Tuesday 23 December 2008

Happy holidays & some festive reading and viewing suggestions from the library


Just a reminder that our festive shut down begins today at 1pm. We will reopen on Sunday January 4th at 11 am (until 5) for those students who have exams that week.

We are back to regular hours (9.30am-10pm) on MONDAY 5th January.

Remember that you can still check your account online using your library PIN to renew and reserve books and check due dates. You can also still access all of the library's electronic resources by logging in through the 'search all resources' button.

If however, like us, you plan to take advantage of the holidays to take a well earned break from work and study here are a few suggestions from the library staff of some of our favourite festive films, poems books and stories.

'Its a wonderful Life' (film) Frank Capra (1946)
Frank Capra's film has become a Christmas viewing staple. Everyman George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) is brought back from the brink of suicide on Christmas eve by angel-in-training Clarence who shows him what life would have been like for his family and friends had he never been born. Witnessing the terrible fates of his loved ones in a world where he does not exist George comes to realize that his life and choices have influenced the fates of everyone in the little town of Bedford falls.
We'll even forgive this film for the fact that the awful fate which befalls George's wife Mary (Donna Reid) is becoming a spinster librarian - truly a nightmare vision!

The night before Christmas (a visit from st. Nicholas) (Poem) Clement Clarke Moore (1822)
Every child's Christmas bedtime story and introduction to the names of all the reindeer. This poem is also largely responsible for small children's image of Santa (St Nicholas) as a fur trimmed human trifle with a 'little round belly/ that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly'

Scrooged Richard Donner (film) 1988
A retelling of the Dickens classic in which Bill Murray is brilliantly cast as the cynical 1980's scrooge who is shown the error of his ways by the ghosts of Christmas past (played by ex New York Doll David Johansen) present and future.

The Junky's Christmas (short story, animation) William S Burroughs.
This might not seem like the usual jolly festive fare - and its not. That said 'The Junky's Christmas', Burroughs' short story which originally appeared in his collection Interzone has all the makings of an alternative festive heart warmer. Junky Danny trawls the mean streets in search of a fix. Through an act of kindness he is redeemed and granted the immaculate fix. This short story appears, as narrated by the gravel voiced Burroughs himself on Spare Ass Annie and other tales (1993) accompanied by some funky drum and bass courtesy of the Disposable heros of Hipopracy and was also made into a claymation animation produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

Some of our other festive favourites...

'Fanny & Alexander' (film) Ingmar Bergman (1982) Emilie's favourite movie featuring Christmas. Available in DBS library DVD 105

'The Nightmare before Christmas' (film) Tim Burton (1993) Marie O' Dwyer's pick. Tim Burton brings his own unique vision this christmas tale and it has some great songs too.

Gremlins (film) Joe Dante (1984) little green monsters invade a small town at Christmas - whats not to like!


-We hope all the students and staff of DBS have a peaceful and relaxing festive season and wish you a very Happy New Year!




Monday 22 December 2008

Facebook again

The library facebook page changed address. You can be friends with Library, Dublin Business School if I have the link correct. Isn't social networking wonderful?

Thursday 18 December 2008

Facebook travails

Apologies to our increasing number of Facebook friends, but we are experiencing some technical difficulties with the page. We hope to have access restored soon. Thanks for your patience!

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Exams papers on Moodle






Save time - access past exam papers on Moodle

The vast majority of past exam papers are now accessible on Moodle.
To access, login to Moodle, scroll down to 'Exams', then scroll down to the relevant department (ie Undergraduate arts, Undergraduate business..) and click on the year you want.

Papers not yet available on Moodle should be accessible before the Summer exam sessions.



Friday 12 December 2008

New features on MINTEL




Want to find reports on Tourism In Ireland, Bottled water sales in France, Energy consumption in Australia, Chocolate and confectionary in the UK, Cough and cold remedies in the US? These and a whole host of other industry and region specific market research reports are now available with a new addition to MINTEL reports called 'snapshots'.

We are currently running trial access to this new feature on MINTEL and would like your feedback on whether you think it is a valuable addition.
Remember if you dont access these trials or give us your feedback on new features, we may not have any real data to inform our decision to subscribe or not. So if you access 'Snapshots' reports and like them - please let us know.

- Please note that due to a problem with the Mintel database and our default settings on library PC's, it cannot be accessed on campus while using internet explorer as your internet browser. To access, log onto the net using Mozilla firefox as your browser. To access Mintel off campus login through the 'search all resources' button with your student number and date of birth then scroll down and click the link to Mintel.

Thursday 11 December 2008

Make friends with DBS library on Facebook



You can now stay in touch with developments at DBS library on Facebook.

Become a friend of the library by visiting our Facebook page -HERE

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Lending policy

To clarify some points about lending at DBS:

  • Books reserved by other students cannot be renewed
  • Overdue books may not be renewed. Overdue books must be returned to the library and any fines cleared before books can be reissued.
  • Short loan and week loan books cannot be renewed.

Students should make them themselves familiar with the rules and regulations of the library. You can find copies of these in the display racks near the issue desk.

WIN A €100 HMV VOUCHER FOR TELLING THE LIBRARY WHAT YOU THINK

We know that DBS students have no problems voicing their opinions about Library services. So here's your chance to offer us your (constructive) feedback on services and be in with a chance to win a €100 HMV voucher in the process.

Fill in our annual library users survey to be entered into the draw.

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Due dates and overdues

Some students don't think it's fair that they get charged for overdue books when they don't receive reminders that their books are due back or indeed email notice that their books are overdue. Life is, at times, very unfair.

It is the student's responsibility to ensure that they know when their books are due back and also the student's responsibility to return their books on their due date.

