursday Sept. 11th at 4pm until roughly mid-day on Friday. We will notify you as soon as the downtime is over.

After the downtime, it will no longer be necessary to log in from campus to access restricted Reed Digital Collections (such as Classics Image Database and the Art & Architecture Collection). You will log in only to utilize My Workspace features such as galleries and slideshows. Restricted collections will be accessible off campus through the library’s remote access proxy (http://web.reed.edu/cis/help/proxy-overview.html).

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact contentdm@lists.reed.edu

The Orbis Cascade Alliance is a consortium of 35 Northwest academic libraries. Through its membership in this group Reed participates in the Alliance union catalog (Summit) and the patron initiated borrowing system Summit supports.

Over the course of the next few months the consortium will be migrating the Summit union catalog to a different platform. The new version of Summit will be an OCLC-based WorldCat Group catalog with an interface based on WorldCat.org. Searching this union catalog will retrieve results based on the Alliance collections, followed by results from the rest of WorldCat, the world’s largest online database of library holdings. This approach will provide users with a closer integration of Summit and Interlibrary Loan borrowing, backed by the considerable expertise and resources of OCLC.

Undertaking a change of such a key library service is not something we do lightly. Reed faculty and students are avid users of Summit borrowing, topping the charts of per capita use of the system. We will make every effort to sustain or improve the types of service you have come to expect from Summit. As with all such changes, we likely will experience some implementation challenges. However, the potential rewards are significant in terms of affordability, sustainability, and future functionality.

Library staff will keep you informed of our progress and will provide ample instruction in the use of the new system. As always, we appreciate your patience and support, and would welcome your suggestions.

Summit will be down beginning late Saturday night, Sept. 6, through Sunday
morning Sept. 7 about 11 AM.  Please let a librarian know if you have any questions.  We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.