Self-issue stations survey: a big thank you!

Thanks a lot to all students and DBS staff who took the time to fill in the survey on the self-issue stations in the Library. We received 132 answers that will help Library staff in the writing of a paper on the implementation of self-issue technology at DBS Library.
So thanks again to all of you who took the time to give us your feedback and congratulations to Anita who won the €100 HMV voucher!

Personalised Start Pages

When you open a web browser, what’s the first page you see? Web browsers give you the option of setting your home page – the page that the browser opens first, but there are an increasing variety of services that offer you the ability to create a customised home page which can contain links to your favourite web pages, news feeds and any number of gadgets or widgets that can for example, check your email, give you the weather forecast for where you are, let you know what’s on at your local cinema and so on. Most services also let you customise the look and feel of the page – for a more personal experience – obviously. Personalised start pages are an example of a Web 2.0 application, where the user (you) defines the content that he or she sees.
Ok, some examples of personalised start pages:
iGoogle: as you may guess from the name iGoogle is the Google personalised home page service. You may love or hate Google but you can’t ignore them. iGoogle has literally hundreds and hundreds of gadgets that you can choose to add to your start page including Google modules such as Google Maps, Google Talk, Google Docs, Google Bookmarks and a vast number of user created gadgets (there’s even one to search the library catalogue). iGoogle also allows easy integration of RSS feeds. Your humble scribe uses iGoogle and would recommend it.
Netvibes: This is similar to iGoogle and thought by many to be better. Like iGoogle, there’s a myriad of gadgets (here called widgets) available. One advantage of Netvibes is that there’s a widget for capturing web pages, allowing you to have a home page composed of other web pages. One disadvantage is that the default language is French (Netvibes are a French company). Your humble scribe also uses and recommends Netvibes
Pageflakes is similar to iGoogle and Netvibes. Like those services you can have tabbed home pages, with each tab devoted to a different topic. Pageflakes has had some issues in the recent past (see here for example). You may also find advertising content appearing on your Pageflakes homepage.
Protopage is nice looking and has good audio and video options and a nice RSS reader.
Symbaloo: is nice but basic. Click and drag large block icons. Not as sophisticated as some, but it’s quick to set up and easy to use.
Bonzobox: Like symbaloo, click, drag and drop links to your favourite websites. Like Symbaloo, more basic than some others.

There is no best start page, each of the above and others (there are many, many others) not mentioned all have their advantages and disadvantages. If you are thinking about using a start page, think about the following:
how easy is it to set up?
how many modules/widgets/gadgets are available?
is there are a developer community?
how much customisation can you do?

One feature of start pages that I particularly like, is that I can gather together content from various websites together on the one page - I can see the latest news, sports news and information pertaining to my work all on the one page without having to visit 327 different websites. Alternatively you may want an online pet hamster or to play games online. Start pages are all about what you want.

Last chance for Library classes

As the college starts to wind down (but no, not us, we'll be busier than ever behind the scenes) a little over the summer months, this week sees the last scheduled library classes of the year. I've no doubt that there will be some ad hoc classes arranged during the summer, but otherwise this week's classes are the last. Stay tuned for news of summer classes.

Library SUMMER opening hours

We are switching to summer opening hours on Monday May 17th and until Saturday September 25th. During this period all students can access all DBS Libraries without restriction (which means that undergraduate students are welcome to use Dame Street Library).

Opening hours for Aungier Street and Dame Street will be as follows:

• Aungier Street

Monday 9.30-17.15
Tuesday 9.30-22.00
Wednesday 9.30-17.15
Thursday 9.30-22.00
Friday 9.30-17.15
Saturday 9.30-17.00
(closed on Sunday)

• Dame Street

Monday 9.30-22.00
Tuesday 9.30-17.00
Wednesday 9.30-22.00
Thursday 9.30-17.00
Friday 9.30-17.00
Saturday 9.30-14.00
(closed on Sunday)

Bank holiday Weekend

The library's (all 3 sites) opening hours this bank holiday weekend are:

Saturday 09.30 - 17.00
Sunday 11.00 - 17.00
Monday 11.00 - 17.00

You may have books due back on Monday - no fine will be charged if they are brought back on Tuesday

Happy (and productive) studying!

Library Newsletter

A bit late in the month, and you're all studying for exams, at least I hope you're studying for your exams(!), but here's the most recent edition of the library newsletter.



And here's the most recent list of recent acquisitions too

Changes to Emerald

The good people at Emerald are making changes to their website. They promise a new, more intuitive and user-friendly design and are taking the opportunity to give the site a fresh new look. The changes have not been implemented yet, but you can see a preview of them at http://beta.emeraldinsight.com. Please note the following - that's a trial site; it's not live - it's a full copy of the Emerald site as it was at the end of March. It will be updated periodically however. Also if you have a personal profile you set up, no changes you make on the beta site will be carried over to the "live" site.
Every page on the beta site has a link to a comments form where you can let Emerald know what you think of the new site

iGoogle library gadget

For those of you with iGoogle start pages (and I'll explain start pages another time), there's now a gadget that will let you search the library catalogue from your start page. You can also login to your library account or click the DBS logo to go to the DBS library website. Click on the image below to get the gadget
.

Good luck!

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

skills4studycampus part 2

To access the resource described in yesterday's post, go to this link and launch the application (if it doesn't launch automatically). You will need to register in order to look at the site (I did say it was a highly personalised resource :-). Access is on campus only, but I'll clarify that.