Where to go for help in The Sir Duncan Rice Library

Posted on January 26, 2023 by saraht

A comfortable study and learning environment for all
The Library is here to support your study and research by providing a range of study spaces to suit your individual needs. Members of staff can be contacted at any point, in person or via email/telephone, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries about the Library’s facilities and services.

A view of the Sir Duncan Rice Library from the outside.

Finding the information you want – using the resources
Find books and journals in print and electronic format, museum objects, theses, images, exam papers and more just by using Primo, the Library’s discovery tool. If you would like help using the different functions within Primo, speak to a member of staff in the Subject and Enquiry Team, at the Information Centre on Floor 1 of The Sir Duncan Rice Library. Subject and Enquiry team staff can also be found on Floors 5 and 6 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library. Please contact us at library@abdn.ac.uk.

If you have a subject-specific question, need help constructing a search strategy or using one of our specialist databases, speak to the Information Consultant for your discipline. A detailed list can be found here.

Borrowing enquiries, fines, using the Heavy Demand section, collecting reserved items
Speak to staff at the Information Centre on Floor 1 if you need help placing requests on books or collecting reserved items. Staff on Floor 1 can also advise on Inter-Library Loans and access to your borrower record. The Heavy Demand section is on the west wall of the building, next to the Information Centre. It contains books that are heavily used, a DVD collection, study spaces, self-service kiosks for borrowing and returning. It also contains MFDs for copying, printing, and scanning. Staff on Floor 1 can provide advice on how the Heavy Demand section works.

Copying/printing
Speak to any member of staff on floors 1, 5 and 6 if you need help using the MFDs. Also, there are detailed guides on the notice boards behind the MFDs to help you understand the functions of scanning, printing and photocopying. These guides are available from the University’s Toolkit, found here. Remember to top up your printing budget! For information on paying for printing, click here.

IT-related queries
Our IT service desk is the first point of contact for issues relating to connectivity, printing, username & password problems, remote access and more. The service desk is located on Floor 1 of The Sir Duncan Rice Library. You can also email servicedesk@abdn.ac.uk or call 01224 -273636 (this number also connects you to the Out-of-Hours service). Calls can also be logged through MyIT, a self-service facility for reporting problems.

Printing and binding your dissertation
The University’s binding service is on 23 St. Machar Drive. Services include colour and black & white printing, soft and hard binding, lamination, large format poster printing and more.
Tel: 01224 – 272578
Email: printshop@abdn.ac.uk

Materials from our Information skills workshops http://finditfastlibraryworkshops.pbworks.com/w/page/86602816/Home

RefWorks
See our RefWorks Library guides at www.abdn.ac.uk/library/support/library-guides-101.php#R
(Navigate to our Library guides section on the Library website and select ‘A-Z’, then click on ‘R’ and scroll down to ‘RefWorks’)

For Research Postgraduates and staff, further instruction on how to use RefWorks’ advanced features is provided in our Literature Searching Essential Skills workshop series. These run 3 times a year. To search for and book these sessions, please see the course booking website. Alternatively, speak to one of the Information Consultants.

Further help & support

Library guides on how to use Primo
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/support/library-guides-101.php#P

Information skills workshops
www.abdn.ac.uk/coursebooking

Library guides online
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/support/library-guides-101.php

Primo
https://abdn.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/search?vid=44ABE_INST:44ABE_VU1

Inter-Library Loan service
www.abdn.ac.uk/library/support/interlibrary-loans-182.php

Email your Library enquiries to:
library@abdn.ac.uk

Telephone your Library enquiries to:
01224 – 273330

InfoLinks Library blog
https://aberdeenunilib.wordpress.com

Library on Twitter
https://twitter.com/aberdeenunilib

Remember that we are here to help!

Accessing Library resources off-campus

Posted on September 26, 2022 by lucyd2020

While studying off-campus, you will still be able to access the Library’s databases and resources using your own device. We recommend that you first sign in to Primo, our online portal to e-resources, as this will make the process easier.

Once you have accessed Primo, you will need to use the Find Databases tab to access the e-resources you need for your studies. The majority of these services simply require an Institutional/Shibboleth login. More information and advice on using these resources and Shibboleth access can be found in the Accessing e-resources guide.

A set number of our databases also require an IP Address Authentication when logging in on-campus, and you can find out more information on them in this guide. In order to use these off-campus, you will have to use our Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Full instructions on accessing this are available from the Remote Access pages on the University Toolkit.

If you require any further information or advice on this matter, then Library staff are happy to help. The Subject & Enquiry Team can be found at the Information Centre on Floor 1 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library, or in their offices on Floors 5 & 6. Alternatively, please email us at library@abdn.ac.uk.

Welcome to the Library

Posted on September 23, 2022 by lucyd2020

We have been excited to see our new and returning students in the Library. Library staff are here to help you make the most of our resources and services, whether you are based on, or off, campus. Please get in touch with any queries you may have.

