Our current system, Symphony, is hosted by the University of Alberta Library and shared by 18 libraries in Alberta; it has been our library system for the past 20 years. The Symphony library system has served us well in this time; however, it is also a system that was built and designed for the print era. More recently, the system has become increasingly unstable, raising security concerns and impacting overall performance and functionality.  In 2022, the MacEwan University Library, along with the University of Alberta and other member libraries sharing the Symphony system, made the decision to explore different options.

This date was imposed on us by the vendor of our new library services platform. Another complicating factor is that our current library system is shared by 18 other libraries. The migration timeline of MacEwan University library is relative to, and impacted by, the migration timelines and processes of other libraries.

Yes! You will not lose access to our library resources, but permalinks to eBooks, articles, and more in the library catalogue will no longer work effective December 11th.

Your options are to:

• Include the citation for the resource without the permalink
• Download the full text of the resource and share the document directly with your students via email or post to your course in mêskanâs
• Link directly to articles from a database
• Wait until after December 11th and use the permalink feature in the new library system

Unsure if your links will break? Send your course outline or handout to Reserves@macewan.ca and library staff can check and update the links for you.

Direct links to resources such as journal articles (e.g.), or streaming videos (e.g.) in databases such as JSTOR, CINAHL, or Kanopy will remain stable and accessible after the migration on December 11. Only links from within the library services platform with a library.macewan.ca in the URL will break.

Yes! Permalinks to records for eBooks, articles, and more in the library catalogue will break during the migration process on December 11th. Be sure to save the citation for the resource or download the full text. 

Information about items that you have on hold or checked out to your card will remain after the migration.  However, resources in Saved Items and Saved Searches will not transfer over. Use the email functionality in My Account to email any saved items, lists, or searches to yourself.

Many new features and enhanced functionality including:

• Fewer clicks to access full text,
• Digital document delivery,
• A more personalized search experience,
• The ability to request digital chapter scans from print books held by other libraries,
• The ability to browse digital shelves and collections,
• A mobile app.

Reach out to your subject librarian if you have questions or would like more clarification about the above.