Searching Searcher – discovering the Library’s resources

Posted on April 6, 2014 by spslibrarian

Do you want to be able to find books, articles and other material using one search? Do you want to find material the University of Edinburgh Library owns in its collections or subscribes to online? Are you looking to use a variety of different information sources?

Searcher may be exactly what you are looking for.

Searcher is the Library’s resource discovery tool and allows you to search the Library’s Catalogue, e-journals and licensed collections i.e. what the Library owns and subscribes to, all in one search. It also lets you search beyond what the Library has in its collections and discover other resources and material that may be relevant to your research.

There are search boxes for Searcher on the Library homepage and in the Library tab on MyEd but you can also access Searcher at http://searcher.is.ed.ac.uk/

As of 1st April 2014, when you first do your search, Searcher will limit your results to All Library Resources, which includes print books, ebooks, ejournals and database content. You can narrow this to searching just the Library Catalogue (only results which appear in the Library Catalogue will display, this includes books, ebooks and ejournal titles but NOT ejournal content) or expand this to search out with the Library’s collections.

There are Basic and Advanced search options, various limiters are available to refine your search results, you can create your own account to save searches and results, and there are options for downloading/saving references.

Where full-text is available to you online then there will be a link to go straight through to this, the link may be slightly different depending on the source of the search result. Look out for the following links Click here for full text, PDF Full Text, HTML Full Text or findit@edinburgh.

More information about using Searcher can be found at learn more about Searcher. See also Searcher: BIG change.

If you find a book in the Library that is already out on loan (Not Available) then you can click on the Retrieve Catalogue Item link to place a request on the book – Requesting an item which is on loan.

If you find material that is not available within the Library’s collections then you may want to consider requesting the material via the Inter-Library Loans service, or visiting another library to access the material or in the case of a book you may wish to recommend this is purchased for the Library – Book recommendations.

If you want to do a more focused search in your subject area or are looking looking for material most relevant to your topic then you should use some of the online databases the Library subscribes to. Find these by subject area or through the Subject Guides.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science.

Ukraine crisis – suggested resources for your research

Posted on March 24, 2014 by spslibrarian

The Ukraine crisis has been headline news for a few months now. If you are looking to do some research in this area or are just interested in keeping up to date with the situation then you may find some of these resources useful.

Library Resources

These are mostly resources that have been subscribed to by the Library and are only available to staff and students at University of Edinburgh. You can use these to find newspaper articles and commentaries, academic literature and background reading.

Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press
Each week the Current Digest presents a selection of Russian-language press materials, translated into English, the translations are intended for use in teaching and research.

Factiva (off-campus access available via VPN)
Provides full-text access to a large number of UK newspapers as well as full-text access to a significant range of international newspapers and news sources.

Integrum (for access see entry in Databases A-Z list)
Offers the largest database of Russian sources: Federal and regional Russian press, TV channels, websites, libraries and databases as well as full texts of classical literature.

Lexis Library and Nexis UK (off-campus access by clicking on Login via Academic Sign In and UK federation)
Lexis Library includes full-text access to the vast majority of UK broadsheet and tabloid newspapers and a large number of local papers. Nexis UK provides full-text access to a large number of international newspapers and news sources.

Click on Russian studies, Politics or Newspapers for more recommended databases in these subject areas.

Freely available online resources

University College London’s (UCL) School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library (UCL SSEES) have created a fantastic repository of sources, analysis and updates on the Ukraine crisis: http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/library/directory/ukraine2014.htm. This is updated regularly and if you follow them on Twitter you will be alerted to every update.

BBC News
Chatham House
Brookings Institution
Council for Foreign Relations (CFR)
Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.
Voice of Russia
Ukrainian News Agency
Global Voices

These are just a few examples of resources and repositories available online that are covering this subject. The UCL SSEES website provides links to even more useful sites.

Read all about it!

Posted on March 19, 2014 by spslibrarian

Need to access online newspapers? Looking for current news or hoping to find historic newspapers?

Newspapers can be a valuable tool for researching historic events, finding current information about international, national and local events, tracing a story back and finding editorials, commentaries, expert or popular opinions.

University of Edinburgh Library subscribes to a number of databases and online news sources that allow you to search through newspaper archives, both current and historic, easily and quickly.

A full list of these resources and how to access them can be found at Newspapers databases list but here are just a few examples:

Current news sources

Factiva
International business, financial and news information from 35,000 sources in 26 languages from nearly 200 countries. As well as providing full-text access to a large number of UK newspapers it also provides full-text access to a significant range of international newspapers and news sources.

Lexis Library
Primarily a major law database this also includes full-text access to the vast majority of UK broadsheet and tabloid newspapers and a large number of local papers. To search newspapers once you access the database click on the “News” link in top menu.

Nexis UK
Access to over 23,000 UK and international news and business sources, financial and market reports, biographical data and thousands of legal and regulatory services. Like Factiva this is a very good resource for getting full-text access to international newspapers and news sources.

