STERLING/BASS GENERAL ORIENTATION TOUR

September 2008

In general, tours begin in front of the Sterling Reference/Information Services Desk (Stop 1) and continue through to Bass (Stop 13). When there's more than one tour group, stagger the starting points as follows:

Group 1: Reference Desk (Stop 1)

Group 2: L&B Room (Stop 3)

Group 3: Periodical Room (Stop 5)

Group 4: Main Reading Room (Stop 7)

Group 5: Stacks (Stop 9)

Group 6: Newspaper Room (Stop 10)

Group 7:Bass (Stop 12)

MAKE SURE STUDENTS HAVE THEIR YALE IDS; WITHOUT THEM THEY WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE STACK TOWER .

IF YOU LIKE, YOU MAY BRING ALONG A COPY OF THE SML STACK DIRECTORY.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

The purpose of this tour is to provide a brief introduction and orientation to the Sterling Memorial and Bass libraries.

The Yale University Library is the second largest academic library in the United States and contains over12.5 million volumes in 22 different libraries. Sterling Memorial Library currently houses approximately 4.5 million volumes on 15 floors of stacks and serves as the central library for research collections in the humanities and social sciences.

Sterling has undergone major renovations over the past ten years. In April 2007, the East Asia Library on the second floor re-opened after a year long renovation project.  In 2000, the main stack tower  renovated, a three-year project which included the replacement of all windows and elevators, as well as installation of completely new plumbing, electrical, heating, air conditioning, and fire suppression systems. A new Music Library was constructed in one of Sterling 's former courtyards in 1998, and the Library Shelving Facility in Hamden , which holds the Library’s lesser-used materials, was completed in the fall of 1998. The Bass Library (formerly known as the Cross Campus Library), which we’ll visit at the end of this tour, re-opened in October 2007 after a major renovation project which took two years.

The architecture and decoration of Sterling mirror the architectural orders and iconographic programs of the medieval cathedral it resembles. In place of the cathedral's religious imagery, however, the imagery throughout Sterling reflects the history of books and printing, the history of knowledge and learning, and the history of Yale and New Haven .

1. REFERENCE DESK

These desks are staffed by information and reference assistants who are here to help you with any question you might have concerning the library's operations and procedures, about locating materials, and a number of special services that the library offers such as interlibrary loan, book acquisitions, and the searching of a number of electronic databases to which Yale provides online access or how to proceed with your research. Freshmen and sophomores should contact their Personal Librarian or ask at the Information desk for a referral to reference librarians.

A variety of brochures are available here, including guides for searching Orbis, the Library's online catalog, and copies of the Sterling stacks directory.

2. ORBIS AND THE CARD CATALOG

Orbis is the Yale Library's primary online catalog. Other online catalogs at Yale include a separate catalog for the Lillian Goldman Law Library, called MORRIS, and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) catalog. Orbis contains records for over12.5 million items located in 22 libraries on the Yale campus and at the Library Shelving Facility (LSF) in Hamden . Orbis includes records for books, serials (journals, magazines, newspapers), electronic resources, maps, government documents ( U.S. , Canadian, European Union, United Nations), manuscripts and archival materials, and rare books. Orbis also has a “Your Library Account” feature, which allows you to see what books and other materials you have checked out, plus any fines or fees you may owe.  You may also initiate many kinds of service requests, such as placing recalls for items checked out, and requesting Eli Express delivery from most Yale libraries.

You can search Orbis by author, title and subject, as well as for more sophisticated keyword searching. In addition to providing the location and call number for a volume, Orbis also indicates whether or not a book is checked out, on order, or recently received.

Several workstations, which offer access to Orbis as well as to the Internet, are located next to the Reference Desk in the nave, in the Periodical Reading Room, on every stack floor, on the upper level of the online resources can also be accessed through any networked computer on campus, including those in the College computer clusters and personal computers in student rooms, both on and off campus. You can reach all of these resources, and many others, on the Library’s website, at www.library.yale.edu.

STERLING 'S CARD CATALOG

Although the card catalog is still in place, the drawers are empty.  In 2002 the Library completed conversion of its card catalog to online form. Orbis will give you call numbers for most library materials. 

