Students, faculty and staff will be able to find and request books, journal articles and media of all formats – all the materials they currently search for through multiple searches on the 91̽»¨Libraries home page – combined in a single search.

Currently, users may be filtering their searches by location or format, or searching via the UW-only catalog. With the new Libraries Search, materials in a specific library or at another campus will be easily identifiable and other search refinements can be made after the initial search results are returned.

“We’re excited to be one of the first institutions developing and implementing this new and powerful platform,” said Lizabeth Wilson, dean of University Libraries. “By sharing one system, we’ll improve the research experience for and save the time of our students and faculty by surfacing relevant materials, and showing real-time availability.”

Wilson said she expects a smooth transition to the new search system. “In fact, many users won’t change how they search, but they’ll get more relevant results faster when they search.”

The new search will extend to the UW’s 36 partners in the – academic libraries throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Faculty, staff, and students will have immediate access to the entire shared collection.

What faculty and staff need to know and do:

• Pending holds may not transfer to the new system. 91̽»¨Libraries recommends users note the items they are waiting for and request them again in the new system.
• WorldCat.org accounts will work and users will be able to access saved lists from the WorldCat.org in the new system, but they will no longer be able to connect to UW-restricted resources from a WorldCat account. Also, WorldCat lists can be saved or moved (learn more ).
• Users’ existing “preferred search” email alerts will cease. The new system will have a similar feature, but you’ll need to set it up separately.  Preferred searches won’t transfer automatically to the new system.

Library staff members are available to answer questions and help users locate resources, either in person, .

Meanwhile, intense behind-the-scenes migration of databases and information is taking place as the libraries prepare for the projected “go live” date of June 24. More information is available .

“Bedbugs have discovered a new way to hitchhike in and out of beds: library books. It turns out that tiny bedbugs and their eggs can hide in the spines of hardcover books. The bugs crawl out at night to feed, find a new home in a headboard, and soon readers are enjoying not only plot twists but post-bite welts,” the article said.

91̽»¨Libraries was among the libraries mentioned in the article as having spotted bedbugs this year on returned books.

In August, 91̽»¨circulation staff noticed dark spots and, upon closer examination, insects near the spine of some returned books. Following procedure, the staff sealed the books in plastic bags and called Environmental Health and Safety, which .

The pests were on fewer than ten volumes within the UW’s collection of over 7million books, said Stephanie Lamson, preservation librarian and someone who regularly deals with pests and other threats to libraries collections.

“Above all, people should not be afraid of libraries,” she said. “Bedbugs are much more likely to be encountered in hotels, homes and apartments where they have easy access to sleeping humans – the food source they need to survive.”

After the pests were discovered, the books and bedbugs were kept in sealed plastic bags and placed in a freezer at -18 F (-27 C). Bedbugs, according to lab research, are killed by direct exposure to temperatures  of 3 F (-16 C) for one hour. 91̽»¨Libraries, however, adopted an even more  careful approach, both to preserve the library materials and to ensure the elimination of bedbugs.  The books were frozen for seven days, thawed within their sealed boxes for six days, and frozen again for seven days.

Freezing is a typical method used by museums to kill pest and insects. “Freezing is preferable to heat in this case, as heat can accelerate the aging of books and paper,” Lamson said.

As a precaution, a bedbug-sniffing dog was brought in to make sure there were no signs of bedbugs in affected areas.  The dog found no evidence and there have not been any further reports of bedbugs since August.

After the freeze, the books were inspected, and re-bound in some cases, then returned to the collection once they were confirmed to be pest-free. As an additional precaution, some of the most affected books were discarded and replaced.

How did the bugs get into the hollow of the book spine?

“Bedbugs are attracted to dark, tight places,” said Lamson. “Most likely the library patron had a significant number of bedbugs in his or her residence, and the bedbugs migrated to the book.”

The libraries has posted a about last August discovery. Librarians ask library users who notice insects in library materials, or who know library materials have been exposed to pests, to put the items in a plastic bag, seal the bag, and contact library staff.  Do not return these items to book drops.