We’ve made some important changes in response to new Covid-19 restrictions in mainland Scotland. Please take some time to review the changes before you visit.
The Sir Duncan Rice Library (TSDRL) will be open 10:00 – 17:00 Monday to Friday from Monday 11 January. The Medical and Taylor libraries will open at a later date when it is safe to do so.
There will be access to a limited number of study spaces in TSDRL however we ask that you use these spaces only if you have no other suitable study space available to you.
Books are only available on our Click and Collect Service and cannot be accessed freely on the shelves. (This is a Scottish Government requirement)
We recognise the enormous value of the Library to our students and are working extremely hard to offer you Library services during this challenging time. Please help us by taking care to understand the rules and only visiting in person if you have an essential need. Please check the updated FAQ later on Monday 11 January, and email library@abdn.ac.uk if you cannot find answers to your questions.
If you have queries or comments specifically about our COVID-19 measures, please get in touch with coronavirus@abdn.ac.uk.
We have worked to reorganise our library spaces and services to ensure that they are COVID-19 safe for all of our staff and students. This work has followed Scottish Government guidance and has involved Library, Estates and Health and Safety professionals at the University. In order to allow safe access to resources and study spaces we have had to make a number of changes and the arrangements are outlined here. Please take the time to review these changes before you visit. We will continue to review our approach and welcome your feedback.
Opening dates
From Monday 14th September The Sir Duncan Rice Library will be open Monday to Friday, 9.00am – 5.00pm
From Monday 21st September, it is anticipated the hours will be extended and will include weekends – further details will be confirmed shortly.
Plans are progressing for the re-opening of the Medical Library at Foresterhill and the Taylor Law Library – dates for re-opening will be confirmed soon.
Hygiene
We are increasing the amount of cleaning being done throughout the building and introducing regular touch point cleaning. We ask our users to help by washing hands regularly, using sanitiser on entrance and elsewhere (it is provided on all floors) and using wipes to clean keyboards and printer/scanners. We also ask that no food or drink (except bottled water) be brought into the building.
It is also a legal requirement that face coverings are worn all the time you are in the building, unless using the café (see details below).
Capacity
We need to maintain 2 metre physical distancing in the building and this has meant a substantial reduction to the number of desks we have available at this stage. We are providing 170 desks on the upper floors (of which, 22 have PCs). When we reach this number of users through the security gates, we will be unable to allow anyone else through until people leave. There will be a queuing system in place on the ground floor to allow a small number of people to wait. However, we do not expect to reach capacity in our first week of opening. We cannot provide for group working in the building. The building will be open to University of Aberdeen students and staff. External Library members cannot access the building but can use the Click & Collect service by arrangement. Access to visitors including schools and the general public is not yet possible.
The Special Collections Reading Room
Our Scan & Send service will continue to operate, enabling digital rather than physical access by researchers. Images will be provided for research, rather than publication purposes, and large-scale digitisation will not be possible as we focus on supporting numerous requests. We will try to prioritise photography and scanning according to the urgency of need.
From 14 September, in-person bookable access to the Reading Room is possible for University of Aberdeen staff and students. Research visits will be limited to enable social distancing and enquiries should be made at least one week in advance.
Books and other printed materials are available to browse and borrow but need to be placed on the quarantine trolleys provided after use, unless being borrowed.
We will also continue to provide our Click and Collect service to allow you to order items for collection at the entrance.
Service desks
In order to protect staff and students we aim to keep interactions to a minimum. Library staff should only be approached if absolutely necessary and when they are behind screens at service desks.
Café
We plan to reopen the Hardback Café with appropriate safety arrangements in place and will provide news about this in due course.
Whilst we are looking forward to welcoming students and staff back to The Sir Duncan Rice Library, please work with us by taking care to understand the requirements, being patient about these new procedures and following all the guidelines. This will help us avoid the need to impose further restrictions and make it easier for the Library staff working in the building.
A summary of our new building use requirements
These signs will be displayed on digital screens in the Library, to remind you when you enter the building.
Please observe the following rules when you visit:
Remember to bring your staff/student card as access to The Sir Duncan Rice Library will be provided via swipe card through the card-controlled door to the left of the main sliding entrance door. Card scanning at the security gates is compulsory to meet Government Test and Protect obligations.
Use hand sanitiser on entry and exit and wash hands or use sanitiser during your stay
Wear your face covering at all times or display your lanyard or show your exemption card if you are unable to wear a face covering
Maintain two metre social distancing and follow the designated one-way routes
Clean surfaces, PCs and Multi Function Devices (MFDs) after use with the wipes provided
Place any handled books which you do not subsequently borrow on the trolleys provided
Only approach Library staff who are seated behind support desk screens
Note that no food or drink other than water is permitted in the building.
Once in the building:
Lifts to be used by one person at a time, so please leave more time to move around the building
Only study spaces marked with a tick can be used, allowing 2m distancing
The water stations on each floor will not be available – please bring your own water (no other food or drink must be consumed in the building)
Due to the current restrictions and physical distancing, assisted evacuation from upper floors is not possible. However, study spaces will be provided on the ground floor for users who cannot safely access other floors.
Please speak to a member of staff at the Welcome Desk if you have any concerns or require assistance. Our updates page is at bit.ly/COVID-19LibraryUpdates
Previously we told you about the wealth of additional e-resources made available to us temporarily by publishers, in support of online teaching, learning and research during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Since our original post you may have noticed that some of those resources have been removed, as access was granted on a temporary basis. However, we would like to draw your attention to a number of these additional e-resources that remain available to our users.
