Best of luck for your exams!

All the DBS Library team wish you all the very best of luck with your exams!

And if there are any ways we can help you, just let us know!

Student Services have compiled a great Exams Guide that you can pick up at the desk at both libraries as well as around the College and remember that support is always available to you, so just get in touch with any member of staff in the College or with DBS Education and Welfare Officer Caitriona (caitriona.mcgrattan@dbs.ie)

Once again, the very best of luck to you all!

Getting closer to exams... 3 things to remember!

We are now entering the 'Dreaded Exam Period' and this means three things:

1) We open Sundays and bank holidays 11am to 5pm from the week starting March 24th until the week ending May 18th. All the 10 Sunday/bank holiday opening are listed in a previous post further below, and you can also see them all on the DS and AS library calendars on the Library website 'about the library' section: http://library.dbs.ie/AboutLibrary/Opening-Hours.htm



2) Most previous years' exam papers can be found on Moodle: click on the 'exam papers' link on the left hand side of your Moodle homepage. Exam papers are split by category - undergraduate arts, undergraduate business, postgraduate arts, postgraduate business, law and ICM/DBS diplomas/Springboard courses.





3) Fines double from April 1st until May 18th
So for 2-week, 1-week, 3-day & 7-day law (DS only) items, it will be €1.20 per item per day late.
And instead of €1.50 for 3-day loan, it will be €3.00 per day late.
DVDs remain at €3.00 per DVD per day late.

This is not a cynical revenue generating exercise by the library, this is a genuine attempt to keep books in circulation between all of you needing them for your revisions, and therefore prevent students from holding on to books while many others need them too.

Remember, fines are avoidable! Indeed, you can manage your account online yourself and see if you have books that are reserved by others (they will not be renewable), and renew your other books.
You can do so:
- online (click on the 'Access my library account' icon on the library website and login with the same login as your Moodle logins)
- at the self-issuing stations with your student card
- by telephoning the relevant library site (01-417 7572 for AS library / 01-417 8745 for DS library)



Good luck with your exams!

Winter exams 2012-2013 timetables

Your Winter exams 2012-2013 timetables are now available via the student intranet, under the ‘Timetable’ section: the 'Exam timetables' page can be displayed by clicking on the link on the left-hand side of the screen at http://www.dbs-students.com/Timetables/Default.aspx

Sunday Opening & Christmas Closure

Library Sunday opening

To help you with your winter exam revisions, Aungier St. and Dame St. libraries will be open on the following 3 Sundays from 11.00 to 17.00:

• Sunday 9th December
• Sunday 16th December
• Sunday 6th January

Christmas closure

The College will be closed from Friday 21st December until Tuesday 1st January inclusive.


All opening hour details are also available on the Library website under the About the library section, as well as by using the QR code:


 









 
Enjoy the Christmas break and good luck with your exams!

Doubling of fines - a reminder

As previously noted, from tomorrow fines for standard, week and short loan books will double for the duration of the exam period. We do this with the best of intentions; to try to ensure fair access to library materials for all students.

Avoid fines, especially when they double during exam time!

It is soon the time for your summer exams to start (good luck!) so to prevent more stress here are a few tips to avoid having to pay fines on overdue library items, especially because fines double during exam time (so that we can ensure fair and equitable access to library materials to all of you!)

Library books can be renewed:
- online (click on the 'Access my library account' icon on the library website and login with the same login as your Moodle logins)
- at the self-issuing stations with your student card
- by telephoning the relevant library site (01-417 7572 for AS library / 01-417 8745 for DS library)

The doubling of fines for 2011 will start being enforced on Thursday 21st April 2011.

Standard Loan (2-week) €1.20/day/book

7-day Loan €1.20/day/book

3-day Loan €3.00/day/book

1-day Loan (DVDs) €5.00/day/DVD

And remember, fines are charged on each item returned late and overdue items may not be renewed where a library account has a fine balance exceeding €5.00.

Previous exam papers

During the exam period, we try to signpost where students can access previous years' exam papers. This semester has seen a change in the layout and indeed URLof Moodle so all previous postings on this subject are invalid. If you want to see previous years exam papers, click here. You will need to login however. Login with the same details that you use to login to college PCs or the online library catalogue. If you don't know those - contact our IT department.

Good luck!

Just a very short post to wish all our student the best of luck in their forthcoming exams

Exam time!

This is a good cop/bad cop posting (though you may think there's not much good cop content.)

1. To ensure fair and equitable access to Library materials in the run up to exams; from 22nd March 2010 , fines on standard loan and 7-day loan items will increase to €1.20 per day while fines on short loan materials will increase to €3.00 per day. To avoid incurring fines, Library books can be renewed online, at self-issuing stations or by telephoning the relevant library site (contact details are below). Please note that overdue items may not be renewed where a library account has a fine balance exceeding €5.00
I want to, and I think I need to, stress that we do this to attempt to ensure fair and equitable access to library books during the time when there's most demand for them. If you, as a student, are looking for a specific textbook for exam revision, but cannot find it because someone is keeping them past the due date, how would you feel? Doubling fines is an attempt to motivate people to return books on time when they most need to be returned on time. All monies garnered by library fines are reinvested in the library: your 60 cent fine for a book brought back one day late will contribute to purchasing the latest edition of your core textbooks or a new DVD that you will be borrowing one day. It's not like we spend the money on fine wine and expensive chocolates (despite my many requests). If this was an exercise in profiteering, don't you think we'd double the fines for late returns of DVDs?

