The Pop-Up Library is coming to Mappin Street

Hello to all our economics and journalism students! Our Pop-Up Library will be in the foyer at 9 Mappin Street tomorrow Thursday 28th April 12-2pm 

We’ll be giving out snacks and other freebies, and answering your questions about library resources and support for learning and research.

Look out for the Pop-Up Library coming to your department soon!

 

 Announcements about future Pop-Up Library sessions will be made on this blog and the @SocSciLibrarian Twitter account. We’d love to hear your thoughts on when and where you would like to see the next one #popuplib

What is Information Literacy and why is it important?

Information Literacy is a key attribute of The Sheffield Graduate. It means knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to use and communicate it. Our Information Literacy web pages include a video explaining why academic staff say it is important. 
 

Find out how information literacy can help you with writing assignments and conducting research. The pages are split into useful sections to support you at different stages: Getting started, Writing assignments, Research skills, and Employability.

The Getting Started page has some links to some of our tutorials on effective note taking, understanding your reading list and effective note taking. There is also a short video that explains what your subject librarian can do for you

Finding and searching databases

Databases index information about published journal articles, conference papers and other academic documents.  Find databases that are useful for your subject in our Subject Guides. 

If you know the database you want to use, search for the name of the database on the University Collections tab in StarPlus, click ‘View It’, ‘View full text’ and then ‘Connect to...’ under the Quick Links on the right-hand side.

It is worth spending time thinking about your search before you start - list relevant keywords and search terms and any alternatives. For example, if you are searching for global warming, you may also want to search for climate change and greenhouse effect. Consider different spellings such as colour/color, and any technical terms or abbreviations.

If you are searching for a phrase, use quotation marks to keep the words together, e.g. “global warming”, “European Union”.   An asterisk can be used to end a word in a variety of ways. For example, ethic* will find results that include ethic, ethics, ethically, ethical. This is also useful for words which can have alternative spellings, for example, behavio* will find results for behaviour(s), behavior(s), behavioural or behavioral.
 
Our Successful Database Searching tutorial will help you plan your search further. Or why not come to one of our Information Skills Workshops in the Diamond?

Information Skills Advisory Service – drop-in at the IC!

Do you require information skills support?  Would you like to speak one-to-one with a Liaison Librarian? The Information Skills Advisory Service, located on Level 1 of the Information Commons, can answer your questions about literature searching, referencing and other information skills.  There is no need to book an appointment; University of Sheffield members can drop-in between 13:00 & 17:00, Monday to Friday (during term time). For more information about skills support, please see our web page: Information Skills

Welcome to the Diamond

Our new 24-hour learning space is now open and offers 1000 additional study spaces to all students in all departments.

 Innovative study spaces are distributed throughout the building, including distraction-free spaces, group study spaces and social study spaces. Power sockets and USB charging points are available in all study spaces and laptops are available to loan from the level 4 information desk.

The higher up the building you travel, the more study spaces you will find. This culminates in our exciting new service area on level 4 featuring a core print reference collection, extensive creative media facilities, information skills workshops and our most diverse range of study spaces yet, all with spectacular city views.

Take some time to visit Library Connect on the ground floor, situated next to The Diamond Kitchen. This space allows you to quickly organise yourselves, including quick look up of resources, printing, pick up of loans requested from any library, as well as convenience of returns. Call in to see us and find out more about information, space, skills development and answers to any of your questions.

If you need any help or have questions, our Library and CiCS staff are available and ready to help you experience all that the Diamond has to offer. Simply ask any member of staff wearing a yellow lanyard…Say Hello to Yellow!

 

A 3D animated fly-through of The Diamond

The Diamond website

Library staffed-hours within The Diamond

Information skills workshops

 

Five quick tips for a better grade

How to make information work for you! Come to tomorrow's bite-size session in the Information Commons 12.10-12.30pm in Collaboratory 2. Top tips on finding the best information for your needs and using it wisely. 

 

This session is open for all University members and there will be some time for questions and discussion afterwards. No need to book, just drop in.
 

Be a Sheffield Graduate: be information literate

Information Literacy Case Studies

“Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.” (CILIP, 2004).

Information literacy skills learned at University will help you to get jobs and succeed in the workplace.  Have a look at our case studies from Sheffield University Graduates to see how they use Information Literacy skills in their working lives.

Visit the Library webpages for guidance and tutorials on Information Literacy.

Library sessions in 301: Student Skills and Development Centre

The University Library is collaborating with 301: Student Skills and Development Centre.

