Beginning Sunday, September 1, 2024 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County libraries are making the following changes to Libby and hoopla:
Reducing Libby holds from 20 to 10 at a time
Reducing Libby borrows from 20 to 10 at a time
Reducing hoopla borrows from 15 to 5 per month
Requiring PIN authentication to the Libby sign-in process
You can learn more about the upcoming changes here.
While the vast majority of patrons will not be impacted by these changes, we know there will be interest in why we need to reduce holds and check-outs. Below are a Staff FAQ and two patron brochures to help explain changes and answer questions that may come up.
Introducing an exciting new database you can share when your patrons ask you this eternal question! Thanks to Power Library, all libraries in Allegheny County now have access to a robust run of National Geographic, featuring a collection of fully searchable issues running from 1888 –2020. This is great news for students, researchers, and anyone interested in this classic American magazine that explores the natural world, both on and off planet Earth.
The search interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Gale product before. We have access to lots of great Gale content! They all work in similar ways, and I’m here to point out a few exciting things I’ve found in the new National Geographic Virtual Library.
Because I am so dorky, I always head to the advanced search page to see what it can offer. This advanced search page provides some useful options for sifting through such a large collection, including multiple keyword fields, date ranges, and content types. Yes, you can search through National Geographic content not just for the articles but also for the iconic covers, detailed maps, and even the advertisements!
I’ve been having a grand time searching through 132 years’ worth of advertisements!
The electric car won’t happen overnight in November 2002, pg. 39
An electric car from November 1914, pg. 549
I’m a fan of the dynamic reading pane, as well. Readers can flip through the pages, zoom in and out, and read in a full screen view. There are tools to adjust contrast and brightness to enhance accessibility. Here, I’ve used the “Invert” tool to create a kind of “dark mode.”
The table of contents is also fully linked. Readers can explore content by type within the reading pane if they want a more direct, hyperlinked reading experience, as opposed to the flippable browsing kind. National Geographic is covering cheetahs, the Bronze Age, the Brothers Grimm, Y2K and more just in this issue! You can see other navigation options listed along the left side, as well, offering a rich search experience for patrons (and staff!).
Click here to get started with the National Geographic Virtual Library. Let me know in the comments what interesting articles, beautiful maps, and (especially) weird ads you find.
