Goodbye A to Z, hello FTF

We have a somewhat underused and underrated A to Z list of all electronic and paper journals available to library users.  I loved it.  Find an interesting article.  Look up the journal on the A to Z and access the journal if we have it.  Alas, it is no more.  In its place, we have something called a Full-Text Finder (FTF) which will operate in much the same fashion.

When you look at results from the library search box, you'll see a new tab, Publications. 



This will work in much the same fashion as the A to Z; you can search for a journal or browse title from different subject areas.  This takes centre stage, replacing the alphabetical list that was more prominent with the A to Z.



A new feature that I like is the ability to search within a journal



And remember, this is all full-text hence the name Full-Text Finder.

In the next couple of days, the A to Z journal list link on the library website will start redirecting to the FTF and after that we will replace the link.

We're still finding our feet with this, but we'll endeavour to answer any queries that you may have (not here - come and talk to us!)

IT downtime

Due to an upgrade to the electrical infrastructure there will be no access to any IT systems from 23:59 Saturday 5th December until 23:59 Sunday 6th December, please note this includes Moodle, you will not be able to access notes or submit assignments, please ensure to downloaded all required notes prior to this time. Also please be aware all PC's in DBS will also be inaccessible.


That's includes internally hosted library systems such as the website and LORLS.  The library catalogue, Athens and EBSCO will still be available as they are not hosted internally.

Emerald Full-Text

In the spirit of reduce, reuse, recycle!  Here's an old posting revisited

A question that gets asked again and again goes something like this:

"When I search on Emerald I always get lots of articles coming up that are abstract only. Why can't I see the full-text?"

 Here's the answer:

Emerald is not a single database; it's a collection of different products all gathered together and searchable via the Emerald website. We have access to Emerald Management Xtra. If you click the link above, you'd see it's one of many Emerald products. One of these, Emerald Backfiles, is promoted by Emerald. This promotion takes the form of appearing at the top of your search results. Being there, the Backfiles articles are likely to be the first articles that you click on...leading to some frustration and irritation when you see that they're abstract only, because DBS do not have a subscription to them.

Before you contact the library, consider the fact that these articles all date from at the most recent, the early to mid 1990s. It is entirely possible that there are more recent articles on your subject that appear further down the list of your search results.

Alternatively, you can remove all articles from Emerald Backfiles, and indeed removed all non-DBS subscribed content from your searches by amending some search options. On the advanced search options page, make the sure the options below are checked thus:

 That's:
1) Only content I have access to *

2) No EarlyCite
3) No Backfiles


* That should really be "Only content to which I have access" 

New database trial Hein Online

This one's for our law students:

Until December 31st, we have HeinOnline on trial. This is a legal information source with a bias towards US legislation. Its content includes a large number of law journals also contains the Congressional Record Bound volumes in entirety, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, legal classics from the 16th to the 20th centuries, the United Nations and League of Nations Treaty Series, all United States Treaties, the Federal Register from inception in 1936, the CFR from inception in 1938, and much more. Access, as is the norm with database trials, is restricted to on-campus only.

Oh, so you actually want a link to this do you?  Here you go 

http://heinonline.org/HOL/Welcome


Need help getting started?  http://help.heinonline.org/, has a number of resources available to
help you get make best use of HeinOnline.  Here you will find PDF training guides, video tutorials, FAQs, search examples, how-to's and other assistance.

October Bank Holiday Opening Times

Below are DBS building opening times for the October Bank Holiday weekend.

The Library is open Saturday as normal, but we're CLOSED on Monday - as is the Aungier St building

Aungier Street

Saturday 24th   8:00am to 6:00pm , Sunday 25th & Monday 26th Closed 

Castle House

Saturday 24th, Sunday 25th & Monday 26th  8:00am to 6:00pm 

Balfe Street & Bow Lane

Closed

Study Rooms and Their Booking

We have two new study rooms on board, bringing us back to a full complement of four study rooms in Aungier St.   The third is next to study room 2 and the 4th will be the old print room adjacent to the four computers that face the library desk.

Not coincidentally, we've decided to retire our online booking system, which will now be melted down for electron glue.  It served us for a more than a few years, but it's now time for it to leave the scene.

We are waiting for a new booking system, that promises to be a lot better than what's gone before, but these things take time, so in the interim, we are reverting back to a paper-based system.  Please make your room bookings at the library desk, while we sort out a better online system. Thank you for your patience!  

Science Direct on trial

We have another database trial on the go at the moment.  It's Science Direct, which provides access to journals and books published by Elsevier, who are a bigname in the publishing world.  It's also fair to say that Elsevier are very well known to librarian and researchers

Details are: 

SD College Edition Complete - Books
SD College Edition Complete - Journals
 trial start date: 23/09/2015

 trial end date:  22/10/2015

Please check your trial access by going to the following URL; http://www.sciencedirect.com.

Access is available on campus, and theoretically you could try off-campus with your Athens account too.  Bear in mind that this is a particular subset of Science Direct - College Edition Complete, so I've no idea how much of the content is available to you, so I suggest you restrict any searching/browsing to Full-Text Access. 

Happy database browsing

  

Library Tours

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so below, 1,000 words

New term hours

Our new academic year commences on 21/09/2015.  This entails longer library opening hours thus:

Monday - Thursday  09.00 -22.00
Friday - 09.00-17.15
Saturday 09.30-17.00

The best of luck to all of you in your studies this year.