Help in the Hub

Adele, surfing, before her coffee

If you are struggling with an assignment and want to ask Adele or me for any tips or tricks (finding journal articles and other references), remember you can always book for an appointment in the Library (or at Putteridge Bury).

But, you may also see us in the Polhill Hub on our fancy new laptops (topping up on our caffeine) and we'd be very happy to answer any questions (about the Digital Library, RefWorks...).  The wireless access is really good so we can help you there and then.  And save you a trip through the turnstile.

Christmas opening hours

Please remember that Polhill Library and the university campuses will be closed between 25 December and 3 January.  We will reopen at 08.30 on 4th January 2011.

For further details please see the Learning Resources Opening Hours page which will be updated regularly.

This week: Spolight on assignments

Need advice on how to research your assignments? 
Could do with help on planning and presenting your work?
We are putting on a special week of training sessions on the skills you need to research, plan and present your assignments.

The sessions are free and open to all students of the University

• no need to book, just turn up
• each session is 1 hour long
• come to as many sessions as you like

More information is available on the Learning Resources website.  If you can't make any of the Microsoft Office sessions this week, remember you can always book to see our ICT Trainer for Polhill, Linda Martin.

Annotated bibliographies: New RefWorks layout

You may already be using our referencing management software, RefWorks.  This month we have launched a new output style for people working on annotated bibliography assignments.  The output style is called Harvard - UoB - Annotated Bibliography. 

Add your references to RefWorks in the usual way. Then click on 'Edit' (the pencil icon next to the reference) and add your notes to the 'Personal Notes' field. The 'personal notes' field in RefWorks fits a lot of text (I don't know if there is a limit but it fits two pages of A4 text easily!)

Repeat this for each reference.  When you are ready to generate your bibliography, set the output style to Harvard - UoB - Annotated Bibliography.  Your reference list will then be formatted with the reference in the University style with the notes underneath.

The example above also illustrates that you can group references together by adding them to folders.  So these two references are in a folder called 'Jill's Essay'.  You can add an individual reference to more than one folder.

EThOS: Free Downloads Of UK Dissertations/Theses From The British Library

If you are working on a dissertation or an advanced research project, you may want to read other people's PhDs. Searching a database like the British Education Index often brings back citations to theses (as well as conference papers and journal articles).

EThOS aims to provide a single point of access to all the theses produced by UK Higher Education researchers.  You can search for published UK theses and request a copy electronically using this online service. Currently not all published theses are available electronically so EThOS will digitise them for you (for which there is a short delay). To explore the service go to the EThOS website and register.

EThOS is run by the British Library.  The British Library has created a 'central hub' (an e-store and a digitisation suite at its Boston Spa site).  The hub automatically harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitises paper theses from participating institutions to offer the single point of access.  The University of Bedfordshire is part of this scheme.

Referencing Teachers.TV videos

 We have had several queries over the last few days about how to reference videos from the Teachers.tv website.  Referencing YouTube videos, vodcasts and other online streams is still evolving.  I would recommend you use the following ordering in your reference lists:

 

Author

Year that the site was published/last updated (in round brackets)

Title of vodcast (in single quotation marks)

Title of Internet site (in italics)

Available at: URL

(Accessed: date)

 

Each UoB library has a good book called Cite Them Right (http://library.beds.ac.uk/record=b1432471~S20) which covers every type of resource you can think of: blogs; wikis; dances; statues...  It is only £6.99 so I've got a copy by my phone to help me with student (and staff) referencing queries.  For the price of three cups of coffee, it has definitely been worth it!

 

 

 

Electrical shut down on 6th and 7th November

The Library Catalogue and all related services (access to e-journals, e-books, databases, renewals, reservations, self service equipment etc.) will be unavailable on the weekend of Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th November. The LRC at Park Square will also be closed.

Other services likely to be affected are BREO, printing, timetabling, student e-mail and the LRweb page.

Some resources may still be accessible via: http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/faq/UK-Access-Management-Federation

Generation Y - How do you search?

A three-year research study into the information-seeking behaviour of students born between 1982 and 1994 has painted a picture of typical 'Generation Y' researcher.

• heavy users of university's library collections, primarily online but also in person (varies across subjects)
• regularly use inter-library lending services
• had limited access to computers and the internet before secondary school but now are confident information-seekers.  Arts and humanities students find Google generates unhelpful overload of research resources and science and maths students prefer subject-related databases
• rely on journals, both physical and electronic, often beyond the institutional subscriptions
• do not like formal research skills training, especially delivered in groups
• readily embrace technology and applications if the new tools complement existing ways of working, clearly benefits our research and support is readily available.