Make sure to visit our page and explore the many extra e-books and journal articles available to us via Biochemical Society, Elsevier, JSTOR, Kortext and others until the end of the summer and beyond.
Please email us with any questions you may have as we are always happy to help! library@abdn.ac.uk
We may be unable to post books out to our Education Distance Learners at the moment, but we are still here to help. As always, the Distance Learner team are available Monday-Friday from 9am-12pm, responding to your queries. Please get in touch with distancelib@abdn.ac.uk if you need help with anything, as we would be happy to help!
Since the library building closed, we have been working hard to gain access to more e-books which are available via our online catalogue Primo.
We also have temporary access to some additional electronic resources; you can find a full list of what we have access to here. VitalSource and EBSCO eBooks are two that you may find particularly useful as they have access to some useful education resources and e-books. First time users of VitalSource: click on ‘Create a VitalSource account’. After setting up an account, VitalSource lets you borrow up to maximum 7 textbooks, you can read more information about VitalSource in one of our blog posts here.
We can reassure you that you don’t need to worry about returning your library books during the lockdown period.
Your books will be automatically renewed while the library buildings are closed.
So, holding on to your books for now will not incur fines or stop you from graduating.
Returning books would probably involve non-essential travel, which doesn’t comply with Scottish Government guidance.
We’ll get in touch via University email to update you once the situation changes.
If you have any questions, please contact library staff, who will be happy to help, or check out our website for the latest information on your Library services.
To access the databases and e-book collections that the University of Aberdeen subscribes to you must prove that you are a member of the university. Most resources require a Shibboleth/institutional login, while for others authentication is via IP address (the provider is looking at the physical location of the computer you are using).
Off-campus access information for databases requiring an institutional login (most databases)
To access these resources, use the Find Databases option in Primo. Remember to sign in to Primo before you do any searching. When working off-campus, you may be asked to sign in to a resource via your institution, in which case you must select ‘UK Access Management Federation’. Then select ‘University of Aberdeen’ and lastly, enter your computer username and password.
Off-campus access information for databases requiring an IP address authentication (e.g. OnePetro, Kluwer Arbitration)
To access these resources off-campus, you must use the university’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). This makes your device look as if it is a campus-based device. Via the VDI you can also access classroom software associated with your login details and your H: drive.
To check the authentication route for a database, type its name into the Find Databases search box in Primo, then click on ‘Available Online’. This will take you to the database’s information page
A very small selection of academic databases require a special username and password. A list of usernames and passwords for those resources can be found on this password-protected page
For subject-related enquiries, please get in touch with the Information Consultant for your subject. Details can be found at https://bit.ly/InfoConsultants
As academic libraries worldwide are committed to continuing support for teaching, learning and research during the COVID-19 outbreak, many publishers have made online resources, including e-books, e-journals and databases freely available.
Students and staff at the University of Aberdeen can now access more books and research materials than covered by our normal licences and subscriptions. Details on specific collections are available from our designated Library page, which will be updated regularly as changes are made to these temporary resources.
In addition to this highlighting of expanded content from commercial organisations, we plan on providing information about relevant and appropriate Open Access resources. Bookmark our web page!
As of 17:00, Friday 20 March, all University of Aberdeen Library buildings are closed. This includes the Special Collections Centre and all Museums.
As a result of the current situation, we are receiving a lot of questions relating to the provision of Library resources and services. Please see our FAQs section on the Library website for answers to frequently asked questions and the latest information. The page is updated on a regular basis.
We would like to reassure all students and academic staff that a digital library service will continue to be available while our physical libraries are closed, and we will continue to support study, teaching and research.
Library staff will be monitoring email accounts and will be available to answer any general enquiries during office hours.
To maximise social distancing and slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), Taylor Library and Medical Libraryclosed at 17:00 on Tuesday 17th March until further notice.
The Sir Duncan Rice Library (TSDRL)will remain open until 17:00on Friday 20th March and will close at 20:00 on Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th March. The Hardback Café and Library Gallery have now closed.
Wolfson Reading Room – as of Tuesday 17thMarch, physical access to the Wolfson Reading Room has been suspended. Service updates will be provided via our webpages https://www.abdn.ac.uk/special-collections/
For all libraries:
Any borrowed items will automatically be renewed until further notice. Loans will not become overdue and no fines will accrue.
If you require additional loans while the Library is closed we will be happy to extend loan allowances by up to 10 items – please bring items to the Information Centre for issuing in advance of Friday 20th March at 16:45.
The option to request items that are currently on loan has been removed from Primo.
Items can be retrieved from Taylor Library and closed access stores until 15:00 on Friday 20th March by contacting library@abdn.ac.uk
Book order requests – we strongly recommend choosing items in electronic format to maximise availability for students who are now working at a distance
We are unable to process new Inter-Library Loan requests as many university libraries are no longer supporting this service while they prepare their COVID-19 contingency plans.
The Library web pages will be regularly updated with FAQs. Library staff will be monitoring email accounts and will be available to answer any general enquiries during office hours.
Please get in touch, and we will do our best to help – contact details below.
To maximise social distancing and slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), Taylor Library and Medical Library will be closed from 5 pm today (Tuesday 17th March) until further notice.
Staff will be monitoring email accounts and will be available to answer any general enquiries during office hours. Please get in touch and we will do our best to help you.
For subject enquiries related to the Medicine, Dentistry and Medical Sciences, please contact Mel Bickerton m.bickerton@abdn.ac.uk
Janet MacKay, j.i.mackay@abdn.ac.uk, is the contact for any Law subject-related queries
The Sir Duncan Rice Library currently remains open. To maximise social distancing and slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), The Sir Duncan Rice Library is currently only open to:
InfoLinks 