Library Team Racing for Life!

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Some of the library staff will be putting on their running shoes and racing for life in July, and in the process, raising money for Cancer Research UK.  The team members are Kate Weedon, Jess Gardner, Maggie Martin, Ros Jennings, Carolyn Asher, Maria Koutsoumanis and Rae Ahmed, and they come under the collective name, ‘Bound 2B Brilliant’.

The team members have come together to raise money for Cancer Research UK, and to play a vital part in helping save lives. Events like Race for Life are vital in funding Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work into preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.

The plucky team members will be racing for life at Westpoint (near Exeter) on July 22, 2012 at 11am. Why not go along and cheer them on. You can also sponsor the team at http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/bound-2b-brilliant. In doing so, you can play your part in beating cancer.

Also, look out for fundraising events! There’s bound to be something to tickle your fancy. There will be coffee and cakes at Main Library Information Central, 24 April 2012, 10am -11am, more cakes on sale at Amory on 14 May, 12pm – 2pm, a sponsored swim (to wear off the cakes) and much more! For more information contact Rae Ahmed (email

Good luck Bound 2B Brilliant!

Plug-in at St Luke’s

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Photograph of new power points at Luke's

Photograph of the new power points at Luke's

You asked for more power points to plug-in Laptops at St Luke’s Library….

….We provided 8 new plug sockets in the 1st floor reading room annexe.

Work was completed on these additional electricity points last week, just in time for the revision period. Library staff always take your comments  seriously so if you have a suggestion for how we can improve our spaces please let us know. Comments cards boxes are available at all Library sites, or why not speak to a member of staff directly.

Located at St Luke’s Campus off Heavitree Road, St Luke’s Library is open to all, and staff and students based at Streatham campus are warmly encouraged to visit and borrow resources. The Library contains a Study Room and Computer cluster that are available 24/7.  For more information click here

The Sanctuary opens its doors for business on 3rd April

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Students at the University of Exeter are set to benefit from a multi-purpose new facility located at the heart of the Streatham Campus.

The vibrant new facility, called The Sanctuary, offers a bright, modern and flexible space for students all year round. Formerly known as the Lower Exam Hall, it will host a mix of study, exams and major student events, like the Careers Fair.

The Sanctuary opens its doors to students today (April 3), and will provide 180 seats for quiet study for students throughout April, from 8am-8pm and seven days a week.

During May, it will be usedSanctuary 4 for summer examinations before Event Exeter host a series of events and conferences over the summer months.

The Sanctuary will then revert back to a student study area for the start of the next academic year.

Jess Gardner, Head of Library and Research Support, said: “We are delighted that The Sanctuary is open for our students to enjoy.  Students were involved in the design brief and naming the Sanctuary via focus groups last Autumn.  This led to a flexible layout with maximised study seats and a colourful look and feel using table top designs from Marrimeko, the designers whose chairs feature in La Touche Cafe in the Business School.”

The Sanctuary is part of the University’s current capital building programme that also includes the development of new learning and study spaces in the Forum and Amory.

The £48 million Forum development delivers a new Student Services Centre, retail and catering outlets, an extended and refurbished Library, new technology-rich learning spaces, a 400-seat lecture theatre, a landscaped piazza and a new University reception, ensuring the University of Exeter offers an outstanding experience for students.

The Forum is part of a £350 million development programme across the University’s campuses in Exeter and Cornwall.

Girls and Boys in Storyland

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On 3 April 2012, two exhibitions of early children’s literature will launch at Exeter Central Library and the University of Exeter’s Research Commons, Old Library. Girls and Boys in Storyland is a joint project, funded by South West Regional Library Service (SWRLS) to promote the Special Collections of children’s literature at Exeter Central and the University.

Further information is available on the exhibitions blog: http://girlsandboysinstoryland.wordpress.com/

On 3 April, to celebrate the launch and coincide with the start of the Easter holidays, there will be a drop-in workshop at Exeter Central Library from 10.00-15.00, run by Double Elephant. Come along and take a look at the exhibition, then create a monoprint inspired by one of the illustrations on display. The workshop is a family activity, suitable for children aged 4 and upwards.  There will also be a series of talks and tours of the exhibitions.

For further details about dates and times, and to book a place at one of these, please visit: http://www.girlsandboysinstoryland.eventbrite.co.uk/ .  The exhibitions will give you a chance to see how boys and girls were depicted in rhymes, stories and illustrations from the nineteenth- and early-twentieth centuries. They run until 31 May 2012. Please do visit and spread the word to anyone you think may be interested!

