A Happy New Year to all our students, both returning and January starters new to the University of Derby; we hope you had a good winter holiday and are eager to be back.
Remember: if you need any articles, or other information for assignments or your dissertation, you can contact your subject librarian to arrange an appointment to go over what resources are available to you. Please see the links in the sidebar for contact details.
Tags:Information
Calling all law students – would you like a Lexis study pack from containing pen, pencil, highlighter, calendar, keyring, postits, LexisLibrary guide, paper? Pick one up from the Lower Ground floor, near the current journal display and law library guides – or pop in to the First Floor office L103.
Jane Robinson
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The final part of our refurbishment, just completed, is the creation of our “Vault” where Restricted Loan copies of textbooks can be found (as well as being the place to pick up your reservations). Restricted Loans can be borrowed for fixed slots, covering a morning, an afternoon, overnight or over a weekend. Books in this collection can be booked for particular slots in advance – go to the Loans desk to arrange this.
It’s possible to browse in the Vault to see which books are available. You can sit and work in there or use the self-issue machine to issue the book to use outside the Vault or outside the Library.
Key books chapters or journal articles may also be made available electronically. In this case there is a link “Copyright cleared resources” in your module information, usually under the Study Materials heading.
If you are having difficulty obtaining key or essential materials please let me know. I can arrange for items to be put in the Vault or to be made available electronically, though the latter takes several weeks. Your feedback will be valuable, helping me to make things easier for you.
Thank you
Jane Robinson
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Library Survey 2009
You could win £120 of Amazon Vouchers!
What do you think of the services we provide in the Library? The Survey will run from Monday 23 November to Sunday 6 December. Just click on the link: www.derby.ac.uk/library/survey and post your views to us!
Each year the University Libraries help thousands of staff and students to access learning resources, both off and on campuses. Whether you attend University on a full or part time basis, or you’re enrolled on a blended learning or e-learning programme, our aim is make the experience of using our service as effective and satisfying as possible.
To help us achieve this, we would like you to tell us what you think so that we can make the improvements you believe are important.
As a reward for helping us, your name can be entered into a prize draw for a chance of winning up to £120 in Amazon Gift Vouchers – and many other smaller amounts too!
Academic staff – please encourage your students to go online and complete the survey. The detailed information we receive will help inform the subsequent NSS survey. Not only that but you will also have an equal chance of winning a prize too as well.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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At Kedleston Road:
- 90% of you were satisfied with the Library opening hours
- 86% were broadly satisfied with the availability of resources for your programme
Many Library users thought the new Flexible Learning Zone is a great addition to the facilities – 90% report that the staff are very helpful, “Going an extra mile to help students”.
We are listening to you at the University Library.
Chris Martindale
Faculty Support Team Manager
01332-591212
c.martindale@derby.ac.uk
Tags:2009·Library Survey
Do you need some help preparing for your exams?
Well help is at hand, the Study Advisor Scheme can help with all aspects of study including essay writing, citing and referencing, time management and exam revision and preparation.
The Study Advisor Scheme is a free, friendly and confidential service where you can receive one-to-one study skills support from a fellow student. You can find more details at: www.derby.ac.uk/library/study-advisor-scheme
Or if you just want some study skills leaflets or books, you can access the study skills collection in any of the University’s libraries. There are a selection of presentations and resources available from the Study Skills webpages at www.derby.ac.uk/library/study-skills which you can access from home anytime.
For further information on any aspect of study skills or details of how to request a Study Advisor please get in touch.
Catherine
Catherine Varney
Study Skills and Mentoring Coordinator
01332 591369
studyadvisors@derby.ac.uk
Do you ever need pictures to illustrate your work or presentations? Have you thought about Copyright issues when downloading from Google? To avoid the pitfalls of using Copyrighted material why not take a look at some of the Image databases which are available. These are all found from the Information Resources page under the heading Image and Multimedia Collections.
You will find links to a range of web sites where images have been made freely available for educational use. Some of these are paid for by the University and need your UDo username and password to log in to them. Others are freely available on the web and you won’t need a password.
The list of web sites is divided by still and moving images and then further sub-divided by “free to use” and “some restrictions may apply”. Where restrictions apply it’s always a good idea to read the “Terms and Conditions” on each web site as some do allow you to download watermarked copies of the pictures for free, but you would have to pay to use a better quality copy of the picture.
A really good site to start with is Education Image Gallery. It has a good range of current and historical images across all topics. The pictures are from the Getty News Archive and are media based covering current events worldwide, celebrities, film, politics, social history, finance and much more. The images can be downloaded easily or you can register with the site and create and store your own gallery of favourite pictures.
For moving images take a look at Film and Sound Online. This has a wide range of short films or film clips which you can download. Coverage is particularly good for Social Sciences, Politics and Law and has contemporary and historical materials.
– Sally Forrest
Tags:images·pictures·Sally Forrest
The British Library
Do you often hear the phrase, ‘Sorry, it’s not in stock’, or see your online searches for books or journal articles fail? Then this is where the Interlending service can lend a hand……..Recent developments in the Interlending service here at Derby means that those items which you’d really like asap are only a few clicks away.
You can now request inter library loans online. It all depends on availability at the British Library, but we can usually supply books and journal photocopies within a few days. If you register to receive journal articles electronically then we can usually supply your request by the next day. For undergraduates there is a modest admin charge of £2.00, so for the price of a pint or a large latte, the information you need is not far way.