Does this sound like you?  Does it sound like nonsense?

Both Adele and I do/have done research projects alongside their day-to-day jobs so we can sympathise with a lot of the headaches and priorities that you have.  We can give you tailored help and advice about getting the most of the Digital Library and Web2.0 gizmos that can help manage your research at Uni, at home and on the move.  Just send us an email or telephone to arrange a date, time and place for the chat.  We can even meet you in Costas - the wireless reception in there is great!

What does "WebBridge" mean?

When you search a journals database, you will spot this little WebBridge icon on your results pages.

 

If you are searching a database like Education Research Complete your results can include links to the full text of the article (usually as a PDF).  This is a simple and quick way to read the article.  But two education databases - British Education Index or ERIC - search results only have citations; a citation tells you who wrote it (the Author), the article title and the details of where it was published ie the journal's name, date (this might include the volume and issue number) and the page numbers.  

 

So, WebBridge is a quick way of checking the journal title in the citation against the University's subscriptions. Clicking the icon opens a small WebBridge window.  You then have the option to check the catalogue for a matching journal.  Sometimes there will also be the option to match the citation against our main journals provider, EBSCO.  (EBSCO is simply a big journals supplier we use - think of it like checking your Sky TV for the History Channel).

 

Lots of people find it helpful to duplicate their search results before they start using WebBridge.  This means you will always have a window open with your results list.  You can duplicate your window by 

• clicking CTRL/N to open a new window, or, 
• right-clicking on the tab where your results are displayed and selecting Duplicate Tab.

 This flowchart describes another way of working from a citation to getting a copy of the original journal article. 

Open source (freeware) for SEN students

The JISC Regional Support Centre (Scotland & North East) has created a free application, MyStudyBar. It has a collection of freeware and open source software which is specially selected to help students with literacy difficulties (planning, reading, writing, vision and voice). But schools, colleges and universities around the world (all the way to New Zealand) are finding that many other students are benefiting from using the mindmapping tool (XMind)as well.

There are lots of free tools for mindmapping out there.  One I've just been experimenting with is Mindomo.  If you know of others you'd like to recommend to other students, please add them as a 'Comment' to this post.

Interesting article in the Independent newspaper

There is an interesting article in Thursday's Independent (23.09.10) entitled 'The six secrets of a happy classroom' It highlights innovative ways to engage pupils in the classroom. Worth a read.

We've all been there...

(c)Dilbert 8 May 2009

Remember over 90% of our journals are accessible electronically (away from the campus) so have a look at the education subject guide to find research articles on your assignments.

Welcome new PGCE students

This blog is where Adele & I post news about what's going on in Polhill or Putteridge Bury librariesn: new stock; opening hours changes; events like Waterstone's discounts. That kind of thing.

The Higher Education Authority has published a short guide to being a successful PGCE student.

Introducing Learning Resources

Education Induction 2010 with pathway on Prezi

Waterstone's in the Library

Waterstone's bookshop will be setting up a stall in the Library foyer at Polhill campus next week (6th - 10th September) and for two weeks (27th September to 8th October). They will be offering discounts to students.

Planning to buy an ereader?

This comparison tool, if you ignore the American prices gives a useful breakdown of the main features each ereader offers.  Just tick the check box under the ereader that interests you (up to 4) and then click the green "Compare" link.

 (c) goXunuReviews @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/43602175@N06

Diversity in children's books

If you are interested in children's books, you should make time to listen to this thought-provoking presentation on how ethnic minorities are poorly served by children's publishers, authors, booksellers and librarians.  This talk is part of a research seminar series given to publishing students on following masters courses at Oxford Brookes University.

It is about 45 minutes but the questions Laura Atkins raises will stay with you a lot longer.  She quotes a statistic that says in the UK 1 in 5 school children will be from a minority background, but the publishing industry overlooks their needs and interests.

Education apps for your iPhone

Apple have produced a list of education-related apps (for their iPhones) which you may find useful.

Audio books in the car

At the weekend, I spent too many hours stuck on the nation's motorways for comfort, but I'd borrowed the library's audio book of the influential Long Tail.  If you've not come across the author, Chris Anderson, before, he's the editor of Wired magazine and gives funny and inspiring talks about technology and the web all over the place.  Lots are published as podcasts by American universities.

