Access Services

Students and faculty in the University of Georgia community can continue to take advantage of library services after the Thanksgiving transition to online classes, whether in Athens or at home in another state.

In addition to online resources and virtual consultations with librarians and archivists, library facilities, including the Miller Learning Center, will remain available to students, faculty, staff, and the community through the remainder of the year and into the spring semester.

The University of Georgia and University of Florida might be rivals on the football field, but they are partners in providing public access to government information.

UGA Libraries and the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida have been designated as a shared regional depository library by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, a move that modernizes efforts to provide access to government reports by allowing libraries to tailor their resources to meet their patrons needs while collaborating to maintain access to comprehensive collections.

A new tool on the UGA libraries’ website helps people retrieve books while social distancing.

The Stackmaps tool has been integrated into the GIL Find system on the Libraries’ website, libs.uga.edu. For books available at the Main and Science libraries for checkout, patrons can click “map it” and find a guide that helps them navigate the library stacks to the location of the materials they need.

“With 4.6 million volumes in our libraries, organized via the Library of Congress call numbers system, we know that it can be difficult to find the book that you want among our stacks. This tool helps patrons to find what they are looking for by themselves, which helps all of us maintain social distancing,” Viki Timian, head of access services for UGA Libraries, said of the tool, which launched just prior to the campus closure last spring.

The University of Georgia Libraries will open to the public Aug. 10 with measures in place to promote the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reopening comes as UGA prepares to welcome students for fall classes beginning Aug. 20.

UGA Libraries will continue to provide course reserve services for faculty planning their courses for the fall semester, with some changes due to the COVID-19 situation. Requests submitted by July 17 are guaranteed to be completed and accessible by the first day of fall semester classes.

This academic year, the Libraries encourage instructors to utilize electronic course reserve resources, which can integrate with eLC and limit students’ need to access physical materials and spaces. Electronic course reserves also allow students to access materials after the Thanksgiving break and position faculty for a potential pivot back to online instruction at any point in the semester.

Through membership in a digital preservation consortium of 150 academic libraries, millions of the University of Georgia Libraries’ books remain remotely accessible while UGA’s campus is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The partnership with HathiTrust provides our faculty, staff, and students with emergency access to digital copies of almost 40 percent of print holdings at UGA and other USG institutions. Combined with the UGA’s existing collection of e-books, HathiTrust’s temporary emergency access enables patrons to read from millions of e-volumes across a broad range of disciplines.

In compliance with the governor’s stay-at-home order, UGA Libraries will no longer offer book pickup or scanning services.

This applies to all outstanding book requests, including interlibrary loan requests, slated to be picked up at the Main Library, until further notice.

We encourage you to continue to take use of the libraries’ digital resources at libs.uga.edu.

During the University of Georgia’s spring break March 7-15, students, faculty and staff may continue to visit UGA Libraries, although various locations will operate on a different schedule.

The Main Library on North Campus and the Science Library on South Campus will close on Sunday, March 8 and reopen 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, March 9 through Friday, March 13. The locations will return to normal business hours on Saturday, March 14.

The Miller Learning Center will be closed over the weekend, March 7-8, and operate reduced hours from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, March 9 through Friday, March 13. The facility will close on Saturday, March 14, reopening at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 15 to resume normal 24-hour-a-day operations.

The semester intersession begins on Friday, December 13. The intersession hours are:                                                           

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation!

Before you leave campus, please return all books (including Interlibrary Loan and GIL Express) even if they are not due.

If you have any questions about your library account, please contact:

Access Services-Main Library

• Phone: 706.542.3256
• Email: maincirc@uga.edu

Access Services-Science Library

• Phone: 706.542.4535
• Email: science@uga.edu