Author Archives: Lee Snook

About Lee Snook

Library Liaison Team

London Low Life – new online resource

LLL

The University now has access to the London Low Life. This full-text searchable resource, contains colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London.

Take a look at the short introductory video to get a flavour of this fascinating resource

London Low Life brings to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, inviting students and scholars to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century’s greatest city.

From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature.

Topics covered include:

  • The underworld
  • Slang
  • Working-class culture
  • Street literature
  • Popular music
  • Urban topography
  • ‘Slumming’
  • Prostitution
  • The Temperance Movement
  • Social reform
  • Toynbee Hall
  • Police and criminality

This is also an incredible visual resource for students and scholars of London, with many full colour maps, cartoons, sketches and a full set of the essential Tallis’ Street Views of London – a unique resource for the study of London architecture and commerce.

This interactive mapping enables users to overlay Victorian cartography over a modern, searchable base map and:

  • Visualise core data about Victorian London, including the boundaries of local government, population size, density and growth, crime and poverty data
  • Locate and read about key institutions: workhouses, orphanages, asylums, prisons, religious missions, etc
  • Walk’ through London’s main streets with 3D versions of the Tallis Street Views

 

ESDU – New Engineering Resource

esduESDU is an engineering knowledge base which provides validated design methods, data and software tools to help solve complex engineering problems. It covers a wide range of engineering disciplines, including Aerospace, Automotive, Mechanical, Structural and Process Engineering.

Note that you will need to accept the Academic Terms & Conditions each time you log in to the EDSU service.

The University of Exeter has access to the full ESDU packages which encompasses:

Online guidance is available to help you get started.

 

JSTOR Text Analyzer

JSTOR Labs have introduced a beta research search tool that is worth exploring.  You can upload or drag and drop a file into the search box and the Analyzer tool will analyze the keywords and then produce a list of JSTOR items that match those keywords.  You can even use your phone to photograph some text and upload that for analysis!.  This service is not perfect but you can improve its use as a bibliographic research tool by adding additional keywords, and ranking their importance.

You need a fairly significant piece of text to benefit from this tool, but you can drop in all sorts of files such as an assignment, work based report or journal article you are working on.  You will get mismatches and it will work better with some searches than other, but if you are struggling to retrieve content from your usual search strategies, why not see if this helps.

The University of Exeter has extensive subscriptions to the journal and book content on JSTOR, so not only will you get a list of results, you’ll be able to examine the full text of your matching documents in the majority of cases.

Find out more about this tool from JSTOR and read the announcement blog which outlines some search scenarios that the developers hope this research tool can assist with.  Alex Humphreys from JSTOR says

Thinking only of keyword search within an academic context: junior researchers sometimes flail and thrash as they figure out the right keywords for their search – they know what they want, but what set of jargon-y terms will help them find it? At the other end of the spectrum, more experienced researchers can find themselves caught in discipline- or citation-based siloes, unaware of what they are unaware of (until the peer review feedback comes in…). I think JSTOR Labs might have something to help with these problems.

I gave it a trial by uploading a recent Powerpoint file we used with law undergraduates during a session on planning and conducting legal research for dissertations and it did a pretty good job of extracting key concepts from the document and  finding related content.  I added some phrases to the prioritized terms and played with the weightings until I got the most useful sets of search results for my needs.  So, if you are going to explore, I recommend you use the tools to add and adjust the importance of your search terms.

analyzer

This tool is in beta and the developers are keen to develop it, based on feedback from users so try it out and pass on any feedback to the 

 

Aerial Digimap

digimap

The University now has access to Aerial Digimap a new collection from the Digimap suite of GIS services.

The aerial imagery data in the service is 25cm resolution vertical aerial imagery supplied by Getmapping PLC, and is the most detailed aerial imagery available for the whole of Great Britain.

You can access all the Digimap services available to you via the University of Exeter subscriptions through the Maps section of the Electronic library. You will need to register before using the Digimap services, by completing a short online registration form.

Aerial Digimap offers mapping and downloading facilities:

Aerial Roam offers the ability to view, annotate and print the aerial photographs as well as an overlay function to allow comparison with current Ordnance Survey mapping.

Aerial Download offers the ability to select specific locations for which to download the aerial photography for use in local desktop software

For an introduction to this service, take a look at the preview demonstration on Digimap’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/rAiO4XXRD5Q.  Online help is also available.

Need help to find library resources? Book a 1:1 Library consultation

If you are struggling to make the best use of the library and information resources you can call on the Library Liaison Team for help.

If you are researching for an assignment or dissertation and don’t know where to start, then get in touch for some specialist advice.  We can help guide you to the most relevant resources for your research topic, and also help you build your online search skills so you can track down relevant information quickly and effectively.  You can then spend more time analysing and reviewing the materials in order to inform your assessed work.

Many students take advantage of a 1:1 Library session around dissertation time, when designing their research strategy.  However, you can get in touch at anytime – so don’t struggle away alone.  If you are not finding the information you need, just get in touch and we can set you off on the right track.

