Some faculty and graduate students look forward to the Winter Break as an opportunity to take some precious time to concentrate on their own research. If you are planning on working during this period and need to use interlibrary loan (ILL) services, or may want to check books out from Olin Library, there are a couple of things you need to be aware of. There will be no access to the general collection on the 3rd and 4th floors and no Olin Library ILL staff working from noon on Friday 12/18/15 until 7:45 a.m. on Monday 1/4/16. This means no books can be checked out and no mediated ILL requests will be placed, no items returned, and no returnable items (like books) processed during this period. Also, while some larger libraries continue ILL service during the winter break, many do not. So that even if you place an unmediated request for an article, for instance, it may not be processed at the lending library. Plan on taking some time during the Thanksgiving break to check out books and place those ILL requests for materials you plan on needing during the winter break. This should give plenty of time for us to receive them in time for you to take them with you over the winter break. If any should have a due date when we are closed, don’t worry – just return them on 1/4 and we will take the flak, pay any fines, etc.
Some readers may remember that we added extra hours as a pilot during winter break of 2014-15. We reviewed the results of that pilot and discussed the issue of whether we needed to be open during winter break with the Library Advisory Council. Their recommendation was that we do not, but that we should give faculty and students plenty of warning so that they could plan ahead.