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.

Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy

A new database is now available.  Nihon Gaiko Monjo (Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy) is a multi-volume set of publications detailing Japanese foreign policy since the Meiji era (1867 onwards).

The content is now being digitised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho), and is being made freely available as The Digital Archive of the Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy.

The database is not yet complete, with content currently available up to the end of the Taisho era (1926). To view the images in the database, you must download the free browser plugin DjVu which is also available via a link to the Caminova site given at the bottom of the title page.

Western Bank Library Virtual Tour

Now that the Western Bank Library redevelopment work is nearly complete,  we have produced a virtual tour which we hope will help you find your way around the new-look building. There is also a new guide available as a pdf.

Let us know what you think .

Oxford Reference Online

The University Library has arranged a trial of Oxford Reference Online (ORO) for all registered staff and students of The University of Sheffield until 9th March 2010.

Electronic access to over 185 reference books and dictionaries is available with almost 1.5 million entries. You'll find both English and bilingual dictionaries of French, German, Spanish and Italian as well as over 45 timelines linking to more than 2,500 key events in 20th-century history in the fields of Art and Architecture; Literature; Performing Arts; Politics and Government; Science, Technology and Medicine; Society; and War.

After connecting to ORO, type in your ucard number in the 'Library card number' box and click 'log-in'.



If you wish to comment on this trial please use the online feedback form.