Library Update

for Science

All change

We are committed to providing you with access to high quality information resources. During the spring we had a trial of a set of resources from one of the major database providers (Proquest); we ran some training days and spent

time comparing the coverage and value of the trial product against our current provision. We are pleased to say that the move to Proquest will happen during July and August. Full-text coverage from Proquest Central is similar to Academic Search Elite, and we will also have the following additional resources ProQuest Computing™ ProQuest Science Journals™ ProQuest Biology Journals These collections include additional titles from the Nature publishing group, Nature Methods, Nature Genetics and Nature Cell Biology. Our subscription also includes access to Ebrary Academic complete provid-ing access to 80,000 full text e-books across a range of disciplines. I will offer training some updating sessions at the beginning of the next academic year.

Self-service

If you have been in the library recently you might have noticed staff

sticking new labels into books. This is all part of the background work

for self-service; each book has to have its own RFID (radio frequency

identification) tag in order to work with the self service machines.

The machines are being installed at the start of the summer ready for

the system to go live in August. Self-service will make a huge differ-

ence to the library and we know that is something students have been

asking for and expect to see in an academic library.

Summer opening hours From Saturday 15th June vacation hours begin Monday—Thursday 8.30-17.00 Friday 8.30-16.30 Saturday and Sunday Closed

Contact us library@ucs.ac.uk tel.01473 338700 Or Sarah Robinson s.robinson@ ucs.ac.uk tel. 01473 338703

Summer 2013

One of our new self- service machines

waiting to be installed.

Do I need to do anything?

You only need to do something if you have set up an account with any of the following Ebsco databases,

*Academic Search Elite * Business Source Elite * Criminal Justice Abstracts *

Or *Academic Onefile*

Instructions for exporting and saving your references can be found here

http://ucseresources.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/e-resources-at-ucs-delivering-the-best-databases-to-you/

What’s new?

Planet eStream developments We are in the process of creating specialist pages for each subject—find these in the media and Images sec-tion of your subject guide. Each page shows recent content recorded on eStream At the moment we have pages for Computer Games Design Film

History

Making ebooks easier to find

The use of our ebook collection is already high, but to make the

availability of key ebooks even more apparent we have created dummy

covers for the shelves. Each cover includes a QR code that can be

scanned to access the book directly; alternatively you can use Summon

or the catalogue to see the book.

If there are titles that you would like a dummy cover made for then let

me know and we will set one up.

Never miss a new book again!

To alert you of new printed material coming into the

library we have set up Pinterest boards for each sub-

ject area.

You can access the boards from the relevant library

subject page. Simply select the See on Pinterest link

and you will be taken to the board.

The boards contain the covers of new

books— underneath each cover you will see

a link to the library catalogue— use this to

find out more about the book.

We are aiming to update the boards once a

month, although during times when there’s

a lot of stock arriving it might be more

often.

I will alert you when we have updated a

board.

If you have a Pinterest account

we would love you to follow us!

You will find the link on the Media and Images pages at the top of the page under find out more and watch recent recordings

More eStream pages coming

soon

Reading lists — we need your help! The tangled web of reading list management I will soon send out a request for your new course handbooks and module reading lists. Earlier this year the students union highlighted reading lists as one of the key areas of concern for our students, highlighting the following issues; • Students feel confused between what they should read and what they should buy • They are annoyed when things that are on lists are not in the library • They are equally confused if the lists are not up to date—should they read an edition indicated on

the list if a later edition is on the shelves?

As illustrated below we are sometimes faced with students who have been advised to consult material

that we don’t have in the library, we want to work with you to make sure this doesn’t happen.

We are implementing a number of initiatives to help you manage your lists and move towards a standard

template across UCS.

Reading list guidelines and the template can be found on the library website

https://my.ucs.ac.uk/Library/Reading-Lists.aspx

Make one change

In our experience one of the great-

est inconsistencies across reading

lists at UCS is the range of termi-

nology used.

If there is one edit that you make

to your lists this year please make

it this

Change the variety headings used

below

• Core

• Key text

• Required

• Compulsory

• Basic Class reading

• Set Reading

To Essential Reading

We also need to make sure we

have all the material on the read-

ing list—so please send us the list

and information about any materi-

al you make reference to during

your lectures. If we haven’t seen

or heard about it, it might not be

here!

First Steps

During the year we have made your lists more visible to students by making them available on the li-

brary catalogue. This is the first step in developing a strategy to manage lists—ideally we would love to

be in a position where we can offer you reading list management software

There are many benefits to these systems:

• Management of lists is quick and easy though linking to the library catalogue and other resources.

• Reading lists become more visible to students as links to the software can be added anywhere it’s

required.

• They provide useful statistics on usage of items on reading lists, so we can quickly order more

copies of a book when required, or you can remove a book if it is never used.

• Lists become far more dynamic than the static lists we have here at UCS— you can add urls and

links to articles Some systems enable students to like or dislike an item and see related materi-

al of interest .

What happens to your list?

We are committed to making material available to library users as

quickly as possible.

When we receive a reading list it is:

• Checked against the library catalogue for number of copies,

loan periods and ebook versions.

• We then order new (and additional copies of existing titles if

necessary) from our library supplier (Dawson books), we

specify the length of loan, and check that the class number

fits our needs.

• If a book is unavailable from our suppler we will search

Amazon or Abe for copies.

• The reading list is then added to the library catalogue.

These can be found via the reading list link on the first

page of the catalogue.

If the list is already on our system it will be checked against

what has been sent.

Finally a QR code is generated that can be added to your

module hand book or given to students. This will take stu-

dents direct to the list on the catalogue.

Please contact me if you would like to add these to your lists.

Assignment planning toolkit

The Library, Learning Development and Elevate Teams are working collaboratively to develop a web-based assignment planning toolkit aimed at supporting UCS students facing the challenges associated with successfully completing their first assignments and other related tasks at university, and easing the transition into an academic environment with higher expectations and standards. It is going to be launched as a contribution to support the devel-oping Information Literacy Strategy at UCS, which aims to create graduates who are techno-

logically, digitally and information literate.

This tool will break the whole assignment task into smaller, more manageable steps and help students with their planning and time management. Not only will this toolkit provide students with support in regard to formatting, structuring and the layout of their assignment, it will al-so direct them to sources of research information which they may not be aware of and should therefore improve the quality of their research and final assignment work. We are beginning with the essay section as this is pertinent to the greatest number of stu-

dents, additional sections will follow including:

• Presentation

• Analysis of Research

• Poster

• Report

• Portfolio

• Reflective Journal

Look out for Becky’s poster at the Learning and Teaching day

Finally....

It is nearly the summer break,

whatever you are doing enjoy the

break!

Next year....

I will soon be in touch about Induction and Information Literacy sessions for your students for the 2013-

14 session.

I will outline what we can offer during these sessions and how we are developing the sessions in line

with the Information Literacy Strategy mentioned above.

If you would like to get things moving and book some sessions please contact me.