Pay fines without staff help

Paying fines gets better by the day. You no longer need to queue at the Library counter just to pay fines.
As well as the telephone payment recently introduced, you can now pay fines whenever the library is open by just using one of our self service machines. These are available to use during library opening hours.

Virtual referencing - Coming soon in 2009

Watch out for the new service we are introducing in late January to early July. Staff and students will be able to chat to Librarians and receive instant reply to their subject queries. The service will be available during term time between 11-3pm Monday - Friday. We will also continue with our Ask A Librarian service and queries can still be sent to us via email.

I wish everyone a restful time. Enjoy yourselves but do not over indulge.

Book fund allocation for 2008/09 to be spent in Semester A

Our book fund for Semester A is as follows:

Computing - £17,102.00
Civil Engineering and Surveying - £8181.00
Electrical and Electronic Engineering - £4150

Please send your book orders to me quite soon

Library Research Support Day - Tuesday 3rd June 2008

I’d like to invite you to a Library Research Support day on Tuesday 3rd June. The day is aimed at postgraduate research students and members of academic staff and it’s an opportunity for us to showcase some of the services we provide to support our research community at UEL.
We will be running a series of short workshops throughout the day, covering a range of topics including e-books, e-journals, literature searching and alerting services through online databases, Boolean search techniques and Endnote.
The Subject Librarians will be offering sessions on databases specific to their assigned Schools and there will also be an opportunity to learn more about UEL’s institutional repository for research, ROAR.
The day’s events will take place in the Business School, in the main lecture theatre and in the Library’s Information Skills and ECDL training rooms.
I’d be very grateful if you could circulate this information to your postgraduate research students. I hope they will feel free to pop in for any or all of the sessions that appeal to them. I have emaile a flyer to all lecturers with more information.
It would be helpful if you could book in advance so that we can keep track of numbers. Please feel free to contact me for more details.

Freedom of Information website

A new website 'What Do They Know?' helps people put together Freedom of Information (Fol) requests to public bodies and publishes the responses in a searchable archive.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

The site isn't quite ready yet but sounds like an interesting resource.

New OS Access

The digital archive of Ordnance Survey (OS) maps - back to 1998 - can now be viewed in the UK's six deposit libraries - the British Library is closest to us - using new web-based software developed by Dotted Eyes.

The OSMasterMap allows precise recording of landscape changes over time. A limited number of customised A4 colour print-outs can be made for private use.

May 30th Deadline for book orders for this semester

Please send your book orders to your library reps ASAP so I can get them order before May 30th. If your department does not use a library rep, please send your orders directly to me. We will begin ordering again at the beginning of August, when we get the new budget.

Who needs Scientists?

My colleague, Nadine, has recorded the broadcast below and we will put it in stock. Apparently, there is a strong focus on Civil Engineering. It should also be available as a podcast from the Radio 4 site in the near future.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/pip/fouqv/?focuswin


Who Needs Scientists?
Monday 31 March 2008 11:00-11:30 (Radio 4 FM)
Research scientist and engineer Mark Miodownik challenges the conventional wisdom that more scientists are essential if Britain is to prosper. He questions the obsession with raising numbers and argues that Britain would be much better served if universities concentrated their efforts on fewer students, basing their strategy on quality rather than quantity.

GreenFILE database and EBSCO access

I would like to inform you that the complimentary database ‘GreenFILE’ has been added to our EBSCO host profile. The database page on the LLS website has been updated accordingly. It is a bibliographic database of information about environmental concerns and ’Green Info Online’ has made this database freely available.
GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. The database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.

Spending the book budgets

The book budgets need to spent by the end of April. Remember, funds do not roll over to the next year! Please contact your library reps with your orders.

LILAC Conference March 17th to March 19th

I will be attending a three day conference in Liverpool next week so I will only be in the library on Thursday March 20th.

Hopefully, I will return with lots of new, innovative ideas!

http://www.lilacconference.com/dw/

BSI Membership

The BSI have started sending out an online newsletter regarding our membership.

http://view.bsi-global-email.com/?j=fe821070706d0d747c&m=fef91270746c03&ls=fdf71578736c047973167474

Academic Integrity Quiz

The information below came from Jules Cassidy, LTA. Please contact her for more information.