The first sessions, ‘Searching for Researching: finding quality resources for your undergraduate research project’ are aimed at any undergraduate student who is carrying out their first research project. These will be held on the following dates:

Tuesday 16th April 5.30-6.30pm (next week!)

Friday 17th May 12-1pm

The last session this semester, ‘Searching for Research: finding quality resources for your research project’ is aimed at Taught Postgraduates and any Undergraduates working on their dissertations over the summer. This will be held on the following date:

Thursday 6 June 5.30-6.30pm

For booking information please see here.

Bite-size session tomorrow

Just a reminder that tomorrow's Bite-size session in the Information Commons is Virtual Collaboration led by Chris Clow.  Working in different places, or at different times? There's some simple tools that can help you work together effectively.

No need to book, just drop in. All sessions are held on Wednesdays in the IC Collaboratory 2 at 12 noon - see the IC blog for a full list of sessions

Sessions are recorded, so if you missed any you can catch up on previous sessions on  Newspaper Databases, Promoting Yourself Online, Getting Stuff Done, and Creating Video

Bite-size session tomorrow

 Learn something new in 20 minutes!

Just a reminder that tomorrow's Bite-size session in the Information Commons is 'What's in the news?', led by Maria Mawson, Faculty Librarian for Social Sciences.

 Newspaper articles are an excellent resource to use for research and coursework across a range of disciplines. In this session Maria will help you find out how newspaper databases provided by the library can help you to collect current and historical news articles to use in your work.

No need to book, just drop in. All sessions are held on Wednesdays in the IC Collaboratory 2 at 12 noon.
For a full list of sessions see the IC blog at http://shefinfocommons.blogspot.co.uk/2013_01_01_archive.html
Sessions are recorded, so if you missed the previous session on 'Promoting yourself online' you can catch up.

Bite-size session tomorrow

Just a reminder that tomorrow's Bite-size session in the Information Commons is 'Promoting yourself online', led by Rene Meier. 

Do you know what people see when they Google you, and how to influence that? How do you use the internet to promote yourself and your work to future employers? Cone to our bite-size session and find out!

No need to book, just drop in. All sessions are held on Wednesdays in the IC Collaboratory 2 at 12 noon.
For a full list of sessions see the IC blog at http://shefinfocommons.blogspot.co.uk/2013_01_01_archive.html
Sessions are recorded, so if you missed the previous session on 'Getting stuff done' you can catch up at http://shefinfocommons.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/ic-bitesize-getting-stuff-done.html

Bite-Size at the IC

Introducing Bite-Size: a series of short, informal sessions on a range of topics, aiming to teach you the skills you need to succeed in your studies. 

The sessions are held at 12pm every Wednesday, in Collabatory 2 on level 1 of the Information Commons. 

See the IC Blog for a full list of upcoming sessions.

New web pages to improve your information skills

Be sure to have a look at our fantastic new web pages on information literacy.

Find out what information literacy is and what it can do for you by watching the video ‘What is Information Literacy?’

Find out how information literacy can help you with writing assignments and conducting research. The pages are split into useful sections to support you at different stages: Getting started, Writing assignments, Research skills, and Employability.

The information literacy pages are one part of our Learning and Research Services web pages which have also had a face lift to make finding information easier.

Find useful subject resources, get help with research, find your librarian, and see how they can help you.

All from Learning and Research Services on the Library home page.

Effective Internet Searching

The Information Skills tutorial Effective Internet Searching has been completely overhauled and updated, please take a look.

In this tutorial you will:

• Understand in broad terms how search engines work
• Discover what the invisible web is and why it matters
• Try out a selection of handy techniques and tips for quicker, more effective searches
• Learn about other sources of information and when to use them

Effective Internet Searching is just one of a number of tutorials the Library provides through the Information Skills Resource

Access it from the Library tab in MUSE and/or from the Library web home page

 

Guide to Bibliography of Asian Studies

The Information Skills tutorial Guide to Bibliography of Asian Studies  has been updated to take into account the new much-improved user-interface. This now offers an up-to-date search engine with refining facets and all the entries have been converted into Unicode Formats.

Guide to Bibliography of Asian Studies is just one of a number of tutorials the Library  provides through the Information Skills Resource

Access it from the Library tab in  MUSE and/or from the Library web home page.

Library support for dissertations

Do you need help finding literature or data for your dissertation, or advice on the correct way to reference the sources you intend to refer to?  The library subject specialists for social sciences are happy to answer questions or offer advice, either by email, or face to face at a time that suits you.