 When copying call numbers for materials, make sure to note all information given, including all accompanying words (such as Divinity, Babylonian, or Folio) or characters (such as plus signs). Words as elements of call numbers indicate both special locations for material in Sterling and locations outside of Sterling in the school and department libraries. Remember that Library staff at the reference desk can help you interpret these.

Yale has used two classification systems in its history. Classification is the series of letters and numbers assigned to books reflecting their subject content and is the order in which libraries shelve materials. The Dewey Decimal System may be the system of classification you're most used to using. Until 1968 Yale used the Yale classification system, which you will only see here at Yale, and since 1968 we've used the Library of Congress system, which is used by most academic libraries in the United States .

In addition to using two classification systems, Sterling also shelves materials in the stacks by size in order to be able to fit the maximum number of volumes in the available space. Yale recognizes three sizes for bound materials, both books and journals: regular, oversize, and folio. Characters such as plusses or the word "Folio" indicate the size of the volume.

The combination of two classification schemes and three sizes means that an item may be shelved in any one of six possible locations in the Sterling stacks, so it's extremely important to copy down all call number information completely.

Once you have the call number for an item, use the Stack Directory, which is posted to the left of the Reference Desk, at and in the elevators, and on every stack floor, in order to determine on which of the 15 stack floors the item shelves or if the item shelves in the Mudd Library. Distribute copies of the Stack Directory if you have them.] Copies of the Stack Directory are also available at the Reference and Circulation Desks, and on the Web.

[On the way to the L&B Room, point out the Information Kiosk which contains a variety of useful information about Sterling and the library system as a whole.  Stop next by the column with the engraved memorial to John Sterling.]

The Sterling Memorial Library, named for John William Sterling (Yale 1864), was designed by James Gamble Rogers (Yale 1889) and was completed in 1930. It was never a church, but was designed to be "a temple of learning and a cathedral of knowledge". There are many buildings on campus which bear the name Sterling (the Law School , the Divinity School , the Medical School , SSS, etc.) all of which were built as a result of the Sterling bequest

3. L&B ROOM (LINONIA AND BROTHERS)

This room is called the L&B Room, for Linonia and Brothers in Unity, the names of two eighteenth-century Yale debating societies that donated their libraries to the University when the central library was formed. It has historically been a room devoted to reading and research,and it still is. It is also the location of four independent collections: the L&B collection, a collection designed for leisure reading and browsing; a travel collection and a Mountaineering collection, together in the first alcove on the left; and a large collection of historical series which support medieval studies.

4. HIGH STREET INSPECTION DESK

You will be asked to present all library materials for inspection by the guard as you leave the building either at this point or at the Wall Street entrance. In addition, you'll be asked to open all backpacks, briefcases, packages, and handbags.

5. THE PERIODICAL READING ROOM

[Walk into the area in front of the Room’s service desk.]

This is the Periodical Reading Room which houses the current issues of about 5,800 of journals and other serials received by the library system on paper.  The Library also subscribes to several thousand journals in online form; a list of these is available on the Library’s website.

The current issues in the room are arranged in broad subject areas, such as History or Literature, in order to facilitate browsing the current literature of a field. Each of these subject areas shelves in one of the 20 numbered sections of the room [point to the posted guide on the bulletin board]; for instance, History journals shelve in section 16. Within each section, the arrangement is alphabetical by title.

The term "current issue" as used by the Library really means "unbound issue", an issue as you’d receive it at home by subscription or as you’d buy it on the newsstand. When the Library has received a certain number of issues of a journal, we bind them together in book form and generally send them to the stacks in Sterling to shelve in call number order with books on the same subject. Orbis reports the location of back issues of these titles as SML, Stacks. Volumes of journals older than ten years which shelve in the stacks do circulate for use outside the Library.

Although Sterling has no separate section for bound periodicals, as do some libraries at Yale (such as the Kline Science and Medical libraries), we have attempted to make browsing some of the more heavily-used titles easier than it would ordinarily be. The bound issues of approximately 90 of the most heavily-used journals, including popular magazines such as Time and Newsweek, but also some more scholarly journals, such as the American Historical Review and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, shelve on this floor in the annex off Periodical Reading Room. [If the size of the group allows, move into the PRR itself and point to the location of the door to the annex.] Orbis reports the location of the back issues of these titles as “SML, Franke Periodical Reading Room”. These volumes don’t circulate.