Dear All,
I am happy to inform you all that the pilot Academic Integrity Quiz is now open for business on the Student Academic Integrity UEL+ site. I think all academics have access to this site but have asked Michael Parkes, who has so ably assisted Toby & I with this job of work, to check and open the site if it is not.

Please could you spread the word about the quiz to students and staff, especially Module Leaders and tutors of the Skills Modules in your schools. I will also email the Assessment Working Group and the AI Responsible Officers Group suggesting that the quiz should be recommended to students in School AI Hearings.
Best
Jules


Jules Cassidy
Leader in Learning and Teaching
School of Social Science, Media and Cultural Studies
UEL Teaching Fellow
Room EB1.30
x4238

UEL at Barking Learning Centre

I don't know how much publicity has been given to the UEL short courses and tasters running at the Barking Learning Centre. See the link below if you are interested.

http://www.uel.ac.uk/blc/index.htm

PLATO - Academic Integrity Week

As it is Academic Integrity Week beginning March 3rd, I just wanted to remind you that the PLATO tutorial on plagiarism is available on the Library Homepage. It would be useful to reimind students to have a look at it.

Also, I am always available to do presentation on plagiarism and referencing to your classes. Please get in touch with me and I am sure we can arrange a convenient time during the semester.

http://www.uel.ac.uk/lss/index.htm

Dare to be Digital 2008

Just some information about a competition that might be interesting for our computing students.



Dare to be Digital is the UK's premier video games development competition which supports the creation of video games prototypes by talented, young developers in order to showcase their talent and prepare them for working in industry. Teams of students studying Arts, Computing and Audio related degree courses at University (usually in their 3rd and 4th years), are given the opportunity to develop a computer game prototype for 10 weeks during the summer in a near to real world development environment, whilst receiving support from industry specialists.To help them along the way the students receive £1700 and help from industry specialists to compete for a place in the final. The finalists of the competition will then go on to compete for cash prizes by pitching their prototype to a high profile of judges from the video games business. The 3 winning teams then form the entries to the BAFTA Ones to Watch award which is presented at the BAFTA video games awards.


http://www.daretobedigital.com/

UEL Library Blog

http://uellibrary.blogspot.com/

To keep up with all the latest UEL Library news, we do have a UEL Library Blog. Some of the information may be included this blog but I often find out new things about the Library when I read it.

Fines Block

Some of you may have found that you cannot renew your library books due to a fines block that has been put on all accounts. Basically, anyone with fines from last semester - staff or students - have been blocked. However, it has been decided at our Customer Services Meeting today that the blocks will be removed from all staff accounts. So the fines will remain, but staff will now be able to renew and take items out once again.

Athens Accounts

Athens accounts seem to have come up alot during the library questionnaire. You do need an Athens account to access our electronic resources from home and also to access e-books. You do need to set up a new account each year. Please email my colleague Robert Anderson

r.n.anderson@uel.ac.uk

if you need to set up a new account for this year.

SCONUL ACCESS

SCONUL ACCESS is a scheme that allows staff and most students to borrow 5 items from other university libraries that are part of the scheme. (Some of you may know it as UKLP)

Please see the below link for information and a list of participating universities. Most London Universities are members.

http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/users_info/index_html

If you would like to join, you can get the membership card from the library counter on the first floor.

Extra Money for Books

I have emailed everyone about this already - it is nice to spread some good news for a change. We have been given more money to buy books this year. So please channel your orders through your Library Representatives - Tricia Webb for Computing (all areas), Graham Ford for Civil Engineering, Richard Latham for Surveying and Bill Bailey for Electrical Engineering.

Library Questionnaire

Many thanks to those of you who made appointments with me to fill out the library questionnaire. About one third of the lecturers have got back to me. So, if I haven't yet seen you, please do email me with a convenient time and I will come over to your office. It will only take about 15 mins at the most.

