Category Archives: Library
Unpicking social enterprise: the great debate
Date: Wednesday 27th November
Time: 12:30 to 13:30 (refreshments will be served from 12:15pm but feel free to bring your own lunch)
Place: Park Library TPod
In the first of our relaunched series of ‘Lunchtime in the library’ events, LLS have invited two eminent speakers to share their perspectives on social enterprise.
Weekly help desk service for researchers from LLS
The dates for this term’s ‘help desk’ slots are now up on the university website.
These slots provide you with the opportunity to drop in with your questions for the LLS Research Support team (Miggie and Nick). We’d love to chat with you about:
Finding journals and journal articles using NELSON
FAQ: How can I use NELSON to find journals and journal articles?
While researchers are often best served by accessing Library and Learning Services’ electronic journal collections directly (via our A-Z list), our research discovery tool NELSON can be a quick and convenient way to find articles and journals online. Read on for a short guide.
Citation data and metrics in Google Scholar
Google Scholar has offered basic metrics data for some time, but the service has seen some interesting developments recently that make it easy to discover highly-cited journals and articles for a wide selection of academic disciplines.
Digital Object Identifiers: what they are and where to find them
FAQ: What is a DOI and how can find out if my work has one?
A Digital Object Identifier, or DOI, uniquely and permanently identifies an object. Although the ‘object’ in theory may be any entity (physical, digital or abstract), in practice the most frequent use of DOI names is to describe the location of electronic journal articles, data sets and other digital documents. To date over 84 million DOI names have been assigned (see DOI Factsheet), each with a set of basic metadata and a pointer to the full content.
The principle behind the DOI system is that clicking on a DOI name will take you straight to the definitive copy of the item, irrespective of whether its web address (URL) has changed.
Introducing the Skills Hub
A message from Georgina Dimmock, Head of Academic Liaison in Library and Learning Services:
The Skills Hub is a new open access resource from Library and Learning Services containing videos, guides, interactive tutorials and blog posts on study skills topics. The material covers an array of levels and is for use by students, schools, researchers and the community. Academic staff are welcome to link from within NILE to specific materials on the Skills Hub. Library staff will also be publicising and tweeting links to timely resources on the hub at targeted points throughout year.
You can visit the Skills Hub at http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk
Ebook price increases from three publishers
” It is with regret that we have to inform you that with no prior notice from the publisher Wiley has imposed an immediate price increase across selected titles. “
So begins another email from Dawson books, our leading supplier of academic ebooks. The email goes on to explain further:
” The price increases are the publisher’s reaction to a recent US Supreme Court ruling whereby lower priced editions bought elsewhere in the world were allowed to be sold back into the US, a market which has traditionally had higher prices than other markets. To reduce the impact on US sales, Wiley have chosen to increase the prices in the UK to match the American prices. Unfortunately we have no ability to influence this decision although our buying team has vigorously championed non-US customers against price increases.”
Research informing practice in LLS
Last Wednesday, and hot on the heels of our Research Summer School, practitioner researchers from Library and Learning Services (LLS) were more than willing to present their ongoing research activity to colleagues. The result was a busy afternoon with ten LLS staff each speaking for ten minutes on their latest project.
Learning to be a practitioner researcher
Event report: LLS Research Summer School 2013
In keeping with its mission to fly the flag for practitioner research, Library and Learning Services (LLS) has this week presented its second biennial Research Summer School.
Designed to provide practitioners with the motivation, knowledge and tools to conduct effective research projects, the two day event was aimed at staff in libraries and learning services who were new to research or wanted to brush up on their research skills. Through a mix of talks, practical activities and networking opportunities, the event was a great opportunity for delegates to kick start their own research projects and share their research challenges with others in similar positions.
Journal Citation Reports: 2012 data now available
Thomson Reuters have just released the 2012 Edition of Journal Citation Reports (JCR).
Eagerly awaited by editors and publishers alike, JCR is the authoritative source of journal impact factors for nearly 11,000 peer reviewed journals.
In this edition some 379 journals have received their first impact factor and 66 have had theirs suppressed due to ‘anomolous citation patterns’ (JCR Notices).
UON Graduate School Blog 