Library News

This is to let you know that the Northeastern Libraries’ participation in NExpress has come to an end. We had been preparing an announcement in our forthcoming newsletter, but our vendor for the NExpress system has disabled our access prematurely, and so effective immediately, borrowing books from other libraries through the NExpress system is no longer available. If you have outstanding NExpress requests and they are still “in the pipeline” awaiting fulfillment, they will be filled and you’ll be notified when you can pick them up. If you have NExpress books in your possession, you may continue to use them.  However, no new requests–or requests to renew NExpress books–will be accepted after today. If you need to make new requests from today forward, please use one of our existing interlibrary borrowing systems, WorldCat Local or ILLiad. All of our NExpress partner libraries also participate in those systems, so they will continue to lend to us, and us to them, going forward. Please return all NExpress items by May 22, 2013 at the latest.  

Here’s what you need to know going forward:

You may use WorldCat Local to search and order books and other returnable items: you’ll see the links within NUCat–or just use the link on the library’s home page, or connect directly to http://northeastern.worldcat.org.

• The advantage of WorldCat Local ordering is your request goes directly to local partner libraries, and therefore it is the fastest method.
• Popular libraries’ collections from the NExpress system, like Wellesley and Williams Colleges, continue to be accessible to you through WorldCat Local. 

You may also place orders using ILLiad: follow the link to Interlibrary Loan on our home page, or connect directly to https://ill.lib.neu.edu/illiad/snell/

• The advantage of ILLiad is that if you already use ILLiad delivery for PDF journal articles, it may be convenient to have your books, videos and other returnable items listed in the same system.  

The reason for this change is that the NU Libraries are upgrading our infrastructure over the summer, and the new system we are implementing does not support the NExpress technology. (More about this infrastructure change is also forthcoming.) Furthermore, the NExpress system added complexity to our online environment by requiring users to choose from three different, unconnected systems for interlibrary services. We know NExpress is a popular service and we apologize for the inconvenience of this short notice. If you have any questions about outstanding NExpress requests, or if you need assistance using WorldCat Local or ILLiad, please contact the Circulation Desk at  at 617.373.8778.

The Northeastern Libraries are beginning the process of replacing our authentication system. This is the system where, if you’ve used library resources from home or off-campus, you enter your myNEU username and password to access e-journals, databases, and other online resources. The good news? There’s a lot of good news, in fact it’s almost all good. First and foremost, your login will not change and your access to content will not change.  The only thing you’ll notice right away, if you’re doing research off-campus, is that the login screen itself looks a little more updated, similar to the university G-apps and Lynda.com login screens. So where you used to see this:               You’ll start seeing this:               The reason for this change is that is the library is becoming more tightly integrated with the Northeastern authentication system using a new standard called “shibboleth” that facilitates collaboration and identity management across many different organizations. This change is part of a larger upgrade in the library’s technology infrastructure taking place over the summer of 2013. The benefits to you may seem small at first. The chief one is that if you log in to one of the shibboleth-compliant systems at Northeastern, or licensed by Northeastern, like Lynda.com, you won’t need to log in again to get to others, like library resources during each browsing session. As more e-journal and database publishers become part of the shibboleth standard, you’ll be able to carry your identity with you and move more seamlessly on the web with fewer login requirements and fewer different logins and passwords to remember. For example, you’ll log in once to manage saved citations in our discovery search and won’t need to log in again to manage e-books in eBrary, or saved courses in Lynda.com. In the long term, the benefits increase as more organizations participate, facilitating inter-institutional collaboration as well as the management of personal accounts and settings with all kinds of content providers. The downside? There is one hangup: The Northeastern-specific URLs that you may have bookmarked for logging in to your favorite library databases and other content are going to change. Between now and July 1 both old and new URLs will work. But after July 1, you’ll need to update bookmarks and other links. We’ll be sure to remind you about this, and we will be able to assist you with updating your URLs. There will also be a self-service tool on our web site to convert URLs into the appropriate format for you. Finally, the University’s Blackboard support team will help ensure any links to library-licensed course readings in Blackboard are updated for you and your students who are off-campus. We’re looking forward to this upgrade, and would like also to thank the University’s Identity Management staff who worked with us to make it possible!