International Open Access Week is less than a month away! From the 24th-28th October, please join the University of Aberdeen’s Open Research team in promoting open research and access for all academics, students and researchers alike. The week will kick off with our “Fresh Perspectives” online conversation with 6 academics and advocates leading the discussion on the latest in Open Research.
Tuesday will see the re-launch of Aberdeen University Press as a fully online open access publisher and on Wednesday a Roundtable discussion takes place with the 5 Interdisciplinary Centre Directors. These will be followed by a drop-in session for our Postgraduate Students on Thursday, offering the chance for students to chat with experts in many different elements of research and learn how the University can help throughout your entire research project. Finish the week off by attending our online session, “Open Data – the next 10 years”, with a panel of Open Data experts sharing their predictions for what happens next.
The week invites countless opportunities, for newcomers to the topic of Open Access and Research and for those more familiar with it, to engage in discussion and present any questions or ideas to experts in the field.
Last Wednesday afternoon, students and staff in the Sir Duncan Rice Library had a visit from Canine Concern Scotland Trust’s Therapet dogs. The dogs are back in the Library today, and we will be having weekly visits from the Therapets until 10th May – please see below for details. Therapets also attended the University’s recent Live on the Lawn event, where they were a very popular attraction!
Canine Concern Scotland Trust (CCST) is a charitable organisation where owners and their pets can volunteer to visit various groups of people. Dogs must undergo an assessment to ensure they are well-suited to meeting lots of different people, including in schools and universities, care homes, and hospitals. Therapets have been shown to reduce stress and promote wellbeing in students, as detailed in this pilot project, and this article.
We met Leo, Nevis, and Zela with their owners. Leo, a rough collie, was very relaxed and reclined on the floor to receive his adoring public. Nevis, a flat-coated retriever, was really excited to meet everyone! Her tail got a good work-out from wagging so much. Zela, a miniature poodle, was a very attentive listener, her head tilted as she watched people fuss over her. For our future sessions, Nevis and Zela will be present.
They will be situated towards the back of the ground floor of the Sir Duncan Rice Library. No booking is required but these sessions may be busy, so please be aware that you will only get a limited time with the dogs.
The Sir Duncan Rice Library will be holding an event next week to help our students access a wonderful range of historical primary source materials, produced by Gale, that are all available online.
The Gale Primary Sources Seminar will be taking place in the Sir Duncan Rice Library, in the Lower Ground Floor Seminar Room, on Wednesday March 9, at 2.00 – 3.00 p.m.
The seminar will be delivered by the University of Aberdeen’s Gale Student Ambassador, a student here that is passionate about helping fellow students understand and use this great collection of materials that contains historical newspapers including The Times and Financial Times, historical books, and other high quality and varied primary sources. You can see the full range of Gale products available at Aberdeen here.
Please take your own device with you if you choose to attend, so that you can try out the collections yourself.
This is the first in a planned series of events that will be delivered by our Gale Student Ambassador. There is no booking for this event but attendance will be limited, and face-masks will have to be worn.
Professor George Boyne, University Principal, and Professor Ruth Taylor, Vice-Principal for Education, will speak at an informal drop-in session taking place on Floor 7 of The Sir Duncan Rice Library, on Friday 31 January 2020 between 13:00 and 15:00. The Principal will be announcing a new University fund to initiate additional research links with European universities and to strengthen existing links.
Staff from the University’s Human Resources, International and Research and Innovation teams will be on hand with advice on a broad range of issues connected to the UK’s departure from the EU, including information on immigration for EU staff and students, study abroad opportunities through Erasmus, and future arrangements for cross-European research partnerships.
This interactive event will also invite staff and students to share their ideas on how the University can continue to foster links with Europe and develop existing partnerships.
The Library Service will soon be holding a sale of books that have been withdrawn from library stock. These are books that are duplicates of items in our collection or donations that are not required.
The sale will be held on Floor 1 of The Sir Duncan Rice Library for one week, from Monday February 10 until Sunday February 16.
From Monday 10/2 to Wednesday 12/2 inclusive, the sale will only be available to University of Aberdeen students and staff. Please show your University ID card at purchase.
The sale will not start until 9 a.m. each day and 11 a.m. on Sunday, once staff begin work at the Information Centre on Floor 1 of The Sir Duncan Rice Library. You will not be able to purchase any books before the above times.
The cost of the books will be:
Hardback – 50 pence
Paperback – 25 pence
Cash till only – no cards.
There will be books available from across a whole range of subjects, and at those prices it is certainly worth coming and having a look to see what bargains you may be able to get.
Armistice Day is often associated with silence but at 15:00 on Sunday 10th November, The Sir Duncan Rice Library will be filled with sound as part of a new act of remembrance.
Staff and students at The Sir Duncan Library will join with musicians around the world as part of the #iPlay4Peace initiative.
