The 2010 Fall Book Sale

Frequent Questions

Can I renew my own library materials?

Yes, you are allowed to renew library materials one time.

4. If an item is overdue, you may renew it. You are, however, still responsible for fines accrued up until the point of renewal.

Should I tape torn materials myself?

NO!!! This will further damage library material.

Standard tape glue will corrode the pages of library items. Also, when you put tape on items, we can’t get it off again. The Allen Library uses specific adhesives and methods to restore damaged paper and bindings. Please bring torn or damaged library items to the circulation desk.

The Binding Blues - Do not tape pages into a score for the sake of an easier page turn. These pages are difficult to remove without damaging the original library item.

- You tore the pages of my library item just like you tore my heart

We Need Your Feedback!

Want to provide feedback to the University of Hartford Libraries to let us know how we're doing? We're running a survey right now to give you that opportunity. We're looking for information on what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and what services you would like to see us offer. If you are a student or faculty member at the University of Hartford, please consider taking this 10-15 minute survey to help us in our quest to continue meeting your needs.

Students Survey
Faculty Survey

Frequent Questions

If the Allen Library does not have an item that I think should be in its collection, can I request that it be purchased?

Yes, the Allen Library welcomes suggestions for purchase from patrons. Please stop by the circulation desk and ask for an acquisition request form. An online version of the form can be found at: http://library.hartford.edu/services/suggtitle.asp. You are also encouraged to bring suggestions to Tracey Rudnick, Allen Library Head Librarian. We try to fill requests that fall within curricular objectives whenever possible. If the item you suggest is not immediately on hand, we can assist you in borrowing it from another library through interlibrary loan.

Can I receive notification that my library items are coming due?

Yes, you may set a variety of message and notification settings by logging into the online library catalog (http://hartford.waldo.kohalibrary.com/). The library catalog log in can be found at the top of the catalog homepage. Enter your 8-digit ID as the login. Enter your surname (with capitalized first letter) as the password if you are logging in for the first time.

Before making any notification changes, please make sure you have an email listed that you check regularly in the contact information box found under the tab “My Personal Details” found on the left side of the page.

Under the tab “My Messaging,” you may set an advanced notice for upcoming due items. Select the number of days prior to an item’s due date, on which you would like to receive a notification from the drop-down menu to the right of “Advance Notice.” Next, check the box in the “Email” column. Finally, click on “Submit Changes” to activate this notification change.

In Summary the four steps:

What We Did This Summer

With the Fall semester underway, it's time to get the Allen Library blog back in gear. We took the summer off from blogging, holding onto all of our juicy information until everybody was back and ready to read it. Although it was fairly quiet in here this summer (except for when the summers-only music ed students were here), we were definitely not just sitting idly, waiting for the new semester to start. So here's just a tidbit of what we were up to this Summer:

• We went live with the Hartt Composers Database, a discovery tool for learning about scores we own of works by Hartt faculty composers. It's aimed at chamber works and is easily searchable by instrumentation, so it is very useful if you're looking for something to play. More on this in a future post.
  
  
• If you're an undergraduate student, you might remember taking HLM 020, the class that introduces you to the library and its resources. A good chunk of my summer was spent redesigning that from the ground up. My goal was to make it more user-friendly, more interactive, and, most importantly, more useful. We're halfway through the first assignment out of twelve, and it seems to be going smoothly, so it's been a success so far. Later in the year, I'll be working on working the new tutorials into the regular website.
  
  
• We reached the one year anniversary of Koha, our library catalog. In honor of this, we (Allen and Mortensen Libraries together) completely redesigned the look of the catalog. What used to be plain and generic is now much more visually appealing and unique. You won't find any other library catalog that looks like this!
  
  
• Both seminar rooms now have new whiteboards, both of which have music staves on them! They are much whiter than the old one, and we'll be working hard to keep them that way. We have a huge TV that is going in the large seminar room, so that will be going up sometime this semester. We also have a faster computer in the small seminar room now.
  
  
• In the "good for them, bad for us" category, both Jenny Crum (Public Services Coordinator) and Andrew King (Cataloging Coordinator) decided to leave the Allen Library in order to pursue more performing and teaching. Although it will be difficult to find replacements, we are in the process of doing that right now. I'll let you know when we have some good news.

This is just the tip of the iceberg (sorry for the cliché), but it should give you an idea of what we were up to. Future posts will give some more detail on some of these, and we have some other good blog posts in mind that should be coming soon. I hope everybody had a great summer and I look forward to seeing everybody again in the library!

Graduation Time! What you need to know about graduating and the library

Hello all! The sun is out, the flowers are blooming, finals are looming, it's that time of year.........graduation! But before you walk, receive your diploma, attend the requisite parties, and get on with the rest of your life, there are a few things you need to know about your library account in order for this process to go as smoothly as possible.

First, do you know if you have items that are checked out, overdue, or of you have fines? If not, you can find this information by logging into your account from our website. You can accomplish this by clicking on either 'My Account' or 'Go to Catalogue' and entering your ID Number as your login and your capitalized last name as your password (or whatever you've set it to if you've changed it). As long as you have given us a current e-mail address, you should also receive e-mails letting you know that you have library business to take care of. If you notice any problems, or things that don't look right, please come talk to us so we can resolve any issues!

Next, any fines you may have, or items you have checked out must be paid or returned on or before May 14th in order for you to receive your diploma. Please be aware that we are only open until 4:30pm on the 14th and will be closed the Saturday and Sunday of graduation weekend (the 15th and 16th), so you will need to take care of everything library related prior to this time.

Last, your library privileges don't end with graduation! All you will need is an alumni ID card, which you can obtain by a quick visit to the Office of Alumni Relations. With this card you will have many of the same borrowing privileges you had as a student. If you have any questions about how to obtain the alumni card, or about its associated benefits, you can call 888.UH.ALUMS or email alumni@hartford.edu.

Good luck on finals, and we wish you the very best in your post-University of Hartford adventures!

Allen Library's First Video Tutorial

We are always looking for new ways to help you find information, and today marks our first foray into video tutorials. Instead of just writing down instructions and adding in some screenshots, these video tutorials (okay, there's only one right now) actually show you the whole process and explain what is happening. Make sure you have your speakers on so you can hear the explanation. The first video tutorial is a quick one-minute presentation on how to find books in our catalog. I'll probably be adding some more complex ones, but this one should be a good start. You can find it here: http://library.hartford.edu/allenlibrary/findbook_video.asp. Please let me know what you think about it and feel free to send some suggestions as to what tutorials you would like to see in the future!