PHILIP ALLAN UPDATES – STEP-BY-STEP

Philip Allan Updates are a series of magazines aimed at A-level students in a number of different subjects. The CLIC subscribes to most of these magazines and so the back issues are available to be borrowed for up to one week at a time. In addition to the physical magazines stored in the CLIC this online resource provides:

• access to almost every back issue in the entire Philip Allan Updates collection including the following magazines: 20th Century History Review; A-Level Law Review; Biological Sciences Review; Business Review; Chemistry Review; Economic Review; The English Review; Geography Review; PE Review; Physics Review; Politics Review; Psychology Review; Religious Studies Review and Sociology Review;

• is FREE for you to use in Langside College and at home; • each issue of every magazine is available as a digital magazine which allows you to view the entire

magazine on your screen in the same format as the original printed magazine;

• some magazines, particularly the newer issues, also have additional documents which supplement the articles in the magazine by offering additional notes, activities, extension and revision material, links to useful web pages etc.;

• editor’s blog for each magazine; • teachers’ forums for each magazine; • high quality articles which will be of particular interest to students on the Highers Programme.

ACCESSING PHILIP ALLAN UPDATES You can access this collection of e-books as follows:

1. From the home page of the College website (www.langside.ac.uk) click on: College Facilities → CLIC (Library) → Online resources.

2. From the alphabetical listing of available online resources click on the link for the web address of Philip Allan Updates (NB alternatively you can also go straight to the Philip Allan Updates website by entering the following address into your browser: magazinesonline.philipallan.co.uk).

3. At this home page click on the Institutional subscriber button.

4. Log in using the following details:

Username: library@langside.ac.uk

Password: litehouse

BROWSING PHILIP ALLAN UPDATES Once you have logged in you can browse through all the back issues of Philip Allan Updates as follows:

1. In the My Magazines section, which opens automatically when you log in, the front cover of each magazine in the Philip Allan Updates collection is displayed. From this screen you can select the most recently completed volume of any magazine.

2. Once you have selected the volume of the magazine you want you can then select the required issue and then click on the Open button to display this issue.

3. You can now open a digital version of the magazine itself by clicking on its front cover or the Open digital magazine link. The magazine will be displayed on the screen in the same format as it was originally published.

4. If available, you can also open any additional documents which have been provided with this issue. These include additional notes, activities, extension and revision material, links to useful web pages and so on. These documents are usually available for only the most recent issues (from about 2005 onwards).

5. You can access older issues of each magazine by clicking on the Archives icon in the Navigation section on the left hand side of the screen. Once you click on this icon the front covers of each magazine should be displayed which allow access to all the back issues of each magazine which have been made available in a digital format. As before you need to firstly select the required volume and then issue of the magazine you want to view.

SEARCHING PHILIP ALLAN UPDATES You can also search this collection using the search facility at the top of the screen as follows:

1. Firstly you need to choose if you want to search the Current Issue(s) (i.e. issues from the most recently completed volume) or the Archives (i.e. all back issues).

2. By clicking on the Advanced Search button you can specify your search to: • look for your search term appearing in the article title or in the main text of the article;

• search all the magazines in the collection or just a selected magazine (please note that if you choose to search a specific magazine then you can narrow your search further to search only a specific volume and further still to search a specific issue).

3. Once you have defined your search parameters you can now enter your search term(s) and click on the magnifying glass button to conduct your search.

4. Your search results should now be displayed with 10 “hits” per page although you can increase this to 23, 30, 40 or 50 results per page.

5. To view a particular article simply click on the Open button to open the digital magazine at the selected article.

VIEWING ARTICLES AND RELATED DOCUMENTS

Once you have opened the article you want to read you have various options available:

Click on this button to view the article using the full screen available.

Click on this Toolbox button to access a number of tools which allow you to add and manipulate text, shapes, highlight etc. to the article being viewed.

Click on this button to increase or decrease the magnification used to view the current article (the default is 85% and the range is from 85% to 600%).

Click on this button to print either or both of the pages being viewed.

Use this option to jump to any particular page of the digital magazine.

Use these arrows to move forward or back between pages in the digital magazine (currently viewed page number is displayed). Note also that you can use the arrows at the right or left hand side of the page to turn pages also.

Click on this button to view any additional resources associated with this issue including additional notes, extension and revision material, activities and so on. These resources can be in a variety of different formats including Word, Excel & PowerPoint documents, pdf documents (requires Adobe Reader), audio & video clips, podcasts and links to other web pages.

Click on this button to close the current digital magazine.

OTHER FEATURES

In the Navigation section, on the left hand side of the screen you can also access some other features: • Forums to discuss the magazines and any specific topics and/or articles with other users;

• Editor’s blogs to access instant commentaries on key issues in the subjects covered by particular magazines provided by editors, examiners and subject experts.

At the top of the screen there are also links to Help pages and to a Contact Us page with details of how to contact the publishers of Philip Allan Updates.