Welcome to new students

Welcome to the University of Sheffield!  We hope you will enjoy your time here and hope to meet some of you at induction sessions arranged by your department.

To get you started on finding resources for your studies, check our Introduction to library & computing services web pages or pick up our QuickStart Guide from any library site. Our web pages contain links to our subject guides and a suite of information skills tutorials, together with one-minute videos on a range of topics. Check our one-minute video on how to borrow a book.

You’ll need your UCard and PIN to borrow books using our self-service machines. If you forget your PIN or want to change it go to https://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/password sign in, and follow the instructions.

When you borrow a book we’ll renew it for you automatically unless someone else wants it. We’ll send you a weekly borrowing statement by email, so check this carefully to make sure your books aren’t wanted back. That way you’ll never have to pay any fines!

Remember we’re here to help you, so come and speak to us. Our library HelpDesk can answer your email or telephone enquiries. Just email library@sheffield.ac.uk or telephone 0114 222 7200. You can also get specific subject help from your subject librarian.

Returning students - Library changes

Welcome back! We’ve been working hard over the summer to improve our services and make them even easier to use:

• There’s no separate Library PIN to remember – the University & Library PIN are now combined into a single PIN. To get your PIN go to www.sheffield.ac.uk.cics/password, login with your University username & password and choose option 6 to have your PIN emailed to you.
• We’ve introduced unlimited automatic renewals of loans - so there’ll be no fines to pay unless the book has been requested by someone else.
• You’ll receive a weekly borrowing statement by email which will list what you have out on loan. If we’ve had to  revise the date of return because someone else has requested one of your books we’ll let you know, so check your emails carefully.
• If the book you want is on loan, you need to request it online and we’ll email you when it’s ready to collect. Select the IC as your collection site for 24/7 self-service collection.
• Remember to sign in to StarPlus by clicking the University Members link at the top right of the page. When you search for a book in the library it will now display the loan period which applies to you (staff & student loan periods are different).
• In the latest version of StarPlus, click the View it tab to link to online resources and the Get it tab to see locations of print copies.
• We’ve updated our StarPlus tutorial to reflect the latest changes.

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.

Welcome everyone!

Welcome to all our new and returning students. There's lots we can do to help you in your studies - why not check out our new induction presentation and have a chance to win an Amazon voucher!

Introduction to Library services

Last chances for you to drop into one of our induction sessions tomorrow in the IC at 1pm in Collaboratory 1 and at 3pm in Classroom 3.

If you've missed out, or want a reminder, here's the presentation

IC Induction 2011

It's also showing on plasma screens in the IC and other library sites, and available from the Quick Link on our web page

Western Bank Library extended opening hours

From Sunday 9 January to Thursday 3 February Western Bank Library will be open longer hours to cover the revision and exam period.  The hours are shown in the table below.  Opening hours for other library sites can be found here and helpful information on preparing for exams can be found from the  Student 's Union.

	Opening hours	Staffed service
Monday - Thursday	09:00 - 00:00	09:00 - 19:00
Friday	09:00 - 21:00	10:00 - 19:00
Saturday	10:00 - 18:00	12:00 - 18:00
Sunday	10:00 - 00:00	12:00 - 18:00

Feedback from our intro sessions

We've had some really useful feedback from students who attended our introductory sessions in the IC in Intro Week.   One comment was about the lack of availability of scanners in the IC.   Apologies for this - there are scanners available but they have been moved slightly over the summer and we need to make this clearer. We'll sort out some better signs as soon as we can.

Another comment was that it would be much better if pcs could be booked from 15 minute intervals rather than on the hour, as lectures often finish on the hour. We're hoping to be able to alter this soon, so keep checking CiCS/IC websites for updates.

Many thanks to all who took the trouble to reply and congratulations to Yuling Su of the Department of Economics who was the lucky winner of our goodie bag.

It's not too late to let us have your feedback or comments about intro week or any other aspect of library services.    Comment here or email library@sheffield.ac.uk

Supporting our learners survey

We are looking at new ways of delivering help, information and enquiry services at our library sites.  If you could spare the time to complete our brief survey your suggestions will help us determine how best to support you in your learning and research.  The survey should only take around 5 minutes to complete.

Many thanks!

Feedback from Lending Services Survey

We had a great response to our Lending Services Survey and thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

The results of the survey are now available, along with comments.

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

Welcome to all our new and returning students!

Want to find out about Library and IT services? Come to one of the brief
presentations on Level 1 in the Information Commons week beginning 20
September, at 11am, 1pm, 2pm or 3pm.  These are followed by optional
tours by student ambassadors and demonstrations of equipment.

Just turn up - there's no need to book.  Student ambassadors and staff are also on hand at our other Library sites to help you find your way around.  You can find more information for new students at
http://www.shef.ac.uk/infocommons/students/gettingstarted and
http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/services/new.html

Book galaxy

Fed up with the limitations of keyword searching on Star? An imaginative University of Southampton undergraduate computer science student has just won a JISC-funded competition with his 'Book Galaxy' entry.  The JISC website explains the idea behind it:

"Alex Parker’s space-age entry presents library data in three different ‘galaxy’ views where library books are represented as moving stars that change speed and location according to how popular they are within a given course.  They also join together in constellations to show books on connected topic, while orbited by meteors representing the courses of the students using those books...He explains:  'The main reason I entered this competition is that I think that doing a keyword search and presenting lists of books to users is not always the best way to find what you want in a library, especially if you're not sure what you're looking for.  I had an idea that if you linked similar books together in a 'web' and did that for every book in the library interesting patterns would emerge.' "

Find out more and explore the Book Galaxy from the JISC website.

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.