Find your subject specialist from the list below and get in touch - we may be able to save you a lot of time!

Information School, Journalism, Lifelong Learning, Psychology, Sociological Studies:


Alastair Allan email  a.allan@sheffield.ac.uk, tel (0114) 222 7268 (external), 27268 (internal)

East Asian Studies, Politics:

Gill Goddard email g.m.goddard@sheffield.ac.uk, tel (0114) 222 7334 (external), 27334 (internal)

Architecture, Education, Geography, Landscape, Town & Regional Planning:

Denise Harrison email denise.harrison@sheffield.ac.uk, tel (0114) 222 7270 (external), 27270 (internal)

Economics,  Law,  Management:

Maria Mawson email m.b.mawson@sheffield.ac.uk, tel (0114) 222 7348 (external), 27348 (internal)

General Library Intro for new students

Some of you may have been to one of our introductory sessions in the IC in Intro Week.  If you missed them, or just want a reminder,  here's a copy of the presentation. It's best viewed in full screen mode - just select View Full Screen from the menu in the bottom left hand corner.

Don't forget there's also lots of useful information on our web pages, available from the Library tab in  MUSE.

IC Induction 2010

Staying number 1

We're delighted that the University of Sheffield Library came out top in the recent Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey but we’re not going to sit back and relax. We want to stay at the top of the list, and I want to make sure that the library develops its collections and services so that we’re offering the best support possible to students in the Faculty of Social Science.

We want to increase our online collections as much we can, and we’ve been buying a lot of e-books recently. However, we can’t make everything available online (yet!) so we also want to make it easier for you to find your way round our print collections. Following the recent redevelopment of Western Bank Library we’re working to reduce the number of different sequences in the library, and rearrange them in a more logical way. We’ll also be putting in new signs and guiding ready for September 2010. If you haven’t been in Western Bank library for a while, come and see what a difference the refurbishment has made

We’ll continue to work with your departments to make sure that you can get access to the materials you need for your modules. We do this by adding links from myResource Lists to e-journals, e-books, e-offprints and Star. You can access these through the library tab in MUSE. We also want to help you develop the information literacy skills required of a Sheffield Graduate, and have created an Information Skills Resource in partnership with academic departments.

We need feedback from students and departments so that we know what we’re doing right, and where we can improve. Members of the Faculty Liaison Team already go to student staff committee meetings in many Social Science Departments, and I’ve attended Faculty Student Forum meetings in the past year. We’ve recently had a strategic meeting with senior members of the Social Sciences Faculty, including Carys Swanwick the Director of Learning & Teaching, and Rob Sykes the Director of Operations, and we hope to repeat these on a regular basis to help with our planning.

If you’ve got any views on what the library should be doing, leave a comment, or email me: Maria Mawson, Faculty Librarian for Social Sciences, m.b.mawson@sheffield.ac.uk.

Information Skills Resource

9-13 November 2009 is information literacy week

How do you know that?
How do you know it is right?
How are you going to use that information?
Will you act ethically?

How highly would you rank your information literacy skills?

Did you know that students who can demonstrate the skills of information literacy not only perform better academically but also have better career prospects? Many students learn these skills from the University of Sheffield Library’s online tutorials.

Be an information literate graduate by learning how to:
Define a search question
Search for information
Evaluate information
Synthesise information
Cite and reference information

Visit the tutorials at:
www.librarydevelopment.group.shef.ac.uk

Finding resources – getting started

If you are new to the University but didn’t manage to attend a Library introductory session here are a few tips to help you find your way around the resources available. Many Library services are available online from the Library tab in MUSE . You can log onto MUSE using your username and password to:

1. Find what reading is recommended for a module you’re doing.  Start with myResource Lists.  Here you’ll find direct links to books in the library,  full text journal articles and web sites - all just one click away!


2. Search Star, the Library catalogue. Star is the best place to start when searching for course materials.  From Star you can find out if the resource you want is available in print or electronically – click show copy/show library holdings.


3. Access electronic resources such as ebooks, subject databases and ejournals - look under Library eResources.


4. The subject guides are a good starting place as they provide advice on material that might be useful in your subject area and how to find and use Library resources.


5. The Information Skills Resource is available as a Quick Link from the Library Web home page.  Here you’ll find a number of tutorials and quizzes that will help you to develop your information skills – check out the Information Skills tutorials tab. More detailed guides are tailored to your subject – take a look at the Tutorials by department tab.


6. Ask us for help at any time. Post your comments here, or send us a tweet.