Library loans over Christmas vacation

Remember the best way to make sure you can keep your books for the whole of the vacation loan period is to renew them before the end of this week!

For details of loan periods over the Christmas Vacation, please see http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/services/xmasloan.

For details of Library opening times, please see http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/libsites.

The Information Commons will be open throughout the Christmas Vacation, please see http://shef.ac.uk/infocommons/students/christmas for more information.

Merry Xmas and hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable  vacation!

Mass Observation Online

Mass Observation Online can now be accessed from StarPlus, the Library catalogue. Use the University Collections tab to search for 'Mass Observation Online' and follow the link to 'View Online'. You may be prompted to log into MUSE if you are not already logged in. 

Mass Observation Online is a database that provides access to digital images of materials kept at the Mass Observation Archive, which is located at the University of Sussex. The archive holds all of the materials produced by Mass Observation, a social research group that was established in 1937.  Mass Observation aimed to understand the popular views of the British general public towards everyday activities and topics as well as national events.  The information was generated from and by volunteers who were observed, interviewed and asked to record their everyday experiences.

The material in the collection dates from between 1937 and 1949, although there is some additional material dating from the 1950s and 1960s.  The archive has also preserved other collections that relate closely to the Mass Observation materials, such as personal diaries and letters from the same period.  Users can choose to search the entire collection or only the materials that have been digitised and are available online.  The types of material available include:

File reports , which summarise the studies conducted by the group

Mass Observation publications

The raw material collected by the investigators, including survey papers and questionnaire replies

Material submitted by volunteers including diaries

Photographs

Latest Library News for Social Sciences

Our latest newsletter features the new webpages for the Learning & Research Services Team, a new database Business Source Premier, StarPlus tips, and links to some of the ebooks we've bought recently.

Day lockers available at Western Bank Library

Day lockers are available to use as temporary storage while visiting Western Bank Library. 

To use a locker ask at the Welcome Desk and if one is available a key can be issued to your Library account. 

The lockers are free to use but if you do not return the key 15 minutes before the end of staffed hours a charge of £10.00 will be added to your Library account.

Tell us what you think!

It was really good to meet some of your student reps at recent student-staff committees I've attended, and it's very helpful for us to hear your feedback and answer your questions. Examples of queries which have come up recently include ebooks and how to use them, where to find guidance on referencing, and how you can let us know about books you'd like us to buy for the library.

Check out our new information literacy pages, use our information skills tutorials for guidance on referencing and avoiding plagiarism and use our online recommendation form to tell us about books you'd like to see in the library.

We want to hear from you, whether that's to tell us things we might improve on or to let us know other ways we might help support you in your course work. If there's nobody from the library at your student-staff meetings - invite us!

Brenda
Liaison Librarian

Spotlight on Business Source Premier

Business Source Premier is a new resource for global business literature and data, such as country and industry reports. It also provides company profiles, which will be useful for any student preparing for job applications or interviews.

The database has text to speech functionality (in English) for documents in html format. The search interface can be translated into a number of different languages, and articles in html format can also be translated.
If you create a personalised account within the database, you can organise your search results in folders and add notes to documents that you save. You can also save searches, create alerts and RSS feeds.
Apps for iPhone and Android devices are available.This database will be of interest to students and researchers in a range of disciplines across the University. To get access, open StarPlus from the library tab in MUSE and click the Log in link in the top right corner. Type Business Source Premier into the University Collections search box.

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

 

Trial to Official Publications Online

The Library has a new trial to Offical Publications Online.
This database from The Stationery Office includes access to:

• UK Legislation: including Scottish, Northern Ireland and Welsh Legislation
• Command and House Papers: Green Papers
• White Papers, Annual Report and Accounts, Departmental Reports and Treaty Series
• Parliamentary Publications: Hansard, Bills and Amends and Select Committee Reports

Publications are available online, as soon as they are published and there is early morning delivery of key parliamentary titles.  The trial will be made available until 31st December 2012 . Please tell us what you think of it by using our feedback form.

Just started your PhD?

The British Library is holding a series of Doctoral Open Days, from November until February. The events are free and are aimed at first year PhD students who are new to the British Library. You will learn about the collections, find out how to access them, and meet the British Library's expert staff and other researchers in your field. To book a place use the Book Now link beside each listed session. You might also want to get a free reader pass before attending the event.

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.

Ebooks - your essential guide

So ebooks, we all know what they are but do you know how to make the most of them? How to annotate online, when to download and how much you can print? The Library buys hundreds of ebooks each year and you can find them all via our Library catalogue StarPlus but they don’t all come from the same supplier. As a result there are lots of different rules governing how you can use them. Here is a quick guide to our main supplies and some top tips on how to make the most of your e reading experience... 

Dawsonera:

This is our main supplier. If there’s an ebook you want and dawsonera has it we’ll be buying it from them. Dawsonera allows you two options with ebooks. You can either ‘read online’ or you can download the book onto a memory stick or your computer drive where it will last as a pdf format for 24 hours. This is great if you know you’ve only got a short internet connection. 

If you’re reading the ebook online you can also annotate the text, just click on the yellow notes tab. The reader portal recognises who you are each time you log in and your notes will be saved for your next session. 

If you want a hard copy of the text Dawsonera allows you to print up to 5% of any ebook per user. 

MyiLibrary:

You can generally download or print 10 pages of a MyiLibrary ebook, although this may differ slightly as the publisher sets the limits.

The MyiLibrary software works best if you use the chapter navigation on the left-hand side to navigate the book.

NetLibrary:

You cannot download from NetLibrary ebooks, but you can print a percentage of the book. This percentage is again set by the publishers so will vary book to book, if you click on the print button within a book it will tell you how many pages you're allowed for that book.

