Author Archives: pcovery

What do you think about the EU Referendum?

The Polish Society, Diplomatic Hub, Exeter branch of the European Movement and Students4Europe are organising a one-day conference focused on the shape of the European Union following the UK referendum.

“Boundaries of Europe” will be held on Saturday, 12th March from 11 to 3.30 in the Alumni Auditorium in the Forum

Regardless of which side you support in the argument about Brexit make sure you come along for what is going to be a very comprehensive event. It’s open to students and local residents.

If you want a bit more background have a look at our guide to Researching EU law and policy

 

Financial Times online

Do you read the Financial Times?

Even if you’re not studying Business you will find a lot to interest you and support your studies in the online version, FT.com. This is available to all members of Exeter University via the Electronic Library – listed under resource type Newspapers as Financial Times (FT.com) or via the library catalogue.

You don’t need a separate login – just sign in with your Exeter username and password and set up a free account using your Exeter email address and your own password. If you have problems getting into the online version use either of the links above to get back into contact.

FT.com has all the articles and other information published in the print version since 2004, but it also has a lot more content which can be found on the toolbar under the Financial Times header. Videos are produced daily on news topics in business and politics; Special reports include other topics like the recent report on Combating rare diseases; the In depth section is a useful way of tracking recent subjects of major interest, like the refugee crisis in Europe.

You can read the FT online via your PC, laptop and most mobile devices. For more details see the section on FT.com in our ELE Business module.

Researching theses

Theses are a valuable source of research but they can be hard to track down. Most collections only include doctoral theses or dissertations so if you are looking for a master’s dissertation you may have to try contacting the author or the institution where they studied.

The most useful online source is ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, available via the Electronic Library. It is made up of two databases:

  • The UK and Ireland collection provides bibliographic information for all theses accepted for higher degrees by the universities of the UK and Ireland from 1716 onwards. Abstracts are also available for theses awarded since1970. Many of  the records include a full text link to a university digital repository, Ethos (the British Library’s thesis department) and/or a pointer page to the relevant university department. All records display the name of the awarding university.
  • The Global collection has dissertations and theses from around the world, from 1743 to the present day and has the full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997.

For full information and links, please visit the Electronic Library (subject resource Theses) or search on the catalogue.

As most universities around the world have now set up online archives, or repositories, for their research it is also worth trying specialist search engines to find theses online.

Probably the best of these is BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine). This allows you to search in a collection of 70 million documents in most world languages. Use the Advanced Search option to limit your search by languages, author, date, document type, etc.

Oxford Dictionaries

Oxford University Press publishes a wide range of dictionaries and other reference resources, many of which can be accessed via the library catalogue and the Electronic Library.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED Online) is the major source of scholarship on words and sources in the English language.

Oxford Dictionaries is a new service which brings together the prestigious language dictionaries published by Oxford University Press. We subscribe to a number of bilingual dictionaries: French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. You can search language dictionaries via the search bar at the top of every page, or discover quizzes, blog posts, and grammar help for each language by using the selector in the top right hand side of the page. Create a free account and receive a Word of the Day and newsletter.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the online version of the major reference work for information about people from British history and culture.

To find out what resources are available for other subjects look at Oxford Reference.

 

Financial Times online

The Financial Times is a major source of information, not only for business students but also for a wide range of other subject areas.

All Exeter University staff and students have access to the online version, FT.com. The FT publishes in depth coverage of UK and international business, finance, economic and political news. It also contains comment and analysis from leading journalists and insight into management trends and new developments. It contains the full content of all information published in the Financial Times since 2004. If you want to research earlier years, use The Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2007, a complete searchable facsimile of the printed edition.

Getting started
Go to the Electronic Library and select Law or Business under subject or Newspapers under resource type and find FT.com in the A-Z listing. Log in with your University of Exeter username and password

The first time you use FT.Com you will need to Register.

  • Click on Sign up
  • Enter your University email address and select the option “No, I am a new user. “
  • Click on Continue.

Fill in the form on the next screen and tick the box to agree to the terms and conditions, then click on Continue.

  • You will get a confirmation that you have successfully registered.
  • Click on Browse FT.com to go back to the search screen

You will need to sign in with your email address and the password you have just created whenever you use FT.com. If you use the link from the Electronic Library or the library catalogue you will have direct access. You can set up shortcuts but if these stop working try clearing cookies.

Searching and browsing
You can search for articles by using the box in the top right of the home page or browse the latest news in UK and international business from the different categories displayed on the banners at the top of the screen. Run your mouse over a heading to browse different sectors, geographies and companies. Some of the most important sections are listed below:

Companies
Coverage includes performance of individual companies, their management teams, shareholders and financial plans.

Markets
The FT provides global news coverage of the financial markets covering equities (by region), currencies, capital markets and commodities. Commentary and analysis is delivered throughout the day.

Lex is a premium daily commentary service from the Financial Times. It includes blogs and videos.

