Category Archives: Library Loves

Blind Date with a Book

Do you judge a book by its cover? Put your trust in fate and take a chance on a blind date.

blinddateposter

We have collected together some mystery titles for you take away with you  – Fiction in Founders and Non-Fiction in Bedford.

To meet your blind date:

  • Come to the libraries from 24th Mayheart lonely
  • Choose a blind date book from the display.
  • Issue it using the self issue machines
  • Take it home and unwrap it.
  • Tweet us about it! As we all know, blind dates don’t always go well but some can lead to true love.
  • Help others with an honest review… #blinddatewithabook

Founders display20160523_160941

Literature Online (LION)

Literature Online has a new look! So what better time to feature it as Resource of the Week. If you’ve never used Literature Online, it’s got some really useful features and a huge collection of over 330,000 works of English and American literature covering poetry, drama, and prose from the 8th to the 21st centuries. LION also includes thousands of critical articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries.

How to find it:

On your subject guide

OR

Go to the Databases A-Z
Go to L
Click on the Literature Online link

Quick Search: searches all content, including texts (poetry, prose, drama), literary works, criticism and reference.

LitOnlinequicksearch

Text Search: find full texts of poetry, prose and drama, but author or literary movement.

Use the ‘Look up’ function to get more reliable results.

LitOnlinetextsearch

View texts by this author to read full texts of their works. You can also search for works in a particular genre, or by an author in a certain time period, or of a particular nationality.

LitOnlinetextsby Bryon

Author search: find biographies, full texts, criticism and reference on a particular author

LitOnlinesearchwithinausten

Use the ‘search within text’ function to search for instances of words of phrases in a particular work

LitOnlinesearchwithinresults

Criticism search: find full texts of articles on a topic of your choice.

LitOnlinecriticism

Reference search: find biographies of authors, bibliographies on certain topics, and more. Use the ‘look up’ function to be more specific.

Tick ‘biographies’ to search for biographical information on authors.

LitOnlinereferencebiography

For more hints and tips, go to the Literature Online guide.

 

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Your Librarians

liaison

Did you know that every subject has its own librarian? The Liaison Team is here to help you with queries, finding books, searching databases, visiting other libraries, referencing, and general library questions too. We’re a pretty friendly bunch, and we’re easy to contact – so drop us a line if you’ve any questions to ask!

Helen: Head of Academic Liaison, European Studies, Geography, Politics and International Relations

Russell: Classics, Criminology & Sociology, Geography, History, Modern Languages, Music

Kim: Drama and Theatre, English, Media Arts, Royal Holloway International, Management, Politics & International Relations, European Studies, Philosophy

Adrian: Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Computer Science, Mathematics, Information Security, Psychology, Economics, Social Work

Nancy: Research, Open Access, Physics

For more information, and contact details of your librarian, visit the Library’s Subject Guides, and check out the series of interviews we did last term.

Referencing essentials: RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based tool that is free to use for undergraduates and taught postgraduates. It will help you to capture, save and organise references, create bibliographies in a range of difference styles that can be used in a range of Word processing tools. You can access it on- and off-campus, from any PC which has internet access.

How do I access it?

  1. Go to the Citing and Referencing Tab on your Subject Guide OR the Citing and Referencing Guide.
  2. Click on the RefWorks Link.
  3. Create your account:

When you first use RefWorks you will need to register. From off campus, you also need our Group Code which is RWRoyalH. Then fill in your registration details as follows:

  1. Your name
  2. Your email address
  3. Choose your login name and password (we recommend using your RHUL IT username e.g. abcd123)
  4. Select your user type (e.g. undergraduate)
  5. Select your focus area (e.g. humanities)
  6. Select ‘register’ to finish

Using RefWorks

  • You can import information on books, journal articles, webpages from databases like LibrarySearch, or using the Ref-GrabIt tool.

SendtoRefWorks

  • RefWorks creates a database of your references and you can search it, and organise it into folders

RefWorks folders

  • Use RefWorks to generate an automatic bibliography

CreateBib

  • Insert footnotes or references into your dissertation, or assignment.

What if I have questions?

 

Library loves…Dissertations

April is the final push to many dissertation deadlines, and we know that this is a very busy time. For those of you finishing, or even for those of you just starting, this month is about all things dissertation (not forgetting projects and portfolios too!).

Here’s a list of things the library can help with:

  • More Books: if you need a book, just fill in the book suggestions form. In the Autumn Term we bought over 100 individual titles based on your requests, and it’s never too late to ask.

MoreBooks

  • Visiting other libraries: if you want to borrow/visit another UK university Library, SCONUL is a great national scheme that allows you to do so for free. Fill in the online form, and take your approval email with your RHUL RCS card to other libraries taking part in the scheme and you’re in!
  • Inter-Library Loan: did you know you can request to borrow books, journals, journal articles, even doctoral theses from other libraries? There’s lots of information here, and if you’re after something in particular, this can be great.
  • Referencing and bibliographies: referencing is important, but it can be time-consuming. We know you’d rather spend that time reading up and writing, so don’t forget that the Library can help with referencing styles and referencing tools – in fact, we’ve a whole guide dedicated to it! Keep watching the blog for in depth information on the different tools available so you can choose the best one for you and your dissertation.

