Tag Archives: welcome

It’s August and induction season is here!

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White lettering on a green background which reads: Come in, we're open.

Image by Geralt via Pixabay

Did you know that Academic Support Librarians (ASLs) work year round, even while most students are on their summer break? Here at UoE we have courses starting at different times throughout the year so some members of our team have already been hard at work helping students get settled in and familiar with Library Services right at the beginning of their university journey in Edinburgh.

For example, we have a lot of students who arrive for pre-sessional courses such as the ‘Essentials of English for Academic Purposes’ who began in July in order to complete some language courses before their PG study begins. We like to meet these students and make sure they’re familiar with which resources will be relevant for them, and how to ask for help in the very early part of their course so the information stays with them no matter what they go on to study.

A leaflet display on a table, with other stands around the room and small groups of students stood in between them.

ASLs had a stall at the Community Fairs organised by The Centre for Open Learning (COL) in July

We’ve been providing library introductions for new and returning students in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, and we’ll soon be welcoming the latest cohort of Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) students who will be arriving on the Holyrood campus on Monday 18th August. This group of students traditionally start before other cohorts and spend limited time on-campus as they go out on school placements at the start of the academic year.

To facilitate early arrival on-campus, Ishbel (ASL for Moray House School of Education and Sport) has liaised with Programme Directors for PGDE Primary & Secondary to find out how many new students are expected to arrive for the 2025-26 session (PGDE Primary: 100 approx. & PGDE Secondary: 145-160 approx.) She has liaised with the Moray House Library EdHelp Team and with Pam Wells at the Main Library to arrange for student ID cards to be sent to Moray House Library in advance, which allows PGDE students to collect cards before ‘official’ card collection events take place during Welcome Week. This year, we’ve also had assistance from Jade Fenton (Graduate Library Trainee) and Tim Gray to arrange for Library tote bags to be delivered to Moray House Library in time for PGDE student arrivals.

We’ll also welcome Access students in August. Access courses are designed for adults who are returning to learning after a break and will go on to Undergraduate work in the future – they begin almost a full month before welcome week and continue on for two semesters.

We often talk about how there’s no one-size-fits-all scenario for our students and that’s because there’s so many different courses, circumstances and timetables to account for in our planning. This is just one example of how we’re trying to make sure everyone has a valuable and meaningful library experience no matter when they join us!

 

LibSmart: All students now automatically enrolled!

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LibSmart banner, which contains the university crest in white on a black background to the left of the image. The word 'Library' is written beneath the crest. In the centre of the image is a photo of students sitting outside the Main Library on central campus on stone benches, and the Library sign is visible. To the right of the banner is the library branding which looks like geometric shapes in white and electric blue on a back background.

We’re very excited to let you know that from this year onwards all students at Undergraduate and Postgraduate level will automatically be enrolled in our LibSmart online information literacy course! If you’ve not encountered LibSmart before, it’s a great way to get to grips with finding and using information available to you via the Library. It’s asychronous which means you can dip in and out whenever suits you across the year, and we tend to find people use it either at the start of term when they need to start looking reading material up, or right before they start research for their assignments.

LibSmart I is our foundation level course, helping students get a good baseline in using our library catalogue, searching for reading materials for courses, and understanding the best places to go for help. We also talk about referencing and plagiarism, something students will need to understand at every level of university life.

LibSmart II is a bit more specialised – it takes a subject-specific look at different topics that people find tricky to work with, such as systematic reviews, data mindfulness and digital news sources. We walk you through different types of resource and processes for working with this information, and hopefully leave you feeling confident of where to start with your assignment or research project. We recommend you complete LibSmart I first, but if you’re feeling confident and ready to dive in to LibSmart II then you’re welcome to start wherever you like!

And if the achievement of completing a module alone doesn’t bring you joy, we also award you some lovely digital badges for each module you complete. You can save them and use them as evidence of the self-directed learning you’ve completed via LibSmart – something that could look very attractive to future employers!

Picture of LibSmart digital badges in a wooden picture frame leaning against a wall

Earn digital badges for every module you complete in LibSmart I and II.

To access LibSmart, simply follow these steps:

  1. Visit www.learn.ed.ac.uk
  2. Log in using your UUN (normal university username and password)
  3. On the left hand navigation, select ‘Organisations’
  4. Locate LibSmart I: Your Library Research Starts Here (2023/24) from the list, or LibSmart II: Advance your Library Research (2023/24). 
  5. Click into the course and start working your way through!

If you would like some further information on LibSmart you can find out more on our LibSmart webpage which includes information about the modules available and a look at what previous students have found most useful about the course. Of course if you have any questions please leave us a comment or email us.