Omni is a fantastic way to access books, journals, databases, videos, library guides, and more from the U of G Library and our Omni partner libraries. While Omni doesn’t have everything, we can get a copy of almost anything. This page is designed to help you better understand how to access them all! To do this we have tried to break down some of the common issues or misconceptions that users have experienced in the past.
As you search for items in Omni you may be asked to sign in more than once. Below is a quick breakdown of what each login gives you access to.
Signing in to Omni allows you to access features such as:
To learn more about Omni features, check out the How to Search Omni page.
To sign in to Omni:
When you access online resources such as research databases, e-books and journal articles you may be required to login to access them.
When you attempt to access one of our licensed online resources you will be prompted to login using the Library Online Resources Access page. From there just follow the prompts to authenticate. Please note that only current students, faculty, and staff have full access to the library’s electronic access.
Note: Even if you are logged into Omni, you will still be prompted to authenticate when you are trying to access an e-resource, like a journal article or e-book.
Omni searches the U of G Library and Omni Libraries by default. Omni libraries are other academic libraries in our network. This means current students, faculty, and staff can borrow items that are available here at the McLaughlin Library (U of G) or those available from Omni partner libraries.
Let’s use a book as an example. When a book is available at McLaughlin Library, your Omni search result will say “Available at McLaughlin Library…” and provide you with a call number. Feel free to place a hold on any item you see whether it is available or currently taken out by another person. See how to request items in Omni below for an overview of this process.
If a book you need is available from an Omni partner library your Omni search result will be provide you with a link to “Borrow from another library”. For an overview of how current students, faculty, and staff can request items in Omni, see the overview of this process below.
Omni provides access to a huge number of online materials such as e-books, journal articles, conference proceedings, newspaper articles and much more. While Alumni and community borrowers may have access to some electronic materials, most of the library’s electronic materials can only be accessed by current students, faculty, and staff due to licensing restrictions. Let’s look at accessing journals and journal articles as common examples of electronic materials available in Omni.
Tip: an easy way to find specific resources such as e-books or journal articles is to modify your Omni search results.
e-books are a great way to do research regardless of your location. When looking at search results available e-books will be identified as a “BOOK” and will provide an “Available Online” link.
Select Available Online or the book title to see more details on accessing the book. There may be multiple links for accessing the book if it’s available through more than one publisher.
You may come across results for journals while searching in Omni. These will be identified as “JOURNAL” and will provide an “Available Online” link.
Select the journal title or available online to see the item record for the journal. From the journal’s item record you can see access information under View Online. This will give you one or multiple links to access the journal.
A couple of items to note when accessing journals:
If you come across a journal article in your Omni search results it will be noted as an “ARTICLE” and will provide links such as “Get PDF”, “Read PDF” or “Read Online”.
If you're interested in accessing the article, select the appropriate link:
If you decide to open the article’s item record in Omni, you may find more than one link to access the article. Under View Online all the full text availability will be listed. If you're not sure which link to choose, just pick one. If it doesn't work, try another.
Research databases are another resource available in Omni. These will be identified as a "DATABASE" and will provide an "Available Online" link. Searching directly in a database offers more advanced search tools and discipline-specific filtering that may not be available in Omni.
You can search for the title of the database in Omni, click on the result and look at the record:
Omni doesn’t have everything, but we can get you a copy of almost anything. Current students, faculty, and staff can click Can’t Find It in the top navigation bar and fill in the request form. We’ll do our best to locate a copy for you.
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