Using the Library remotely – accessing material you need

With many of you currently not in Edinburgh and access to our Library’s print collections severely restricted, knowing the options for accessing material that isn’t available online or that the Library doesn’t have in its collections has become increasingly important.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced the number of options available to you, there are still possibilities existing that you can take advantage of.

Check DiscoverEd
Request a Book (RaB)
Scan & Deliver
Click & Collect
Inter-Library Loans (ILLs)
National Library of Scotland and other libraries
Open Access (free stuff)

Check DiscoverEd

It’s really important that you check if the Library has the item or material you are looking for in its collections, whether online or in print. Searching Google or Google Scholar will not give you this information (even if you have set up Google Scholar for full text access). DiscoverEd will show you what we (the Library) have. Continue reading

Using the Library remotely – DiscoverEd

With many of you currently not in Edinburgh and access to our Library’s print collections severely restricted, being able to access books, journals and other materials online has become even more important.

Knowing how to find and access the e-books and e-journals (and more) available to you at the Library is often where people first go wrong. While Google and Google Scholar are good search tools they are not going to show you what the Library has access to and they often put barriers in your way for accessing material.

DiscoverEd should be your starting point

DiscoverEd (http://discovered.ed.ac.uk) is the main place to search for and access online material (and print) available to you at the Library. It tells you what e-books, e-journals, e-journal articles, etc., you have access to and provides links to access them. These links are embedded to tell the resource that you are from University of Edinburgh so access in most cases is direct with your University username and password (and you don’t have to enter this again if you are already signed in).

So some hints and tips and things to know when using DiscoverEd.

Sign In
Too many search results?
Don’t ignore information that is there to help
Broadening your search in DiscoverEd
Build a more complex search (or a more specific search)
Going beyond DiscoverEd
What access is there to print items in Library collections or if the Library doesn’t have the item at all? Continue reading

New! Social Work Online

University of Edinburgh Library has recently set up a subscription with ProQuest that gives you access to almost all available ProQuest digital primary source databases until 31st July 2024. See ProQuest Access 350. This is the first in a series of blog posts that will highlight particular databases or collections from ProQuest Access 350 that are relevant to the School of Social and Political Science. 

Social Work Online

Social Work Online is a first-of-its-kind resource that pairs recently published social work textbooks along with compelling documentaries, clinical demonstration videos, and engaging lectures that illustrate the complex and challenging realities social work students will face as practitioners. The content is structured around twelve of the most important topics in the social work curriculum, most of which are applicable worldwide. Continue reading

Oxford Politics Trove – on trial

Thanks to a request from a member of staff from Politics & International Relations, the  Library currently has extended trial access to Oxford Politics Trove, which enables you, for the first time, to search and interrogate the wealth of Oxford’s politics textbook list.

You can access Oxford Politics Trove via the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 30th June 2020. Continue reading

The Library in the time of Covid-19

Not sure what Library resources, services and support are available to you at this unusual time? You can always keep up to date with all of this via our Library Covid-19 site but we’d like to highlight some key areas in this blog post.

Temporary access to e-books and other e-resources
E-books and books in general
Requesting a chapter from a book or journal article for personal use
Digital primary source and archive collections
Returning library books


Temporary access to e-books and other e-resources

The Library is already in a strong position when it comes to online resources and digital collections. We have around 1.4 million e-books, 185,000 e-journals, 700 licensed databases, 84,000 streaming videos and 6,000 scanned book chapters and journal articles. The majority of this content can be accessed via DiscoverEd and your subject guides. Continue reading

New books in the Library for Social and Political Science

Thanks to recommendations from members of staff and requests via RAB from students the Library is continually adding new books to its collections both online and in print. Here are just a (very) small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections in semester two, 2018/19 for the School of Social and Political Science and these demonstrate the wide range of subjects being taught, studied and researched within School.

–> Find these and more via DiscoverEd.

Heart: a history by Sandeep Jauhar (shelfmark: QP111.4 Jau.)

Heineken in Africa: a multinational unleashed by Olivier van Beemen ; translated by Bram Posthumus (HD9397.N44 Bee.)

Tangled diagnoses: prenatal testing, women, and risk by Ilana Löwy (e-book).

Pervasive punishment: making sense of mass supervision by Fergus McNeill (shelfmark: HV7419 Macn. Also available as e-book).

Can we all be feminists?: seventeen writers on intersectionality, identity, and finding the right way forward for feminism edited by June Eric-Udorie (shelfmark: HQ1221 Can.)

