Category Archives: Politics and International Relations

Want to access exam papers? We’ve got your back…

So you’re looking for some past exam papers? Well, the College institutional repository is the place to find them, but if you forget that URL, you can always find a link to the Exam Papers on the Library homepage:

Before you try searching for the exam paper of your desire, do make sure you log out as a guest at the top right hand side and log in with your Royal Holloway username and password…

To find exam papers, you can either search for the course code, e.g. IY5501 or you can browse by Department.

And the good news? All exam papers can be downloaded as PDFs!

If you have any questions, please let us know! Happy revising and good luck in all of your exams!

via GIPHY

How can I find my Reading List stuff?!

So, term has started and you know you’ve got some reading to do and you need to start finding those books and articles. Well, the Library is here to help! We have a fabulous reading list systems which stores all the reading lists we receive from the department. It then links directly to the Library Catalogue to show you how many copies we have and where to find them!

This post will show you how to:

  • Find reading lists for your course
  • Use reading lists to find library resources
  • Download your reading lists

Reading List Guide

Check out our PowerPoint here to find out all you need to know about accessing and using reading lists.

Have a go yourself!

 

Check out one of your own reading lists for your course here: readinglists.rhul.ac.uk 

TIP: Try using the Course code e.g. GL1460 or the course title Igneous and Metamorphic Geology

Need help?

If you get stuck, we’re always happy to help. You can either email your Information Consultant, the Reading List Team or the Library.

Meet the Library Liaison Team: Emma Burnett

Could you introduce yourself, and let us know your job title?

I’m Emma Burnett and I work as an Information Consultant within the Library’s Academic Liaison team.

work_profile-web

How long have you been at Royal Holloway Library?

Just over 3 years.

What is your role within the Library?

I work with several departments (Economics, European Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Politics & International Relations and Social Work) and try to ensure that the Library has the resources they require. Another key part of my role is providing information literacy training. Information literacy is a skill for life, not just for University. It involves recognising your need for information, having the ability to know where and how to access that information, managing the information once you’ve found it and using it in an ethical manner. For more information, please see http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/infolit

Have you always worked in Libraries?

Since I joined the real world, after taking a post-university gap year to see the world, yes.

What did you want to be when you were little?

I wanted to be a vet! I’ve always loved animals, especially cats. I have 2 gorgeous cats at home.

Do you have any heroes and if you do, why are they your heroes?

I don’t really have any heroes but I do very much admire Margaret Atwood. I’ve seen her speak a few times and she’s got such an incredible mind.

What did you study?

I hold a degree in European Studies from the University of Hull, which included a year in Italy. I also have a Masters in Librarianship from the University of Sheffield.

Do you have a favourite book, and why?

I have many favourites! Remains of the Day is one of them. I studied this at A Level and think it’s a beautifully written novel. Also a great film (if you haven’t ever seen it, you can watch it for free on BoB https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/000809CD?bcast=94981462).

If you had a superhero alter ego, what would they be named, and what would your super power be?

Completely drawing a blank here, sorry! My favourite superhero(ine) is batgirl, as she was a librarian too 🙂 batgirllibrarian

What project/event are you most looking forward to in the upcoming year? (Library related!)

Teaching information skills sessions in our new library training room.

Describe working in the library in 3 words

Lots of tea!

What advice would you give to a new student?

Use the Library’s vast array of resources! These are a huge privilege of being at University so take advantage of them and you’ll reap the benefits in your studies.

Check out the Subject Guides to find out who your librarian is, and read more interviews here.

Resource of the Week: Web of Science

Web of Science (WoS) is a bibliographic database; that is, a database which shows what has been written on a topic, but does not necessarily provide you with full-text access. Despite the name, Web of Science (WoS) contains something for everybody. It includes the Science, Social Science, and Arts and Humanities subject areas. WoS cannot cover everything in such wide areas as those: in fact, it only covers about 5% of the journals published. However, it covers the core titles, the journals which are most cited in each field each year.