Special Reports
The Financial Times produces over 20 special reports each month, reporting on the issues, trends and events affecting different countries and industries.

FT epaper is an exact digital replica of the printed newspaper – available from 6am London time in 5 separate editions: UK, Europe, USA, Asia and Middle East. You can also use the archive versions to search across previous editions.

Portfolio
Keep track of the performance of your investments, or companies you’re interested in, by using the FT.com portfolio tool. It’s a good way of graphically showing relevant news stories and how they relate to the companies or investments you’re monitoring. You can also chart portfolio holdings against different benchmarks and create alerts. 

Press cuttings
Subscribers often want to be informed about news articles when they appear in the FT newspaper. With FT Press Cuttings, you can search and view pdfs of news articles as they appeared in the FT newspaper. You can also set up alerts and send links or full text articles to colleagues or clients. To find articles from the print edition go to Search print editions and select Advanced search to find a specific article.

Tools Go to the Tools menu to set up clippings lists or to register for briefings or alerts

Videos The FT also produces a wide range of videos to bring the news to life. These are also available on the Financial Times YouTube channel.

Mobile Access to FT.com
You can access FT news and analysis on your mobile phone or tablet device. Get the FT app for the iPad and iPhone  via your browser rather than from an app store.

Help and Guidance Guides and videos are available to help you make the most of FT.com, including:

or you can contact the FT.com direct via their email:

Henry Stewart Talks

Henry Stewart Talks

Henry Stewart Talks publish audio visual presentations by leading world experts – advanced content in a user friendly format. Subjects covered include biomedicine, life sciences, management, marketing, finance, advertising and many more topics.

The Business & Management Collection  includes over 850 talks from recognised experts around the world. New lectures and business case studies are constantly updated. The latest additions include a range of studies on consultancy.

The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection currently contains more than 1,500 talks.

All University of Exeter members have full access to both collections and will have automatic access on-campus. For off-campus access you should check the details on the Electronic Library (resource type Audio-visual resources) and enter the username and password given.

Book donations

We regret that the Library is no longer able to accept donations of textbooks from students.

If you would like your books to go to a good home these options are worth considering:

• Submit a book to the online second-hand book shop run by The Guild

• Donate your books to the charity Book Cycle located near Exe Bridges at 7 West Street, Exeter, Devon, EX1 1BB. Contact by   or telephone 01392 420 021

• Donate the books to the Hospiscare Book Shop located at 84 South Street, Exeter, Devon, EX1 1EQ

 

Welcome to new international students

If you have only just started studying at Exeter you may find student life different from your home country and may need advice on doing research, writing essays or presentations.

The Library provides a lot of help for international students –  look at the International student services part of the Library website or just come and ask! During Welcome Week and at the beginning of term tours of the library are organised for groups of students so you can find out where things are. These are led by library staff and give you the opportunity to ask questions.

You can always ask your teachers in the University for help but don’t forget that staff in the Library and study skills advisers can also help you – either in person or through ELE, the Exeter Learning Environment.  Look under Library or Student Resources on the blue tab at the top of every screen to find the help pages we have put together.

Choose Library and Study Skills if you want to find out how to use the library and electronic resources – there are a lot of demos to show you how to use the catalogue and databases.

 

Want to become employable?

If you have just finished your exams you may have started looking for or applying for jobs. While the Career Zone should be your first port of call, it is worth remembering that the library can help too.

When you start applying for jobs in business it is important to find out as much as you can, then if you are lucky enough to get an interview you will know what sort of questions you may be asked and what you could ask them. The Electronic Library has a number of databases which can give you news and updates, as well as detailed company information. Have a look at the guide to Researching companies to find out more.  

If you want advice on subjects like writing a CV or preparing for interviews have a look at BookBoon’s free site on Careers.  As well as short blogs with practical advice this site also includes short books, which can be downloaded free – you just need to register with your name and email.

Don’t forget to use the help provided by employability offices in your Colleges, like Social Sciences and International Studies and the Business School.

Having trouble with referencing your essays?

Many students are unfamiliar with the conventions used to put in references in their essays. We know that it can confusing so here are some places you can look for help.

Try the online tutorial on referencing available under the Student resources tab at the top of ELE (the section on Undergraduate skills ).

The Library’s subject librarians can help you too. Have a look at the subject pages on the home page – each subject has a section on Information skills with details of all the main systems. Don’t forget that each College or discipline has its own preferred form of referencing so make sure you know which it is. You can find out more from your College handbook.

Although the rules look complicated to start with you can use computer programs and databases to help make life easier. When you find articles on our databases you will usually find all the information you need for your references and many of them provide ready-made citations.

It is a good idea to keep track of your references as you go along to save problems later. Try using referencing software to help you. One of the most popular services is EndNote, which is available on all the PC clusters, and EndNote Web, a free web version which you can sign up to online. The subject pages include details of EndNote and EndNote Web as well as some of the free sites, like Mendeley and Zotero if you want to try them out.