All posts by Emma Burnett

Active: updated 25-JUN-2021 (OPYR162) no expiry

MyiLibrary e-books – save your notes now!

book and tabletThe Library provides access to e-books via several different platforms. One of these, MyiLibrary, is going to close in May. All e-books we have on this platform will be migrating to another site, Ebook Central, on Wednesday 25th April 2018. Ebook Central offers many excellent features, meaning you will have an improved experience when accessing e-books.

After the migration, you will still be able to access the e-books as normal via LibrarySearch.

Notes you have made within MyiLibrary e-books will not be carried over to Ebook Central. If you have created notes that you would like to keep, you will need to save these before 25th April. You can download a helpsheet with instructions on how to save your notes.

If you used the bookmarking or highlighting tools in MyiLibrary, please be aware that it is not possible to save these features.

If you have any questions or comments about this, please get in touch.

 

Resource of the week: Bloomberg and BMC

2000px-Bloomberg_logo.svg

This week we’re teaming up with Careers to promote Bloomberg, as part of Business and Finance Week, 9th – 13th October. This month, Careers also have a challenge to complete an online course, Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC), to learn more about Bloomberg and how the world of finance operates.

Bloomberg is a financial database that was created in the early 1980s. It’s interface is quite reminiscent of this decade, but don’t let that put you off! It is a super powerful resource that can provide a whole range of information.

Bloomberg login

If Bloomberg looks familiar, that’s because you’ve probably seen it on TV and film! In fact, in the past decade it’s starred alongside Kevin Spacey (Margin Call) and Christian Bale (The Big Short).

Unlike other resources, Bloomberg is only available on certain PCs around campus.  Bloomberg terminals can be identified by the keyboard, as shown below. This special keyboard has shortcut keys to make searching simpler.

bloomberg-keyboard-4-uk-cropped

Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) is a self-paced e-learning course that takes about 8 hours to complete. You can take for free on the Bloomberg terminals. It will introduce you to financial markets and some of the key functions on Bloomberg. Once completed, you will get a certificate, which you can use on your CV and LinkedIn profile. If you complete it during October, you will also get passport points, as it is the Passport Challenge for this month. If you are unsure where to start, please come to a Bloomberg Basics session in the Library, which are taking place 8am to 9am, 10th to 13th October. These will help you create a Bloomberg account and register for the BMC.

Sian Downes and Emma Burnett, Information Consultants from the Library, provide help and support with Bloomberg all year round, including training.

 

Resource Of The Week: Digimap

digimap-rgbThis week’s resource is the wonderful Digimap.

We subscribe to 5 Digimap collections: Ordnance Survey, Historic, Geology, Environment and Marine.

To begin, you just need to visit the Digimap site and log in as shown in the video below (turn on subtitles for captions):

You will then need to register to use the collections. Details of how to do this can be found on Digimap’s support pages. you will need to read and accept the terms and conditions of each one.

Each collection has two options:

  1. Roam – this is the easiest option. With Roam, you can view, annotate, print and save maps.
  2. Download – if you need to download data to GIS or CAD.

Which collection you need to use will depend on what information you need from the map. For example, if you want to know the rock types in a certain area, you will need to use the Geology collection. If you want to know how a city developed in the 20th century, you would choose Historic. The best way to discover the differences is to have a go using the collections by trying a Roam search for Poole in each one.

Digimap has an excellent YouTube Channel, with videos to help you get started.

If you have any questions about using Digimap, please contact Emma Burnett.

Have fun using Digimap!

Holocaust Memorial Day: the Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive

For Holocaust Memorial Day 2017, we would like to tell you about the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s Visual History Archive. This resource came about due to the film Schindler’s List, and its importance cannot be overstated.

The Shoah Archive contains 50,000 interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. Interviews are approximately two and a half hours long and some are supplemented with photographs, documents, and artefacts pertaining to the interviewee’s family and wartime experiences. Interviews are in a wide range of languages.
Interviewees speak on the following topics:

  • Jewish Survivors
  • Rescuers and Aid Providers
  • Sinti and Roma Survivors
  • Liberators and Liberation Witnesses
  • Political Prisoners
  • Jehovah’s Witness Survivors
  • War Crimes Trials Participants
  • Survivors of Eugenics Policies
  • Homosexual Survivors

As well as Holocaust testimonies, the Archive also includes testimonies from the Armenian Genocide that coincided with World War I, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Guatemalan Genocide of 1978-1996 and the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979.

It’s a unique resource and researchers often come from far and wide to view the videos.

How do I use it?
This resource is only available on campus. There is a link on the Databases A-Z, under V, and once you’re on the site, you will need to create an account in order to log in, search, and view videos. Once on the website, you must register to create a personal username and password.

Searching the archive
Searching is easy, you can search on a topic, for a name, and use links in the videos to skip to particular sections relevant to your interests. The USC Shoah Foundation has a YouTube Channel with lots of information, but we’ve collected searching tips in this playlist.

