Problems downloading on Sage journals platform

Open laptop with notepadWe are currently experiencing intermittent problems when downloading PDF files from the Sage journals platform.

When attempting to download an article you may be presented with a ‘Failed to load PDF document error’.

Workaround

This problem is intermittent, so even if you use the Sage journals platform regularly you may not come across this error. However, if you do, please follow the below steps:

-If you are on-campus, please use the databases a-z on-campus link to Sage journals. Then make a search for the article you require, and you should be able to download it with no issues.

-If you are off-campus, please use this link to Sage journals then click ‘Institution’ then ‘Shibboleth’ in the top right corner.

Then select ‘United Kingdom – UK Federation’ and then ‘University of Reading’ from the list. You should then be prompted to login with your University username and password.

If you have any problems with the workaround above, or any other problems with electronic resources, please submit an e-resources problem report form for help.

Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

 

Lucy Ardill, E-resources Team

Keep renewing your loans over Christmas!

With textbooks in increasingly high demand even after the end of term, we’ve made sure our policy ensures fair access to all. It will be ‘business as usual’ with all loan periods remaining the same in vacation as all term. This means that items will not be issued to cover the whole Christmas vacation.

Just keep renewing your loans unless or until someone else recalls them … so keep checking your University account! You can even return loans by post if you prefer. If your account is blocked please contact the Library and we will discuss the situation with you.

This means you can place holds on books on loan in vacations. The threat of fines on non-returned books should help Library users return them for you!

What about Christmas holidays and Uni Closure?

We know the short Christmas break also spans public holidays and the Christmas University Closure period (Friday 22 December to Monday 1 January – see our Opening hours page for more information), so we’ve made special allowances. Any journals, 7-day loans or Course Collection items borrowed from Saturday 16 December until the Christmas University Closure will be due back on Tuesday 2 January (by 10:00 for Course Collection items). No items will be due back between Saturday 16 December and Monday 1 January.

Happy holidays!

Holly Thomas, Library User Services

 

 

Help over the Christmas closure period

If you have a library-related query during the Christmas closure period (Friday 22 December to Monday 1 January) you can still get help. Chat online via the blue ‘Virtual Enquiry Service’ box on the Library webpage.

The Virtual Enquiry Service is staffed by professional librarians working remotely to answer your queries from our website and other information we’ve supplied.  You can keep an email transcript of the chat. If they can’t resolve a particular issue they’ll refer you back to us during our staffed hours.

During staffed Library service hours, please do continue to contact UoR Library staff to help with your enquiries!

Holly Thomas, Library User Services

Get your Store and Closed Access requests in soon!

Pine tree covered in snowLast collections before Christmas closure

If you want items kept in areas not accessible to Library users or members of the public before Christmas make sure that you get your requests in on time!

  • Off-Site Store will need to be requested before 08:30 on Thursday 21 December.
  • Closed Access items will need to be requested before 10:30 on Thursday 21 December.

Normal service will resume on Tuesday 2 January with the first Closed Access collection on that day and the first Store collection on Thursday 4 January.

For more information and detailed instructions on how to make Closed Access and Store requests, check out the ‘Requesting items from Store and Closed Access‘ information page.

Holly Thomas, Library User Services

Library/URS buildings open additional weekends in vacation

Christmas presentsThe University is pleased to confirm that, following student feedback, we have made arrangements for the Library and URS buildings to be open for two additional weekends during the forthcoming Christmas vacation period as follows:

  • Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December (09:00-17:00)
  • Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 December (09:00-17:00)

The Library will be open for access to printed books with self-service borrowing and returns.

The URS Building will be open for study (including use of PCS) and self-service borrowing and returns from Course Collection.

Both buildings will be supervised by our Security team. For any Library-related queries, students can seek advice from qualified staff using our online chat service, accessible from the Library homepage.

Full details of Library and URS Building opening hours, including vacation times, are available online.

We are currently working on finalising our opening hours for the Easter vacation period and will confirm details nearer the time.

Full details of the Library refurbishment, including FAQ, project summary, latest news and study space links, are available on our dedicated project website: reading.ac.uk/library/refurb.

Rachel Redrup, Marketing Co-ordinator for
University Communications

Problems accessing Nature

Computer keyboard
We are currently experiencing access problems with Nature.

If you are trying to link to a Nature article via Summon, or to a journal on this platform you have found via the E-journals Finder, you may find that you are unable to gain access even after you have logged in.

Access is still available

This problem affects off-campus access only – on-campus access is unaffected. We are working to fix the problem as quickly as possible, but in the meantime you can still access the content you need on Nature from off-campus.

Please locate articles in the usual way, either by using Summon or the E-Journals Finder. You will see an option to subscribe to the journal you are accessing underneath the abstract of the article. Please click the ‘Login via Shibboleth’ link underneath this, and search for ‘University of Reading’. Once you have clicked on our institution, you should be able to login with your usual username and password and gain access.

We are working with our supplier to fix this, and will post an update once access is working normally.

If you have tried the method above and are still unable to gain access to content, please submit an E-resources problem report form and we will investigate the issue for you.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Sophie Dorman, E-resources Team