Historical news sources

NewsVault
This is a cross-search facility for newspaper archives from Gale. This enables the simultaneous searching of over 400 years of primary historical sources including: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection; 19th Century British Library Newspapers; 19th Century UK Periodicals; Times Digital Archive; Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.

UK Press Online
Database includes 2 million pages of 19th and 20th century British popular newspapers, from 1835 to current. Titles include: Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Church Times, The Watchman, Daily Worker, Morning Star.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Includes the Scotsman Archive (1817-1950), Guardian and Observer Archive (1791-2003), New York Times Archive (1851-2009), Washington Post Archive (1877-1994), Times of India Archive (1838-2003) and Chinese Newspaper Collections (1832-1953). In the Newspapers database list look for the newspaper title to access e.g. Guardian and Observer Archive or Chinese Newspaper Collections rather than ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

These are just a few examples of the online newspaper databases and resources that the Library has access to. You can find a full list with links to access on the Newspapers database list.

More information about searching newspaper content can be found at How to find newspaper content, including information on the paper copies and microfilm copies of newspapers that the Library holds.

Inspiring Research – International Women’s Day 2014

Posted on March 11, 2014 by spslibrarian

International Women’s Day (IWD) was celebrated on 8^th March 2014. IWD has been celebrated for over 100 years and this year’s theme was Inspiring Change.

The Library subscribes to a number of databases that may inspire you when researching women’s or gender studies. You can find a full list of Recommended databases for women’s studies but a few highlights are:

Women, War & Society: the First World War had a revolutionary and permanent impact on the personal, social and professional lives of all women. Their essential contribution to the war in Europe is fully documented in this collection of primary source materials sourced from the Imperial War Museum, London. These unique documents – charity and international relief reports, pamphlets, photographs and press cuttings – are published for the first time in fully searchable form, along with interpretative essays from leading scholars.

The Vogue Archive: contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present day, reproduced in high-resolution colour page images. More than 400,000 pages are included. Vogue is a unique record of international popular culture that extends beyond fashion. The Vogue Archive is an essential primary source for the study of fashion, gender and modern social history.

Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures Online: an interdisciplinary, trans-historical, and global project embracing women and Islamic cultures in every region where there have been significant Muslim populations. It crosses history, geographic borders and disciplines to create a ground breaking reference work reflecting the very latest research on gender studies and the Islamic world.

Project Muse: provides access to almost 200 full text journals from 30 scholarly publishers, covering the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.

For the full list see databases for women’s studies.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the editors of the journal Parliamentary Affairs have drawn together recent publications examining the representation of women in parliamentary democracies around the world. All papers are free to access until the end of June 2014. See Virtual Issue: Women’s Representation.
The Library has full access to the journal Parliamentary Affairs available to students and staff of the University, search the Library Catalogue for the Journal Title to get access.

For information on events held at University of Edinburgh to celebrate International Women’s Day 2014 see:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/equality-diversity/news-events/events/international-women

To watch previous International Women’s Day lectures at the University see:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/video/lecture-series/international-womens-day

Yesterday’s News? Find out more about historic newspapers online

Posted on March 6, 2014 by spslibrarian

Image courtesy of ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Do you want to read about history in the making? University of Edinburgh users have access to large collections of online newspaper archives, going back to the nineteenth century and beyond.

UK broadsheet titles include the Times, Sunday Times, Scotsman, Guardian and Observer. We also now have access to UK Press Online, an archive of popular press newspapers including the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star and Daily Worker.

Image courtesy of UK Press Online

For worldwide coverage, you will find the New York Times, Pravda, Asahi Shimbun, People’s Daily and more.

Explore what’s available in the Newspaper Databases guide, or come to the Finding Historic Newspapers IS Skills Seminar on Thursday 13 March, bookable via MyEd.

New books for SPS in Main Library – February

Posted on March 5, 2014 by spslibrarian

Over 150 books from subject areas within SPS were added to the Library collections last month. Here is just a small selection:

Cybersecurity and cyberwar : what everyone needs to know, by P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman at QA76.9.A25 Sin.

The inequality reader: contemporary and foundational readings in race, class, and gender, edited by David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelény at HM821 Ine.

Meaning in life : an analytic study, by Thaddeus Metz at BD431 Met.

The outsourced self: what happens when we pay others to live our lives for us, by Arlie Russell Hochschild at HQ536 Hoc.

Party & society : reconstructing a sociology of democratic party politics, by Cedric de Leon at JF2051 Leo.

The quest for socialist Utopia : the Ethiopian student movement, c.1960-1974, by Bahru Zedwe at DT387.95 Bah.

Recognizing and helping the neglected child : evidence-based practice for assessment and intervention, by Brigid Daniel [and others] at HV713 Rec.

Return : nationalizing transnational mobility in Asia, edited by Xiang Biao, Brenda S.A. Yeoh, and Mika Toyota at JV8490 Ret.