This makes it an excellent first choice for exploring a subject. You get to see what has appeared in the main journals for that subject area, and it does not include anything that will be too obscure or hard to find. For undergraduate work, this is ideal! Researchers have the further option to search for papers which cite the key papers on their topic, to see how the field has progressed.

SEARCHING

The search form is a single search bar, like Google and LibrarySearch. What WoS does, even better than Google, is help you make better, more relevant searches by clicking on “Add another field”. This option allows you to build a really clever search string using combining words such as AND to make your results more specific, or OR to broaden your results. (NOT is also very handy if you find you’re getting a lot of irrelevant results, e.g. you’re searching for AIDS the disease, but you’re finding a lot on hearing aids, using NOT hearing will exclude those irrelevant results!)

An example search using the above combining terms:

WOS Example search

Note the quotation marks around “United Kingdom”, which specifies that we only want those two words together as a phrase.

Notice in the black banner at the top that we are searching “Web of Science core collection” but there is an orange arrow by it. Clicking that gives the option to search other databases, in particular Biosis Previews, which lets you search the largest single life science database from 1969 to 2008. You can also choose “All databases” to search them all at the same time. This makes WoS the core resource for biologists.

When the results appear, the FindIt@RHUL tab appears underneath each result. Click on this and it will take you to a LibrarySearch page to see if we have access to the full-text.

REFINING YOUR SEARCH RESULTS

Below shows the results for the above example search terms. Looking at them, you may notice that they really do not seem to be that relevant to my search terms. You’ll notice at the top of the results there is a ‘Sort by’ option and it shows that these results have been ordered by the date they were published, not by relevance to my search terms:

WOS Search results

By clicking on the drop down button and selecting ‘Relevance’, the results now listed appear more relevant to my search terms:

wos 4

On the left hand side, you can refine your results further by searching for an additional keyword within these results. On the right hand side, you can see there is a ‘Times Cited’ option. This shows you who else has referenced this article and may lead you to find other useful articles on the same topic.

(You can even sort the results to show those articles cited the most times, but beware: they may may not necessarily be cited for the right reasons! Other researchers may have found a flaw in the author’s research!)

SAVING YOUR SEARCHES

You can create yourself a free account to save your searches and relevant results. You can also send the results to a Reference Management Tool such as EndNote Online, RefWorks or other similar tools.

You’ll notice that above the results, there is a “Save to EndNote online” option. This is because the owners of Web of Science also own EndNote(!), so do not be put off if you prefer another reference management tool! Click on the arrow beside this option and you will find more options to save your results.

This is very much a whistle-stop guide to Web of Science and its various functions! If you have any questions about WoS or want to learn more, please do contact us: library@rhul.ac.uk

Happy researching y’all!

Mass Observation Archive Online

The library now has access to the Mass Observation Archive online.

Mass Observation Archive Online is an online archive of British social history from 1937- 1972, with a focus on the World War Two period (1939-1945). The Mass Observation research project involved the scientific observation of public attitudes and opinions. Mass Observation online is an online archive of the original research documents created by the University of Sussex library. There is a large amount of help information available here.

Key features

  • File reports on a range of subject areas (1937-1972)
  • Day Surveys and Diaries recording every-day experiences and opinions of the general public (1937-1945)
  • Directives recording opinions of the general public on pre-determined research topics (1939-1945)
  • Books and Essays published by the Mass Observation project
  • Other personal papers collected by the Mass Observation research project

Subjects who might find this useful

  • History
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Sociology
  • Criminology
  • Media Arts
  • Geography

To read about using the physical archive you can view this post by one of our librarians who used it in her MA.

Meet the Library Liaison Team: Emma Burnett

Could you introduce yourself, and let us know your job title?

I’m Emma Burnett and I work as an Information Consultant within the Library’s Academic Liaison team.

work_profile-web

How long have you been at Royal Holloway Library?

Just over 3 years.

What is your role within the Library?

I work with several departments (Economics, European Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Politics & International Relations and Social Work) and try to ensure that the Library has the resources they require. Another key part of my role is providing information literacy training. Information literacy is a skill for life, not just for University. It involves recognising your need for information, having the ability to know where and how to access that information, managing the information once you’ve found it and using it in an ethical manner. For more information, please see http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/infolit

Have you always worked in Libraries?