For general or subject-related enquiries, contact us on library@abdn.ac.uk, or please do enquire in person: Library staff will be available at set times at the Information Centre on Floor 1, or on Floors 5 & 6 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library.

If you wish to contact the Information Consultant for your discipline, their contact details are available here.

Library Resources

When searching for books on your Reading List, or other resources, please use the Library’s discovery tool, Primo. Primo provides information about our printed resources, and is also the recommended access route to our extensive e-resources, digital collections and databases.

Our comprehensive Library guides offer detailed answers to any questions you may have about our resources. If you haven’t used Primo before, you may find the following guides helpful:

Primo Quick Guide
Primo: How to do a simple search successfully
Primo: How to do an advanced search successfully
Accessing e-resources

Please do contact Library staff if you are having trouble accessing or finding your resources. We are happy to help.

IT Issues

If you have any problems with your device or accessing information, please contact the IT Service Desk. Contact information can be found here.

Visiting the Library

Please note that there is now a webpage on our site where you can see the current occupancy of the Sir Duncan Rice library and the Taylor library. Opening hours for all Library sites can be found here.

Please follow us on our social media channels to keep up with news from the Library. Once again, we would like to extend a warm welcome to all our students and wish you all a happy start to the new academic year.

Online Information Skills workshops for PhD researchers: now open for booking

Posted on June 14, 2022 by ewanag

As you begin, or continue your PhD, it is important that you feel confident that you are locating and managing all the literature and information you require to achieve your research aims.

The Library Service is here to support your research so we will be running a series of three Online Information Skills Workshops starting at the end of June 2022. The workshops’ aim is to help you understand the resources available to you as researchers here at the University of Aberdeen, and how to get the best out of them. Read on for further information on the workshops.

28 June
Literature searching: Part 1 – Planning a search, resources, access and support

Planning your search, using Boolean operators and applying search rules
Using Primo to identify possible resources to support your research
Accessing resources (authentication – Shibboleth and other routes)
Library help and support

28 June
Literature searching: Part 2 – Primo, ebooks and Google

How to get the best out of Primo (the library catalogue and discovery tool)
Ebook collections
Streamlining your searches in Google, Google Scholar and other search engines

29 June
Literature searching: Part 3 – Scopus and Web of Science databases

Overview of the features and options within the two largest and broadest databases that we have access to. The training slot is one hour, however, there is an option to re-join the session later in the morning to ask questions once you have had the chance to try things out for yourself.

Feedback from those who have previously attended these sessions has been positive and highlights how after attending, students felt better equipped to find and manage the materials they need for research. One quote from a previous attendee nicely sums up what we are aiming for with these sessions:

“I will definitely be searching smarter than before”

Our aim is that after you attend, you will also leave feeling this way.

To find out more, and to book onto the different workshops please visit www.abdn.ac.uk/coursebooking and look for Information Skills classes.

New Primo to launch on January 13 – Library staff here to help

Posted on January 9, 2020 by ewanag

The Library will be launching the new version of Primo on Monday, January 13, and we want to let you know about the support available to help you use it to find materials for your studies and research. From Monday, January 13, library staff will be available to help with any questions you might have.

Drop-in Sessions on using Primo

From Tuesday, January 14, there will be specific drop-in sessions on the new Primo available in The Sir Duncan Rice Library. These will take place in the co-labs on Floor 4 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library, at the following times:

11.00
11.30
15.00
15.30

These drop-in sessions will run on weekdays until Friday, January 24.

Bookable sessions on using Primo

In addition to these drop-in sessions, there will be bookable sessions on using Primo as part of our Find it Fast! series of library workshops. These will begin on Tuesday, January 21. You will be able to book places on these sessions via the Course Booking site.

Further guidance on using Primo

You will also find instruction on using Primo in the Library Guides section of our website. More support and guidance on Primo will be added to our website in the coming weeks.

Further information on this move to a new version of Primo can also be found on our website.

New Primo coming in January 2020 – implications for your e-Shelf

Posted on December 4, 2019 by eleni boro

new primo 1

The Library’s management system is undergoing a major upgrade. This will impact on Primo, the Library’s discovery tool. We are currently working on a new version of Primo, which will bring a number of benefits to the institution. The upgrade will provide an improved search facility and an inter-library loan function through Primo, amongst other improvements which will be in place in early January 2020.

Please note that items currently saved to the e-Shelf will not be automatically transferred to the new Primo. You will need to export and save the contents of your e-Shelf in Primo and the Library Catalogue before Christmas.

For guidance on how to export the contents of your e-Shelf, please see our guides:
Primo e-Shelf: how to export or save
Library Catalogue e-Shelf: how to export or save

Please also note the following important dates:

Tuesday 10 December – Last date for the recall of books from other readers, until early January 2020
Tuesday 10 December – Last date for the submission of Inter-Library Loan requests. Any submitted after this date will not be processed until early January 2020
Monday 16 December – Last date when readers can request items from other library sites or from our stores
Monday 23 December – The older Library Catalogue will be retired and no longer available

For more information on the Primo upgrade, see our page:
New Primo is coming January 2020

Please get in touch if you have any questions:
T: +44 (0) 1224 273330
Email: library@abdn.ac.uk

Information Skills workshops for PhD researchers: now open for booking

Posted on October 4, 2019 by eleni boro

As you begin, or continue your PhD it is important that you feel confident that you are locating and managing all the literature and information you require to achieve your research aims.