A huge amount of information is available to you via the Library and we want to help you make the most effective use of it.

Get in touch with us via .  Just suggest a time you are available for an appointment and let us know how we can help,  and we will book you in with one of the team. We can meet you at the Forum Library or the St Luke’s Library, whichever is more convenient for you.

And don’t forget that we have online support material available to you 24/7 via the Library and Research Skills module in ELE.

 

Liaison Faces Oct 2016

Focus on Business Resources

2_goi_3_goi_searchonlineA wide range of online resources are available to support study and research across all Business School disciplines.  This blog posts highlights some of the key resources that you may wish to explore, with forthcoming assignments and dissertations in mind.  Many more resources are available!

Electronic Library

Use the subject listing to explore resources relevant to Accountancy,  Business, Economics, Finance, and Management. Each resource in the listing has a brief description of the database content and coverage and this will help you identify resources which align with your research needs. If you need some more guidance, don’t forget that you have a comprehensive ELE module covering Library & Information Skills for the Business School.  This will guide you to recommended resources for the various Business School disciplines.

Library Catalogue

And don’t forget that a huge collection of books and journals, in print and electronic format, are accessible via the library catalogue.  This includes content from the Sustainable Organization Library collection, and major business information publishers such as Springer, Emerald, Sage and Palgrave, to name just a few!  Run a title or keyword search on the library catalogue to find relevant titles.

Library Article Search

You can also use the Library Article Search function to discover articles and dissertations on business related topics and jump straight into the full text.  This is a useful starting point for research for your assignments and dissertations and will help you decide which databases and resources to explore through more focused searching.

Online Search Skills Guidance

If you need guidance on effective online search skills, take a look at the Library & Research Skills module.  There you will find in depth support on identifying, working with and evaluating relevant information resources, plus hints and tips to help you design effective online search strategies.  Taking some time to enhance your search skills and techniques will pay dividends in the long run by equipping you to search and retrieve relevant information in the most time efficient manner.

Key online resources

For news and comment

Economist – Full text access to The Economist (including illustrations) from 1991 onwards. For earlier content use the Economist Historical Archive which offers a fully searchable complete facsimile edition of The Economist since its launch in 1843

FT.com – Full text in depth coverage from the Financial Times of UK and international business, finance, economic and political news, from 2004 onwards. Earlier content is available via the Financial Times Historical Archive

Nexis UK – Full text of news and business information from around the world. Includes UK national and regional newspapers, major newspapers and newswires  from around the world.

Factiva – A full text comprehensive news database from Dow Jones and Reuters. Major world newspapers and business magazines are included, plus TV and radio transcripts

Online Support – Using News Resources for Research

If you are new to using news resources for research, take a look at the Using News Resources for Research online guide.  This will introduce you to the full range of news content available to you at the university and provide search guidance on the key services, highlighted above.

For journal articles

Business Source Complete – a business research database that provides selected full text for over 3,300 journals and is updated daily. It also provides financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses, faculty seminars (videos), and more. Subjects covered include: accounting, economics, finance, marketing and management.

ProQuest Business Package – a combined business and social sciences research collection. It offers full text and bibliographic details for thousands of journals, dissertations, conference proceedings, working papers, trade publications, industry reports and much more. Subject coverage includes; accounting,banking, business, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, management, marketing, operations and political science.

EconLIT – the American Economic Association’s electronic database and the world’s foremost source of references to economic literature. The database contains more than 1.1 million records from 1886-present.

Emerald Insight – full text ebooks and journals covering business and management topics, published by the Emerald Group.  Use the “Only content I have access to” feature if you wish to limit your searching to full text content only.

For Company Information & Accounts

Fame – information for companies in the UK and Ireland. The database contains information on 3.8 million companies, 2.8 million of which are in detailed format. The database also contains information on 4 million inactive companies available for historical research.

Orbis – standardised global company and financial information. Orbis is a global database which has information on 171,235,666 companies. Orbis includes advanced search and analysis software so you can identify and evaluate companies around the world.

Zephyr – Zephyr is a comprehensive database for corporate finance research. It contains information on M&A (mergers and acquisitions), IPO (initial public offerings), private equity and venture capital deals and rumours – and now it’s updated hourly. It is linked to the FAME database.

PI Navigator – A financial and capital markets database providing access to over 14 million global company filings including annual reports, M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), IPOs (Initial Public Offerings), bond prospectuses and news announcements. This is a particularly useful resource for accountancy students who might be looking at individual company accounts and want to read notes/find explanations for ‘oddities’, rather than just ‘crunching data’.

For Market Research

MarketLine Advantage – A market research database offering access to a unique mix of company, industry, financial and country business data, for every major marketplace in the world. It includes extensive global coverage of industries with 4000 industry profiles and 30,000+ companies within 215 countries.

