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Library Update
for Science
All change
We are committed to providing you with access to high quality information resources. During the spring we had a trial of a set of resources from one of the major database providers (Proquest); we ran some training days and spent
time comparing the coverage and value of the trial product against our current provision. We are pleased to say that the move to Proquest will happen during July and August. Full-text coverage from Proquest Central is similar to Academic Search Elite, and we will also have the following additional resources ProQuest Computing™ ProQuest Science Journals™ ProQuest Biology Journals These collections include additional titles from the Nature publishing group, Nature Methods, Nature Genetics and Nature Cell Biology. Our subscription also includes access to Ebrary Academic complete provid-ing access to 80,000 full text e-books across a range of disciplines. I will offer training some updating sessions at the beginning of the next academic year.
Self-service
If you have been in the library recently you might have noticed staff
sticking new labels into books. This is all part of the background work
for self-service; each book has to have its own RFID (radio frequency
identification) tag in order to work with the self service machines.
The machines are being installed at the start of the summer ready for
the system to go live in August. Self-service will make a huge differ-
ence to the library and we know that is something students have been
asking for and expect to see in an academic library.
Summer opening hours From Saturday 15th June vacation hours begin Monday—Thursday 8.30-17.00 Friday 8.30-16.30 Saturday and Sunday Closed
Contact us [email protected] tel.01473 338700 Or Sarah Robinson s.robinson@ ucs.ac.uk tel. 01473 338703
Summer 2013
One of our new self- service machines
waiting to be installed.
Do I need to do anything?
You only need to do something if you have set up an account with any of the following Ebsco databases,
*Academic Search Elite * Business Source Elite * Criminal Justice Abstracts *
Or *Academic Onefile*
Instructions for exporting and saving your references can be found here
http://ucseresources.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/e-resources-at-ucs-delivering-the-best-databases-to-you/
What’s new?
Planet eStream developments We are in the process of creating specialist pages for each subject—find these in the media and Images sec-tion of your subject guide. Each page shows recent content recorded on eStream At the moment we have pages for Computer Games Design Film
History
Making ebooks easier to find
The use of our ebook collection is already high, but to make the
availability of key ebooks even more apparent we have created dummy
covers for the shelves. Each cover includes a QR code that can be
scanned to access the book directly; alternatively you can use Summon
or the catalogue to see the book.
If there are titles that you would like a dummy cover made for then let
me know and we will set one up.
Never miss a new book again!
To alert you of new printed material coming into the
library we have set up Pinterest boards for each sub-
ject area.
You can access the boards from the relevant library
subject page. Simply select the See on Pinterest link
and you will be taken to the board.
The boards contain the covers of new
books— underneath each cover you will see
a link to the library catalogue— use this to
find out more about the book.
We are aiming to update the boards once a
month, although during times when there’s
a lot of stock arriving it might be more
often.
I will alert you when we have updated a
board.
If you have a Pinterest account
we would love you to follow us!
You will find the link on the Media and Images pages at the top of the page under find out more and watch recent recordings
More eStream pages coming
soon
Reading lists — we need your help! The tangled web of reading list management I will soon send out a request for your new course handbooks and module reading lists. Earlier this year the students union highlighted reading lists as one of the key areas of concern for our students, highlighting the following issues; • Students feel confused between what they should read and what they should buy • They are annoyed when things that are on lists are not in the library • They are equally confused if the lists are not up to date—should they read an edition indicated on
the list if a later edition is on the shelves?
As illustrated below we are sometimes faced with students who have been advised to consult material
that we don’t have in the library, we want to work with you to make sure this doesn’t happen.
We are implementing a number of initiatives to help you manage your lists and move towards a standard
template across UCS.
Reading list guidelines and the template can be found on the library website
https://my.ucs.ac.uk/Library/Reading-Lists.aspx
Make one change
In our experience one of the great-
est inconsistencies across reading
lists at UCS is the range of termi-
nology used.
If there is one edit that you make
to your lists this year please make
it this
Change the variety headings used
below
• Core
• Key text
• Required
• Compulsory
• Basic Class reading
• Set Reading
To Essential Reading
We also need to make sure we
have all the material on the read-
ing list—so please send us the list
and information about any materi-
al you make reference to during
your lectures. If we haven’t seen
or heard about it, it might not be
here!
First Steps
During the year we have made your lists more visible to students by making them available on the li-
brary catalogue. This is the first step in developing a strategy to manage lists—ideally we would love to
be in a position where we can offer you reading list management software
There are many benefits to these systems:
• Management of lists is quick and easy though linking to the library catalogue and other resources.
• Reading lists become more visible to students as links to the software can be added anywhere it’s
required.
• They provide useful statistics on usage of items on reading lists, so we can quickly order more
copies of a book when required, or you can remove a book if it is never used.
• Lists become far more dynamic than the static lists we have here at UCS— you can add urls and
links to articles Some systems enable students to like or dislike an item and see related materi-
al of interest .
What happens to your list?
We are committed to making material available to library users as
quickly as possible.
When we receive a reading list it is:
• Checked against the library catalogue for number of copies,
loan periods and ebook versions.
• We then order new (and additional copies of existing titles if
necessary) from our library supplier (Dawson books), we
specify the length of loan, and check that the class number
fits our needs.
• If a book is unavailable from our suppler we will search
Amazon or Abe for copies.
• The reading list is then added to the library catalogue.
These can be found via the reading list link on the first
page of the catalogue.
If the list is already on our system it will be checked against
what has been sent.
Finally a QR code is generated that can be added to your
module hand book or given to students. This will take stu-
dents direct to the list on the catalogue.
Please contact me if you would like to add these to your lists.
Assignment planning toolkit
The Library, Learning Development and Elevate Teams are working collaboratively to develop a web-based assignment planning toolkit aimed at supporting UCS students facing the challenges associated with successfully completing their first assignments and other related tasks at university, and easing the transition into an academic environment with higher expectations and standards. It is going to be launched as a contribution to support the devel-oping Information Literacy Strategy at UCS, which aims to create graduates who are techno-
logically, digitally and information literate.
This tool will break the whole assignment task into smaller, more manageable steps and help students with their planning and time management. Not only will this toolkit provide students with support in regard to formatting, structuring and the layout of their assignment, it will al-so direct them to sources of research information which they may not be aware of and should therefore improve the quality of their research and final assignment work. We are beginning with the essay section as this is pertinent to the greatest number of stu-
dents, additional sections will follow including:
• Presentation
• Analysis of Research
• Poster
• Report
• Portfolio
• Reflective Journal
Look out for Becky’s poster at the Learning and Teaching day
Finally....
It is nearly the summer break,
whatever you are doing enjoy the
break!
Next year....
I will soon be in touch about Induction and Information Literacy sessions for your students for the 2013-
14 session.
I will outline what we can offer during these sessions and how we are developing the sessions in line
with the Information Literacy Strategy mentioned above.
If you would like to get things moving and book some sessions please contact me.