Since I joined the real world, after taking a post-university gap year to see the world, yes.

What did you want to be when you were little?

I wanted to be a vet! I’ve always loved animals, especially cats. I have 2 gorgeous cats at home.

Do you have any heroes and if you do, why are they your heroes?

I don’t really have any heroes but I do very much admire Margaret Atwood. I’ve seen her speak a few times and she’s got such an incredible mind.

What did you study?

I hold a degree in European Studies from the University of Hull, which included a year in Italy. I also have a Masters in Librarianship from the University of Sheffield.

Do you have a favourite book, and why?

I have many favourites! Remains of the Day is one of them. I studied this at A Level and think it’s a beautifully written novel. Also a great film (if you haven’t ever seen it, you can watch it for free on BoB https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/000809CD?bcast=94981462).

If you had a superhero alter ego, what would they be named, and what would your super power be?

Completely drawing a blank here, sorry! My favourite superhero(ine) is batgirl, as she was a librarian too 🙂 batgirllibrarian

What project/event are you most looking forward to in the upcoming year? (Library related!)

Teaching information skills sessions in our new library training room.

Describe working in the library in 3 words

Lots of tea!

What advice would you give to a new student?

Use the Library’s vast array of resources! These are a huge privilege of being at University so take advantage of them and you’ll reap the benefits in your studies.

Check out the Subject Guides to find out who your librarian is, and read more interviews here.

How to access Exam Papers

Very good luck in your exams! Here are some tips for reading past papers:

1. Are you on campus? If yes, carry onto 2.
If no, please use CampusAnywhere (If you don’t do this, you might not be able to see the papers.)

2. If you’re using Moodle: click on the Past Exam Papers link on the right to go through to past papers for that course code only.

past papers

3. To search the Past Papers database directly, go to the Library homepage, and click Exam Papers.

past papers homepage

4. Check you are logged in by looking in the top right hand corner – if it says log out your are logged in. If not then please log in.exam papers login

You can browse by Course Code, Department, and Year – and all exam papers can be downloaded as PDFs.

accesspaper

If you have any questions, please let us know!

MediaHub

MediaHub provides a single search point for all the images and films from the collections of Education Image Gallery, Film and Sound Online, NewsFilm Online plus other services including the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) Image Bank.

You can find it in the Databases A-Z, under M.

Explore by Collection to see all of the video and image collections, including ITV News archives from 1953 – 2007; Channel 4 News archives from 1982 – 2007; Channel 5 News archives from 1997 – 2004; Gaumont Graphic British News from 1920 – 1934.

MediaHub Collections

 

Anything with the JISC MediaHub logo has been cleared for use in education and teaching, but MediaHub also searches lots of external collections too – these will be clearly marked with information for re-use.

As it’s Library Loves Art month, we’re particularly excited by the Fitzwilliam Museum collections in Cambridge. “Images covering a wide range of pictorial content drawn from the rich, diverse and internationally significant collections of The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, including major artists such as Canaletto, J.M.W. Turner, George Stubbs and John Constable. Every image is tagged by geographical location and a date or period.”

Self-portrait, with the Colosseum, Rome. Maarten van Heemskerck. 1553. The Fitzwilliam Museum
Self-portrait, with the Colosseum, Rome. Maarten van Heemskerck. 1553. The Fitzwilliam Museum

 

Search Techniques

MediaHub defaults to an OR search, so the system will bring back media containing any of the keywords you search for. e.g. vietnam war brings back results with ‘vietnam’, ‘war’, or both

To make sure that your results contain all of the words you search for, use +. e.g. +vietnam +war brings back results with both ‘vietnam and war’

To exclude one particular word, use -. e.g. asia -korea brings back results with asia, but none with korea.

You can use the simple search box at the top of the page, and access many more options by selecting ‘Advanced Search‘.

Sharing

Images and videos can be saved and downloaded in a number of formats, and you can access a permanent link to the media so that it can be shared.

