Tag Archives: students

New books at New College Library – January

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New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks.

Disability Studies and Biblical LiteratureCurrently in the display is Disability studies and biblical literature  edited by Candida R. Moss and Jeremy Schipper. This was a recommendation from Biblical Studies at the School of Divinity, Edinburgh University.

Also new is Celluloid sermons : the emergence of the Christian film industry, 1930-1986 by Terry Lindvall, purchased to support courses in film, religion and ethics.

You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet.

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.

New books at New College Library – November

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A new title that has gone straight to the shelves is Religion and the news, edited by Jolyon Mitchell and Owen Gower. Newly published this October, two copies of this book were acquired in support of a number of undergraduate and postgraduate Divinity courses on religion, contemporary culture and the media. One copy can be found in the Reserve Section and one in Standard loan at PN4756 Rel.

New College Library also  has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks.You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet.

Another Book Sale success at New College Library, Edinburgh

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New College Library held another successful Book Sale of duplicate volumes and unsuitable donations this Freshers week in the David Welsh Reading Room, New College Library. We’re pleased to be able to tell you that we raised over £1200! All proceeds will go to support New College Library funds. Previous book sales have supported new book purchasing, rare book conservation and archive listing projects.

The Book Sale would not be able to happen without the support of helpers from the New College postgraduate student community, who staffed the sale and helped with setting up and clearing away. A big thank you goes out to them!

Students and staff often ask what will happen to the unsold stock. This year some books will be going to the  Josophat Mwale Theological Institute (JMTI), in Zomba, Malawi, courtesy of Dr David Reimer. Other stock is being collected by St Columba’s Hospice Bookshop, Edinburgh.

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

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 2012. 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.

Planned changes to New College Library photocopying services

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The University is introducing a new system of copying and printing over the summer of 2012.

Pushing start button on printer

New Xerox multi-function devices (MFDs) are due to be installed for the beginning of semester in September. University users will continue to be able to charge their University smartcards with credit for photocopying.  However, for external users, the old prepaid copy cards will cease to function. Instead, the New College Library helpdesk will be able to charge visitors cards with credit to enable external users to copy. After the new machines have been installed, New College Library will no longer be selling the prepaid copy cards.

We are still selling the prepaid copy cards but advising users to only buy for what they need right now. If you have a copy card, please try to use up any prepaid copy card balance now while you can. If you do have a balance on your prepaid copy card, after you are no longer able to use it in the Library, you will be able to have this balance checked at the Main Library Helpdesk, and receive a refund on the balance, until 31 December 2012.

Full article on the University website :

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/about/news/copy-cards-cease

New JSTOR collections benefit e-journals for Divinity

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Are you a fan of JSTOR electronic  journals ? In 2012 the University of Edinburgh purchased the JSTOR Collections V & VIII. This has increased the coverage of backruns of a number of titles relevant to Divinity, such as:

  • Canadian Journal of Philosophy 1971-2006
  • Contemporary Religions in Japan 1960-1970
  • The Catholic Historical Review 1915-2006
  • International Journal of the Classical Tradition 1994-2007
  • International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1970-2007
  • International Journal of Hindu Studies 1997-2007
  • Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1974-2011
  • Jewish History 1986-2007
  • The Journal of Ethics 1997-2007
  • Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 1985-2011
  • Journal of Religion and Health 1961-2007
  • The Journal of Religious Ethics 1973-2005
  • The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society  1835-2006
  • Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 1997-2011
  • Prooftexts 1981-2010
  • Religion & Literature 1965-2008
  • Religious Studies 1965-2011
  • Scottish Historical Review 1903-

New College Library Stacks now open

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New College Library’s Stack I is now open.

Apologies to all who have been inconvenienced by the closure of Stack I during the last five weeks. The New College Library Helpdesk had more than 500 books requested during the closure period, so there is obviously no such thing as a” quiet time” in the Library any more.

The stack room is now freshly painted for the first time in sixty years!!

Studying away from Edinburgh over the summer?

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If you’re a School of Divinity student moving away from Edinburgh over the summer but continuing to work on your thesis, you’ll be thinking about how to obtain the library materials you need.

All of the University of Edinburgh’s online services remain open to you, of course. Just log in remotely using your EASE user name and password.

As long as you remain a University of Edinburgh student, the Library can continue to process inter-library loan requests for you, and photocopies of  journal articles and book chapters can be posted to you (We can’t supply physical loans of books or microfilms by post). If an electronic copy has been supplied, we will email it to you. You’ll need to register for the ILLiad system first, if you haven’t already done so, and then submit your requests online. 

In the UK, you can usually request inter-library loans using the services available at your local public library. This will depend on the services offered locally, and there may be a charge. Always allow a minimum of two weeks, and more if possible, for an inter-library loan item to be delivered.

If you live within easy travelling distance of a University library, it’s probably worth joining the SCONUL access scheme. This allows University of Edinburgh staff and students to have access to 170+ Higher Education Libraries in the UK. You might find visiting one of these libraries quicker than waiting for inter-library loans. You need to register with Edinburgh University as  your home library first – so do it before you leave Edinburgh.  Use the COPAC Union library catalogue http://copac.ac.uk/ to help you see which academic libraries have the materials you want.

A plea from us to all of you going away over the summer – please keep checking your e-mail notices for library books that have been recalled. We need you to return these books for the benefit of other library users. Thank you!