There are a number of steps you can take to discover the due date of your loans:

1) There is a date sheet near the front of the book (or rarely, at the back of the book), on which the return date is stamped. You should check that the efficient and enthusiastic library staff member who issued your books has stamped the return date here. If you have renewed your books by phone, or online, you should write the new due date on the date sheet

2) If you are using the self-issuing station, if you actively end your session, a receipt will appear. If you merely walk off with your books, your session will time out and no receipts will be issued. If, in the unusual event of no receipt being issued, you should ask a member of library staff to stamp the book for you. If you request a receipt by email and don't receive a receipt by email, please don't wait until your books are overdue before telling us that you didn't receive a receipt.

3) On, or near, the date sheet, the name, address and telephone number of the library is stamped. You can telephone the library issue desk and ask when your books are due back. For Aungier St. the issue desk telephone number is 01 417 7572. You may also ring 01 417 7594. For Dame St., the issue desk number is 01 417 8745.

4) If you have a PIN, you can look at your reader record via the online library catalogue. To acquire a PIN, contact the library, via telephone above, or by e-mail (there's an 'email the library' option on the online catalogue. With a PIN, you can see what books you have on loan, their due dates. If permissible there's even the option to renew loans

At the time of writing, DBS students have 4986 items on loan. Do you honestly expect us to check the due dates of every single item? Please try to be a little more proactive about this. Many thanks

Friday 5 December 2008

Searching the library catalogue - what every student NEEDS to know - Final part

Here's the final part of the 'searching the DBS library catalogue' online tutorial series. Part 3 shows you how to login to view your library account details online, to renew and reserve books.

Remember these tutorials are also available on the main library site under 'library guides/library catalogues'.


Searching the library catalogue - what every student NEEDS to know - PART 2

Here is the second part of our online tutorials on 'searching the DBS Library catalogue'. This part shows you how to perform advanced searches and narrow down your search to specific sites (Aungier st or Dame st) and how to search for specific material like DVD's or Dissertations.

Searching the library catalogue - what every student NEEDS to know

It has become increasingly clear to library staff that an alarming number of students are STILL unacquainted with looking up book details and checking availability on the library catalogue.
Being able to look up bibliographic and availability details on the library catalogue is a basic skill that all third level students should have. A significant amount of traffic at the enquiry desk is taken up with students' requests to look up book availability for them. Library staff are only too happy to train students on searching the library catalogue with the assumption that, once they are familliar with catalogue searching, they can save themselves (and library staff) time by checking a books availability before they come to the library. However, there is still an unhealthy percentage of students who are unwilling to look up catalogue details for themselves.

Library staff want to be as accomodating as possible in assisting students with their book searches, however, as (we assume) all students are here to learn, we'd rather help you to help yourselves as it were. Learning how to search the catalogue and locate the library material you need is an important part of your overall learning experience while you are here at DBS. Being able to log onto the library website to check the catalogue availability details for the items you want also saves you (and us) a lot of time. Searching the shelves for a book in a library which contains over 50,000 titles over several sites is (to say the least) a not a very productive use of your library time. Learning these basic skills will also help you if you choose to study elsewhere when you have completed your studies at DBS as most academic libraries are multi site and insist that students use the catalogue to independently locate all material.

To help you get to grips with using the catalogue, in addition to print guides and guides on the library website (under 'library guides') we have produced a series of screencast online tutorials which take you through the steps in searching the library catalogue in real time. The guides show you how to perform a basic search, an advanced search and how to renew and reserve books yourself using your library catalogue PIN.

Here is the first part, with parts 2, and 3 to follow. These are also located on the main library site under 'library guides/library catalogues'

Enjoy, and most importantly...learn







Thursday 4 December 2008

Database Issues

A couple of issues have arisen with access to databases:

Lexis-Nexis: We would greatly prefer you to access Lexis-Nexis through WebFeat rather than asking for the user name and password. To access Lexis-Nexis through Webfeat, enter your search term and scroll through the list of databases, tick the box next to the Lexis-Nexis database (Butterworths or News and Business) and search. Viewing any of results will take you in to the Lexis-Nexis database itself. From there,you can search within Lexis-Nexis as if you had logged into with a username and password.

Mintel: Due to, we suspect some background technical changes made, Mintel no longer works with Internet Explorer on campus. It does work with Firefox and so we will be restoring Firefox to all student PCs in the next week or so.

Search all resources: This opens in a separate window and may be minimised, so be careful! If nothing appears to be happening, check the tabs at the bottom of the screen

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Dewey Class Numbers 500-999

We recently posted some student-relevant Dewey class numbers ranging from 000-499. Here are some from 500-999

519.5 Statistics
616.8 Abnormal psychology
616.85 Disorders of personality control
616.86 Substance abuse
616.89 Mental illness
616.89 Psychotherapy
650.0072 Business research
650.1 Personal success in business
657 Accounting
657.3 Financial reporting
657.42 Cost accounting
657.45 Auditing
657.48 Financial accounting
658 Management
658.049 International business
658.054678 E-business
658.15 Financial management
658.3 Human resource management
658.3124 Employee development
658.4012 Corporate strategy
658.4038 Information management
658.404 Project management
658.45 Business communication
658.5 Operations management
658.8 Marketing
658.812 Service quality
658.827 Branding
658.83 Marketing research
658.848 International marketing
659.1 Advertising
791.43 Film studies
791.45 Television
808.042 Essay writing
808.066 Professional and technical writing
813 American fiction
823 British and Irish fiction
910 Geography and travel
940 History

Remember, if you can't find the book your looking for, why not look at another book with the same Dewey number?