Anyway, the Long Tail is a great read/listen if you're interested in how the economics of 'infinite' bookshelves and jukeboxes like Amazon and iTunes (amongst other companies) work.  And my husband and I chewed over Anderson's arguments through the queues of several coffee emporia as we progressed up and down the country.  Admittedly we were both economics geeks a long way back but it's not heavy on market theory or statistics so don't let that put you off...  Basically, it really made us think about how Generation 2.0 differ from Generation X and baby boomers etc in their habits and literacies.

I'm a big fan of audiobooks but I generally listen to fiction or history books.  This was my first attempt at listening for my academic studies and several differences struck me which I thought I'd share with you in case you attempt the same thing

•  Next time, I would get the Table of Contents (which is usually available on the catalogue - by clicking on the image of the book - or from Amazon or the publisher's site) so I can orient myself
• That said, being able to keep an eye on the track listing and timer helped me understand how it was flowing.  And, easy access to the pause button is important to let you take notes as you go.
• In a more boring book, the ToC would have helped with skipping to the "required" reading chapters.
• A good reader/communicator will signpost the chapter and section headings clearly.  So, if I'm purchasing an audio file for a non-fiction book, I'll pay more attention to the reviews of the reader's voice so I can chose the best version.  
• Also, differences between American and British English become more prominent and - for this listener - problematic.  By the 20th "niche" I was starting to hyperventilate.  Rapid consumption of a brownie helped restore equilibrium.  Again, if this is an issue for you - listen in chunks or choose a different narrator when you buy.
• Listening with another person meant I wasn't as passive as a on-the-page reader.  I absorbed more of the argument because the reading was actually social - we kept breaking to chew over points (or purchase more caffeine) - so the new information was being tested, synthesised and filed for later use as we progressed.  Much more fun than note taking or drawing mind maps.
• Footnotes are a problem when you are listening.  I have no idea if this book has any.  It felt like there should.  This book probably has citations which I can't "hear" and follow up.  Also, I suspect points might have been explored more deeply in a footnote.  (Like when you have an audio guide in a museum and you get the option to dial an extra number to learn more about the "revolutionary" bucket you're staring at.)  If I was studying the book more seriously, I'd probably still want to have the opportunity to scan a visual version to catch up on that missing texture.  Perhaps, as audio file delivery becomes more sophisticated there will be easier ways to mop-up this problem.  

Luton's public library service has a fantastic range of audio books which you can download as a loan.  It only has 307 non-fiction titles at the moment but there are some interesting history and popular psychology titles in there.  But the fiction section is much better including over 200 children's books (with classics like Pullman and Tolkein).

Using ebook readers

This article comes at the ebook devices discussion from a different angle than usual - are slower reading speeds a bad or good thing.  In another post the same blog notes that over the last three months, for every 100 hardback books Amazon.com sell, 143 Kindles are sold.    It really seems we're at a tipping point for e-readers.

Do you use an e-reader?  Do you anticipate getting one during your course?  Or installing an app on your mobile?  If you do, I would love to hear from you because the library is steadily acquiring more electronic copies of your textbooks so we want to make sure they suit the devices and your reading habits.

Education apps for your iPhone

Apple have created a directory of education-related apps (for their iPhones).

Polhill's self-returns machine

The building work has been completed and we now have an automated book returns machine at Polhill Library. This is situated to the right of the library's entrance (opposite campus reception).

This picture is of the machine at the Park Square site in Luton. The Polhill machine looks just the same but with a protective clear panel (to protect it from the rain) which lifts when you press the red start button.

The machine is very simple to use and gives you a receipt listing all the items you have returned. These are instantaneously removed from your account so you can fill the space on your ticket immediately (12 stock items; 20 Teaching Practice items). The display screen gives you step-by-step instructions. And the system will even accept your British Library loans.

Unfortunately, Teaching Practice outsize items like the story sacks or the Newton's apples kit will still need to be returned at the library counter, during opening hours.

Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal winners 2010

Neil Gaiman and Freya Blackwood were announced winners of the medals for 2010. Neil Gaiman triumphed with 'The Graveyard book' which is available for loan from the Teaching Practice collection (click on the book title for details) and Freya Blackwood won the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration for 'Harry and Hopper' (written by Margaret Wild). This is currently on order and should be available soon.

VOTE for the Puffin of Puffins

7 MODERN CLASSICS - one from each decade of Puffin's spectacular 70 years have been hand-picked as the most entertaining and inspirational children's books of all time.

