Archive for January, 2009

Reconfiguration of rooms at the Riseholme Learning Resource Centre

Friday, January 30th, 2009
Following staff and student feedback, we have changed the usage of two of the rooms in the Riseholme LRC. The former silent study room is now designated for use as a group working room. This reflects the trend towards students working more in collaboration and means that you should have more opportunity to work in this way.
The newly configured Group Working Room

The newly configured Group Working Room

The former group room is now designated as the silent study room. This room is easier for staff to monitor so that it is used in accordance with LRC guidelines, thus enabling you to work undisturbed when you wish to.

Please let us know if someone is disturbing your study!

Please let us know if someone is disturbing your study!

The “middle room” remains a multi-purpose PC working area, and don’t forget there is space to study without a PC in the library, and you can use our wireless network in any of our study areas.

Please let us know what you think of the changes, and let us know your suggestions to make the Riseholme LRC a better place!

Ebooks! Ebooks! And (40,000 more)… Ebooks!

Friday, January 30th, 2009

A message from Michelle Anderson, Head of Library and Learning Resources at the University of Lincoln:

In a major development for library services at the University, I am delighted to be able to announce a significant addition to our collection of electronic library resources.

Students and staff now have access to more than 40,000 high-quality academic ebook titles, all available online, 24/7, via ebrary Academic Complete.

These electronic books can be accessed both on- and off-campus. They join our more modest existing collection of around 1,000 ebooks from MyiLibrary, with which you may already be familiar.

To put this development into context: 40,000 titles is more than 10% of our printed book collection!

How do I find the ebooks?

You can find all of the ebooks on our library catalogue, indexed by title, author, and subject, at:

Or, you can search within the entire full text of all ‘ebrary Academic Complete’ ebook titles, via the University Portal, at: https://portal.lincoln.ac.uk/C9/C14/ebrary/

In both cases, to read the ebooks from off campus you’ll need to log in using network\username and password.

N.B. If it is not already installed on your computer, you will also need to download a special “ebrary Reader” plugin to read the ebooks.

Your feedback to us has indicated that improving the availability of library resources—key texts in particular—is one of your top priorities. In order to maximise your access to information resources, and make the best use of library accomodation, we have identified in our Library Strategy the need to move to a predominantly electronic library, while maintaining appropriate print collections.

By providing access to books in print and electronic formats, we will not only be able to improve your access to key resources, but also ensure that information is in context by integrating ebooks into Blackboard and making their use the norm within the virtual learning environment and learning landscape.

How can I find out more?

Workshops on finding and using ebooks are being offered now at Brayford Pool Campus, and detailed help is available on ebrary’s website.

If you have any questions about these ebooks, or any of the other electronic library resources available at the University, please contact your Academic Subject Librarian who will be happy to help.

With best regards,

Michelle.

Lecturers’ writing tips #2

Friday, January 30th, 2009

The second in a (very) occasional series.

We asked lecturers a simple question: “What’s the number one writing tip you’d give to students?“. We’ll post their answers here…

Tracy Lamping is a senior lecturer and active researcher in the Lincoln Business School. Here’s Tracy’s tip:

READ! READ! READ!
read all information given you - be clear what is expected of you in your answer and the approach required.  Clarify with your tutor if things are not clear.

RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!
all assessments must include evidence of research from a number of sources, which should be properly and precisely referenced.  A reference list and bibliography should accompany all assessed work.

EDIT! EDIT! EDIT!
work must be spell-checked and proof-read, but remember to edit it too!  This can be time-consuming, but is a worthwhile investment that will improve your work.

Lecturers: if you’d like to contribute a tip, please leave a comment here, or email: asl@lincoln.ac.uk

Some Library group rooms will be unavailable in February

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Three of the group rooms on the first floor of the University Library will be unavailable for a period of up to six weeks from 2 February – 12 March inclusive between the hours of 8:30am – 5:00pm. This is a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of Library users while the steel frame for the adjacent Enterprise@Lincoln building is erected and pre-cast concrete flooring installed.

