A number of UGA Libraries will operate under limited hours during the intersession period between the fall and spring semesters, with all locations closed for winter break beginning Dec. 24, reopening Jan. 3.

Intersession hours will be in place at the Main Library, McBay Science Library, and Miller Learning Center beginning Wednesday, Dec. 14, which means that the locations will not be open for the usual night hours. The MLC will be closed during weekends, and all locations will be closed on Sundays until classes resume on Jan. 9.

Some libraries will remain open during normal business hours, including the Special Collections Libraries and the Music Library, but the Art Library and Map & Government Information Library will be open by appointment only. The Carnegie Library, located on the Health Sciences Campus, will be closed for much of the intersession period, although students with approved card access can access the basement study area during certain hours. 

UGA Libraries has established a new fund that supports open access to knowledge while helping graduate student researchers fulfill their academic goals.

The pilot program provides funding for open access publication fees for graduate students whose research papers have been accepted by peer-reviewed academic journals. Those fees make research available freely online, but can be costly for students. The fund is a way for the Libraries to partner with other academic departments to enable that avenue of publication.

If you have used databases through UGA Libraries recently, including Multi-Search, you may have noticed something different. 

In several databases, we now have a UGA Access button. This button can connect you to full-text or print versions of articles, books, or other resources, when available. If no resource is available, you can also use the button to request a PDF or a physical copy from another library. Libraries calls this kind of button a link resolver. But jargon aside, think of it as a second option to check in case full-text is not directly provided by a database. 

UGA Libraries’ course reserve services allow faculty to enhance their instruction with additional readings and supplementary research materials, while cutting down costs for students. For faculty planning Spring 2022 courses, course reserve services and support are currently open, and requests submitted by December 3 are guaranteed to be completed and accessible by the first day of spring semester classes.

Need help getting started on that thesis or figuring out how you can take your class project to the next level? The UGA Libraries are here to help! Fall into Research sessions will familiarize you with the tools and services available to help you with your research, from citing sources to creating maps or other data visualizations.

UGA Libraries will be open and ready to serve the campus community throughout the summer. Librarians, archivists and staff will be available for help, research consultations and other activities — both in person and online — for students, faculty, and others, whether they are taking summer classes, preparing for the fall semester, working on independent projects, or have other needs.

A University of Georgia librarian has received a presidential citation from the Special Libraries Association for her service to the organization during a challenging 2020.

Sheila Devaney, a research and instruction librarian at the Main Library, was recognized as a part of the 2020 Annual Conference Advisory Council for the group’s shift to providing virtual educational content when the pandemic forced conference plans to change. The committee worked to provide sessions on timely topics, including social justice and library responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students will soon be able to hit the books into the early morning hours at three key University of Georgia study spots. Extended hours at the Main Library, Science Library and the Miller Learning Center will begin April 5 and continue through spring semester finals.

The Miller Learning Center, the busiest academic building on campus, will close two hours later Sundays through Thursdays, closing at 2 a.m. from April 5 through May 10. The Main and Science Libraries will transition to a closing time of 1 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays April 5 through April 25, and the hours will extend to a 2 a.m. closing time April 26 through May 10.

As part of the UGA Libraries’ commitment to affordable access to learning materials, the Libraries recently ceased the collection of late fees from students who return overdue books.

“Overdue book fines are educational materials costs borne directly by our students. Those with the least ability to pay feel the effect of fines most keenly, as do graduate students who are particularly heavy users of the Libraries’ print collections,” said Toby Graham, associate provost and university librarian. “This step will save students about $25,000 per year.”

EITS will conduct campus-wide network maintenance on Saturday, March 6 from 6:00 a.m. - midnight. As a result, there will be periodic outages of campus Internet and information systems. Since the exact timing of outages on Saturday will be unpredictable, please assume that online resources will be unavailable. 

For the Libraries, this means that access to the following will be intermittent or unavailable: GALILEO databases; online journals and ebooks; ILLiad interlibrary loan requesting; Aeon special collections requesting; EndNote installation; the Digital Library of Georgia and New Georgia Encyclopedia sites; and the Libraries' website.

The campus wireless network and Libraries' computers will also be unavailable during outages.