If you're using a Mac to view NetLibrary ebooks, you will need to install a PDF Browser plug-in which can be found in the help section.

Taylor and Francis archive:

With these ebooks, you can save or print one chapter, or 5% of the book, whichever is greater.

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!

How to find 'Find it'

You may have noticed that we've recently made some changes to the links you see from the Library tab in  MUSE. In particular we've removed the link to 'Find it', our e-journals database. But don't panic! You can still access all the Library's e-journals only now we recommend that you use our new Library catalogue StarPlus. 

From StarPlus you can search for and access all our Library content (both print and electronic) so it's no longer necessary to have separate links for e-journals and ebooks. So to search for books, journal titles and databases simply use the 'University Collections'  tab on the StarPlus homepage. 

However 'find it' is still available if you want to use it  - for example it can be useful for browsing a list of journals by subject. To find it simply go the StarPlus homepage and there will be a link at the top of the page 'Findit@sheffield ejournals A-Z'.

For any queries or problems just contact the Library helpdesk. 

email: library@sheffield.ac.uk

Tel: (0114) 222 7200

Welcome new students!

Congratulations to our new students who received their results yesterday. You can relax now you know you are coming to The University of Sheffield, Times Higher Education UK University of the Year.

If you’d like to find out about our library services in advance, you can find the introductory information you will need here: www.shef.ac.uk/library/services/induction

You can also follow the library on Twitter @UniSheffieldLib, and follow this blog for news relating to your faculty.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, fingers crossed for some more sunshine!

Looking forward to meeting you all in September. 

Researching the Olympics?

If you're interested in London 2012 or previous Olympics, have a look at the Leisure Tourism database. It includes extensive information from the leisure, recreation, sport, hospitality, tourism and culture sectors, including new academic research, industry reports and links external sources with additional information.
Recent content includes articles on the impact of the Games on participation in sport from Sport England and a report from Lloyds on the potential impact on GDP.
You can access the database easily from our new catalogue StarPlus by typing leisure tourism database into the University Collections search box and clicking 'View Online'. StarPlus is available via the Library tab in MUSE.

Archives Unbound

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of primary source historical documents. The University of Sheffield has purchased six collections, including papers of the Nixon Administration 1969-74, Intelligence Reports from the National Security Council’s Vietnam Information Group, 1967-1975 and Tiananmen Square and U.S.- China relations, 1989-1993.

You can access the collection easily from our new catalogue StarPlus by typing 'Archives Unbound' into the University Collections search box and clicking 'View Online'. StarPlus is available via the Library tab in MUSE. If you haven't used it yet, try it out and let us know what you think. We'll be continuing to add new features based on your requests and new technological developments.

InterLibrary Requests

Has your literature search unearthed essential journal articles or books that aren't in stock in the library? If so, we can try to get them for you from the British Library or other sources.
University staff and postgraduate research students can use the link on the library tab in MUSE to submit requests online. Other students should complete a request form and get an authorisation sticker from their department.
More information about the InterLibrary Request service is available here

Need help with your dissertation?

The Library can help with advice on referencing, finding literature, data and other materials.

Have a look at our online tutorials about StarPlus, writing a literature review and referencing.

If you'd like some individual help face to face, contact the library subject specialist for your department. Alternatively, pop into the IC skills suite on level 1. Staff are normally available between 9-5 Monday-Friday. Ask at the information desk for directions.

Ebooks - top tip

Did you know that you can add personal notes to any ebook provided by our supplier Dawsonera?  The reader portal recognises who you are each time you log in and your notes will automatically appear.  Please note it's only possible to do this from the online reader,  not from a downloaded copy if you've chosen a 24-hour download to your own computer.

To make notes, click on the yellow Notes tab,  create or edit your notes and click Save. You can add as many notes to any page of the ebook as you wish, and you can also download them.

Check out  the Dawsonera help pages for more top tips!

Web of Knowledge Mobile Access

Web of Knowledge have recently brought out a new mobile version of their database so now you can search for articles on the go. The mobile interface contains many of the same features; so there's all the advanced search options, you can set alerts, view your search history and send references to endnoteweb.

To get started all you need to do is go to http://m.webofknowledge.com/ from your phone and log in with your personal WoK username and password.

If you haven't created a WoK account before just follow the steps below;

1. From a normal PC log into MUSE and go to Web of Knowledge from the library tab.


2. Once in Web of Knowledge click on 'sign in'.


3. Then click 'register' to create a new account (when registering it's best to use your @sheffield email address).

You can now use your new password for the mobile interface as well as accessing all the database's advanced features. All you need to remember is to log into your new account at least every 6 months from an IP authenticated computer to ensure your account stays active.

  

For more information or trouble-shooting see the WoK webpages below;

http://wokinfo.com/about/mobile/

http://wokinfo.com/media/pdf/wok-mobile-faqs.pdf

Library news for Social Sciences

Our latest Social Sciences newsletter is now out.  Our focus in this issue is on helping you find information for your assignment or dissertation.  There are some tips on searching for articles using our new library catalogue StarPlus and a feature on the multidisciplinary database Scopus.

We've also been busily spending money on boosting our collection of ebooks and have added almost 200 new social sciences ebooks titles. You can still recommend a new book, or request an ebook or additional print copies.  Just fill out our online recommendation form.

Improving learning resources

We've been busy spending the additional money that the University made available to the Library this year to strengthen collections for students in the Faculty of Social Sciences.  Using information from our loans system, and following  recommendations from students and staff, we've already added over 140 new social sciences ebooks to the collections, and ordered extra print copies of many in demand titles.

Click here for information on accessing our ebooks.  Click here for lists of books recently added to the library.

We'll continue to develop learning resources for social sciences throughout the year. If you'd like to recommend a new book, or request an ebook or additional copies, please use the online recommendation form here.