This room also has 12 networked workstations equipped with 21" monitors to facilitate their use in reading the electronic journals to which the Library subscribes.

6. MAIN READING ROOM

This room is called the Main Reading Room. It was recently restored to its original condition in a two-year, $5 million dollar renovation project which, in addition to air conditioning, refurbished lighting, and refinishing of the room's original tables, also meant the addition of access to the campus wireless network.

The room houses the main reference collection in Sterling . This is a non-circulating collection that has been carefully developed to contain materials that will provide answers to factual questions -- such as general and specialized encyclopedias, language dictionaries, biographical dictionaries, handbooks, and directories -- as well as to contain standard bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts in the social sciences and humanities. The collection consists of the volumes that you see shelved in this room, plus those shelved in the annex to this room which is reached through that door [point to the door to the annex]. The arrangement of the collection is by call number, according to the Library of Congress (LC) classification system. The stanchion in the middle of the room contains an outline of the LC system and a corresponding map of the reading room. Titles in this collection appear in Orbis with the location SML, Starr Main Reference Room.

7. CIRCULATION DESK

This is the Circulation Desk where you charge out library materials, pick up holds and recalls, and request assistance in locating materials in the stacks. Books from most other Yale libraries can be requested here as well, by using the Place Requests function in Orbis. Your library card is your Yale I.D.

The loan period is normally two months for undergraduates, six months for graduate students, and one year for faculty. Loan periods at other libraries will vary; more information can be found on the Library's web site.

Materials are returned to the Book Return Desk to the left of the Circulation Desk or, at times when the Library isn't open, to the Book Drops at the entrances to the library. Books charged from other Yale libraries may be returned here as well.

Cards for use with photocopiers in many of the libraries on campus, including the reader-printers in the Microform Room here in Sterling , can be purchased from the vending machine near the copiers to the right of the stack entrance. The initial card purchase requires a $1 bill, and subsequent amounts can be added with $1, $5, and $10 bills.

We're now going to enter the stack tower. A valid Yale I.D. is required for entry.

8. STACKS - LEVEL 2

[Before entering the elevators or walking up to the second floor, pause in the area just inside the stack entrance and mention: The Microform Room, which contains Sterling's extensive microfilm and microfiche collections, as well as several very useful CD-ROMs dealing primarily with newspapers and manuscript materials, is in the basement.  It is open as long as Sterling is open.]

These public elevators will stop only on floors 1 through 7, do not open directly into the stacks, and do not provide direct access to the mezzanine floors in the stacks. The use of the letter M following a stack floor designation on the Stack Directory indicates a mezzanine floor in the stacks. So “2M” means the stack floor between floors 2 and 3. When you enter the stack tower, as we just have, if you know you’re heading for the stacks themselves and not an office upstairs,it is sometimes easier to enter the stacks by walking behind the Circulation Desk and using the elevators in the stacks themselves; those elevators will stop on all floors in the stacks.

[At this point, travel to the second floor using either the public elevator . If your group is large, delegate someone in the group to escort the others upstairs when another elevator becomes available.  Continue with the tour text in the elevator lobby on the second floor.]

If you use the main public elevators or the stairway, you will not be in the stacks when you get off on your floor. The plan of each floor varies, so to find your way into the stacks once you've gotten off the public elevator, look for the square green signs posted near the doors to the stacks. You'll also find arrows painted on the walls directing you to the stacks, and doors to the stacks are labeled "Stacks." A map of the stack arrangement on that floor is mounted on the wall near each stack entry door.

[Enter the second floor stacks and walk through to the area in front of the stack elevator.]

This is a typical stack floor. Notice that the stacks tend to be arranged like a "T": there's a central corridor with a crossing corridor at one end. The call number sequence usually begins at the lower left of the T, goes up one side, across the top of the T, and down the other. Note that most floors contain materials from both classifications, since we try to shelve books dealing with the same subject near each other in the stacks. All floors will contain materials of all three sizes.

There is always a stack floor plan, a stack directory, and an Orbis terminal centrally located on each stack floor.

