Blog Archives
Researcher help desks – Summer 2015
Access all areas: Palgrave’s offer returns
Palgrave is once again offering free online access to their entire portfolio of journals for the whole of March.
The collection covers a range of subjects in business, social sciences and humanities.
To access the journals:
- You must be on campus (authentication is by IP address so you will only be able to access these resources on campus).
- Browse or search for papers:
- Browse by journal title
- Browse journals by subject
- Advanced search (note that the advanced search will return results for ebooks and book chapters, neither of which are included in the trial).
- To get an email alert of new tables of contents, sign up here
Don’t forget: the trial ends on March 31st so make the most of it while you can!
Researcher help desks – Spring 2015
Welcome back to a bright new term!
Dates and times for this term’s researcher help desks are as follows:
Avenue campus (in the library):
- Wednesday 28th January 10am – 12pm
- Monday 9th February 10am – 12pm
- Thursday 26th February 2 – 4pm
- Tuesday 10th March 2 – 4pm
- Thursday 2nd April 10am – 12pm
Park campus (in the library):
- Tuesday 20th January 2 – 4pm
- Monday 2nd February 10am – 12pm
- Wednesday 18th February 10am – 12pm
- Tuesday 3rd March 2 – 4pm
- Thursday 26th March 10am – 12pm
Easier access to resources off campus
Scholarly Systems Manager Mike Aynsworth explains the work his team has been doing to improve access to library resources:
Work has been carried out to make off campus access to the major library databases the same as on campus access. This has been achieved by using Ezproxy, an authentication service which mimics on campus access for those using resources off campus. Read the rest of this entry
Doctoral Open Days at the British Library
The British Library are now advertising the latest round of open days for PhD students. Full details are on the British Library website, but dates are as follows:
- English and Drama – Monday 19th January 2015

- Digital Scholarship – Friday 23rd January
- Music – Friday 30th January
- Art and Design – Friday 6th February
- Media, Cultural Studies and Journalism – Friday 6th February
- History 1 – Monday 16th February
- History 2 – Friday 20th February
- Social Sciences – Monday 23rd February
- African and Asian Studies – Friday 27th February
It costs £5 to attend each open day but for that you will also get lunch.
Photo credit: HeppDesigns
Should you trust that publisher?
It has been a bit of a week (already) for publishers of dubious intent to clutter my Inbox.
I must clearly be a researcher of world leading renown (not) to be so sought after. SciencePG has this very morning invited me not only to propose a special issue of a journal but to guest edit it too! Yesterday it was a different publisher and I have no doubt there will be further invitations coming along soon.
Some of these publishers appear to be very plausible. They offer open access, short lead times, ‘free’ submission and they may even allow me to retain my own copyright. So far so good. The sting in the tail comes from the large fees demanded on publication, the absence of any rigorous peer review process and the poor quality of the dissemination. Read the rest of this entry
PGR student induction: Making the most of the library
Thank you to all the new research students who worked so hard in today’s session in the library.
Given how many tools we covered in the morning, I thought it might be helpful to provide a list of these, with links, so you can revisit them later at your leisure. You’ll see that there are a few extra tools that were mentioned today but not explored.
We started by looking at university and external resources:
LLS Advisory Panel – new members wanted
LLS is reconvening this important group and it would be great to have representation from research students. The group meets online via a NILE forum so you can contribute as and when it suits you.
You don’t even have to contribute to every discussion – just add your opinions on things that matter to you. Only by hearing from research students can LLS ensure its services are meeting your needs.
Chris Powis, Head of Library and Learning Services, explains: