Information Desk Specialist Traning Home - Resources Outside of UCSD

	Circuit
	Melvyl
	Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
	WorldCat

Circuit

The Circuit is the combined library catalog of UCSD, USD, SDSU and CSUSM. All UCSD students, faculty and staff and non-UCSD patrons who have library cards may use Circuit. Access to the Circuit catalog can be gained in a few different ways. If you are performing a search in Roger, then wish to do the search in the Circuit as well, you may click on the link that says “Search in Circuit”. You may also link directly to the Circuit web site from the Roger web site. At the upper right, above the ROGER title bar, click on “Circuit”. The last option is to type in the URL http://circuit.sdsu.edu/. Registered library users at any of the Circuit schools may check out books from any of the Circuit schools in person. They must have their current Library Card and have an activated PIN password. If the patron is not a UCSD affiliate and is having problems with their PIN, they should contact their own school. (If they’ve never had a PIN, they may be able to get one by going to their library’s home page and following the links.)

One thing to remember is that even though the Circuit catalog will list items such as journals as being available, journals do not circulate through the Circuit. So the patron may try and request the journal, but will be disappointed in finding that even though the catalog lists it as being available, they are in fact unable to request that item. Audio-visual materials also do not circulate. The basic rule is that if the item they are requesting would be found in general stacks, then it will most probably be available for a Circuit request. In the event of any doubt, send the patron to the Circulation desk. For a photocopy of an article, see the section on Interlibrary Loan.

Back to top

Melvyl

The University of California libraries have a request feature available to UC students, faculty and staff registered with the libraries. Books listed at other UC campuses can be requested through the Melvyl catalog.

Following is a printout that goes through each step of the request process. Most of it is self-explanatory, but a few steps need clarification:

• Be sure to click in the checkbox next to the item before clicking on Request.
• Library Card/Account Number is the barcode on the back of the UCSD ID.
• PIN isn’t needed for UCSD users.
• “I will no longer need this after…” Some patrons think this is a statement of how long they want to keep the item. Actually, this information is used by ILL to determine when to end their search if they are having problems locating the material. ILL staff want to know at what point they should quit trying because the item is no longer of use to the patron.

Back to top

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Only UC students, faculty and staff may use Interlibrary Loan. Students, faculty and staff from other UC’s must obtain a UCSD library privilege card to initiate an ILL for pick-up from a UCSD Circulation Desk. Refer non-UCSD patrons to PLUS.

For UCSD affiliates, many ILL requests can be done online through the Melvyl and UC e-Links REQUEST buttons. If a patron needs assistance though, some additional information is needed to determine the appropriate referral. The first step is to determine whether they are requesting an item or following up on an earlier request.

If this is the initial request, find out whether the person is a student, faculty or staff and refer as follows:

• Undergraduate ILL requests are handled by SSH ILL and http://sshl.ucsd.edu/services/ill.html provides online request forms and additional information. If further assistance is needed, the student can phone SSH ILL at 534-2528.
• Graduate students, faculty and most staff requests are handled by the ILL unit of the library affiliated with the patron’s department. Contact information and online forms, if available, can be found at http://libraries.ucsd.edu/services/ill-dds/other.html .
• Some UCSD staff do not fit into any affiliated category - such as those in Student Services, Physical Plant, etc. In those cases, SSH ILL is the default unit.

If the patron is requesting assistance with a previously-submitted ILL request, follow-up is handled by the ILL unit of the library they chose as the pick-up location. The exception is CLICS which doesn’t have an ILL unit and is handled by SSH ILL.

Following is some additional information along with helpful hints furnished by SSH ILL:

Requests for ILL for recreational reading are discouraged as it costs the system about $20. for each request.

Known problems: Patrons do not realize that for materials in multiple volumes and serials they have to specify a volume and issue number in the notes field of the request form in order to get what they need. If UCSD patrons enter their PIN in a Melvyl request form, the request doesn’t go through. (Only UCB, UCD and UCSB need that PIN.) UCB gets perhaps more ILL requests because their cataloging is done differently and their record for an item is often separate from the records from other campuses - users don’t realize the item is here at UCSD, so they request it from UCB.

UCSD on-campus graduate students, faculty and staff can get articles from SIO or MCL photocopied and sent, typically via electronic delivery to their email account, at no charge. If they are asking that an article on campus be photocopied for them, they will get a $3.50 charge. (For grad students, faculty and staff located at MCL or SIO, the policy works in reverse.) The quickest way for them to request articles is to email the ILL unit of the branch that owns the journal they want photocopied i.e. mclill@library.ucsd.edu or scrippsill@library.ucsd.edu . If they use ROGER request, the request will go first to Library Express and they end up forwarding it to the appropriate branch which means there is a delay.

Library staff personally review all requests made online for items housed in another UC library’s Special Collections - to make sure we don’t have it at UCSD, to see if the item is available from a non-Special Collections source, etc.

If a ROGER search results in a holding at SRLF, the patron should go to MELVYL to request the item because this is actually an interlibrary loan. If the request is done through ROGER, the ILL staff has to pull it and then submit it individually thus adding to the expected 2-3 day turnaround through Melvyl.

Books requested through ILL generally arrive 4-10 working days after the request is processed.

Back to top

WorldCat

This database is sometimes called World Catalog or the OCLC Online Union Catalog - OCLC is the Online Computer library Center formerly the Ohio College Library Center.

What it does: WorldCat contains all material cataloged by OCLC member libraries and has over 48 million records. The database covers material from before 1000 BC to the present. It includes citations for books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, computer files, newspapers, slides, videotapes, etc. in a variety of languages.

When you would use it: Some patrons specifically request a search in WorldCat. (Ask the person doing your training to tell you about the WorldCat boys.) Otherwise, at the InfoDesk, this database is a last resort. It’s the place to try if a title or author can’t be found in ROGER, the Circuit or MELVYL. If it still isn’t found in WorldCat, there’s a strong possibility that there’s something wrong with the title or spelling that the patron is using.

Search Tips:

• The initial search by author or title will likely bring up a large number of entries. It helps if you limit the search from the beginning to the type of material you need. In Advanced Search, the third box down shows the choices available.
• The truncation symbol is an asterisk.

Back to top

Last Updated 8/31/05