Library Services Platform Upgrade
On Wednesday, July 9, Yale Library will upgrade the technology platform that supports all library services and operations. The Orbis discovery tool will be discontinued permanently.
Some library services will be paused for several days before the upgrade. The library will begin bringing systems back online on July 9. This process may take several days; real-time updates will be posted to this page. Users may experience some service delays or disruptions while systems are coming back online.
Access to Special Collections materials is expected to continue without interruption through the transition.
Please review the information below and plan ahead to avoid any disruption in your research plans. If you have questions or concerns, contact Ask Yale Library.
Jump to more information about: Circulation Pause | Course Reserves | Purchase Requests | Orbis Transition | Medical Library | Law Library | New User Interfaces
Circulation pause
To prepare for the upgrade, circulation, check-out, and scanning of library materials will be temporarily paused.
June 25 will be the last day to:
- Request library materials for mail-to-address
- Request materials via BorrowDirect or Interlibrary Loan
- Request scans of general collection materials (Scan and Deliver)
June 30 is the last day before the upgrade to request Yale Library items for pickup. July 1 is the last day to check out or renew Yale Library materials. Yale Library materials due during the circulation pause will be automatically extended to July 14.
The pause will affect Bass Library, the Divinity Library, Gilmore Music Library, Haas Family Arts Library, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Marx Library, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale Film Archive, and the offsite Library Shelving Facility. The Medical Library will continue to check out materials from its on-site print collections during the pause.
We will not be able to issue or renew borrowing privileges for visitors July 2-8. We expect to resume service on July 9. Please confirm service status before coming in.
Access to electronic resources (such as online journals and databases) should not be affected by the pause.
Course reserves
Links to electronic course reserves in Canvas will be unavailable beginning June 25, and access to physical course materials will be paused beginning July 2. Faculty who anticipate assigning reserve materials to students during this period should contact their course reserves librarian as soon as possible. Library staff will make every effort to find another solution for the affected period.
Purchase requests
Purchases of new library materials and e-resources are on hold until the upgrade is completed. Faculty, students, and staff are invited to continue submitting requests; these will be held for processing after July 9. (Course reserve requests should be submitted, as always, through the course reserves module in Canvas.)
Turnaround time for new acquisitions may be a little longer than usual throughout the summer. We appreciate your patience.
Orbis transition to Quicksearch
Orbis will no longer be available after June 25. Current Orbis users are encouraged to prepare for the change by trying out the Catalog Search and Advanced Search tools in Quicksearch. See this updated guide to using Quicksearch for Special Collections.
We’re committed to continuous improvement. While Quicksearch doesn’t replicate Orbis functionality, we’re actively working on enhancements that will improve the search experience, scheduled for deployment later this summer. Your feedback is essential to this process—please share your questions and experiences to help guide our development priorities.
If you have saved lists of resources in Orbis that you wish to retain, you will need to download them to EndNote before June 25. See download instructions.
Medical Library
Due to the unique patient care and research needs of medical campus users, the Medical Library has implemented several stopgaps to minimize disruptions and support continuity of services during the platform transition. More information.
Law Library
Law faculty and students will continue to find Law Library materials through Quicksearch. Morris (the Law Library’s catalog) will be retired, but all its resources will remain accessible. Law Course Reserves and Past Exams will move to a new interface and will maintain their current functionality.
New User Interfaces
Articles+, YaleLinks, and the Online Journal page will have a new interface beginning July 9. Links to the legacy interfaces should redirect automatically to the new interface. Library staff will be reviewing the e-resources in these systems after the upgrade and resolving problems as they are found. If you encounter a problem, please report it to Ask Yale Library so that we may resolve it.
What is the Library Services Platform upgrade?
Yale Library is replacing the complex back-end system that facilitiates all library services and operations—everything from purchasing, cataloguing, and checking out books to managing thousands of databases and licensed electronic resources. The project will replace Voyager, the 22-year-old catalog and back-end inventory system, with the cloud-based Ex Libris Alma and Ex Libris Primo, both part of Clarivate. After many months of preparatory work, the switchover from the old platform to the new one is scheduled for July 9, 2025.
How will the upgrade affect library services?
Initially, there will be few changes in the user’s experience of the library. The project is a major investment in technology infrastructure that works behind the scenes and is not visible to library users.
Longer term, however, replacing the current platform with Alma and Primo will help us modernize our library systems and enhance our ability to manage and deliver resources more efficiently. The current platform has been updated and expanded many times, but it is reaching the end of its useful life. The new platform will streamline workflows, improve the user experience, and facilitate collaboration among library staff, ultimately benefiting all of the Yale community.
Over the coming years, this new technology infrastructure will support ongoing, continuous improvements in library services, including capabilities to find, access, and use research resources of all kinds—from special collections, print materials, and online articles to datasets and emerging uses of AI in research.
How will this change the way I search library catalogs?
After the upgrade, the library’s primary discovery system will continue to be Quicksearch but the backend technology powering the system will have changed. You can expect to see some differences in the way your search results appear on the screen, especially when using the Articles+ tool to conduct a targeted search on journal articles and other electronic resources.
Orbis will no longer be available after June 25. If you currently use Orbis as your primary search tool, we encourage you to prepare for the change by trying out the Catalog Search and Advanced Search tools in QuickSearch.
We recognize that Quicksearch is not yet a perfect substitute for all the ways you may be using Orbis now, and we are working on improvements to Quicksearch that will be introduced as soon as possible after the platform upgrade. As you work with Quicksearch, please share your questions and comments so that we can factor your requirements into our ongoing development process.
If you have saved lists of resources in Orbis that you wish to retain, you will need to download them to EndNote before June 25. See instructions.
How do I download my saved lists from Orbis?
If you have saved resources in Orbis, you must download them to EndNote before June 25. They will not be carried over to Quicksearch. The instructions for downloading are at web.library.yale.edu/help/orbis/myList.html. If you are not familiar with EndNote, more information about this citation tool can be found in the library’s guide to citation management.
What if my Yale Library materials are due while circulation is paused?
For most library materials due during this period, the library will automatically extend the due date to Monday, July 14. However, our current systems will not allow us to extend deadlines for recalled materials, interlibrary loans and BorrowDirect.
