Author Archives: Frank Parry

The Final Countdown … E-journals in 2010

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The results are in. All around the campus the air is thick with anticipation. Yes, it’s that time of year when we can reveal which top ten e-journals you have voted the most popular in 2010!

In tenth spot, muscling in with 5,654 downloads is the magnificently named Joe Weider’s Muscle & Fitness

Those cool cats in the School of Business and Economics will rejoice to see the Journal of Economic Literature at number 9 with 5,689.

At number 8, the International Journal of Project Management is no slouch at 6,112 downloads.

The Journal of Sports Sciences at number 7 with 6,773 downloads is showing that Sports Science is racing ahead in the field.

In at number 6 with 7,018 downloads to it’s name is the Journal of Applied Physiology

At the half way mark with 7,313 is another strong showing for Sports Science, the Journal of Sport Behavior

The physicians have promised me that there has been no doctoring of the results with the British Medical Journal in fourth place garnering 8,724 downloads.

The physicians must have teamed up with Sports Science to produce 8,794 for Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in third place.

And on the medical theme again, in second place with 9,277 is the American Journal of Public Health.

Way out in front, though, the 2010 winner is … drum roll … Sports Illustrated with 13,985 downloads.

Congratulations to all who made 2010 a record breaking year. Remember! If you want to influence next year’s results, log on to MetaLib and start downloading now!

 

Surviving exams – new YouTube videos from the Library Ambassadors

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You don’t need an eye test to tell you that the Library is busy at exam times! But never mind, help is at hand. Before Christmas the Library Ambassadors asked your views on how you coped with exams.  Following your comments they have created three videos promoting alternative study spaces, how to book rooms in the Library and Finding Information.  They are available on YouTube, so why not check them out and leave a comment. Leave that trip to the optician for another day!

Photo courtesy of  SOCIALisBETTER from Flickr reproduced under Creative Commons licence.

Handy hints for surviving exams

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exam hints 

Do you need a place to study, some handy tips to survive exam time blues, or some last minute Know How help on revision, minimising stress or time management? Well, the Library has created a web page to help you survive the exam  period. Take a break and take a look – in the words of a well known retailer “every little helps.”

The Library has also set up a display in Open 3 where you can leave your revision and exam skills hints and tips – so why not share your survival tips? Here’s just a few to get you going:

“Keep sipping water during the exam – it keeps your memory working!!”

and staying on the healthy mind, healthy body theme, “Eat fruit and pasta!”

“Make mind maps”

This one is either a personal message or the scribe has been watching Star Wars … “Keep going Luke”

“Sleep is important”

and one from the heart “Stay positive”

Happy birthday X-ray – 115 years old today!

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X-Ray Spex - probably not what Wilhelm Röntgen had in mind 115 years ago

115 years ago Wilhem Röntgen discovered X-rays when he photographed his wife’s hand on a photographic plate after experimenting with vacuum tube equipment. Poor Anna Röntgen was said to be so distraught at seeing the skeletal image that she imagined she had seen her own death! Nonetheless, the discovery was to prove pivotal in the history of twentieth century science and Röntgen was a recipient of the Nobel Prize for his work. It was Röntgen who named the process X-ray and steadfastly refused to let people call them Röntgen rays.

Today, we mainly associate X-ray with medical investigation, but it has other uses including airport and border security, microscopic analysis and astronomy. The term X-ray has entered the language in a big way. How often to you hear the phrase “He’s got X-ray eyes” for someone who is clear-sighted or clever? It was also the name of a 1970s punk band, X-ray Spex (see image above) but that’s another story!

The Library has several books on the life of Wilhelm Röntgen and many on the subject of X-rays. You can also check out the Inspec database for the many journal articles on the subject.

Image courtsey Affendaddy used under

RefWorks Training in October and November

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Use RefWorks to reference these! †

RefWorks is one of the most popular bibliographic tools and in October and November there are several training sessions run by the Library and Webinars from RefWorks staff to help you get the best out of this service.

On Thursday 21st October and Wednesday 10th November at 1 to 1.50 in Training Room 1 and 2 of the Library there is our popular RefWorks – Getting Started course for absolute beginners. Here, you will learn how to store and sort your references and create bibliographies using Refworks. This introductory course includes time for hands-on practice. No need to book, just turn up!

On the 16th of November between 9.30 and 12 the Library is running a  workshop for research postgraduates wishing to develop or refresh their knowledge of RefWorks. It will particularly benefit those who are just starting their PhD or those who realise that their previous reference management systems are becoming unmanageable. In this instance you will need to book using the Staff Development booking system.