Energy and geopolitics by Per Högselius (e-book).

Reclaiming Afrikan: queer perspectives on sexual and gender identities curated by Zethu Matebeni (shelfmark: HQ75.16.A35 Rec.) Continue reading

New books in the Library for Social and Political Science

Thanks to recommendations from members of staff and requests via RAB from students the Library is continually adding new books to its collections both online and in print. Here are just a (very) small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections in semester one, 2018/19 for the School of Social and Political Science and these demonstrate the wide range of subjects being taught, studied and researched within School.

–> Find these and more via DiscoverEd.

The Blood telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a forgotten genocide by Gary J. Bass (shelfmark: E855 Bas.)

Where underpants come from: from checkout to cotton field: travels through the new China and into the new global economy by Joe Bennett (shelfmark: HD9736.C62 Ben.)

The European Union’s evolving external engagement: towards new sectoral diplomacies? edited by Chad Damro, Sieglinde Gsteohl and Simon Schunz. (e-book).

Taxing Africa: coercion, reform and development by Mick Moore, Wilson Prichard and Odd-Helge Fjeldstad (shelfmark: HJ3021 Moo. Also available as e-book).

Peace for Lebanon?: from war to reconstruction edited by Deirdre Collings (shelfmark: DS87 Pea.)

Town twinning, transnational connections and trans-local citizenship practices in Europe by Andreas Langenohl (e-book). Continue reading

New! Oxford Handbooks Political Science 2017 collection

I’m pleased to let you know that following a request from staff in Politics & International Relations the Library now has access to the Oxford Handbooks Online Political Science 2017 collection. This includes titles such as The Oxford Handbook of Populism, The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict and The Oxford Handbook of U.S. National Security.

You can access the individual book titles in the collection via DiscoverEd. Or you can access the Oxford Handbooks Online site via the E-books pages.  Continue reading

Fitba’ crazy, fitba’ mad? A football inspired reading list (yet again!)

The 2018 World Cup kicks off today in Russia and to mark this occasion we decided to resurrect and update our football inspired reading list that we originally published just over 2 years ago when Euro 2016 began (and 2 years before that when the 2014 World Cup started – don’t say we don’t have any new ideas!) These are just a small number of the e-books currently available to staff and students of the University in the Library’s collections that look at different aspects of the beautiful (or not so beautiful) game from a social sciences perspective.

Football and supporter activism in Europe: whose game is it? edited by Borja García and Jinming Zheng explores and compares football governance, fandom culture and supporter engagement in Europe. With a specific focus on supporter activism and campaigning, the collection provides a comparative study of several European countries. The authors argue that supporters, despite being the pillar or the ‘lifeblood’ of their club, see their role in football governance marginalised. The volume is unique in that it challenges the widely accepted assumption that membership football clubs encourage the democratic participation of supporters.

Marketing and football: an international perspective edited by Michel Desbordes and Simon Chadwick examines in two parts the study of football marketing in Europe and the development of a marketing dedicated to football, with the question of the European example being used worldwide.

Football hooliganism, fan behaviour and crime: contemporary issues edited by Matthew Hopkins and James Treadwell focuses on a number of contemporary research themes placing them within the context of palpable changes that have occurred within football in recent years. The collection brings together essays about football, crime and fan behaviour from leading experts in the fields of criminology, law, sociology, psychology and cultural studies. Continue reading

New books in the Library for Social and Political Science

Thanks to recommendations from members of staff and requests via RAB from students the Library is continually adding new books to its collections both online and in print. Here are just a (very) small number of the books that have been added to the Library’s collections in semester two, 2017/18 for the School of Social and Political Science and these demonstrate the wide range of subjects being taught, studied and researched within School.

–> Find these and more via DiscoverEd.

The politics of borders: sovereignty, security, and the citizen after 9/11 by Matthew Longo (shelfmark: JC323 Lon. Also available as e-book.)

Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Paternalism by Jason Hanna Kalle Grill (e-book).

The unending hunger: tracing women and food insecurity across borders by Megan A. Carney (shelfmark: JV6602 Car.)

Big data, little data, no data: scholarship in the networked world by Christine L. Borgman (e-book).

“Return” in post-colonial writing: a cultural labyrinth edited by Vera Mihailovich-Dickman (shelfmark: PR9085 Ret.)

Havens in a storm: the struggle for global tax regulation by J.C. Sharman (shelfmark: K4464.5 Sha.) Continue reading