Have you used the archive? Do you think it would be useful in your research? Contact library@rhul.ac.uk for more information, or leave a comment below.

Library@ – find study spaces on campus!

We know there is a lot of pressure of study spaces at this time of year. To help address this, the College, the Library and the Students’ Union are working together to provide you with additional quiet spaces to study during this time.

For more information, please see the website.

Re-Welcome week for all students!

To our new International students, welcome! To our returning students, welcome back! To everyone, Happy New Year!

We’ve been working hard over the Autumn Term & the Christmas Vacation to ensure that this year the Library is better than ever for our users, from first years to finalists, PhD students to academics: we are here to help.

If you haven’t used them yet, the Library’s subject guides should be a first port of call for all your subject related needs. Please check them out & let us know what you think! Plus new ‘video tutorials’, moodle courses, lists of online resources and don’t forget LibrarySearch.

Week beginning 12/01/2015
During the first week of term, the library will be offering extra help and support for your essays and assignments. Come along to Bedford Library and we will be happy to spend some time showing you how to easily search for and find information on your topics and how to use the relevant resources for your topics. We can even help you with your bibliographies and references for your essays!

More Books?
In 2014, we spent over £26,000 on books that students requested. If there’s a book you need for your studies, suggest it to us!

Study Space Assistants
Say hi to our study space assistants they’lll be around the Library this Term, helping to find spaces to study and tweeting availability.

Opening hours
This term, Bedford Library will be open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week – 146 hours a week in total!

Information Skills training
We’re offering an extensive training programme this term. Find out more and sign up via our training pages.

New resource – Credo Reference

cors-2014-purple-hor

Researching a topic? You’ve probably been warned about the perils of using Wikipedia for your academic work, but what’s the alternative? The Library has recently subscribed to an excellent resource, called Credo Reference. Using Credo, you can find quality information from respected reference works, such as encyclopedias and dictionaries. It’s very easy to use and includes a mind mapping option, which allows you to see concepts that relate to your topic area. There is also an image search and you are free to use these images in your academic work (remember to cite and reference it).

Get started by watching this video:

 Then head to http://search.credoreference.com to try it out!

Senate House returns drop-box is now open 24/7!

Open24 hours
Image by Gareth Simpson https://www.flickr.com/photos/xurble/1328278000/

As a student of Royal Holloway, you have access to Senate House Library.

There is a Senate House returns drop-box on campus, which until recently has had limited opening hours. However, from now you can return your Senate House Library books whenever you wish. There is a security light to make it safe to deposit items when it’s dark.

A further improvement is that the box will now be emptied twice, rather than once, a day.

You can find the box at the University of London Despository – Building 39 on the campus plan.

 

#RHDigitalU: Digital Skills for University and Beyond

The Library has teamed up with Careers and CeDAS to offer you a series of digital skills sessions throughout November. These sessions can help you succeed in your studies as well as help improve your career prospects once you graduate.

  1. Careers are starting the series with a LinkedIn Day on Wednesday 12th November, which includes 2 workshops, a webinar, 1:1 appointments and a chance to get a professional photograph taken for your profile. You can just attend one part of the day or the whole programme – it’s up to you! Book now!

 

linkedin-day

 

2. On 19th November, the Library is holding a workshop on how you are perceived online. This is the ideal opportunity to check your online identity and ensure that nothing from your digital past could come back to haunt you. Book now!

digital-tattoo

 

3. On 26th November, there will be a workshop from CeDAS on apps that can help you with your research. Book now!

apps-academic-success

 

We can get it!

Need a book, journal article or thesis that’s not available at Royal Holloway?more books

Don’t panic and…

  1. …suggest a book!

Last year we spent over £100,000 on student requests through our More Books scheme. If there’s a book you need and we don’t have, fill out our form.

  1. …request an Inter-Library Loan!

We can source books, journal articles and theses from other libraries, even those located outside the UK, via the inter-library loan service.

  1. …register to use Senate House Library!

As Royal Holloway is part of the University of London, you have access to Senate House Library’s resources.

  1. …use another Library through Sconul Access!

Royal Holloway participates in Sconul Access, which allows staff and students from other participating Universities to use our libraries. By the same token, our staff and students can use their libraries. This may include borrowing rights.

To discover if another library holds a book or journal, try:

www.search25.ac.uk: For London and the South East

www.copac.ac.uk: For major research collections in the UK & Ireland

  1. …enjoy a trip to the British Library!

A reader’s pass to the British Library is essential for any researcher. Apply online. As well as their vast collections, you also have access to certain databases in their reading rooms.

6.  …find a thesis!

Theses can be tricky to track down, but our webpage has some tips on how to do so.

Lots more information available in our “We can get it” handbook.

If you are still struggling to find that key bit of research, contact your Information Consultant, who will be happy to assist.