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