OFFICE OF THE ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR
ACADEMIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
February 12, 1998
KEY ADMINISTRATORS/KEY SUPPORT STAFF ALL FACULTY AT UCSD
ALL STUDENTS AT UCSD
SUBJECT: UCSD Libraries Launch The Circuit
Are you looking for a book not available at UCSD? The UCSD Libraries, working with their partner libraries, have created "The Circuit," a combined library catalog that provides access to the records for more than 3.4 million items in the collections of UCSD and three other San Diego area university libraries -- California State University at San Marcos, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego and its Legal Research Center. Using the Circuit, you can now request books from other participating libraries that are not available locally and have them delivered to your home library at UCSD.
To introduce you to the Circuit, Open House sessions will be held every half hour on February 25 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and February 26 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. All sessions will be in the HP Laboratory at the Science & Engineering Library, which is located in the Geisel Library. Library staff will demonstrate how to access the Circuit catalog and make requests, and they will be available to answer questions about the Circuit.
What items are available for borrowing? All books without borrowing restrictions are available to borrow. Journals and photocopies of journal articles are not included in this service.
Where do you access it? There are links to the Circuit catalog on both the telnet and web versions of ROGER, the online catalog of the UCSD Libraries. The Circuit catalog has the same easy-to-use search interface as ROGER.
How do you request a book? You may place a Circuit request from any terminal or microcomputer with access to the ROGER catalog, and you will pick up the materials at the UCSD library you specify. You do not have direct borrowing privileges while visiting another Circuit library in person. To be able to request Circuit materials, you will need to establish a PIN (personal identification number) through the "View your own record" function on ROGER.
How long will it take for delivery? Materials requested by 10:00 am will usually be available for pick up by 3:00 pm the same day. Materials are delivered to a central drop-off point in Geisel Library before delivery to the branch libraries for pickup, so there may be instances when delivery of items to a branch library will occur on the day following the request.
For how long may materials be borrowed? The borrowing period is three weeks with no renewals allowed. You may request and check out as many as ten Circuit items at a time. Circuit items will show up in your personal library record, which can be accessed through the "View your 
     own record" function.
For more information about the Open House sessions, contact Maggie Houlihan at 534-7573.
Gerald R. Lowell
University Librarian