Can’t make these sessions? RefWorks offer a series of recorded and live training sessions.

Here is the schedule of live sessions for November from RefWorks staff:

RefWorks Fundamentals

Thursday, November 4, 2010

2:00 pm  

https://refworks.webex.com/refworks/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=713975645

RefWorks in 15 Minutes

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

7:00 pm 

https://refworks.webex.com/refworks/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=719289252

† Photo courtesy of  See-ming Lee used under  license.

Follow us on Twitter

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The Library has a Twitter acount and has been merrily tweeting for some time now. With 130 followers we think we are doing alright, but of course we could do better! That is where the Follow a Library initiative comes in. On Friday 1st October we would like you to tweet your favourite Library – hopefully us! – with the hashtag #followalibrary.

Happy tweeting … and remember, check out our tweets on a regular basis for news on the move!

Twitter image courtesy of  szlea  under  licence.

Good news for users of Web of Knowledge and RefWorks.

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Web of Knowledge is one of the biggest providers of research information to the academic world. The service, which includes the Science, Social Science and Arts and Humanities Citation Indexes, is now much easier to use thanks to the new facility of downloading results directly to the University’s bibliographic management system, RefWorks.

All you need to do to make sure you never lose the results of your search is to open your RefWorks account in one window, Web of Knowledge in another and temporarily allow pop-ups. Type out your search and save your results into RefWorks using the RefWorks tab. Go to MetaLib to find Web of Knowledge and to the Library’s RefWorks page for your RefWorks account and more information about RefWorks and Citation. Simples!

More Nature

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Nature

More Nature online

The Library has recently extended access to the electronic archive of Nature, probably one of the most well-known and highly regarded peer-reviewed scientific and technological journals in the world. The new purchase means that readers will be able to peruse all the issues of Nature from 1950 to 1996 and the current five years online. And it doesn’t stop there. The excellent search engine on the Nature web site means that you can easily find articles published since the first issue in 1869 and read them in print or microfilm!

Try it out today! Click on the above link or find the journal on MetaLib. Off campus access available using Athens username and password or by logging in to the Remote Working Portal.

You want it .. have we got it?

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It’s the age old question, you spend time diligently searching for information but are not sure if what you find is “in the Library”. An easy way to check is to use the SFX symbol which will check the item you require against a list of the Library’s holdings. It might appear in MetaLib as  or  or in Google Scholar as just text at the end of the references. In fact, you will find it in many other databases and we hope that by using it we can make the searching and locating process just that little bit easier.

Is this news? It is when we can proudly record that a major database publisher now supports SFX. EBSCOHost is a platform for the EconLit, Inspec (physics, electronics, computing), Business Source Complete, Library Information Science and Technology Abstracts, Medline and SportDiscus databases. At the click of a mouse, these databases will now become even more user-friendly and accessible.

Oh, and before you ask, SFX doesn’t mean special effects or the sports management company of the same name. We are not sure if it means anything, but we are sure glad it’s there!

If you would like to find out more about searching for and retrieving information, why not have a chat with your Academic Librarian?

Use this field to search for Creative Commons licensed content photo courtesy of  Horia Varlan

It’s Only Librarianship (But I Like it)

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Keith ponders a career change while searching for the lost chord

Stranger things have happened, but for the moment I cannot think of one. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune reports that Keith Richards had a hankering for the arcane world of librarianship. Apparently, at one point Richards thought about taking a librarianship course on the Dewey Decimal System to help him organise his collection of rare books on rock and military history of the Second World War. It must have been a fleeting thought, however, since he didn’t pursue the matter and the world is safe for a few more years yet to enjoy the music of this grizzled elder statesman of rock.

But as I read the article I thought for a while about the image of the librarian in the eyes of the world. In a related article, the Guardian talks about “geeky men with acne and prematurely aged women in spectacles”. Geeky? Acne? Oh dear, I thought I was cooler than that! (I own up to the spectacles bit).

Then I went to Martin Raish’s Librarians in the Movies filmography and was considerably cheered up by the mention of Peter Sellers’ lecherous turn in Only Two Can Play! This is probably a one-off, however. Somehow I do not think that the abiding image of a librarian is likely to be that of the brilliant Rolling Stones lead guitarist either. I could tell you to explore the matter in more detail by checking out references to librarians in our index and abstract database, Library and Information Science Abstracts, or in the regular Media Watch column in the librarians journal Library and Information Update. But that would be, in the words of the Guardian, a bit ‘nerdy’ wouldn’t it? Sex and drugs and librarianship? I don’t think so!

Use this field to search for Creative Commons licensed content photograph courtesy of  Dina Regine.