Category Archives: How to use New College Library

New College Library welcomes Undergraduate Freshers today

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As the New College Librarian, my role is to help students get the most out of using the Library. Freshers Week is a good opportunity to take a little time to get to know the Library – do this now and you’ll be paid back later on in your studies.

Here’s my top three tips for Undergraduate Freshers:

 1. Come to the Library

  • Bring your University card to get into New College Library
  • From next week the Library is open 9am-6pm-10 Mon-Thurs, 9am-5pm Fridays, 12noon – 5pm on Saturdays. Remember that you can also use the Main Library which is open longer at weekends

2. Take a tour

  • Library tours are running in Week 1 on 16, 18 and 19 September – just turn up
  • You should have received a New College Library Guide leaflet in your welcome pack  – it’s also available online.

3. Check out what’s online

And don’t be afraid to ask us for help !

Get Connected with University of Edinburgh Information Services

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Get Connected drop in sessions for Freshers Week are running in the Main Library  mezzanine (above the entrance gates) on 9th-13th September between 10am-4pm. No appointments necessary, just turn up.

Take the opportunity to connect up your own personal devices e.g. laptops, phones and tablets/pads to the University network. Staff will be on hand to help and guide you – I’ll be there myself 1-2pm.

You can also find out more at : www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-students

Welcome to New College Library

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A big welcome to all students starting and returning to the University of Edinburgh today, at the beginning of Freshers week 2013. We’re looking forward to meeting you. To help you get started at University, check out this guide  for new students to Library & IT services.

If you want to get ahead with using New College Library, you could start with the Virtual Tour.

There will be a programme of tours for students at New College Library – students please watch your email for details. There will also be events happening all over the University Library to help you get connected with your IT and Library services.

New online EndNote course now available

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learn logoThe IS Skills Development team in Information Services has released an online course to help University of Edinburgh staff and students get started with the reference management software, EndNote. The course is available through Learn, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as a self-enrol course. Learn can be accessed by MyEd.

Still places available at Searching Research Literature and Managing Bibliographies 27 March

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1.Vitae-Researcher-Development-Framework-subdomains-graphic-2011There’s still time to book a place on Searching Research Literature and Managing Bibliographies course run by the Institute for Academic Development for College of Humanities and Social Sciences postgraduate students. Go here to book a place (link only works for eligible students).

I’ll be co-tutoring on this course, with a mixture of presentations and hands on practical computer-based sessions.

Aimed at first year HSS PhD students, this course offers  information and techniques to equip students with the essential skills for PhD research.  We cover search tips and strategies for databases, good practice in literature searching and managing bibliographies using Endnote.

Winter vacation is coming at New College Library

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New College Library Christmas tree in Funk Reading Room

New College Library Christmas tree in Funk Reading Room

New College Library will close on Friday 21 December and reopen again on Thursday 3 January. More details on opening hours for all University of Edinburgh Library sites over the holidays are available at : http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/library-opening

Reserve books can be borrowed from 11am 21st December, to be returned by 10.30 on Monday 14th January.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tips for getting copyright right

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copyrightI’ve had some questions about copyright recently so thought I’d share a few tips …

1. All reproduction from published material is subject to copyright law. The UK Copyright Service provides a really helpful factsheet.

2. 70 is the magic number – In UK copyright law, copyright for literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works lasts 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies.   For instance, as Aldous Huxley died in 1963, his works will not be out of copyright until 2033.

3. While downloadable versions of publications can be found freely available on the internet,  always check the source and its terms and conditions. Some websites hosted outside of the UK provide materials that potentially violate UK law. Unfortunately if it looks too good to be true – it probably is.

4. The University of Edinburgh has signed up to a licensing scheme which allows photocopying from publications for individual research and study.  This means copies can be made of up to a chapter, entire article or 5% of the publication, whichever is the greater.

5. The University of Edinburgh ereserve service has a licence to allow the scanning of book chapters and journal articles to be made available to classes for teaching purposes. It is the only legal route for scanning published materials to make them available to groups at the University.

6. More information can be found at  the University of Edinburgh’s Copyright Service, including a contact e-mail address for enquiries.

Light Night in Edinburgh – New College Library closing early

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New College Library will close early at 5pm on Thursday 29 November as installations and road closures for ‘Light Night‘ mean that readers will not be able to exit the building through the main gates after this time.

The ‘Light Night’  performance, including firework display and aerobatics, is scheduled on the grassy area at the top of the Mound at around 5pm to 6pm on Thursday 29th November, with a rehearsal in the early afternoon. There will be a full road closure in place all day, with pedestrian access to enter and exit the building through the main Quad gates throughout the day until 5pm.

Top ten tips for finding theses

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Postgraduate students often ask me about how to find theses. Unfortunately there’s no single source for information on all theses worldwide.

However here are a few tips that might help …
1. All Divinity theses and post 1984 other University of Edinburgh theses are now catalogued onto the online catalogue. See my earlier blog post for tips on searching for New College theses …

2. Older University of Edinburgh theses are listed in sheaf-binder indexes, which are held in the CRC Research Suite – see the useful CRC Guide to Theses

3. Remember that most University of Edinburgh printed theses are kept as archival copies and can only be read in the Library.

4. The Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA) has full text online versions of all Edinburgh University theses submitted from 2005.

5. Go to the Theses subject guide on the University of Edinburgh Library website to find a gateway to information sources from universities worldwide  – such as …

6. [University of Edinburgh restricted] … The Index to Theses database finds details of UK & Ireland theses from 1715- present (no full text)

7. [University of Edinburgh restricted] The Dissertations and Theses database from ProQuest finds details of primarily US & Canada theses. Currently the University of Edinburgh has not subscribed to the full text option, but if you want the full text you could apply for an inter-library loan.

8. New to me is the Networked Library of Theses and Digital Dissertations – SCIRUS Search. This freely available search of public domain theses will include subscribed content from University of Edinburgh subscriptions if you’re on a University network machine, or going through MyEd or VPN at home (No need to alter settings as you would for Google scholar). There’s more full text here than I’d expected.

9. The DART Europe E-Theses portal  – at the time of writing, this is offering access to 362030 open access research theses from 523 Universities in 27 European countries.

10. For theses from further afield, you could try the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network.

Get Connected with University of Edinburgh Information Services

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Get Connected drop in sessions for Freshers Week are running in the Main Library  on 12th-14th September between 10am-4pm. No appointments necessary, just turn up.

Take the opportunity to connect up your own personal devices e.g. laptops, phones and tablets/pads to the University network. Staff will be on hand to help and guide you.

Sessions will take place on the Mezzanine area of the first floor of the Main Library, George Square (above the entrance gates).

There is a quick reply mailbox at get.connected@ed.ac.uk to support this event.  Send a blank email to this address and you’ll get an automatic reply which contains details of the event and links to our help pages on these topics.

You can also find out more at : www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-students