Collections and Reference

VIRGO provides online access to the U.Va. Library Catalog with keyword searches, searches by author, title, journal title, and subject, and call number searches. Online help screens and printed materials provide directions for using VIRGO effectively, and include instructions for accessing VIRGO from home and office computers. Virgo also provides access to electronic journals and over one hundred bibliographic and full text databases such as Lexis-Nexis, WorldCat, Infotrac, Dissertation Abstracts, MLA Bibliography, and Web of Science.

The Digital Collections Repository contains images of art and architecture, and electronic texts, almost all of which include full text and page images. New content is added monthly, and will eventually include other formats such as finding aids, printed music, video, datasets, audio, and GIS.  A tool called Collectus is available for users to save personal collections from the Repository, generate web pages and slide shows, and manipulate images.

Find@UVA Journal Finder is an online service that can be used to locate e-journals and e-newspapers through citations. Seventy percent of UVa's current indexing and abstracting tools can work directly with the Open URL standard that makes this service possible. The UVa Library's Article Finder OpenURL Resolver is linked from a button in over 90 licensed indexing and abstracting services providing access to over 40,000 journal titles.

Interlibrary Services/LEO The Interlibrary Services Dept. (ILS) provides access to books, dissertations, technical reports, journal articles, government documents, patents, and newspapers on microform for faculty, students, and staff of the University of Virginia. ILS does borrowing for the faculty and students of the University of Virginia Law Library as well. Most articles may be delivered to the user electronically; books are delivered to the designated library circulation desk. The LEO delivery service delivers all materials to departmental mailboxes for faculty and teaching assistants only. Requests for materials should be made through the Request Item link in VIRGO records.

The LibX Toolbar for the Firefox browser allows you to search Virgo as well as our ejournal list, WorldCat.org and Google Scholar. LibX will also put the little orange Rotunda on pages from Amazon, the NYT Book Review, and other sources linking to a Virgo search. If you highlight a term on a Web page and then right-click, you'll get a menu of search options. Try the function where you can highlight the title in a citation on a Web page or in a PDF and drag it onto the Scholar button -- you'll be taken directly to the full text resource if we have it!

OneSearch is a metasearch or federated search tool that can search multiple online resources at the same time -- not just different resources, but different kinds of resources, so for your topic you can look for books and videos in Virgo, articles in Web of Science or Factiva, facts in the Britannica, and pictures in the AP Photo Archive . The results link either directly to or through Find@UVa to the information, the journal or encyclopedia article, the picture, or the Virgo record.

Purchase Request Form Online Librarians select books and other materials for the library collections, in support of the teaching and research needs of the University. Faculty, students, and staff may recommend purchase of a title by filling out the online purchase request form, which will be forwarded to the appropriate librarian.

Reference Services is staffed by reference librarians at all libraries who can provide suggestions about which resources to use for your research. Questions sent in via an online Email Reference Services form will receive a response within 24 hours. Digital resources include online newspapers and journals and indexes, dictionaries and encyclopedias for quick fact-finding and overviews; online catalogs and book-finders such as Books in Print; directories with company and industry information; sources for biographical sketches or information about the U.S. and international governments; or image databases. Most are available through VIRGO "Reference Sources."

Real-Time Reference Services The UVa Library uses AOL Instant Messenger (AIM™) for reference chat. The hours of operation are 11 AM to 11 PM, Monday through Thursday; 11 AM - 6 PM, Friday and Saturday; and 12 noon to 11 PM, Sunday.

The Special Collections Department provides a large collection of electronic finding aids that highlight the libraries holdings of primary resources. Special Collections also provides a variety of digital image collections, including the Holsinger Studio Collection Digital Image Database, the Jackson Davis Collection of African-American Educational Photographs, and the Jefferson Architecture Electronic Archive.

Digitization and Media Creation

U.Va. Community Digitization Guidelines are available, which provide guidance and minimum recommendations for the digitization of images, texts, and data that are in line with the UVa Library's current practice for members of the UVa community who are planning digitization projects.

The Digital Media Labin Clemons Library develops and provides collections of digital images, sound, and video for use in research and instruction. The Lab offers consulting services in digital media production and project planning, hands-on tutorials and short courses, a full array of scanners and video and audio digitization equipment, and analog editing equipment.

Digital Microform Scanning may be arranged through the Alderman Library Periodicals and Microforms department. Scanning services are not provided; training is available for scanning by patrons.

Digitization and Publishing Services (formerly Rare Materials Digital Services) provides digitization of primary and secondary rare materials from Special Collections to support the teaching and research mission of the University.

The Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library provides training on image digitization and access to scanners, as well as assistance with digital reserve preparation.

Instructional Scanning Services (formerly called Toolkit Scanning Services) is part of a suite of services maintained by the University Library to support the UVa faculty in its use of electronic materials for instruction. Primarily, ISS services take the form of scanning materials into a .PDF format and uploading them to the Instructor's Toolkit learning management system as additional readings. ISS also links materials already in electronic format to the Instructor's Toolkit, and scans materials for other instructional uses.

The Music Library processes requests for the digitization of music for Electronic Listening Assignment delivery through Toolkit.

The Research Computing Lab in the Charles L. Brown Science and Engineering Library is the physical presence of the Science & Engineering Libraries' digital initiatives within Clark Hall. It brings together in one place the hardware, software, instruction and assistance to fully realize the digital endeavors of our patrons. The Lab provides a comfortable, collegial environment in which students, faculty and staff at UVA can undertake and accomplish projects both singular and cooperative.

The Scholars' Lab in Alderman Library is a place for faculty and students to explore digital resources, get help with digital projects, and collaborate on research. As part of the University’s framework for enabling scholarship and research, the Lab is jointly staffed by the Library and ITC. The specific types of technical expertise featured in the Scholars’ Lab currently include electronic text and image scanning and manipulation, spatial and statistical data analysis, data management and visualization, and the use of UVA-licensed software.

Production Services

Digitization and Publishing Services (formerly DLPS) includes as one of its charges building a sustainable digital core collection in a cost-effective, efficient manner. This activity is an integral part of the Library's digital collections operations, digitizing text, slides, photographs, microform, and maps.

The UVa Library Web Usability team, with representation from Digital Access Services, Management Information Systems, Communications, and other Library and UVa. units, develops and oversees heuristic and usability testing for Library Web sites. Heuristic testing involves Web experts comparing a site to a set of 10 principles established for a well-running and well-designed site. In Usability testing, actual users perform requested tasks on a site; how quickly and easily the user is able to complete these tasks, or where they have difficulty, tests both the design and structure of a Web site. The Library's goal is that at least 80% of all web sites under development or review should undergo appropriate heuristic and/or full usability testing.