More Information

Box of Broadcasts (BoB) version 3.0

Box of Broadcasts has been updated and improved over Christmas – have you met BoB yet? BoB is an interactive media streaming service which is available both on and off campus anywhere within the UK. It’s a bit like BBC iPlayer but BoB can offer you much more. It is available for free to any RHUL student or staff member – although you will need to register your account to use.

If you regularly find yourself missing arts and cultural documentaries or any sort of radio or television programme you can now catch up whenever you like using Box of Broadcasts (BoB).

Quickstart tutorial:

What can you do using BoB?

Record programmes:
Once you have registered, you can request recordings of radio or television programmes broadcast up to 30 days ago, or to be broadcast in up to 30 days – up to 5 recordings a day.
You can record from any of the regular freeview channels, including BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, BBC 4, BBC Parliament, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, Channel 4, More4, Film4, ITV, Aljazeera, BBC radio channels, CNN, France24, RaiNews24 – and more. For a full list, check the BoB Programme Guide.
Any requested programmes are then available in the archive and also in your ‘My BoB’ area.

Recording a programme:

Search the programme archive:
The BoB archive allows you to access not just programmes that you have requested but also programmes that users from any subscribing institution have requested. You can also access any publically available playlists and clips. Programmes remain in the archive indefinitely.
Look out for ‘Also available via Box of Broadcasts’ stickers on DVDs in the Founder’s Library, and use BoB to view films and programmes for your course.
Searching now allows you to view upcoming programmes which may be of interest. To only view currently available clips, choose ‘Available now’ under ‘Availability’ on the left hand side of the page once you have searched.

Create playlists and clips:
To add a programme to a playlist just click on the ‘Add to playlist’ link at the side of the programme. To create a clip from a programme click on the ‘Create clip’ link under the programme. All programmes, playlists or clips on BoB are given a persistent URL so their location will not change.

Creating clips:

Organise videos and clips using MyBoB:
Using your ‘My BoB’ area you can manage and access any recordings you have requested. Any programmes you have requested are listed here; if a programme has yet to be uploaded to the archive it will display a clock icon next to the title, once it is available to view the link will display as dark blue. You can delete a programme from your ‘My BoB’ area by clicking ‘Remove’

Please add your email address to BoB now – we will be making some changes to this log in process over the next term, and this will allow you to retain access to your clips and playlists.

Cite videos in your work:

Under each video clip are a series of tabs – click on ‘How to cite this’ to find citation information for the clip. NB. You may need to edit the order of this information to match your citation style.

Read and search transcripts of programmes:
Beside each video are scrolling subtitles of the programme – when you search in BoB you are searching not only the programme information, but the transcripts too.

How to register

Your first visit:

  • Go to Log in on the front page
  • Choose your organisation to log in: Type Royal Holloway University of London in the box
  • The first time you log in you will be taken to an Athens login authentication point. Do not use the Athens login box, but instead click on “Alternative login”, to the bottom left of the box.
  • In the quick search box type in Royal Holloway, click on “Go” and Royal Holloway should appear at the top of the list.
  • Click on this link, which will take you to a page which allows you to “Go to the Royal Holloway, University of London login page”.
  • You should first tick the “Remember this organisation on your computer” box, then follow the “Go to the Royal Holloway, University of London login page” link.
  • Enter your College username and password, click on “Login” and you will be taken to Box of Broadcasts, where you can register for an account.

Please add your email address to BoB now – we will be making some changes to this log in process over the next term, and this will allow you to retain access to your clips and playlists.

Subsequent visits:

  • Follow the link to Box of Broadcasts, and go to ‘Log in’ on the front page
  • If the system remembers, it will ask if you want to ‘Log in using your Royal Holloway University of London login’.
  • If not, in the ‘organisation log in’ box, type in Royal Holloway and click on “Go to login”.
  • Follow the “Go to the Royal Holloway, University of London login page” link.
  • Enter your College username and password, click on “Login” and you will be taken to Box of Broadcasts.

Once you’ve registered, try searching the archive. It’s a great source of films and cultural programmes, as well as news reports and documentaries.