Category Archives: Academic Services Team

Top Tips for PhD Supervisors

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Uncertain of where or who to turn to when posed a tricky question by an uncertain PhD student? Look no further than the Library and these invaluable resources!

  • First and foremost: Academic Librarians. They can provide advice on key resources, keeping up-to-date, reference management software and generally about the services the Library offers researchers. They also provide the training sessions for the PhD students. Advise that they make an appointment their Academic Librarian and ideally give them their name and contact details.
  • Electronic resources. The library spends over £2million each year on information to support research. Suggest specific named databases in their area of research, and advise them on the route to find them. If you are unsure about the most appropriate databases, then you can browse through the subject categories on the ‘Select databases’ section of  Library Catalogue Plus to see to which databases the Library currently subscribes. Don’t forget that students towards the beginning of their PhD might also struggle with keywords or key authors to research and often greatly appreciate some advice in this area too.
  • Use of Library catalogues to find local resources. Suggest they visit the University Library and/or search the Library catalogue for background reading. Recommend any other local universities which are expert in the field and will have appropriately useful library collections. Online searching of COPAC (the database that contains details of the collections of all of the major research libraries in the UK) could be useful here. Researchers can also borrow books from many of these libraries, through the SCONUL Access scheme.
  • Key journals. Advise on key journal titles in the field. The Journal Citation Reports and Scimago provides details of subject rankings for journals.
  • Training courses. Recommend attendance at the PGR workshops offered by the Library, in conjunction with the Graduate School, to increase their confidence in finding resources for their literature review as well as developing other key information handling skills.
  • Managing information. Encourage them to use Refworks to store their references as they find information.  If a PhD student develops good practice in managing their references at an early stage in their PhD, it will help them all the way through their research.

To find out even more, why not come along to a training session we’re running on Monday 13th May between 11AM-12PM? You can book yourself a place via this link:

http://pdwww.lboro.ac.uk/eventdetails_single.php?cid=2759

Essays? Dissertations? Projects? Need Help?

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Suffering from Dissertation Distress? Or Project Pangs? Maybe even an Essay ‘Eadache? Well, you don’t have to travel far for a cure! The Academic Librarians at Loughborough University are here to help you be successful in your studies.

With that in mind we’ve put together a helpful little page explaining how to get the best out of us, including contact details for the Academic Librarian responsible for your Department/subject matter, links to helpful online resources such as the Academic Practice module on Learn, and other sundry helpful hints & tips.

You can find the page here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/support/

Go on – drop us a line!

Feeling Stressed? Get Aware!

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Today is National Stress Awareness Day, and while term only started just over a month ago, it’s never too early for this particular bug to strike – even at the best of times!

Fortunately the University is well equipped to help students deal with the strains of a busy academic life. The University Counselling Service offers a broad range of services ranging from one-to-one meetings with their helpful staff of fully trained counsellors, to online self-help resources and workshops tackling a variety of issues and topics including homesickness and meditation.

We try to do our bit in the Library too! We’ve prepared our own advice sheet offering helpful tips on how to minimise stress, and one of our Academic Practice modules, ‘Getting Organised’ is tailored towards helping you avoid stress by improving your study style.

And just as the old saying used to go “if you want to know the time, ask a policeman”, in the Library, if you’re getting stressed about finding information for your coursework, don’t panic - “ask an Academic Librarian!” They’re all specialists in the knowledge areas for your particular Schools, are very friendly and just love being asked questions!

Image by bottled_void, reproduced under CC License from Flickr.

Reasons to be Cheerful!

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Today is World Smile Day, so what better time to remind people of our happy, smiling team of Academic Librarians?

They’re available to assist all University staff and students to find and use information resources effectively, develop library collections to meet your needs and to be your contact point for any information related enquiry.  They have all developed expertise in the subject areas of their Schools and are very happy to help!

Not sure which one to turn to? Visit the Academic Librarians page here for their contact details:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/contact/academiclibrarians/

World Smile Day was founded in 1999 by commercial artist Harvey Ball, best known for inventing the famous ‘Yellow Smiley Face’ in 1963. He came to consider that his creation was becoming too commercial and losing its real meaning, and so organised an annual celebration to recognise that a smile knows no religion or politics and that we should all help spread a little happiness by performing some small act of kindness and putting a smile on someone’s face. Our Academic Librarians are certainly experts at that :)

Get to know the library– kick start your University studies

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 Want to get a 2.1? WStop signell, research shows the best students are ones that actively seek and read the latest information.

Come to one of the library’s Academic Skills workshops on Getting to know the library. We’ll show you how the system works. The best, most efficient way to find information and books, together with a short tour round the library.

 

Why not drop into one of the workshops in Library Training Room 1 on:-

  • Tuesday 2nd October 12-12.50pm
  • Thursday 4th October 1-1.50pm
  • Tuesday 9th October 12-12.50pm
  • Friday 12th October 1-1.50pm

Book a place on the Get the Know-How module on Learn LBAOO1

Library colleagues collaborate on new book

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Ruth Stubbings (Head of Academic Services) and Dr Graham Walton (Head of Planning and Resources) at Loughborough University Library have collaborated with Roisin Gwyer from Portsmouth University to jointly edit a new book. It has been published in July 2012 and is entitled ‘Road to information literacy: librarians as facilitators of learning’.  Included in the book are papers from across the world which have been presented at an international conference in Finland.

Essays? Dissertations? Projects? Need Help?

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Suffering from Dissertation Distress? Or Project Pangs? Maybe even an Essay ‘Eadache? Well, you don’t have to travel far for a cure! The Academic Librarians at Loughborough University are here to help you be successful in your studies.

With that in mind we’ve put together a helpful little page explaining how to get the best out of us, including contact details for the Academic Librarian responsible for your Department/subject matter, links to helpful online resources such as the Academic Practice module on Learn, and other sundry helpful hints & tips.

You can find the page here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/library/support/

Go on – drop us a line!

Its official! Librarians make a significant contribution to R&D

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A piece of research done by the publishing giant, Elsevier, has shown that “among researchers who work with librarians, 90% believe librarians make significant contributions to their R&D efforts.”  The sorts of activities they value include:

  • Locating specialized information researchers have difficulty finding 59%
  • Organising a firm’s internal documents for use by researchers 53%
  • Connecting researchers with the correct/most applicable resources 45%
  • Suggesting print resources not available electronically 42%
  • Saving significant search time for researchers, making them more productive 42%

Read the full report for yourself and talk to your Academic Librarian today about how they can make a significant contribution to your research!

Loughborough Research Conference 2012

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A reminder that today the Sir Denis Roke Building is hosting this year’s Loughborough University Research Conference under the banner ‘Research That Matters’.

The Conference represents an opportunity for researchers to showcase and share their research as well as offering a chance to build collaborations and networks. This event is for all researchers across campus, including Academic Staff, Research Staff and Postgraduate Students.

As well as top key-note speeches and presentations, the Conference includes an exhibition and poster and photographic competitions. The Library will be represented by Academic Librarians from our Academic Services Team, who will be promoting their role in assisting with research  and the benefits of a good information MOT.

For further details and a programme event of the conference visit the website here. And to find out more about the Library can help your research, visit our Research Support page.

Are you up to speed with research data management?

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All the UK Research Councils – as well as other funders – are now asking researchers to provide evidence of the ways they intend to manage and protect the research data they generate.  If this leaves you cold, you may welcome the warm support of MANTRA an online course aimed at PhD students and others who are planning a research project using digital data.  You may also find the information on the Library’s Research Support web pages useful.

Good luck!