Key Note – the leading provider of market intelligence in the UK, on the UK, to the UK and has been providing commercially relevant market insight and analysis to the business and academic world for 35 years.  However, note that reports updating ceased in May 2016 so these reports will diminish in relevance and use over time

Passport GMID –  from Euromonitor this resource has global industry data, market research and country reports. It also has detailed company profiles for the top international players in services and industry, compiled in a standardised format for cross analysis. It supports a wide range of courses, including international business and marketing, economics, social sciences, humanities, international relations, travel and tourism, hospitality management and food marketing. Over 205 countries are researched, both developed and emerging markets. 

For Research Methodology

SAGE Research Methods – an online research methods library with over 1000 full text books, journal articles, reference works and instructional videos covering qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Need More Help?

Liaison Faces Oct 2016

If you have any questions relating to to making the best use of Business research resources, just get in touch with the Liaison Team.

We can provide support by email, phone or in person.

1:1 appointments are available if you wish to come in and discuss your business research in detail.

Just email the team to book a session.

 

 

 

Making best use of book budgets – rent before you buy!

rent5 For a number of years, we have used patron driven acquisition schemes for some of our ebook content.  This means that large collections of ebooks are discoverable via our library catalogue, but items are only purchased when they are actually accessed by our library users.

We analysed usage of these materials and found that a proportion of these books were only used by a single user.

We wanted much better value for money than that!

So this year we are trialling a rental scheme with our VLE books – one of our major ebook suppliers.  This means that the first few people that use the ebook do so on a rental basis, at a fraction of the full purchase cost.

A quick Preview is possible for all books in this scheme – without triggering a rental or purchase – as shown below:

rent1

After a quick preview has been made, users will be asked to Request Access.  You’ll need to make a few click drop down selections to submit your request, for example:

rent2

Then you’ll get an Alert and email confirmation to let you know the item has been rented for you for one week.

 

rent3

Don’t worry, you can still access the book after your one week rental is up, it’ll just trigger another rental or purchase.  Following several rentals the book will be fully purchased at next use.

Once a rental or purchase has been made, you’ll then get full access to the book as shown below:

rent4

If you are a member of staff and are planning to use one of these books in your teaching, just let us know and we can bypass the rental process and trigger an outright purchase.  In bypassing the rental process, for books that we know will be subject to repeated use, we can minimise the ‘clicks for access’ for everyone and avoid both renting and buying the item!

We welcome your feedback on this new model of ebook purchasing.  It is aimed at making the budget go further by facilitating access to a wide range of ebooks, whilst only securing long term access to items that are subject to repeated use.

Get in touch with the for more information or to pass on your feedback.

Document Delivery Service – Price Increase

The University Library offers a Document Supply (Inter-Library Loan) service which provides access to material not held within Exeter University whilst also supplying material from its own stock to other libraries.

A wide variety of electronic and printed material can be obtained from the British Library and some printed materials can be borrowed from other Libraries within the UK and overseas, including:

• Books, including individual chapters
• Journal articles
• Conference papers

The British Library have increased their prices for this service and this necessitates an increase in our Library Document Delivery Service pricing in order to ensure the viability of the service.

From 1st January 2017 the cost of using the Library Document Supply Service will rise to £14:00 per request.  The current charge is £13.50 so this is an increase of 50p per request.

Postage and supply costs for international document supply, where items need to be sourced from outside of the UK, have also been rising.    The Library will continue to make a standard charge of 3 tokens for all non UK requests in order to meet these higher costs, which will equate to £42 at new January 2017 pricing level.

We will be continuing to supply tokens to colleges via the usual route.  You can request up to 100 tokens at a time by emailing .  This is managed through a journal transfer process – no need to raise an invoice!

The arrangements in place to support document delivery to the College of Humanities and College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences staff and students will also continue, although requests will be billed at the increased £14 per request from 1st January 2017.

If any College budget holders would like statistics on annual requests per College in order to aid with budget forecasting for 2016/17 ILL expenditure, please email and we will be happy to supply this information.

Library Study Space – new for September 2016

Over the summer, the Forum Library has benefited from refurbishment, improving ventilation to the Law Library and adding 97 new study seats by remodelling existing spaces across the 3 floors.

A variety of new seating options are available, including 13 new bookable group study areas near the Law Library.

We’ve added a few illustrative pictures below, to give you a flavour of the refurbished space, but come along and explore the new spaces for yourself!

Picture1

You’ll find remodelled space on the Level 0 entrance level and on the balcony space on Level +1. A range of seating layouts and services are provided, to suit different study needs.

More furniture is arriving to provide even more seating capacity in these areas in the first few weeks of term.

 

pic3

We have added an extra seating area on Level -1, providing an additional 25 seats for individual study.  You’ll find them outside the Group Workroom.

If you need to get your head down for some individual study then these will be ideal study spaces.

Picture2

The study area adjacent to the Law Library and Library courtyard has been remodelled and offers 13 new bookable group study areas.  A few finishing touches are taking place in this area over Freshers Week and Weeks One & Two.

You’ll be able to book these online via the Student Room Booking service towards the end of Week Two.