It was great to meet so many SPS postgraduate students in our Welcome Week workshops on Library Resources. We’ve now put the slides from these sessions up on our subject guide web pages. We asked you to write any questions you still had about the library on your feedback sheets so we could get back to you. Here’s some of the things you asked :
1. “Are there any free software resources in the library? For example SPSS?”
Yes, the University provides access to SPSS – see http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/computing/desktop-personal/software/main-software-deals/spss for more information. A range of other software resources are also available on University desktop machines, such as NVivo.
2. “You mentioned VPN – how and when do we use it for the library?”
VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is necessary for off campus access to a small number of library databases. In particular some newspaper databases, such as Factiva and Nexis UK, require VPN access for off-campus access. You can find information about the VPN service at <http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/vpn
3.“Is there any reference management system I can download to my computer for free?”
You can download Endnote Online for free. See http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/is-skills/catalogue/text-catalogue/endnote-web-intro. You may also be interested in Mendeley and Zotero.
4. “I would like to find out more about referencing systems such as Mendeley. Does the University support the desktop version?”
The desktop version of Mendeley is installed on lab PCs throughout the University, although the University doesn’t provide as full a support service for this package as it does for Endnote. If you’d like to find out more about using different bibliographic managers, you may find this comparison table useful.
5. “Is there a floor plan of the Main Library?”
Yes, there are plans for each floor – see the bottom of the page at http://edin.ac/2beNlFw
Christine Love-Rodgers & Caroline Stirling, Academic Support Librarians – Social & Political Science