University Libraries - Libraries Information Technology

Aeon is automated request and workflow management software specifically designed for special collections libraries and archives. Aeon improves patron service and maximizes staff efficiency while providing unparalleled item tracking, security and statistics.

Requests for specific items to be used in reading rooms can be made directly from InfoHawk+ by using the “Request this item for reading room use (Aeon)” links.

Alma is developed and hosted by Ex Libris, a Proquest Company.  Alma is used by Libraries staff to manage selection and procurement of materials; provide inventory control;  manage circulation services; and license management, subscription management, and access to electronic resources.

If there is an Alma outage, Libraries staff will perform circulation services (check out an item, return an item, etc.) manually until the service is restored. All other public services will remain available.

ArchivesSpace is an open source, web-based archives information management system.  UI Libraries has installed and manage the application locally.  The application supports core functions in archives administration.  The application functions as a metadata authoring tool, enabling the generation of EAD, MARCXML, MODS, Dublin Core and METS formatted data.  The UI Libraries Special Collections, University Archives, and the Iowa Women’s Archives use ArchivesSpace to create finding aids/collection guides for the UI’s rare and primary source materials covering a broad range of topics, formats, and periods.  Collection guides provide detailed descriptions of the items in a collection, as well as background on the person or organization who created the collection.  Digitized versions of selected materials are available for online viewing.

If there is a service disruption to ArchivesSpace, searching of collection guides through ArchivesSpace will be unavailable. However, metadata for Collection guides is indexed in InfoHawk+ so you can find information about Special Collections and Archives materials there.

About our membership status

We are a Partner library whose membership is established in the bylaws as a “then extant member of the CIC.” Together, the members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance have a single Member Representative (for voting purposes) and a single Billing Contact.

Partnership contacts

• Library Director: John Culshaw
• Primary Contact: Sue Julich
• Communications Contact: Sue Julich
• Google Analytics Contact: Sue Julich
• Outages Contact: Sue Julich
• Print Holdings Contact: Ellen Jones & John Osborn
• Print Disabilities Services Contact: Amy Paulus
• Shared Print Program Contact: Amy Paulus
• Shared Print Holdings Contact: Ellen Jones

Staff with special access to in-copyright volumes

• Jennifer Bradshaw (renewed June 2018) (access only for the purpose of modifying bibliographic records of volumes deposited by UI)
• Bethany Davis (renewed June 2018) (access only for the purpose of making corrections or updates to HathiTrust volumes)
• Amy Paulus (renewed June 2018) (access only when acting as a proxy for a UI user with a qualifying print disability)

HathiTrust Shared Print Program. UI is a retention library participating in both phase 1 and phase 2. In phase 1 we committed to retain approx. 250,000 volumes at least through Dec. 31, 2042.

HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC). HTRC is operated jointly by Indiana University and UIUC under an agreement with HathiTrust, enables computational text analysis of works in HathiTrust. Use of HTRC by UI researchers is coordinated by Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio. The Studio received awards for Advanced Collaborative Support (ACS) projects in 2016 (for “Fighting Fever in the Caribbean: Medicine and Empire, 1650-1902,” Mariola Espinosa, PI) and in 2017 (for “A Writer’s Workshop Workset with the Program Era Project,” Nicholas Kelly, Loren Glass, and Nikki White, co-PIs).

Primo is software developed and hosted by Ex Libris, a Proquest Company.  Primo is a public discovery interface that allows users to find resources in the Libraries and beyond. UI Libraries have locally branded our Primo installation as InfoHawk+ .

When searching Library Catalogs in InfoHawk+, you are searching a repository that contains records for items curated and managed by the UI Libraries, the Law Library, and the State Historical Society of Iowa.  This includes records for books, journals, e-resources, digital objects and collections, web pages, Iowa Research Online, and finding aids.

When searching Library Catalogs + Articles, you are searching all items in Library Catalogs, plus journal articles, book reviews and other citations from and about millions of scholarly online journals.  The Libraries may not have licensed all of these resources; however, most articles from journals not licensed by the Libraries are available through our Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Service.

When searching Fast TRAC you are searching physical items in six other Iowa academic libraries that have formed a borrowing network. TRAC is an acronym for Two Rivers Alma Collaborative. Items found there can be requested and will be delivered to campus in 2-3 business days. The libraries participating include: Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, Drake University, Wartburg College, St. Ambrose University, Hawkeye Community College, and Grand View College.

If Primo experiences a service disruption, online searching will be interrupted.   You can still search databases and other repositories by going to the Find Resources page on the Libraries website.

Islandora is a software solution for Digital Asset Management. This open-source digital repository system is based on Fedora Commons, Drupal and a host of additional applications. It was originally developed at the University of Prince Edward Island by the Robertson Library, and the UI Libraries have contracted with discoverygarden to host and support the Islandora system to manage and make discoverable scanned documents, images, video and audio files.

If there is a service disruption to Islandora, the Iowa Digital Library will be unavailable for searching. However, metadata for items in the Iowa Digital Library is indexed and searchable through InfoHawk+.

LibGuides, locally branded as “Guides”, is a hosted service from a company called SpringShare. Many of the UI Libraries’ instructional and subject guides are mediated through this service. Guides may be subject, topic or course specific.  There is also a series of “How-To-Guides” that contain tutorials for using many of the Libraries resources.

If Guides are unavailable, LIT will contact the vendor as quickly as possible to remedy the situation.

The Libraries website is built on and managed using the hosted software, WordPress.  WordPress is an open source website creation tool based on PHP and MySQL.  The Libraries use WordPress for website content managment and to manage blogs.  Because WordPress is open source, thousands of users contribute plugins, widgets and themes.

If our hosted WordPress server experiences interruptions, the Libraries website would be unavailable.  Users could still search for Libraries resources using InfoHawk+