SPSS in the Library

From this afternoon SPSS v.17 will be installed in IT Cluster 4A as well at IT Cluster 1A.

Please let us know if you are still having problems accessing a PC with SPSS installed.

Short loan borrowing over Christmas

Short loans can be borrowed for the duration of the Christmas vacation - from Friday 18th December at 10.00 until Wednesday 6th January at 10.00.

You can book up to 2 short loans for the Christmas period from today.

Drop-in sessions

Need help with Referencing or researching information for your coursework? Come to one of our last few drop-in sessions!

Where?
IT Training Suite, Level 2, Library

When?
Friday 27th November, 12-2pm
Wednesday 2nd December, 11-1pm
Friday 4th December, 12-2pm

Come for as little or as long as you like.
5 minutes may be all that you need

Open Access for researchers

Interested in sharing your research outputs? The Open Access movement encourages the principle that research should be freely available online. To broaden awareness and understanding of this movement, Open Access Week is taking place from 19-23 October. An excellent website provides useful links and resources such as a very brief introduction to Open Access.

Related activities include the light-hearted competition run by Sherpa to write a haiku on 'the spirit of Open Access' and encouragement to deposit in institutional repositories by the Repositories Support Project.

Abertay Research Collections
To coincide with Open Access week, we would like to invite you to visit our new institutional repository which has been developed to increase the visibility of Abertay research. A short leaflet and more information about Abertay Research Collections (ARC) is available on the portal.

For enquiries about depositing your research in ARC, contact repository@abertay.ac.uk

PDF problems

Having trouble opening a PDF document? Right click on the document and choose Save Target As.

Problems accessing our services?

Need to change your password? Use our self-service page - you'll need your username and the answers to your personal security questions.

Problems with AbertayLIVE email? Read more about the service, including Frequently Asked Questions and tips on password management, on our Answer IT > Email Communications pages.

Welcome!

A warm welcome to all new students registering this week. If you have any questions, do ask at the Enquiry Desk on Level 1 or why not try out our Ask a Librarian instant messaging service.

Welcome!

A very warm welcome to all new international students registering this week.

Limited access to Library catalogue

During essential maintenance to our library system we are now able to provide limited access to the library catalogue at http://catalogue.abertay.ac.uk/

You can search as normal, but item status may not be current so you will need to check shelves for availability. You will not be able to renew books, or place holds or requests.

Please contact the Enquiry Desk if you require assistance.

Library system maintenance 27th-29th July 2009

Due to an essential upgrade the library catalogue will be unavailable for 3 days from Monday 27th July. You will still be able to borrow and return items at the Library Enquiry Desk, but there will be no remote access to your account. We apologise for this temporary reduction in service - please contact the Enquiry Desk if you require assistance by email libdesk@abertay.ac.uk or phone 01382 308833.

Six of the best - Web of Knowledge

What is Web of Knowledge?

WoK provides access to citations and abstracts of journal articles and conference papers, with some links to full text if we subscribe to a particular journal. Wide subject coverage on and off campus.

How do I access it?

• From the Library web page, choose Resources A-Z (under the Find menu), or use the link in your Subject Guide.
• Log in using your network username & password

Tips

• Make sure you are searching the right data – put your search term in the left hand box and set the right hand box to e.g. Topic, Author, Publication. Use Topic to search for keywords.
• Use the Limit to option to search for the most recent material.
• Click on Abertay full text to see if we have the full article.

Bonus features

• Alerts – Receive emails when new articles cite your chosen articles. Click on My Citation Alerts to register a personal password, and then create alerts from any chosen record.
• Endnote – it’s easy to export citations from WoK. Check the boxes next to your search results and click Save to Endnote. DON’T use Endnote Web as this is not set up for the Abertay Harvard style.
• Keep up with research developments. Search the Conference Proceedings Citation Index from within the Web of Science tab.
• Use the ScientificWebPlus option from Additional Resources to find high quality websites for your research topic.