 [Walk down to the first floor using the stack stairs. Before leaving the second floor, say that we walk down for two reasons: first, to show that there are TWO mezzanine levels between stack floors one and two (it's always amusing to ask the group what they would have named the second one), and secondly, to point out that you can easily forget where you are in the stacks if you're not concentrating. Point out that the stack floor number is posted on the sides of the stack stairwells on each floor and on the ends of the stack standards facing the stairwells.]

9. NEWSPAPER ROOM

This room houses Sterling 's current newspaper collection, currently numbering over 200 titles. Recent issues from all over the world are out on open shelves.

United States newspapers are shelved down the left side of the room, alphabetically by title. Foreign titles are shelved down the right side of the room by broad geographic area in order to facilitate browsing. All currently received titles are represented in Orbis.

Yale doesn't necessarily maintain a backfile of all newspapers it currently receives, but if it does, that backfile is on microfilm and is kept downstairs. Shelf labels for each newspaper in this room will give you the microfilm call number for the backfile if we maintain one or will state the Library's retention policy for that title if we don't, for instance "Held for six months".

10. ENTRANCE TO THE CLOISTER & EXHIBIT CORRIDOR

The Wall Street entrance to the Library is located at the end of this corridor. It's open from 8:30-5:00 Monday through Friday.

Also at the end of this corridor is the Department of Manuscripts & Archives. This department has a rich collection of historical manuscripts and personal papers in a wide range of subject areas, including American politics and government, and arts and sciences. The department also has copies of all Yale University publications as well as photographs, architectural renderings, and memorabilia relating to Yale. A reference archivist is available 8:30-12:00 and 1:00-4:45 Monday through Friday to help you identify and use materials in this department.

Out through this door is the Librarian's Courtyard, which can be used for reading and relaxing during the day.

11. THE MUSIC LIBRARY

The Gilmore Music Library is a separate collection within Sterling and is the home of Yale’s music collections.  This space used to be an open courtyard, but was converted to a library in 1998.  There are three levels:  the first floor houses the circulation desk, Recordings Collection, the reference office, and the Historical Sound Recordings/American Musical Theatre office; the mezzanine level houses the Reference Collection, Periodicals Collection, and offices; and the basement level houses the circulating collection stacks. This is a popular study area, but it closes earlier than Sterling does, at 9 pm during the academic year.

12. THE BASS LIBRARY

GENERAL COMMENTS AT THE CIRCULATION DESK

The Bass Library opened in October 2007 with much fanfare.  Although you will hear that  Bass is the "undergraduate library at Yale", it is in fact Yale's intensive use library, containing those books known or predicted to be most in demand by students and faculty. This includes material placed on reserve for specific classes, both undergraduate and graduate, as well as material purchased with the expectation that it will be heavily used.

The library has only two floors, and the collection contains only about150,000 volumes. All materials here are classed in the Library of Congress classification and shelve in one sequence regardless of size, so it's a much easier collection to work in than that in Sterling .

Library material from Bass may be checked out either at this circulation desk or upstairs at the Sterling circulation desk.

The loan period for Bass material varies from one to two hours for Closed Reserve items, to overnight or three days for regular reserve material, to three weeks for material not on reserve (six months for graduate students). The loan period for material on reserve is indicated by a stamp on the date due sheet in the back of each volume. Volumes lacking this stamp circulate for three weeks or more, depending on your status (undergraduate, graduate student, or faculty member).

The fines for overdue materials in Bass are quite high, so be sure to return materials borrowed from this collection on time.

There is a small, non-circulating reference collection in Bass, but there are no reference librarians. For help with your research, you will need to use the services of the Sterling Reference Desk; freshmen and sophomores should contact their Personal Librarian.

There is ample study space with comfortable furniture.  Individual Study Rooms (“Weenie Bins”) are located on both floors; these are available on a first-come, first-served basis.  There are also Group Study Rooms available, also on a first-come, first-served basis.

On the lower level is a computing cluster and the Technology Troubleshooting Office.  Student techs are available for help in configuring and using many different software programs

Ask if there any other questions you can answer, thank everyone for coming, and if this has been a Fall orientation tour, welcome everyone to Yale. ALSO (VERY IMPORTANT) please let Emily Horning (emily.horning@yale.edu) know how many students you had on the tour.