Centre for Alternative Technology

I don't know how much everyone knows about the Centre for Alternative Technology - we do have a lot of students who study there. I gave an induction in September and it was very impressive. For more information, please see the links below or on the right.

http://www.cat.org.uk/courses

http://www.cat.org.uk/graduateschool

Links through Feedblitz now working!

Earlier on in the week, the links that you received through Feedblitz weren't working. But I have tried today and they seem to be working fine. But I do appreciate you letting me know when problems occur.

Trial of Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

We have a free trial of the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The access has been set up for East London University until 23rd February 2008. Access is now available by IP address at http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Free Trial of Who's Whos

http://www.ukwhoswho.com/

A free trial of the online version of Who's Who and Who Was Who starts today at http://www.ukwhoswho.com. The access has been set up for East London University until 23rd February 2008.

Podcasts

We have put together some short audio clips in mp3 format as a basic introduction to the services provided by the Library and Learning Services. We have tried to answer some of the questions which our new users ask. Some topics include borrowing, getting help and assistance and using electronic resources. More information can be found at:http://www.uel.ac.uk/lss/audio/index.htm

Off Air Recordings

Another point that has come from doing the questionnaire - we can record television programs (terrestrial stations and some digital) onto dvd and they become part of the library stock. So, if you have any requests, just let me know. We can also get past programs.

User Education Sessions for Semester B

Please get in touch with me as soon as possible to book any user ed sessions for the coming semester.

E-Book List

http://www.uel.ac.uk/library/Ebooks.htm

The above is a link to all e-books that the library has purchases so far. It will be regularly updated.

JISC E-book Survey

E-books
YOUR FEEDBACK IS IMORTANT
Help shape the future provision of course texts in e-book format. Enter the prize draw for £200 worth of Amazon vouchers.
The survey will close at midnight on Friday 15th February.
Staff Click here http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slais/research/ciber/observatory/faculty/
The survey should only take about 10 minutes to complete. It is part of the JISC funded national project <http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/> (http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/) investigating e-books.

JISC E-Books in SCoT area

Engineering Materials 1
Engineering Materials 2
Aerodynamics for Engineering Students
Chemical Engineering Volume 2
Chemical Engineering Volume 6: Chemical Engineering Design
Measurement and Instrumentation Principles
Structural and Stress Analysis
Fundamentals of Wireless Communication

How to access e-books

I thought I would send a reminder on how to find e-books.

I think the simpliest way is to go into the catalogue, put your term in as keyword search and choose ebooks from the dropdown menu, you will get a list of e-books on that subject.

You can also check by logging on to Athens and choosing Dawson books or Myilibrary from the list of resources. Unfortunately, we are buying the books from 2 different platforms - hence two different ways to access the lists. We all want to simplify this, so hopefully that will happen in the near future. We also have some e-books from JISC but only until 2009. I will post those titles in the SCoT area on this blog.

So, you can see why I recommend going through the catalogue!

Remember, you will need an Athens username and password to actually get into the books themselves.

Link to new books month by month

http://www.uel.ac.uk/library/new_books_dec_2007.htm

Clicking on the above link will lead you a list of all new books in the library by subject each month.

Lists of book purchased by fund code

I am in the process of compiling a list of all the new books purchased since August 07 by fund code. I will be emailing the lists to each department in the next few days. Hopefully, by reviewing the list, you will be able to see what else is needed and let me know what else you need to buy.

New Books

IT law : an ISEB foundation / Jon Fell (editor) ; John Antell ... et al. . - Swindon : British Computer Society, 2007 . - 1902505808

Hight, John, 1960- . - Game development essentials : game project management / John Hight, Jeannie . - Clifton Park, NY; United Kingdom : Thomson Delmar Learning, 2007 . - 1418015415

Whitman, Michael E., 1964- . - Management of information security / Michael E. Whitman, Herbert J. Mattord . - 2nd ed. . - Boston, Mass. : Thomson Course Technology, 2008 . - 1423901304

More new books

Koehn, Nancy F (Nancy Fowler), 1959- . - Brand new : how entrepreneurs earned consumers' trust from Wedgwood to Dell . - Boston : Harvard Business School Press, 2001 . - 1578512212