Six of the Best - ScienceDirect

What is ScienceDirect?

A database of full text articles from more than 2000 journals, covering all subjects - science, health, computing, business, social sciences. Includes access to the online Encyclopedia of Forensic Science. Available on or off campus. Full text generally goes back to 1997.

How do I access Science Direct?

• From the Library web page, choose Resources A-Z (under the Find menu), or use the link in your Subject Guide.
• Log in using your network username & password.
• Choose the first option (NESLI Athens & Shibboleth).

Tips

• Quick search is rather basic – it’s usually better to click on the Search heading and use the Advanced search that appears.
• Use a date range to limit the number of results you get.
• Refine your search by searching within your results for an extra keyword or by limiting to or excluding specific journals.

Bonus features

• Alerts – Receive emails when new articles cite your chosen articles. Click on Alerts and then Activate personalization to register a personal password. You can then a create citation alert when looking at a relevant record.
• Endnote – it’s easy to export citations from Science Direct to Endnote. Check the boxes next to your search results and click on Export citations and open your Endnote file when prompted.
• Top 25 – links you to the most popular 25 articles for each main subject area or for named journals over each quarter.

Heritage Explorer - free images

Heritage Explorer

A resource from English Heritage which allows access to thousands of images of (mostly) English lifestyle, culture and architecture which are free to use for educational purposes. Images also come with lesson ideas and support information.

FREE TRIAL - FoodNetBase

We have a free trial (on campus only) to FoodNetBase.

FoodNetBase is a package of 390 full text electronic books, covering a range of subjects including food chemistry & ingredients, food processing, food law and regulation, food microbiology and safety, packaging, food product development and nutrition.

The trial runs until 10th July. Feedback comments welcome!

Six of the best - LexisNexis Newspapers

What are LexisNexis Newspapers?

Search across many UK national and regional newspapers, including the Guardian, Herald, Independent, Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Telegraph, Times and many others. Updated daily. Great for any subject where you need to keep up with a current topic or investigate a past event. Available on and off campus.

How do I access LexisNexis Newspapers?

• From the Library web page, choose Resources A-Z (under the Find menu), or use the link in your Subject Guide.
• Log in using your network username & password.
• Once in, click on the News tab at the top of the screen.

Tips

• Search within the headline, ‘major mentions’ or anywhere.
• Set the sources to search e.g. UK broadsheets, UK national newspapers, UK regional newspapers.
• Specify your dates. Your search will fail if it finds more than 3000 results, so try searching just the previous month, and expand further back if required.
• Narrow down your search by searching within results for an extra keyword, or by looking at individual newspapers.
• Full text news and features are included, but not tables, graphics, pictures, adverts, weather or TV/radio listings.

Bonus feature

• Alerts – Receive emails when new articles match your search. Click on Create alert, give your search a name and schedule the frequency of alerts – daily, weekly, monthly etc – before entering your email address.

Six of the best - Inspec

Third in a series of six posts on e-resources to help you with your dissertation

What is Inspec?

Produced by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Inspec contains over 9 million references with abstracts, covering all aspects of engineering and computing. Some links to full text if we subscribe to a particular journal. Available on or off campus.

How do I access Inspec?

• From the Library web page, choose Resources A-Z (under the Find menu), or use the link in your Subject Guide.
• Log in using your network username & password.
• Check the boxes against the databases you wish to search: one file goes back to 1969, one just back to 1987.
• Click on Open selected resources and begin your search.

Tips

• For added flexibility, use the Advanced search.
• Your search results appear at the bottom of the screen, underneath the Results Manager (which can be closed when you don’t need it).
• Click on Abertay full text to see if we have the full article.
• Choose Customise display if you wish to see abstracts displayed in your search results.

Bonus features

• Alerts – to save searches and set up alerts, you will first need to create a personal account.
• Endnote – you can export citations from Inspec to Endnote. You will need to save results as a text file, then go to Endnote and select File > Import. More guidance available on WebCT.

