Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Salama

Hello USAO Class of 2010! The Nash Library staff sends you greetings in four languages. That’s a few shy of the number of languages included on the Golden Record carried on board the Voyager spaceship which left Earth’s orbit in 1977. That record included greetings in 55 different languages as well as Earth sounds created by wind, thunder, birds, and whales, to name but a few.

Sometimes the language of libraries may seem unfamiliar to you. Don’t worry…just ask and we’ll translate it for you! We’re good earthlings and we’re here to help you with this journey called college.

Nifty New Search Feature

Did you find just what you were looking for, only to discover that someone else found it first? Check this out:

As you can see, this item has been checked out; when viewing an item in the catalog, you can now click “Check nearby libraries” to see a list of libraries that may have the item.

What makes this cool? They are listed in order of closeness to USAO! You even get to see how far you have to drive!

Think that you have to have an account with a particular library to check a book out from them? Not necessarily so. You can get an OK Share Card. All you have to do is come to the circulation desk and ask for an application. Be prepared to show your ID.

Not all libraries honor OK Share cards, so you should check the list of participating libraries before you make any plans.

Click the item underneath the name of the library that you may want to borrow from. The items are named by their media type, which is a book in this case. UCO is an OK Share participant and has the next closest library that carries this item, so we’ll look in their catalog.

Clicking the link takes us right to the item in UCO’s catalog. It looks like they have a copy of the item that has not been checked out. It would be a good idea to call before setting off to make sure that they actually have it.

Your ID card: when you need it the most

Rumor has it that a few of you complain every time you have to flash your ID to check out a book or pick up your printout. If your ID picture is like mine, then I don’t blame you for not wanting to show your ID. But (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) we have to make sure you are who you say you are for two very important reasons.

First, we have to make sure that we are checking out items to the right person. The library staff does not know everyone on campus so you could give us any name when you check out books and we wouldn’t know that you weren’t who you said you were. That’s why you have to show your ID.

Second, YOU, you lucky USAO student (unlike students at some other universities in Oklahoma who will remain nameless), don’t have to pay for you printouts if you show us your ID. So, ID = free printing, no ID = no free printing. Surely a freebie like that is worth showing us your ID, no matter how bad you look in the photo.