The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett - 40s
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - 50s
Stig of the Dump by Clive King - 60s
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl - 70s
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian - 80s
The Hundred Mile-an-Hour Dog by Jeremy Strong - 90s
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer - 00s


Marcus Brigstocke, Jacqueline Wilson, Jasper Fforde, Cathy Cassidy, Jason Bradbury, Andy Stanton and Jenny Valentine kicked off a Puffin of Puffins debate, chaired by journalist Lucy Mangan, at The Guardian's Hay Festival on 3 June then it's up to the British public to decide.

What's YOUR favourite Puffin from this list? Cast your vote. Winner will be announced on 17 June.

Putteridge Summer opening hours

From 19 July to 1 September the library at Putteridge Bury will be staffed from 14.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday.  Self-service access will be open from 09.00 to 17.00 during the week.

Park Square summer opening hours 2010

The opening hours at Park Square will be changing over the summer.  These changes affect the Library, IT Suite & Social Learning Space.  Term-time opening hours will resume at Park Square from Monday 4th October.  The Learning Resources website has details about our opening hours and the address of each Learning Resources Centre.

14 June to 24 July

Mon-Thurs  08.30-20.00

Fri  08.30-18.00

Sat  10.30-1730  (Sun CLOSED)

26 July to 4 September

Mon-Fri  08.30-17.45

Sat  10.30-1730  (Sun CLOSED)

6 September - 3 October

Mon-Thurs  08.30-20.00

Fri  08.30-18.00

Sat  10.30-1730  (Sun CLOSED)

There's nuffin like a Puffin!

Puffin books celebrates its 70th birthday this May.  Ruth & Jo, from the Reader Services team, have put together this display to commemorate the occasion and highlight the popularity of Puffin in Polhill's Teaching Practice collection.

Shortlist announced for Carnegie and Kate Greenway Medals

CILIP have announced the shortlist for the 2010 Carnegie Medal for children's writing here.

The shortlist for the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustrations in children's books 2010 is available here.

The Library will be buying copies of all the shotlisted titles for the Teaching Practice collection.

Just a minute guide to referencing

Our latest 'Just a minute' guide on referencing is available to watch online.

All our 'Just a minute' guides can be found online here

RefWorks help sessions

If you would like to learn more about how to use RefWorks (the University's reference management software) for assignments or preparing for publication, why not come along to a workshop at Polhill Library this Spring? Details can be found on the Learning Resources website here. These one-hour sessions will be led by Hilary and Adele, the Academic Liaison Librarians for education. Each session is limited to 24 places so please book your place using the onscreen booking option.

You will also find more information about this reference management software on our Guide to Referencing site.

New Social Learning Space at Putteridge Bury

The social learning space at Putteridge Bury is open and all students are invited to use this new space.  

Evergreen children's books

The Bookseller has just published a list of the top selling children's books.  The list looks at titles which have never fallen out of the top 5,000 selling books (by ISBN) from 1995-2005.  The Nielson BookScan (from which the data has been collated) is the book world's equivalent of the Billboard chart for music.  

Amazingly, Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone still sells 650 copies per week, 13 years after it was originally published.  

The Teaching Practice collection has all but 4 of the books listed.  And we will buy the missing titles in August.  We also have the DVD and story sacks for The Gruffalo (shown below).

Weekend 10th & 11th April - electrical shutdown

Extensive building works are taking place at the Luton campus at the moment as part of the £70 million project.  

Unfortunately, this is going to cause problems between Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th April 2010 because electricity at the Park Square site will be shutdown.  This means

• The Library Catalogue will be unavailable  
• External and internal access to databases, e-journals, e-books and Library self service functions from the Library Catalogue will also be unavailable.

Most of the Digital Library resources will still be accessible at: http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libinfo/electrics.  This inclues Education Research Complete and the main electronic journal collections like Academic Search Elite and EBSCOhost ejournals (accounting over 85% of our online journals).  Unfortunately, British Education Index and ERIC will not be accessible but Education Research Complete and PsycInfo are good alternatives.

Book return post box

The book return post box at Polhill Library will be unavailable from Wednesday 7th April for three weeks. This is so building work can commence on installing an automated book return system. This will enable books to be removed from your Library account immediately. Sorry for any inconvenience or disruption caused. Books can be returned via the help desk during this period (or renewed online via the library catalogue or by telephoning the renewals line on 01582 743262).