Musicians will perform a new composition by Anthony White, a second year music student from the University of Aberdeen, as one of three new works to be performed by a global orchestra coming together in unison to mark the end of the First World War and the ongoing struggle for peace. Anthony White’s composition, ‘Battling for Peace’, has been chosen together with new pieces by Aberdeen fiddler Paul Anderson and London-based musician and composer Clare Paddi Salters.
#iPlay4Peace is a global initiative to create a new and lasting form of Remembrance. The project is the brainchild of University of Aberdeen senior lecturer Neil McLennan and Scottish fiddler Thoren Ferguson and utilises new online interactive technology supported by Edinburgh Napier University to enable musicians to perform in real time together, wherever they are based.
On Sunday the Edinburgh Chamber Orchestra will perform at Edinburgh Napier University’s historic Craiglockhar and musicians from as far afield as America to Asia and from Shetland to South Africa will join in online. The Sir Duncan Rice Library performance is part of this global collaboration.
On Sunday there will also be a performance of Paul Anderson’s ‘Winning the Peace’ in the Chapel as part of the University’s Service of Remembrance, by Aberdeen student and musician Clara-Jane Maunder.
The Friends of Aberdeen University Library will be hosting a series of fascinating talks across the coming academic year on a variety of topics relating to our collections or those of other Libraries. The Friends are a charity founded in 1962 to support the work of the Library and to help promote the rich collections we have at the University of Aberdeen.
The full programme of talks can be seen below, with the first event taking place in just over one week’s time. All of the talks are free and open to all.
The mystery of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s library solved?
7 October 2019, 19.30 – 20.30
Join Dr William Zachs as he discusses the mystery of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s library in this evening lecture.
The recent recovery of a substantial part of the private library of the creator of Sherlock Holmes presents an opportunity to understand Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his world in new and unexpected ways. The collection includes special annotated copies of his own books – not least the very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet (1887). Among the volumes are source books for the detective stories which have endlessly captured the imagination of the world. No less central to this collection are over one hundred presentation copies from such authors as H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie and others which reveal Conan Doyle’s extensive literary, political, medical and social networks. The annotated copies of the writings or other Scottish authors – Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson in particular – further uncover dimensions of Conan Doyle’s literary influences and networks.
Guest Speaker: Dr William Zachs, University of Edinburgh
Venue: The Sir Duncan Rice Library, Craig Suite, Floor 7
Friends of Aberdeen University Library AGM, followed at 6.30pm by a talk:
Catholic sequestrations in early modern Scotland
16 April 2020, 18.00 – 19.30
Join Dr Eilish Gregory as she discusses Catholic sequestrations in early modern Scotland and the impact of the historic Act of Union in 1707.
The talk will begin at 6.30pm, before this the Friends of Aberdeen University Library Annual General Meeting will take place at 6pm, all are welcome to attend.
Guest Speaker: Dr Eilish Gregory
Venue: Special Collections Seminar Room, Lower Ground Floor of the Sir Duncan Rice Library
The International Percussion Institute will be giving a performance on the Ground Floor of The Sir Duncan Rice Library on Friday August 9 at 17:00. Their theme this year is “The Sound of Silence” and even though we don’t expect them to be silent, we hope you enjoy their presence in the Library!
IPI will also be performing at King’s College Chapel on Thursday August 8. There will be two shows that evening, one at 16:15 (featuring artist Kalle Hasokalo) and one at 17:45.
Places are still available on a workshop next week (Thursday 28 February, 1400-1500) that will guide academic staff and researchers through InCites and Web of Science (WoS), two powerful tools that can play an important part in any research process. See below for full details of the workshop. You can book your place through the University’s Coursebooking site. An earlier occurrence of this workshop is taking place next Tuesday, 26 February, but is already fully booked.
WoS is a citation index that offers comprehensive citation and publication searches across multiple databases to enable in-depth exploration of research.
InCites Benchmarking & Analytics is a customized, web-based research evaluation tool that allows you to monitor collaboration activity, identify influential researchers, showcase strengths, and discover areas of opportunity.
Independently or together, these tools can be used to create powerful analytics that complement the research process. The software provider (Clarivate) of these products was recently awarded a contract to supply the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) with citation analysis.
This short session, aimed at academic staff, early career researchers and PhD students who have published (or are on the point of publishing), will guide you through the use of InCites and Web of Science. The session will include:
· Hints and tips for using Web of Science and InCites
· Advanced searches in Web of Science and InCites
· Evidencing research strengths, and collaborations
· Notes on Open Access and Full text publications
· Analytics: Citations, Collaborations, Journals, Authors, and Trends
· Brief overview of Alternative metrics
You can book your place on this workshop through the University’s Coursebooking site but please pay attention to the two actions required of you before attending the session.
InfoLinks 