Industrial design techniques and materials / Raymond Guidot ... et al. . - Paris : Flammarion, 2006 . - 2080305190

Norman, Donald A. (Donald Arthur) . - The invisible computer : why good products can fail, the personal computer i . - Cambridge, Mass.; London : MIT, 1999 . - 0262640414

Jones, Keith J. (Keith John) . - Real digital forensics : computer security and incident response / Keith J. . - Boston, Mass.; London : Addison-Wesley, 2005 . - 0321240693

Bainbridge, David I. . - Introduction to information technology law / David Bainbridge . - 6th ed. . - Harlow : Pearson Longman, 2008 . - 1405846666

New Books

I know that it would be useful for lecturers to see when new books arrive. It is a quite difficult for me to keep up with this, but I will do my best to post the new SCoT titles when they arrived.

Health and safety in construction / Health and Safety Executive . - 3rd. ed. . - Sudbury : HSE Books, 2006 . - 0717661822

Imhoff, Dan . - Paper or plastic : searching for solutions to an overpackaged world / Daniel . - 1st ed. . - San Francisco, Calif. : Sierra Club, 2005 . - 1578051177

Kelley, Tom, 1955- . - The art of innovation : lessons in creativity from IDEO, America's leading d . - [London] : [Profile], 2002 . - 186197583x

Purser, Steve . - A practical guide to managing information security / Steve Purser . - Boston, Mass.; London : Artech House, 2004 . - (Artech House technology management library) . - 1580537022

Thackara, John . - In the bubble : Designing in a complex world / John Thackara . - Cambridge, Mass.; London : MIT, 2005 . - 0262701154

Del ici ous Links

http://www.uel.ac.uk/lss/subjectpages/index.htm

Another point that has come up during our questionnaire sessions - the above link goes to the Subject Pages on the Library Webpage. These are lists of general websites, grouped by subject. The Computing page had nothing on it when I inherited it so I created a set of Del ici ous links. But I would really appreciate any suggestions from lecturers as to any other links that would be useful to students.

This goes for Surveying, Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering as well. Those pages have links but not through Del ici ous. When I have a chance I will change them over because I think that it is a much more logical arrangement. So, any suggestions for additional links would be most welcome.

Reading Lists

Some issues have come up since I have started doing the Library Questionnaires, so I wanted to address them ASAP.

Lecturers usually order their books through their library representatives (see previous post) but are some are not aware that they should send me their complete reading lists so that I can input them onto UEL Reading Lists. There is a link on the Library Homepage.

http://161.76.217.1:8080/talislist/index.jsp

The reading lists take the students straight into the catalogue, or to an electronic article, or website.

It is a very time consuming process to enter the data, but really worth it for the convenience for the students. But unless the lists are kept up to date, they are not alot of use.

Book Orders for Semester B

Please let me know any book orders for Semester B.

For your information, the Library Representatives for SCoT are

For Computing, Tricia Webb.
For Electrical Engineering, Bill Bailey.
For Land Surveying, Richard Latham.
For Civil Engineering, Adrian Cazan.

Knowledge for Business Conference

Just wanted to make you aware of this upcoming event. It costs £25 for staff.

Date: Thursday January 17th 2008, 10am

Venue: University of East London, Docklands Campus

Finding free resources for you and your users

Knowledge is power – sustainable businesses come from being able to exploit this potential. Businesses that can capitalise and create new knowledge hold a competitive edge over their competitors.
As business professionals we are always looking for free and accessible business information for our clients – whether they are students, researchers, small businesses or public enquiries.
Knowledge for Business is London’s first event which draws together many different providers of this information. We will encompass both physical and virtual collections and provide networking opportunities with a wide range of business professionals.

See below for further details

http://www.uel.ac.uk/libraryconference/

Library Questionnaire

Happy New Year to all of you.
During the next few months, I will be emailing all of the SCoT lecturers to arrange appointments to complete a short Library Questionnaire. We will be able to feed your comments back into our Service Plan and hopefully highlight your specific needs. Many thanks for your cooperation.