“Expired” pages

You wrote:

I’ve noticed that whenever I’m doing research and want to look at a past or forward searches on the library webpage, it never seems to work and says “webpage has expired”. This is really frustrating especially if you’d like to see a past search.

Thank you for pointing this out. I am assuming that this happens when you are searching in CLUES, the library catalogue. I’ve noticed it too and you’re right, it *is* frustrating! I have forwarded your comment to the Libraries’ CLUES Team. In the meantime, I suggest that rather than use your browser’s back button, you try using the navigation links within CLUES.

Fines in MyCLUES

You wrote:

Good day!
I wondered if there was a specific place on the library site where I could check to see if I had a fine for late return of a book that was recalled?

If not, would it be possible to set up such a system on MyClues?

Thank you for your great question.  Indeed, MyCLUES will provide you with that information.  If you have any library fines, they will show up in MyCLUES.

You can also go to MyCLUES to get a complete list of items you have out at the moment, to renew books, to set up preferred searches, and to consult your reading lists and your reading history.

Intro to ebooks

You wrote:

As a new student of Concordia, I was browsing the many services I could benefit from. Perhaps I overlooked some features, but I did not come across any online digital media distribution (ebooks and audiobooks). I was wondering if it would be possible for the University to partner with companies such as OverDrive which allow students to access content from virtually anywhere.

Congratulations on being accepted at Concordia!

It is true that we do not have access to OverDrive.  However, the Libraries have thousands of ebooks from other publishers and platforms.  You can browse our ebooks collection from this page:  http://library.concordia.ca/research/internet/ebooks.php?guid=browse .  You can also simply search our catalogue, CLUES, and if we have electronic books on your topic, they will come up in your results.

FYI, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec  (BANQ) has Overdrive.  All residents of Québec have access to the BANQ’s physical and virtual collection.  If you are new to Montréal, take a look at their website as well!

Best wishes for a wonderful end-of-summer and a great start to the semester.

Signing in First Thing

You wrote:

I always want to sign in first thing. How come we have to wait until we are in the middle of a function? Sometimes I have multiple pages open and forget which I’m signed in or not, going back and forth from Google… I would appreciate a sign in option on the heading along with the clues/keyword prompt.

Thanks for writing to us about this. It sounds like you are talking about the Login to MyCLUES function, but I may be misunderstanding.  There is a CLUES login button along the permanent header of our website, as shown here:

You are not the first to have asked for more obvious and upfront login options, so consider the feedback noted. Since much of our website and many of our CLUES search functions are free to all, however, we also try not to overemphasize the login aspect.

If you often switch back and forth between Google and library resources while working from home, you should also know about something we’ve mentioned once or twice before on this blog:  the Concordia Virtual Private Network (VPN). With the VPN installed,  you won’t be asked to login to MyCLUES to access most Concordia-only online resources such as e-journals and databases from home. And because the VPN allows your computer to be recognized as part of the Concordia University network, you can often even directly access the full text of online journal articles from Google or Google Scholar listings rather than having to open a new window or tab and go through the library web site.

The VPN software must be downloaded and configured on your computer, but that need only be done once, and step by step instructions are available. Feel free to write back to us if you were actually referring to something else,  or if you need more information about any of the above.

Select Books Closer to Home

You wrote:

It would be convenient if the system could automatically pick a copy of a book available in the library corresponding to the circulation desk where the book is supposed to be held. For example, I requested a copy of a book to be held at the SGW circulation desk, and there are two copies available at Webster, but the system chose to assign me the Vanier copy. It is not very convenient, especially on weekends when there are no trucks going from Loyola to the downtown campus.

Thanks for the suggestion.  As you stated, currently if a book is requested through CLUES and there are copies available at each campus library, the copy on the campus specified as pick-up location will not automatically be the one chosen by the system.   It certainly would make sense for CLUES to assign copies of requested items in this way - a possible systems enhancement, though further investigation and testing would of course be necessary first.  On the whole, though, the problem you describe will not occur very often:  duplication of books between Webster and Vanier is quite rare, at least for newer items in the collection. Thanks again for bringing up this interesting point.

For more details about using the CLUES Request option, see our info page.

Ideal book not on the shelf

You wrote:

I was doing some research on genocide prevention and found an ideal book which of course, was not on the shelf, though according to CLUES, it was. However, I found an online version that it would be great if you could add onto the library site for this book, as that saved me a lot of hassle. It’s called “Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities: International Norms
and U.S Policy” and the link is
http://www.cfr.org/humanitarian-intervention/intervention-stop-genocide-mass-atrocities/p20379  Hope this can help someone else!

Thanks for letting us know about this. Doesn’t it feel like that is always the way? You find the perfect book, CLUES tells you ”Availability: IN LIBRARY”, but when you go to find the item on the shelf  it isn’t there!  It’s nice to hear that in your case the publisher is actually offering a free version of this particular book online – a link to it has been added in CLUES as per your suggestion.