Routledge international handbook of social and environmental change, edited by Stewart Lockie, David A. Sonnenfeld and Dana R. Fisher at HM856 Rou.

The rule of law, Islam, and constitutional politics in Egypt and Iran, edited by Saïd Amir Arjomand and Nathan J. Brown at KMC514 Rul.

Seeing like a feminist, by Nivedita Menon at HQ1742 Men.

The social life of achievement, edited by Nicholas J. Long and Henrietta L. Moore at BF503 Soc.

State and society in the Gambia since independence : 1965-2012, edited by Abdoulaye Saine, Ebrima Ceesay and Ebrima Sall at DT509.8 Sta.

Ten crises, by Peter Montiel at HB3722 Mon.

Vande mataram : the biography of a song, by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya at ML3748 Bha.

You may find some of these books in the New Books display on the 1st floor of the Main Library, where a selection of new books from all subjects across the University are held. Books on these display shelves can be borrowed as normal.

In the Library Catalogue there is also an option to search for new books added to the Library’s collections from the last four weeks, just click on the “New Books” tab.

If looking for a book that has just been newly added to the Library’s collections and you can’t find it on the shelf please ensure you check the New Books display on the 1st floor and/or the Recent Returns shelves on the appropriate floor (shelfmarks starting A-N on 2nd floor, P-Z on 3rd floor). You may want to also double-check the Catalogue record to see if the item is actually in the HUB Collection (ground floor).

Have you heard of BoB?

Posted on March 4, 2014 by spslibrarian

It’s a bit like BBC iPlayer but can offer you much, much more.

BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National is an online off-air recording and media archive service for UK higher and further education institutions. The University of Edinburgh subscribes to BoB so all staff and students at the University can get access to this fantastic service when working anywhere on the UK mainland.

BoB makes the finding and use of important TV and radio content for education simple and instant. It allows you to choose and record any broadcast programme from 60+ TV and radio channels, including over 10 foreign language channels. Recorded programmes are kept indefinitely and added to a media archive, with content shared by users across all subscribing institutions.

With BoB you can:

Record and catch-up on missed programmes on and off-campus.
Schedule recordings up to seven days in advance.
Edit programmes into clips.
Embed clips into VLEs.
Search the database for content that other users have recorded (over 1 million programmes currently available).
Request programmes from the BBC Archive dating back to June 2007.
Manage off-air recordings in your own playlists, which can be shared with others.
Access the website both on and off campus, limited to UK mainland only.

For more information on the service and how to access and use it see Box of Broadcasts (BoB).

How do I get hold of the book I need?

Posted on February 24, 2014 by spslibrarian

Whether an item is already out on loan or is not available in the Library there are options available to you so you can get the material that you need.

Is the book (or other item) you want already out on loan to another user?

You can place a request on the item yourself via the Library Catalogue. If the item is “Charged” i.e. out on loan, then you can simply click on the Request Charged or Annexe item link to request the item. You must have your library barcode number to do this (this appears on your staff/student card and starts 20150…). You will receive an email when the item is available for you to borrow and you must collect this from the Requested items for collection shelves (in the Main Library these are in the HUB collection on the ground floor). This means that you can collect items any time the Main Library building is open.

For more information about this service and how to use it see www.ed.ac.uk/is/self-requests

How do you get hold of a book (or other item) that is held at the Library Annexe?

The Library Annexe is the Library’s offsite store and they offer a couple of request options so you can get hold of material from here. These requests can be done via the Library Catalogue. You can request for a whole book or journal volume to be brought from the Annexe to the Library for you to borrow (click on Request Charged or Annexe item link in the catalogue record). Or you can request for a journal article or book chapter to be scanned and sent to you electronically (click on Library Annexe scan request in the catalogue record).

For more information on the Library Annexe and the request services they provide please see www.ed.ac.uk/is/library-annexe

Does the Library not hold the book that you require?

Through RAB (Request a Book) students can tell the Library about books that are not available in the Library’s collections and the Library will try to buy it.

Go to www.ed.ac.uk/is/book-recommendations and click on Request a Book (RAB) (Students).
Staff can also recommend books on the above book recommendations site by clicking on their relevant College.

If you require the book quickly or if it is a journal article or other material you are looking for then you may want to try the Inter-Library Loans (ILL) service instead. The ILL service can try to borrow an item from another library for you to use, in the case of journal articles they will try to get a copy of the article for you. ILL requests are all done online via ILLiad, you must click on the first time user link to register if you have never used this service before.

For more information on the ILL service please see the ILL website.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit another library in-person to view material that they hold, see using other libraries.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science.

SPS Librarian

Academic Support Librarians for staff & students in the School of Social and Political Science blogging on Library resources, services and skills.

Category Archives: Library

Searching Searcher – discovering the Library’s resources

Read all about it!

Yesterday’s News? Find out more about historic newspapers online

Have you heard of BoB?

How do I get hold of the book I need?