Six of the best - Endnote

Second in a series of six posts on e-resources to help you with your dissertation

What is Endnote?

Software for managing references. Import citations from databases; add your own references from scratch; produce bibliographies and insert citations direct into your dissertation. Endnote may be used with both the Harvard and APA systems and for legal referencing. Only available on campus.

How do I access Endnote?

• Open Microsoft Word. The Endnote toolbar may appear.
• Otherwise, select Tools > Go to Endnote.
• Create a new EndNote library and click OK.
• Name your library e.g. project.enl and save it to your M: drive.
• You are now ready to add references to your EndNote library.

Tips

• Follow the guidance in our WebCT Endnote tutorial.
• Each database interacts slightly differently with Endnote.
• Science Direct is an easy one to try: perform your search, click in the boxes next to any search results, click on Export citations and open your Endnote file when prompted.
• Some databases e.g. CIS and IEEE are not compatible.
• You can add references manually – but be careful to select the appropriate reference type (e.g. Internet for a website).
• When importing new references, click on References > Show all, otherwise you will only see most recent additions.

Bonus feature

• The “Cite while you write” feature enables you to insert citations directly into your Word document and it automatically creates your bibliography as you go along.

Six of the best - Emerald

First in a series of six posts on e-resources to help you with your dissertation

What is Emerald?

Full text articles from 150 leading academic and professional management and business journals, plus additional abstracts. A great database for Business students but also for subjects as diverse as Computing, Engineering, Environment and Food.

How do I access Emerald?

• From the Library web page, choose Resources A-Z (under the Find menu), or use the link in your Subject Guide.
• Select on or off campus access as appropriate.
• Log in using your network username & password.

Tips

• To use all the features, you will need to create a personal profile. Click on My Profile and then Register and enter required details.
• For the best full text results, use Advanced Search and choose to search only within My subscribed content.

Bonus features

• Alerts – Receive emails when new articles match your search, or when your favourite journal publishes a new issue.
• Endnote – export citations from Emerald to your Endnote Library. Go to My Profile then create a Marked List. You can then search and add items to your list before downloading them. Follow the guidance in our WebCT Endnote tutorial.
• Journal of the Week – free articles from two Emerald journals weekly, including titles to which Abertay does not subscribe.

National e-books survey - the results

We recently promoted a survey on e-books that many of you took part in. This survey was run at universities across the UK and over 23,000 staff and students participated. This was the second survey run as part of the JISC national e-books observatory project. The surveys were exploring current awareness, perceptions and attitudes towards e-books and looking to see if these changed between 2008 and 2009. Thank you for participating.

Some headline findings:

• Use of e-books for study increased for students from 61.4% in 2008 to 64.4% in 2009 but the highest increase was use by staff, which increased from 58.9% to 64.9%.
• Surprisingly, over 63% of respondents said that they read the content of e-books from a screen with only around 6% printing pages out, however, the average time spent reading was only between 11 and 20 minutes.
• Over 54% of respondents said that they dip in and out of e-book chapters with only around 8% reading a whole chapter.
• Encouragingly, the percentage of teaching staff recommending e-books to students and placing direct links to them via the virtual learning environment or online reading lists increased between 2008 and 2009.
• Most staff and students get access to their e-books via the university library and dependency on this access had increased by 2009.
• Satisfaction with the availability of print textbooks through the library increased from 2008 to 2009 and this may be due to the availability of more e-books taking the pressure off the print copies.

The results of the surveys will be used to develop the e-books market to help make sure that staff and students can get access to the books they need either in print or electronic format.

For further information on the JISC national e-books observatory project please see www.jiscebooksproject.org

Business as usual

Semester time opening starts again today:

• Monday - Thursday: 8.30 - 21.00
• Friday: 8.30 - 19.00
• Saturday/Sunday: 10.00 - 17.00

The Library Enquiry Desk closes 10 minutes before the Library building.