The Library Service is here to support your research so we will be running a series of Information Skills Workshops starting at the end of October 2019. The workshops’ aim is to help you understand the resources available to you as researchers here at the University of Aberdeen, and how to get the best out of them. Read on for further information on the workshops.

29, 30 & 31 October
Literature searching – Part 1: Planning, Primo and Google

5, 6 & 7 November
Literature searching – Part 2: Databases

12, 13 & 14 November
Literature searching – Part 3: Managing References with RefWorks

Across the three parts, we will look at:

Planning your search
Looking for books: using Primo and E-books
Databases of academic literature
Getting the best out of Google
Managing your references with RefWorks
Formatting Word documents with in-text citations and bibliographies

“I will definitely be searching smarter than before”

Our aim is that after you attend, you will also leave feeling this way.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The sessions focusing on the management of references is not suitable for research postgraduates in the School of Law, as the software used does not support the OSCOLA referencing style required for legal theses.

To find out more, and to book onto the different workshops please visit www.abdn.ac.uk/coursebooking and look for Information Skills classes. Please note that we will be offering three sessions on each part, with the Tuesday & Thursday sessions lasting 2 hours and the Wednesday sessions lasting 3 hours.

In the meantime, do not forget that Library staff are always here to help with any information needs that you may have. Visit our website for further information on our services. We look forward to seeing you at the workshops!

Library Skills workshops to help you ‘Find it Fast!’

Posted on October 3, 2019 by eleni boro

fif front slide cropped.fw

We believe that you should be spending the majority of your time reading materials and not looking for them, so we have a range of workshops to help you learn how to get your hands on the best books, articles, reports and other information in the shortest time possible.

Our Find it Fast! workshops will be running between October 15 and November 7 to help all undergraduate and taught postgraduate students navigate the library landscape, which can at times seem filled with so much choice.

The workshops are held over lunch time in The Sir Duncan Rice Library and are a great introduction to the resources we provide and the ways in which you can make best use of them. They cover:

using Primo, our online resource discovery tool for locating physical and electronic resources
how to search for the hundreds of thousands of electronic books which we have access to
using the many online databases which we subscribe to. They contain important resources which you cannot find by searching in Google!
how to manage your references using RefWorks
getting the best out of Google

Invest one hour of your time over lunch to learn tips and techniques that will repay you with time saved when searching for the materials you need for your assignments and exams.

To find out more and to view the full list of Find it Fast! workshops on offer please go to www.abdn.ac.uk/coursebooking and search for Library Information Skills courses.

Search our digital collections using ‘Find Databases’ on Primo

Posted on September 30, 2019 by eleni boro

Primo will tell you about the hundreds of thousands of digital resources available through the University and will link you to one of over 200 different online academic databases to let you read the material that you’re interested in.

Did you know, though, that if you go straight to the website of specific academic databases you can perform even more powerful searches, often looking across every word contained in every item within that collection? A simple search in Primo is the best place to start a piece of research but using the Find Databases option is the next step, improving the quality of any academic research that you do.

These databases often focus on specific subject areas, meaning that your searching becomes more focused and efficient, saving you time looking and giving you more time to read and write. See below for details of how to use the Find Databases feature in Primo to link straight to digital collections best suited to your area of study.

Use the Find Databases option at the top of Primo. Please remember to log in with your username and password.

You can search for specific databases or you can filter by subject area. It is also possible to browse an alphabetical listing of all databases available.

Once you have identified an academic database that you wish to search, simply click on its name to link out to it. You may be asked to log in again.

Please note that it is not possible to search across multiple databases at once using the Find Databases option. You must link out to each database that you are interested in and search them individually. This method will allow you to perform the most powerful searches available to you.

For further guidance on using Primo please see our short videos on its various features. For guidance on accessing online resources, particularly when off campus, please see our Library Guide on Accessing Electronic Information and the Toolkit’s section on Remote Access.

Ewan Grant, e.grant@abdn.ac.uk

Primo videos

Posted on September 17, 2019 by LenaP.

Need help with using Primo? Watch our videos and discover how to use Primo, the Library’s discovery tool, to find specific books or books on a topic. Our videos also cover journal searches and the processes of planning and executing a search. More videos to follow soon!

Our videos can be accessed at www.abdn.ac.uk/library/support/information-skills-179.php#panel547.

Please email eleni.boro@abdn.ac.uk or e.grant@abdn.ac.uk if you have any questions!

Eleni Borompoka, eleni.boro@abdn.ac.uk

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