Here's a article from a library academic journal discussing fines (you can access the link directly on campus). While he mentions the arguments for abolishing fines, I agree, partly, with the author when he says:

it seems to me that they serve a vital function for any library that requires efficient and equitable circulation of stock. It cannot be right that an essentially selfish act on the part of one user or a group of users deprives other users of access to that material.

2. To give you lots of notice: exam results will not be issued to students until all borrowed materials have been returned to the Library and outstanding fines cleared. Outstanding fines can be paid by cash or credit card at any library site. Payment must be received no later than one week prior to the release of exam results. If payment is received after this date then your results will not be issued for a period of up to 24 hours after the release date of results. This period is required to allow the examinations office time to update the relevant files.

3. During the period Monday 22^nd March until Saturday 15^th May, the 3 Libraries will be opened 11.00-17.00 on the following dates:

- Sunday 28^th March 2010

- Friday 2^nd April 2010 (good Friday)

- Sunday 4^th April 2010 (Easter Sunday)

- Monday 5^th April 2010 (Easter Monday)

- Sunday 11^th April 2010

- Sunday 18^th April 2010

- Sunday 25^th April 2010

- Sunday 2^nd May 2010

- Monday 3^rd May 2010 (May bank holiday)

- Sunday 9^th May 2010

So basically, we'll be open 7 days a week from 28/03 to 15/05

RFID installation - Disruption Thursday 30th July

Further to the earlier post about the RFID conversion project...I'm happy to report that the Aungier St. main library is now fully converted and we are ready to move on to installing the RFID systems.

So far the library stock conversion process has (hopefully) been fairly low impact and non intrusive. However, it seems you can't pull off an RFID conversion project without making a little bit of an impact - and next week marks the slightly disruptive point of the project!

On Thursday July 30th technicians will install our RFID detection system and our new R series self check units. This is likely to impinge on the usual serenity of the library as our current detection gates need to be removed and the RFID gates and new self check systems installed - in short, there may be some drilling (!).

We realize that there are some students preparing for exams & noise in the library is not really conducive to a relaxing exam preparation environment. However we wish to remain open to students throughout the installation process.

So, we are advising students who require quiet study areas to use the newly extended Dame st library - which should be a noise free safe haven!
Dame st library will be open until 5.15 on Thursday - Aungier st remains open until 10 and should be noise free again after 5.15.

In addition classroom AS 3.4 will be available on Thursday until 10pm

The installation process should be completed by Friday July 31st but as we are having the library computers upgraded on that date, Dame st and classroom 1.6 will be available to any students who wish to study there.

Thanks again for bearing with us through the transition process - we're nearly there!

Classrooms available for study this week

It may have escaped your attention but exam season is in full swing and library study rooms are booking up fast.

To accomodate students wanting to do group study some classrooms have been made available again this week.

These rooms are available all day and do not need to be booked;

Tuesday April 28th - Bow lane - room 4.3
Wednesday April 29th - Balfe St block B room 1.1
Thursday April 30th - Balfe St, block B rooms 1.1 & 2.1
Friday 1st May - Bow lane rooms 4.2 & 4.4


Big thanks to Neus Fernandez the timetabling officer for making this classroom space available to students.

Reminder - opening hours for Easter weekend

Just a quick reminder to all that we are open through the Easter weekend for any dedicated students wanting to cram in some additional study time in the run up to impending exams (or those who just dont have anything better to do).
Opening hours from Good Friday until Easter Monday will be 11am to 5pm - site opening details listed below.

Aungier Street	Dame Street	Portobello
Friday, 10th April (Easter weekend)	Friday, 10th April (Easter weekend)	Closed
Sunday, 12th April (Easter weekend)	Sunday, 12th April (Easter weekend)	Closed
Monday, 13th April (Easter weekend)	Monday, 13th April (Easter weekend)	Closed

Extended opening hours

To facilitate study for the upcoming summer exam sessions the library will operate 7 day opening from March 29th until May 10th.

Sunday and Bank Holiday opening hours are 11 am to 5 pm. Details of open days per library site are listed below.
Portobello students are reminded that they are entitled to access Aungier st library so may avail of facilities there on the Sundays when Portobello Library is not open.

Aungier Street	Dame Street	Portobello
Sunday, 29th March	Sunday, 29th March	Closed
Sunday, 5th April	Sunday, 5th April	Closed
Friday, 10th April (Easter weekend)	Friday, 10th April (Easter weekend)	Closed
Sunday, 12th April (Easter weekend)	Sunday, 12th April (Easter weekend)	Closed
Monday, 13th April (Easter weekend)	Monday, 13th April (Easter weekend)	Closed
Sunday, 19th April	Sunday, 19th April	Sunday, 19th April
Sunday, 26th April	Sunday, 26th April	Sunday, 26th April
Sunday, 3rd May	Sunday, 3rd May	Sunday, 3rd May
Monday, 4th May	Monday, 4th May	Closed
Sunday, 10th May	Closed	Closed