To find out more visit the Interlending web pages, your local campus library or call into room LG06 in the Kedleston Library during office hours. The Interlending staff will be happy to help.
Please note: the inter-library loan scheme is available to all undergraduate Higher Education and Foundation Degree students on year two or above of their degree course
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Tags:Inter-library loans
Over the past couple of months Kedleston Road Library has been undergoing some refurbishment – particularly on the Upper Ground Floor as you enter the library.
Along with a new counter; a ’Vault’ for reservations, dissertations, and restricted (short-term) loan items; flooring; and paintwork there has been some rearrangement of where things are, or how they’re laid out.
We’ve also colour coded the Upper Ground Floor – using a traffic light system – to give users a better idea of where they are free to talk and where they should engage in silent, individual study. The red area is for silent study; the yellow area is for quiet study; and the green area is where people may talk freely, although still being mindful of other library users.
So what’s changed?
Entrance to KR Library
When you come in to the library you’ll notice the new entry area and counter. We felt that it was better for users to have the counter closer to the entry gates, and that it made more sense for the exit to be round the other side so that there was a nice flow of people in and out. This area is still being completed, so there are a few additions to come, and we hope that you will bear with us while these take place.
On the new counter you will find staff ready to help you whether you have a subject query, an IT problem, or a question about your library record. If you’re not sure where to go for help, please ask the person at the security section of the counter - this is the area just before you come through the entry gates - and they will be more than happy to guide you to the correct area on the counter.
Current Journals Display
You may have noticed the snazzy new carpeting under the current journals display (on the right-hand side of the Upper Ground Floor), but we’ve also reorganised the way the journals are displayed so that they are now grouped alphabetically according to subject. So business and computing journals are near the start of the section, education towards the middle, and science near the end.
Remember! The current law journals are still downstairs with the law collection.
New Books
The new books display is at the very end of the row of current journals and while you can’t borrow any of the new titles during the week that they are on display, you can use them in the library and /or place a reservation on them so that you can borrow them once they’ve been taken off the new books shelves.
The Vault
Opposite the library counter is the newly constructed Vault. This is where you can collect your reservations, or borrow restricted loan/ reference items, and issue them to yourselves using the self-service machine that we’ve put inside the Vault area.
If you want to check your reservations to see if any are waiting in the Vault for you, or you want to see if the restricted loan you’ve been told to read is on the shelf, there are catalogues on the raised counter on the outside of the Vault that you can use.
Remember! We will send you an e-mail to let you know that your reservations have arrived and are waiting in the Vault for you.
If you want to borrow something that isn’t a reservation or restricted loan item, you can issue it to yourself using one of the self-service machines that have been placed on the outside of the Vault. These have been put directly opposite the counter, so if you run into any problems you can easily ask for assistance.
Tags:Refurbishment
I hope you are all settling in to your studies now and not getting too stressed!
Have you handed in your first assignment this year and not done as well as you hoped?
Well help is at hand, the Study Advisor Scheme can help with all aspects of study including essay writing, citing and referencing, exam revision and time management.
The Study Advisor Scheme is a free, friendly and confidential service where you can receive one-to-one study skills support from a fellow student. You can find more details at: www.derby.ac.uk/library/study-advisor-scheme
Or if you just want some study skills leaflets or books, you can access the study skills collection in any of the University’s libraries. There is also a selection of presentations and resources available from the Study Skills webpages at www.derby.ac.uk/library/study-skills
For further information on any aspect of study skills or details of how to request a Study Advisor please get in touch.
Remember …
Academic work is a challenge – it is not easy. You are not the only student to struggle with aspects of your work, so don’t struggle alone.
Catherine
Catherine Varney
Study Skills and Mentoring Coordinator
01332 591369
studyadvisors@derby.ac.uk
Now that everyone’s settling into the academic year, you may be thinking that you could do with some help tracking down articles or books for your dissertation or an assignment.
If you’re having trouble locating what you need, then the first thing you should do is to make use of the human resources that form part of the Library’s services.
If you’re researching for an assignment or dissertation, contact your subject librarian for guidance of where and how to search. We’re here to help you find information — whether it’s available online or on the shelves in the library; to use our electronic resources; and to enable you to develop research skills that you can apply throughout your course and in the workplace.
If you need to strengthen your study skills: critical reading or thinking, assignment planning, citing & referencing and more, contact our study skills librarian for information.
If you need to brush up on Microsoft Office: getting the most out of Word or Excel as well as other MS Office products, and finding all the useful shortcuts that will streamline your use of the software, contact our IT Training officer for an appointment.
We are all available for one-to-one sessions to cover the resource and training needs specific to you as an individual student, so please contact us to arrange a meeting.
For Business and Management, contact Chris Martindale
For Computing and Maths, contact Jill Boland
For Law and Criminology, contact Jane Robinson
** Click on our names in the Contact Us section of the sidebar to e-mail us **
For Study Skills contact Catherine Varney (and see her earlier post for information on study skills)
For IT help, contact Lynn Eatherden (and see her earlier post for more information on IT help)
** Click on the Study Skills / Student IT Help links in the sidebar (under the Library heading) to contact Lynn or Catherine **
Jill