Numicon Kit Two

The LRC at Polhill has recently purchased the Numicon Kit Two. The pack is available in the Teaching Practice room on the top floor of the Library at 510.71 NUM. It contains a teaching binder, shapes, feely bag, spinners, display number line, 10s number line, card 1-100 number track, 0-100 table-top number line, post box, numeral cards, trays for number rods and number rod track.

Extended weekend opening hours at Park Square

From Friday 5 March to Friday 11th June 2010, the opening hours at Park Square will be extended during the weekends.   

Fridays:  IT Suite and SLS open to 02.00

Saturdays and Sundays:  IT Suite and SLS open to 22.00

 

Please note that for Easter weekend (Thur April 1 - Tue April 6 2010) the Park Square University Buildings are closed.

 

When the new academic year commences (for undergraduates) the extended weekend opening hours will resume (from Friday October 8th).

Primary School Library Charter

The School Library Association has launched the Primary School Library Charter.

The twelve page booklet gives advice on how to set up and run a primary school library and is freely available as a PDF download.

Easter Opening Hours 2010 at Polhill Library

Saturday 27th March                       10am – 3.45pm

Sunday 28th March                         11am – 4.45pm

Mon 29th^th – Weds 31^st  March        8.30am – 5pm

CLOSED  Thursday 1^st – Tuesday 6^th April inclusive

Library re-opens on

Weds 7^th – Fri 9^th April                     8.30am – 5pm

Saturday 10^th April                           10am -  3.45pm

Sunday 11^th April                            11am – 4.45pm

Mon 12^th April – Fri 16^th April            8.30am – 6pm

Saturday 17^th April                           10am -  3.45pm

Sunday 18^th April                             11am – 4.45pm

Term time opening begins on Monday 19^th April

Recommend a resource

We now have a new service which allows staff and students to recommend resources that would be useful for the Library. We can't guarantee that all books will be purchased but each request will be considered. Just go to http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/contact/recommend and complete the form.

New journals on library catalogue

The Acquisitions Department has added the new 1,200 full-text journals to the Library Catalogue. These journals have been bought as part of the new Education Research Complete journals bundle.

Polhill Learning Hub

From Monday 1st February, the Learning Hub will be open until midnight (Monday to Thursday). This is in response to student interest. The Learning Hub opens at 08.00 during the week. For more information, contact the Polhill Library enquiry desk (01234 793189).

New look to LRWeb

The LRweb home page has started 2010 with a fresh new look!

You can now search directly in the library catalogue box which is now both very orange and in a more prominent position above the 6 boxes. The 6 boxes have also had new graphics and a rearrangement of content to highlight our new services such as self service and the 'just a minute' videos. The Twitter feed has new styling and the footer info has been reordered with a more self explanatory display of the library email addresses for people to contact us with suggestions, problems or service queries. We have incorporated the new university website accessibility options so you can increase the size and colour of the text displayed as well as the background colour. There is also now a direct link for customer feedback at the top of the page which goes straight to the customer comments online form and blog.

Your comments and feedback on the new look and functionality are very welcome,

Electronic books are now working

The authentication problem which was affecting links to our (Dawsonera) electronic books and ZETOC has now been fixed.  

Shibboleth & ebooks

Unfortunately, the authentication system which lets you prove you are a UoB student and access the electronic books provided by Dawsonera is currently down.  The company that supplies the authentication system is trying to fix the problem.  

The electronic table of contents service, ZETOC, is also affected.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will let you know as soon as it is resolved.

Opening hours back to normal

Now term has started, the opening hours of Polhill Library, the hub and the Learning Resources Centres at the other sites have returned to their normal opening hours. For more details, see the Learning Resources website.

Database now live

The new bundle of 1,200 full text journals, Education Research Complete, is now live. You can search this collection individually or search it with PsycInfo and/or Academic Search Elite - two other really useful journal collections - at the same time.

Thank you to everyone who helped evaluate the database during the trial. Your positive feedback meant we could prove that this resource would be useful.

Changes to reservations

Polhill reservations are now self-service.  This means, instead of having to queue at the counter to pick up your reservations, you can now issue them directly to your account.  The reservations are located on the shelves next to the photocopiers on the Ground Floor.  They are organised by student number and will be displayed for 7 days.  A self-service machine is located next to the shelves for your convenience.

External (ie British Library) reservations should still be collected from the counter.

The self-service reservations at Park Square site have proved very popular over the past twelve months, so we have decided to roll-out the If you have any problems or comments about the service, please do not hesitate to contact the counter staff.