 

"Bibliography" by Alexandre Duret-Lutz. C BY-SA. Flickr.
“Bibliography” by Alexandre Duret-Lutz. C BY-SA. Flickr.

 

  • Opening hours: Bedford Library is already open 24/5 (8.30 Sunday – 21.00 Friday, 8.30 – 21.00 Saturday) but from Sunday 20th April to Friday 30th May the library will be open 24/7. This is a very busy time for us, so please take care of the space, and yourselves: keep things clean, free up study spaces for others if you don’t need them, keep the noise down, and remember to go home from time to time!
  • Space to Study: if you’re looking for another place to study on campus, be sure to check the Space to Study webpages. We’ve teamed up with departments across campus to free up more study space you can use when inspiration strikes, and the list will continue to grow!
  • Your Librarians: every subject has its own librarian, and our job is to help you find information, get hold of the right books and journals, and help you with those tricky bibliographies. Drop us an email, or pop into Bedford Library for a chat – it’s what we’re here for!

And finally – don’t forget that there’s another department dedicated to helping you write the best essays and build the best study skills. Visit the Academic Support webpages for access to the online skills4studycampus course, help with time management, essay structure, and much more.

Follow the #librarylovesdissertations hashtag and click on librarylovesdissertations tagcloud on the blog for further updates.

Best of luck!

Metropolitan Museum of Art books

New York’s famous Metropolitan Museum of Art has a catalogue of 1,300 books published in the last five years available for free via Google Books. Current book titles that are in-print may be previewed and fully searched online, with a link to purchase the book. The full contents of almost all other book titles may be read online, searched, or downloaded as a PDF.

Check out this list of full-text items freely available online!

The Met is a great source of Art history material – a perfect Resource of the Week for LibraryLovesArt Month!

MetPubs_SmallBanner

Library Loves… Art

February 2014 is Library Loves Art month – celebrating and showcasing all things artistic, look out for blog posts on some of our favourite resources and check the tags for archived posts as well.

Library Loves Art

What’s happening this month?

In Conversation with an Art Historian
Thinking about art history in your studies, or as a career? Join College Curator Laura MacCulloch in conversation with Librarian Kim Coles. Laura will discuss using art history in her studies and career, and what resources are available at Royal Holloway.

Monday 3rd February 12.30 – 13.30
Tuesday 18th February 12.30 – 13.30

To book a place, please visit our booking page – spaces are limited!

Art Gallery Talks: ‘Sympathy’ by Breton Riviere
This talk will look at one of the gallery’s most sentimental paintings. Find out more about the artist who painted it and his special connection to Royal Holloway’s Picture Gallery.

Thursday 13th February 13.00 – 14.00
Wednesday 26th February 13.50 – 14.20

For more information visit the Royal Holloway Events page.

Family Open Day at the Picture Gallery
To coincide with the Science Festival’s Super Science Saturday, the Royal Holloway Picture Gallery is having its first ever Family Open Day. Bring friends and family to visit the Gallery and find out more about its history.

Saturday 1st March 10.00 – 16.00

 

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.

Resources in Numbers

This January the Library Loves Resources – and we’ve updated our Pinterest board with some facts and figures to celebrate.

Number of e-books available

E-book poster

To find out how to find e-books using LibrarySearch watch the video below

Top 10 E-resources

Top10eresources poster

To find these databases, go to your Subject Guide, or the Databases A-Z

Student Book Requests

MoreBooks

In the Autumn Term, we’ve bought over 100 student requests. Don’t forget, you can request a book for your course or assignment using the More Books form.

Look out for more updates on The Library in Numbers!

2013 Exam Papers Are Go!

Exam papers for courses run in 2012-13 are now available!

The Exam Papers are held in Royal Holloway’s Institutional Repository, which holds all sorts of things from PhD theses to academic research and work.

You can access the Exam Papers in a couple of ways…

1)      Through Moodle (the link is usually found on the right hand side of the page under the “Library Resources” section)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92707537@N05/11871265186/

2)      Through the Library homepage
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92707537@N05/12048792384/

3)      Using the web address for the Institutional repository:

http://digirep.rhul.ac.uk

However you decide to access the exam papers, you should be greeted by the Repository homepage:
homepage

You will automatically be logged in as a guest, but this will NOT give you access to the exam papers. You will need to LOG IN using your computer username (i.e. abcd123 or wxyz456) and password to access the exam papers. Click on “Login (with CC Username)” found on the left hand side of the screen & then log on:
login

To view the available exam papers click on “Past Exam Papers” (second from the top of the listed collections). Exam papers are divided by subject area and most of these will be displayed on this first page. Clicking on the relevant department with link you through to the exam papers for that subject.

As you may have noticed, not all subjects are listed, like Criminology & Sociology or French for example. For those courses not listed here, you can view the available exam papers by doing either of the following:

1)      To view exams for each department by year, click on “Department/Year”.

2)      To see a list of all the courses for each department, click on “Department/Course Code”.

tool

When clicking on the desired year or course code, you will find that this takes you through to a page listing the Exam Papers as PDF files. From this click on the exam paper you want to see and this record will contain the PDF file, which you will be able to click on and download.

record with arrow

Hopefully this has proved a helpful “how to” guide on access the exam papers, but should you have any problems, please do not hesitate to contact the library: library@rhul.ac.uk