Tag Archives: books

LibrarySearch update: finding books and articles

Happy New Year! Over the Christmas break we’ve been upgrading our Library Management System, and with it, LibrarySearch has had a little update too.

You’ll notice that some of the functions look a little different, so for this week we’ll be updating the blog with guides to some of the essentials.

Finding a Book

  1. Search for the item in the Books, Music and Films search.
  2. Choose ‘Get It’. Under ‘Availability’ you will see how many copies of the books are available for loan – if you sign in you can view more information e.g. due dates.
  3. Choose ‘Sign In for more options’ and log in.
  4. Click on the link under location to see all items e.g.One week loan. You will also be able to see any books on loan once you have logged in.

Finding a Journal Article

  1. Search for the title or topic in the ‘All’ search.
  2. Click ‘View It’ to see where the article/ebook is available.
  3. Click one of the links after ‘Full text available at:’ to view the article/ebook.

Accessing the Library over the Winter Break

The Libraries are open until 23rd December, but the Library Service is closed on campus and online from 24th December – 3rd January inclusive. 

Books or DVDs that you borrow or renew from the last week of term will be due back once the Spring Term starts – please log into your Library Account before the end of term and check your due dates.

You will be able to access all electronic journals and electronic books over the Winter break – please use LibrarySearch or the Subject Guides to do this. For help over the break, take a look at your subject guide, or our YouTube Channel.

We are upgrading our system! This means that from 30th December until 6th January you will not be able to:

  • Place hold requests (hold requests that you place before 30th December should be carried over, but if you find that you need an item, please place hold through LibrarySearch after 7th January)
  • Pay your fines online (if you have an outstanding amount that needs paying before you can renew books, please do this before 30th December. We will be happy to look into any fines accrued over the upgrade period – please let us know when we’re back in January.)
  • Borrow or return books (if you’re back on campus on 4th/5th January, please bring any books for loan or return to the Library helpdesks)
  • View location or loan information about print books and DVDs on LibrarySearch (information may be out of date while we switch systems, so to find out whether a book is on the shelf please call or visit the Library once we are open on 4th and 5th January.)

Our new system also means that we will need more time to process and complete book orders: if you have requested a book after 30th October, it might not be ready at the start of the Spring Term. If you urgently need a book, please ask your Librarian for an alternative method to get hold of it, or consider visiting another library, such as Senate House.

The Inter-Library Loans service will be closed and not accepting requests between 11th December and 11th January. If you are waiting for an item, please contact ill@rhul.ac.uk for more information, and if you need an item urgently you may need to visit another Library to access it.

Apologies for any inconvenience. Our new Library system should be more efficient and user friendly, but if you have any questions about using the Library over the Winter break, please contact library@rhul.ac.uk.

 

1000s more ebooks added to LibrarySearch

This month Library has added 1000s more ebooks covering all subject areas have been added to LibrarySearch. This is in addition to the large collection of ebooks already available to RHUL students, researchers & staff.

To find ebooks, just search for book titles as normal and if the ebook is available it will appear alongside print titles in the results list. Or select ‘Full text available’ from filter list on the left hand menu in the LibrarySearch results page.

(See the ‘how to find ebooks’ video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXrhB6L5D6c )

Search for ebooks on LibrarySearch

PLEASE NOTE: some ebooks offer a ‘preview’ of the first 50 pages before allowing you to access the rest of the content. If you receive a notice to say that you can preview the first 50 pages of the book (pages 1 to 50), but you want to view further than page 50, then click on the preview and then wait for 5 minutes. You should then see the following message:

“Preview Expired. The 5 minute, 50 page preview has expired. Would you like to continue reading? This will unlock the entire book”

Just click on ‘Continue reading’ and you can access the whole text.

This should all work smoothly, but if you have any problems accessing these texts, or if you want to check if a text is available as an ebook, just ask at the Library Help Desk or email:

library@rhul.ac.uk and we will look into this for you.

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

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!

What is your favourite book & why?

Some of the Library Liaison Team were asked what their favourite book (in the Library) was, & why?

The answers may surprise you! We hope you enjoy it!

We hope that your time at Royal Holloway will help to inspire some favourite things from books and places, to subjects and people!

You can catch the Library Liaison team 10am-12 noon everyday throughout Welcome Week in the Welcome Week tent in the South Quad.

Check out our Twitter for when your subject librarian is in the tent! https://twitter.com/RHUL_Library

Library Search – Find a Book

To find a book in Library Search you can use the search box on the main Library home page or the one on Library search:

Screen Shot 2013-06-20 at 4.13.39 pm

  • In the search box enter one or two key words from the title and the surname of the author

e.g. for  Study Skills Connected by Stella Cottrell, type: Cottrell study skills

  • Click the Search button
  • Click the Books, Music and Films tab to narrow the results to just books
  • When the search results appear you can also narrow to just e-book results, by clicking Electronic Books in the Collection menu or the Full Text Online option under Show Only

Screen Shot 2013-06-20 at 4.09.12 pm

  • Check that the search result matches yours i.e. the author, title and year of publication is correct.

Screen Shot 2013-06-20 at 4.16.06 pm

One or more of these links are displayed under each result

  • Find & Request – there are one or more printed copies of this book
  • View Online – this book is available as an e-book
  • Both Find & Request AND View Online – this book is available in print and as an e-book
  • View all versions of this title – there are multiple editions of this title and/or it is available in print and as an e-book
  • Screen Shot 2013-06-20 at 4.15.14 pm

Now  store your search results.