Blog Archives
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.”
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).
SAGE permits authors to deposit full text in NECTAR
As of today, if you have an article published by SAGE Publications you can upload the accepted version of your full text to NECTAR immediately. With no embargo.
SAGE has just announced a review of its author archiving policy and now permits immediate deposit of the post-peer-review, accepted copy of an article in the author’s own institutional repository.
(See details of SAGE’s publishing policies here.)
This represents a very positive response to recent developments in the sector (such as the Finch report and the revised RCUK policy on open access) and means that SAGE can now promote itself as a SHERPA RoMEO ‘Green‘ publisher, along with 349 other publishers including Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Intellect, John Wiley and Sons, Kluwer, and Public Library of Science.
Workshop for lecturers on Aspire reading lists
If you are engaged in teaching students at UoN and giving students reading lists, these workshops may be of interest to you. Further dates will be added and published here.
Library and Learning Services is offering workshops at Avenue on the Aspire Reading List Software on Feb 26th and March 4th (see below for details and times). Aspire is a piece of software that enables you to create an online reading list with direct links through to full text articles, websites, e-books and items on the library catalogue. You can also link to Aspire from within NILE. To sign up, please email the session leader running the workshop.
Aspire workshops will last an hour and you will be shown how Aspire works as well as being able to have a go at creating your own Aspire reading list. If you have a real reading list you’d like to put online, bring it along and we can work on it during the workshop. There will also be an extra half an hour at the end of the session, with a member of the LLS Academic Liaison Team on hand to help, for anyone who wants to stay and work on their reading list.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available.
Tuesday, Feb 26th
12:00 – 13:30, Tuesday, Feb 26th, in the Library IT Training Room (Avenue Library) – Aspire Session Leader: George Dimmock (georgina.dimmock@northampton.ac.uk)
Monday, March 4th
12:00-13:30, Monday, March 4th in the Library IT Training Room (Avenue Library) – Aspire Session Leader: Fiona MacLellan (fiona.maclellan@northampton.ac.uk)
NELSON upgrade Sunday 24th February
The software behind the Library’s resource discovery system, NELSON, is being upgraded this weekend.
During the upgrade you will only be able to access NELSON in ‘search’ mode, you will not be able to save items to your eShelf. Additionally, links between NELSON and the library catalogue may be temporarily unavailable.
A message displaying this information has been posted on the NELSON home page.
Following the upgrade you will have further options to personalise your search results by discipline and the ability to refine a search by including and excluding multiple topic areas.
Image credit: Compass by Roland Urbanek
Managing your research data – forthcoming workshops
As part of our ongoing engagement with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) we have arranged the following workshops:
- Managing data through the research lifecycle
- Managing your PhD research data
- Research Council requirements for data management
All sessions will be led by experts in data management from the DCC.
Library & Learning Services (LLS) Advisory Panel
Avenue Library
As part of our commitment to meeting the real needs of students we want to recruit Advisors to sit on a new LLS Advisory Panel, where you will help to shape the services, resources, environments and future of LLS.
Commitment would be mainly via a NILE forum, where we would ask for comments on a wide range of issues, but we will also hold occasional, informal Panel lunches. Discussion points might cover anything from the split between silent and group work areas in library buildings, opening hours, e-books versus print, how we communicate with students, how best to target study and information skills sessions or what makes a good NILE site.
No special qualifications are needed and you will not be representing anyone’s views but your own. All we ask is that you are interested in shaping how we support your studies and are committed to joining in the discussion.
So, if you would like to make a difference and enhance your cv at the same time, please give your name and email address to the desks at either library or email Chris Powis, Head of Library and Learning Services (chris.powis@northampton.ac.uk) to register your interest.
Renewing your Zetoc Alert
FAQ: My Zetoc Alert is about to expire. How can I renew it?
Anybody that uses Zetoc Alerts to keep up to date with research literature will know that once a year these expire and have to be renewed. This is a straightforward process and simply involves clicking on one of the links given in the reminder email.
The trick is to click on the correct link.
UON Graduate School Blog 