Leaflet Front

Mobile access to e-resources

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AirPAC

On the go? The library website lists a wide range of mobile-friendly resources that are available to access wherever you are. These include AirPAC, where you can search the entire library catalogue from your mobile; Cambridge Journals Online, with full-text access to selected titles; Web of Knowledge for extensive bibliographic information; and many others.

If you have  a smartphone, there are also dedicated apps for some of the most popular resources including American Chemical Society, Jordans Family Law Online, SciVerse and SpringerLINK, which are all available via your provider’s app download service.

For the full list, take a look on the library pages under Electronic Library/Mobile access to e-resources, or follow this link.

History, English and Geography Reading Lists top the charts!

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The Library’s Reading List team work closely with Colleges, with the aim of providing simple access to the resources student need via their ELE modules.
The digitised lists are produced using smart reading list software called Talis Aspire and provide quick web links to:

  • E-books
  • Digitised chapters and articles (where legal)
  • Catalogue references to printed resources

We are just emerging from our pilot phase, and have the aim of digitising all reading lists within ELE so that every students has the opportunity to access their key resources in this way.

Our reading list supplier, Talis Aspire,  has recently implemented statistical monitoring on our Reading List software and we are delighted that these highlight University of Exeter lists as achieving the  highest hit rate worldwide relative to the size of our reading list collection – no mean feat!

Humanities and Life Sciences lists form the top five lists for Exeter, all have been used over a 1000 times since January this year and HIH1410 – Understanding the Medieval & Early Modern Worlds  takes top place with a hugely impressive 3,123 visits since January.

From 1/01/12 – 20/03/12, the top 5 chart is:

HIH1410 – Understanding the Medieval & Early Modern Worlds – History – 3,123 visits
HIH3502 – Popular Rebellion in England 1381-1549 – History – 2,009 visits
EAS2083 – The Shock of the New – English – 1,525 visits
GEO3126 – The Geography of Monsters: Science, Society and Environmental Risk – Geography – 1,524 visits
HIH3595 – Sexuality in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Britain – History – 1,484 visits

If you are a module leader and would like the library to digitise your lists, please get in touch with your subject librarian for more information.

As you will appreciate, there are peaks in demand for this service around the start of each term, so get your list in early to guarantee your list will be ready for the new term.

Get to Know Your Subject Librarians

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Group - Large but croppedIf you need help with finding resources either in the library or online then the person to turn to is your Subject Librarian.

If you are not sure who they are and what they do then you can watch this short video to find out or go to the “Getting Help” page, use the drop down menu to select your subject.  All their contact details are there and they are happy to meet you or answer queries by phone or e-mail.

So don’t struggle, contact your librarian today.

Tell us about your research data!

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It’s your last chance to participate in the Open Exeter survey!

Attention all researchers and PGR students! Take part in our short online survey and you’ll be in with a chance to win a top-of-the-range Kindle! The survey will be open until the end of March.

The Open Exeter project is investigating how research data is created, managed and used across the University in order to create an institutional data repository for all types of research data. We will also implement training and guidance for researchers and review and ratify institutional policy on research data.

What are the benefits of putting your research data on Open Access?

  • Compliance with funders’ Open Access policies
  • Greater visibility of research
  • Increase your citations
  • Better chance of further collaboration
  • Securely held data with a reduced risk of data loss
  • Ability to reuse data for other research projects

We need the help of researchers and PGR students to enable us to understand what kind of data you are using, how much data you store, and what type of training would be useful for you as well as letting us know your opinions about Open Access.

Find out more about Open Exeter:

– Read our blog

– Follow us on Twitter: @OpenExeterRDM

– Join us on Facebook

JISC MediaHub Gets Even Better

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JISC MediaFuente Georginas 1Hub is a single platform which has hundreds of thousands of video, audio clips and digital images  from many collections like the Royal Geographical Society, ITN , the Getty Museum, Channel 4 News and Wellcome Film.

A complete list of those available is here – Collections inside JISC MediaHub

This collection has recently expanded to include :

The Royal Mail Film Classics collection which includes world-famous documentaries such as Night Mail and cinematic experiments such as A Colour Box. The collection covers subjects ranging across transport and communications in Britain and abroad; the home front during the Second World War, British industries, from fishing to mining, the nation’s health – and developments in the Post Office service itself.

Also the Culture Grid Collection which brings together a wide range of collections from independent UK organisations.

Furthermore there have also been a lot of new user features added to this great collection, find out more about these online here.

To access this service go to the Electronic Library,  then using the drop down menu – Choose Resource Type – Audio Visual Resources and find the collection in the list.  For help using the collection there is a .pdf guide or contact your subject Librarian.