For anyone faced with a similar predicament, but without the good fortune of finding a legitimate version online, here are some tips that might help:

1. Ask for assistance at the Information/Reference desk. Sometimes it turns out that the book is actually there on the shelf, and that you simply misunderstood what CLUES was trying to tell you. Librarians and staff at the Desk can let you know if that is the case.
2. Look up the book in CLUES and use the online Request link to initiate a search and reserve the book for yourself if found. (Just don’t use a computer workstation from within the library in which the book belongs, as the Request link will not appear there. Any other computer will work, including your laptop, phone, or a library laptop.) I used the Request link to initiate a search for the book mentioned here, and it has now been declared MISSING in CLUES. In the coming weeks and months the book will be searched again several times, and if not found, declared LOST in CLUES.
3. If the book you want does turn out to be missing or lost, you can request it from another library by using our InterLibrary Loans/COLOMBO form, or you can ask for a CREPUQ card at the Circulation desk and go borrow the book in person if it is available at another local library.

Hope some of this helps!

Cancelling “requests” made in CLUES

You wrote:

Sur la page ”Clues Library Catalogue”, il serait bien d’avoir une page où l’on pourrait voir les livres que l’on a ”request” et ainsi pouvoir les annuler si le
besoin est.

Merci pour votre suggestion. En fait, en vous connectant à MyCLUES, vous avez accès a votre dossier d’usager, incluant toutes vos demandes de réservation (“requests”). Ainsi, vous pouvez les annuler n’importe quand.

Thank you for your suggestion.  In fact, if you login to MyCLUES, there is a page there where you can see all your requests and you can cancel them at any time.

CLUES workstations for access to library resources

You wrote:

My suggestion is that there be a permanent guest past or net name for library use and academic research in the library and online especially during holidays. It would really be a convenience not to have to get the consent daily for use of facilities. I hope my request is given strong consideration….

Thank you for your email.  All databases, e-journals and e-books that are part of our collection are accessible on our “CLUES” workstations.  No login required.  CLUES workstations are available in both libraries on all the floors. 

Search for the resource’s title in CLUES and follow the links from there.

Eclectic collections & ISBN searches

You wrote:

I often hear about books (radio/newspapers/teachers/students) or find out about them on the internet and am VERY happily surprised to find them in your collection. I find it odd that although you have ISBN numbers in your database, the search engine does not offer that as a search option. I am more than grateful already, but thought I would mention that perhaps it can be included in the search menu during some future update. Although most (normal!) people search with authors & titles, it is less demanding on your search engines when the ISBN is used to locate the item. It’s in there, just can’t get at it Thanks again for having such an eclectic collection – it is a pleasure to discover how much you have!

Thanks for your comment. Buying new titles for the library collection is also a pleasure for many of us.  Although CLUES does indeed offer an ISBN search option, we’ll take the fact that you couldn’t find it as a suggestion for improvement on the visibility of this information.  You can find the ISBN option by connecting to the CLUES main menu and selecting the “ISBN/ISSN/Music Number Search” from the drop-down Search Options menu on the right:

As an aside, if you like searching the Internet for new books and using ISBNs, our LibX Concordia browser plug-in for Firefox may be of interest. Once installed, it inserts a Concordia “cue” () beside book description pages on web sites such as Amazon. You can simply click on this cue to launch a CLUES ISBN search for the relevant book. If you don’t see a Concordia cue you can just highlight the ISBN and right-click to start the CLUES search.  Do note that you should always double check with a Title, Author or Keyword search if you get no hits, as ISBN searching can be finicky.  Let us know if you have any more trouble using or finding any of these ISBN options.

CLUES timing out?

You wrote:

Could you PLEASE make it so that we get a warning that CLUES will log out? I am often in the middle of several windows while researching, and it is really horrible when I get logged out without my knowledge because then I lose work done there (finding relevant resources). It would really be simple to do and de-stress students if you could PLEASE make a warning sign that pops up and says “Clues will log out due to inactivity in 2 minutes” so you have a chance to print what you need and not lose everything.

Thank you for this important comment. It must be quite frustrating to have CLUES time out on you unexpectedly. A warning here would definitely be useful, agreed. We have been getting more reports about CLUES logging out unexpectedly lately, though I can assure you that the timeout period for CLUES was definitely not deliberately reduced as part of the recent upgrade. We would need to investigate this problem  further and follow up, but unfortunately there was no email included with your comment. If others have been experiencing this problem, please let us know, and be sure to include the following information:

• from where were you accessing CLUES (ie from a library workstation, or from home) and with what browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer)?
• were you specifically using the CLUES catalogue, or did you use CLUES to connect to another resource, such as an  online database?

Thanks in advance for letting us know. And an added note:  new CLUES functionalities which will allow you save relevant material from your searches in more efficient ways are in the works. We’ll be sure to keep you posted.