Refresher sessions for PGT students

Once the exams are over, many taught postgraduate students will be turning their attention to their dissertations or projects. Library staff and the IT Service Desk’s Training and Documentation team are here to help you with a series of workshops.

Library
There are four Library workshops on offer and they will be taking place from
29 May – 01 June:

  • Part 1 – Starting your dissertation research. Covers planning, using Primo to find print and electronic books and how to get the best out of search engines such as Google
  • Part 2 – Going further with your dissertation research. Covers how to identify, access and use the most suitable academic databases to find research level material in your subject.
  • Part 3 – Academic Integrity and Referencing. Offers an overview of academic integrity and how this relates to your dissertation. General tips and advice on how to avoid plagiarism in terms of correct referencing and citing conventions will also be provided. The session also covers the three common approaches to referencing, ie. Harvard, Vancouver, Oxford. 
  • Part 4 – Managing your dissertation research. Carries on from Part 2, going into more detail on referencing and using ProQuest RefWorks.

PLEASE NOTE: RefWorks is of limited use to those using Footnote referencing styles, such as OSCOLA. 

Training and Documentation Team
Colleagues in the Training and Documentation Team will be running the following workshops:

  • Microsoft Word: Working with long documents (24 May & 01 June)
    By the end of this course you will be able to define and use an appropriate template, understand and modify inbuilt styles, apply multi-level numbering, apply page and section breaks, insert page numbers, images and tables, use captions for images/tables, create cross-references and automatic tables of contents and tables of figures.
  • Creating Posters using PowerPoint (30 May)
    During the course you will have the opportunity to create an A0 poster using PowerPoint, insert backgrounds, titles, text, graphics, and charts (images and text will be supplied). After a short presentation, you will work at your own pace from a workbook. A tutor will be on hand to help.

To find out more and sign up to attend one of these popular workshops please visit www.abdn.ac.uk/coursebooking and look for courses on Library Information skills and MS Office. Do this soon, as places go fast!

INFO: Libraries closed Monday 8 July

Reminder: All the University’s libraries will be closed on Monday 8 July due to the local public holiday which falls in the vacation period. Libraries will open again on Tuesday 9 July. Full details of opening hours for all of our libraries are available at http://bit.ly/17Cr7rx

Susan McCourt, s.mccourt@abdn.ac.uk

Hurry! Time is running out to win a £50 book token

Library, Special Collections & Museums would like to hear from all those new to Aberdeen about your early experiences in finding your way about our libraries, collections, services and website.

We value your feedback, so please take a few minutes to highlight your experiences so far – and you could also win a £50 book token!

Hurry – survey ends midnight on Sunday 18 November 2012.

There’s still time to let us have your views on the library

There’s still time to let us have your views on the library: our LibQual survey will remain open until midnight on 28 February.  Please do take a few minutes of your time to let us know what you think: we value all feedback and will read and consider all comments with a view to continually trying to improve what we do.  

Please go to https://www.libqual.org/survey/RWSVJA32HUL53VNY.

Thanks

Important changes in payment of student printer budget top-ups from today

From today, 1 August, Queen Mother Library and Taylor Library can no longer accept over-the-counter top-up payments for students’ printer budgets.  There is no change at the Medical Library.

Top-up payments may be made online at any time via the student portal, or by calling in person at the Edward Wright Reception window between the hours of 12.30-14.00 Monday-Friday ONLY.  

Please also note that the minimum payment is now £5.
Enquiries please to John Lemon in the Directorate of Information Technology ( j.s.lemon@abdn.ac.uk).

Working on your dissertation? Try our ‘Virtual Library’ wiki for help on using e-resources

Go to http://aberdeenuniversityvirtuallibrary.pbworks.com/ and take a look!

We have a brand new resource that we think may be useful to you as you begin work on your dissertation – particularly if you are spending a great deal of your time working away from the University.

The ‘Virtual Library @ Aberdeen‘ is a wiki (the same type of service as Wikipedia) that contains collections of links and instructions, guides and worksheets for electronic resources supplied by the library.

The wiki is called ‘The Virtual Library’ because it focuses on resources (including journals and books) in electronic format. Don’t forget there is a huge amount of printed material in our ‘physical libraries’ too!

Please contact the library if you need advice on using library collections or reference management. Contact details for library branches are available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/contact.shtml#site-contacts.

Elaine Shallcross
(for Library & Historic Collections staff)

Interested in using Papers with Scopus? Read on…

Do you use the Mac app Papers on your Mac computer, iPhone,  iTouch or iPad?

Members of the University can obtain the ID info needed for the Scopus database from http://tinyurl.com/2w8hv46.

More information on Papers can be found at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/papers/id304655618?mt=8#

Quick link icons to our Web 2.0 services now available from the library home page

Quick link icons to our Web 2.0 services have been added to the Library home page. You can now link to the new library construction photostream on Flickr, L&HC InfoLinks blog for University staff and students, L&HC on Facebook and Twitter, and to our ‘Ask a Librarian’ instant messaging service.

Please do take a look – I’m interested to hear what you think, and welcome your participation in the new L&HC Facebook Group.

Springer e-books trial includes the Protocols Series

From now until October 2010 the SpringerProtocols are available on a trial basis from two websites:

  1. www.springerprotocols.com – this is a portal site which offers only the Protocol content with additional Web 2.0 features and search capabilities.  The supplier recommends this way to access the Protocol material to make best use of the content.  When searching here you’re only looking at the Protocols.
  2. www.springerlink.com – this is where the full e-books trial is held and Protocols can be searched for along with other e-book content.

Further information can be obtained from Principal Information Consultant, Susan McCourt (s.mccourt@abdn.ac.uk).

Use our services? Your opinion matters

There is still time to complete the Library & Historic Collections annual survey. Whether you visit the library building to study or only use our online resources from a distance, we welcome your views on what we do to support your studies.

Please link to the survey from the email sent by Library & Historic Collections on Tuesday 27 April. The survey closes at midnight on Saturday 8th May. Many thanks.