LIS hope that you enjoy your summer. Please remember the following

• Keep Your Campus Card safe – you will need it next semester
• If you borrow books – keep renewing them*
• Learning Centres will be open throughout the summer as normal (except bank holidays)
• Keep in touch via our website www.wlv.ac.uk/lib

* Don’t worry if you forget or go on holiday. You will still be able to renew and won’t build up fines.

You can find out more about our opening hours and ways to renew your items by visiting our website at www.wlv.ac.uk/lib or calling us on 01902 321333 or 0845 408 1631.

On Monday 7th May 2012, Harrison and Walsall Learning Centres will be open from 9am - 5pm, staffed by Support & Security Assistants only.

Telford and Burton Learning Centres will be closed.

Calling all EndNote users. The University is moving from EndNote to RefWorks and the cut-off date is the 31st May. Any EndNote libraries that you want to keep need to be transferred to RefWorks by this date.

Please click on the banner above for instructions on how to do this and for a list of drop-in workshops covering all campuses if you need further help.

On Thursday 26th April 2012 we will be updating our annual Athens licence key. In order to do this we have to briefly take down the Athens authentication system, during which time you may not be able to access our electronic resources.

The work has been scheduled for 9 - 9.30am. Providing no issues are encountered, the system should only be unavailable for a minute during this period, but please be aware that it could take longer.

We will try to keep any disruption to an absolute minimum.

Over Easter, the Learning Centres will be open as follows:

Normal opening hours will resume on Wednesday 11th April.

Elsevier have informed us that there may be problems opening PDF files from ScienceDirect using the latest browsers with the Adobe X plugin. They currently only support Internet Explorer up to version 7. This may cause problems using ScienceDirect on University PCs running Windows 7.

Their technical team is aware of this, and have promised to address this issue in the coming weeks. Unfortunately they have not been able to give us a definite timescale for this work.

In the meantime they suggest the following workaround:

• Right click on the PDF link of the article you require and select "Save Target As"
• Save the file to your documents
• Open the file directly from your documents

This will load this article in the "offline" version, instead of the "online/browser" version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

We will be performing some maintenance on our library management system tonight at 8pm.

We aim keep any service disruption to a minimum, but there is a small chance that it may affect the library catalogue. Specifically after 8pm you may have trouble:

• logging into your library account
• renewing and reserving items online
• seeing the available copies of a book

If disruption does occur and you need to renew your items, please contact us.

Since the launch of our new Library Catalogue last year, we have been keeping a close eye on the feedback and working to make improvements to the service.

On Monday 6th February we will launch an improved search interface for the catalogue to help you find resources.

What has changed?

The new interface gives you three search fields - title, author and keyword. You can use any combination of these fields to search.

If you liked the single search box and you want to do a general subject search, just use the Keywords field.

If you know the title and author, using these fields will give you a much smaller number of results.

We have also put a bit more polish into the interface, and improved the mobile compatibility for those that prefer to use your smartphone to search.

Why did we change it?

Many of you sent us feedback to say that you were having trouble finding specific items in the catalogue. The single search box interface was great for general subject searches, but found too many results when you were looking for a specific item.

We spent a lot of time observing and understanding how staff and students were using the Library Catalogue, and designing a better interface for those requirements. We also got a group of students to evaluate some alternative interfaces, and the most popular interface was chosen.

Please continue to submit feedback to us using the feedback link in the catalogue. Constructive feedback is always welcome. Thank you to everyone who has already taken the time to give us feedback.

Following representation from the Student’s Union the following arrangements have been made regarding Christmas opening of the Learning Centres:

• Learning Centres will be closed 24th – 27th December and 31st December – 2nd January.
• On December 28th, 29th and 30th the Harrison and Walsall Learning Centres will be open from 0900-1700 for student and staff use.
• Students and staff will be able to borrow and return items using self-service terminals with full access to the print collections at both sites.
• Students and staff will also be able to access network resources via PC’s both within the Learning Centres at City and Walsall and remotely via our electronic resource collections.
• Students and staff wishing to access the facilities should make sure that they have their Campus card with them to gain access.
• Normal opening hours will resume on Tuesday 3rd January 2012.

The Library Management System will be unavailable on December 19th due to an upgrade.

Telephone and online renewal, reservations and fine payment will be unavailable, along with the library catalogue and self-serve machines.

Staff will be available in the learning centres to provide assistance, and you will still be able to access electronic resources.