The following rooms are affected:
• Group Room 1 (UL107)
• Group Room 2 (UL106)
• Group Room 3 (UL108)
• Group Room 6 – The Worth Room (UL203 – 2nd floor) – will also not be available from 2 – 6 February ONLY between 8.30am – 5pm each day.

These rooms will be reopened daily at 5pm and may be booked for use each evening as normal throughout this period.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this change.

Alternative spaces for group work

The third floor group rooms (UL301 and UL302) normally reserved for third-year and postgraduate students have been made available for booking by all students during this period. Computer Labs 1 and 2 on the first floor (UL103 and UL104) are also available for booking by all students between timetabled classes. Please book these resources through the main desk on the ground floor in the University Library – telephone extension 6222.

The seminar rooms in the School of Architecture, Main Admin Building and Media, Humanities & Technology building are also available for booking between timetabled classes. To book one of these rooms, please use the online form at https://portal.lincoln.ac.uk/C2/C2/Timetabling. The availability of these rooms is visible online at https://portal.lincoln.ac.uk/C18/RoomAvailability.

For less formal group activity, you may prefer to use one of the social spaces close to the Library:

• The Hub on the first floor of the Engine Shed
• The foyer in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre
• The atrium in the School of Architecture

Further information

For more information on the Enterprise@Lincoln construction project, please visit our project blog, Building the Learning Landscape at http://learninglab.lincoln.ac.uk/blogs/resources.

To download floor plans of University buildings, please visit the Space Planning & Strategy portal area at https://portal.lincoln.ac.uk/C17/C0/Space.

Get the KnowHow: library and study skills workshops 2009

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Announcing our programme of workshops, taking place throughout semester B 2009 in the GCW University Library (Brayford Pool Campus), freely available to all University of Lincoln students.

The workshops will help you to get the best out of a range of library resources, and also cover a range of useful study and writing skills, and techniques for exam revision.

Some examples of the workshops we’re offering in semester B:

  • Finding journal articles
  • Database of the month
  • Finding and using e-books
  • Survey design
  • Mind mapping with Inspiration©
  • Harvard referencing
  • …plus many, many more!,..

You can book your place on a workshop, online via the Portal, using the link below:

Or, download and print off our complete timetable of workshops for semester B. All workshops will take place in the library computer workshop room UL101 on the first floor of the GCW University Library.

[iframe http://visit.lincoln.ac.uk/C13/C0/Workshops/Document%20Library/Semester%20B%20workshops%20timetable%20-%202009.pdf 500 800]

National e-book survey: chance to win £200 in Amazon vouchers

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Help the University Library by completing this national survey (produced by the government agency JISC) to help plan a national strategy for e-books.

If you leave your university email at the end of the survey, you will be entered into a prize draw for £200 worth of Amazon vouchers; the survey should take no longer than 10-12 minutes to complete.

(You are under no obligation whatsoever to take part in this survey.  Any information you give us will be held securely and we will under no circumstances reveal any findings other than at a highly aggregated level.  We are collecting the data through a third-party, Survey Monkey, and you can check their privacy policy here.)

Interruptions to Find it @ Lincoln and e-journals A-to-Z – 31st Jan

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Advance notice that both the Electronic Journals A-to-Z and Find it @ Lincoln may be intermittently unavailable on the afternoon of Saturday 31 January 2009 from 2:00pm – 6:00pm GMT, to allow for scheduled maintenance by EBSCO.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

BBC ‘City Season’ archives

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

There is a collection of broadcasts from 1964 exploring how the City operated before the markets went global.  To find out how London’s financial institutions used to do business in the years preceding the Big Bang see the BBC website at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/menandmoney/

Inter-library loan service restored

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

We are pleased to report the Inter-library loan service is up and running again. We apologise for the extended lack of service. We understand  that the server on which the software sits crashed and all information had to be uploaded onto another server. Please bear with us today  whilst we clear the backlog (hopefully by lunchtime).

Inter-library loans service disruption – latest

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

The latest news is that technical staff are currently working on setting up a temporary server and they hope to have us back online by the end of today, though that has not been absolutely guaranteed.

Apologies again for any inconvenience.