Training Sessions This Week

For Taught Students:
Using the Web of Knowledge – 4:15pm-5:05pm, Thur 12th Nov,  Library Level 5 Training Room
You can use the Web of Knowledge to search for information in journal articles from all areas of science. This session will explain what is included in the database and give you hints and tips on how best to search it.  See the Library web page to book a place.

For Research Postgraduates:
Literature Searching in Sport & Exercise Science and Health – 10:15am-12:15pm, Fri 13th Nov, Library Level 1 Training Room
If your research is in areas related to sport or medicine you might find this session helpful.   You will find out more a bout literature searching using, amongst other databases, Web of Knowledge, Cochrane Library and Pubmed.  Book a place through the University’s Postgraduate Skills Programme

Information on all our training sessions is given on the Library’s Infoskills web pages

Renewing Books Online

Remember, if you’ve borrowed 7 day, or 28 day loan books you can renew them without coming into the Library, as long as nobody else has place a hold on them (and you don’t have outstanding fines over £10!).   From the Library catalogue: http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/catalogue select ‘Your use of the Library’ followed by  ’Renew your loans’ .  Login with your Library card number and PIN and select ‘List items on loan’.    All you then need to do is select the books you want to renew and click on the ‘Renew Selected Items’  button (and remember to make a note of the date they’ll be due back next time!)

Library training workshops – sign up today!

Programmes of Library training sessions are currently underway, and workshops will run throughout the academic year.  If you want to find out more, check out the web links below.  You can even book your place online! 

• Workshops for undergraduates and taught postgraduates - book a place via SORTED
• Workshops for research postgraduates - book a place via the PG Skills Booking System

These sessions cover a range of Library and information skills including literature searching and the use of specific databases e.g. Compendex.   There’s also the opportunity to learn more about how to reference your work correctly and avoid plagiarism.

BUCS Maintenance weekend 13-14th December

Please be aware that on the weekend of the 13th and 14th December, BUCS have scheduled network maintenance that will impact upon your use of university PCs and library services.

For all intents and purposes, there will be no access to the web using campus PCs over this weekend,. PCs based in the library will be offline as well as those located in various labs and e-lounges. There will be no access to any departmental webpages, no links to library services and online resources from on or off campus and Moodle will also be unavailable.

Copying and Printing services in the library will also be affected and will not be available.

New book loans can be issued manually during staffed hours, but the self-issue machines will be offline and there will be no provision for any loan renewals and you will not be able to place any reservations/holds over this weekend.

Most of you will probably have finished course assignments before this weekend, but if you do for any reason have a submission date early in the week beginning 15th December, PLEASE plan ahead to make sure you have obtained all the materials you need and printed out any work before the 13th of December.

“Hidden Gems” – Library books you haven’t time to find!

Whatever you may think, it is not a library goal to make books difficult to find, but sometimes requested titles are added to stock and for whatever reason rarely, if ever, leave the shelf. This new “Hidden Gems” series of blog entries will spotlight some of these pristine looking texts.

These books are not on any reading list. The titles may not be relevant to your research or teaching and, I won’t lie to you, you may not find any of the titles promoted here of interest! But with busy lecture schedules and assignment deadlines, it’s not always easy to find time to survey the bookshelves or interrogate the catalogue to find items you wouldn’t otherwise come across.

With the Summer vacation in mind, the hopeful thought that some of you are still on campus reading these entries and an idea you may have some leisure time to set aside for some light reading, I’ve picked out these two items to kick off with (available for loan from Level 3!):

“Twentieth Century Industrial Archaeology” by Michael Stratton & Barrie Trinder 600.5 STR

‘This book … shows how the archaeological record raises questions about some of the major issues of the twentieth century British history, the production of munitions in two world wars, the booms in house building of the inter-war period and the years between 1953 and 1973, the nature of coal-mining communities, and the take-up of scientific and technological innovations.’ (Taken from back cover)

“Industrial England” by Michael Stratton & Barrie Trinder 600.542 STR

‘Encompassing over fifteen years of study, this richly illustrated book offers new ways of understanding and appreciating the architecture and technology of our conserved industrial heritage’. (Taken from back cover)

Check back in the coming weeks when I will be adding some more titles that with more time you might have come across yourself. Any feedback you want to leave will of course be very welcome – post here by logging into WordPress or mail me direct with queries, suggestions and any other comments.

New Mechanical Engineering titles in January

These books were added to the stock for Mechanical Engineering in the last few weeks.  Click the weblinks to view the catalogue record and availability for each title.

Atala, Anthony
Principles of regenerative medicine, 2008

Hansen, L. Scott
Learning and applying solid edge V20 step by step, 2008

Thomas, W. John & Crittenden, B.
Adsorption technology and design, 1998

New e-Journals for Engineering

Following a change in the subscription arrangements, the library is very pleased to offer access to 8 more electronic journal titles from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. We will no longer receive any of the ASME titles in print-format, but many users will be very happy to have online access to the ASME journal content instead.

The new titles added to our existing electronic holdings are:

• Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics
• Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering
• Journal of Electronic Packaging
• Journal of Fuel Cell Science and Technology
• Journal of Medical Devices
• Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering
• Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology
• Journal of Solar Energy Engineering

Currently, you can find these journals by browsing the A-Z list of ejournals under “J”. Otherwise, you will be able to link directly to the full text of articles from these titles if you come across article references in one of our subscription databases (e.g. Web of Knowledge, Compendex)

Now you CAN find these titles by searching for the them using the ELIN resource.  Add them to your collection to receive regular email Table of Contents updates.

If this is your first visit to the Engineering & Design blog, please take a few moments to browse earlier posts to see if there is anything of interest to you. Users registered with the WordPress site can leave comments for any post. Otherwise please feel free to pass on any feedback or suggestions for anything else you think would be useful to post on this blog site directly to your Subject Librarian.

Thanks.

ZETOC versus ELIN

It sounds like an old Japanese monster movie but I’m talking about nothing more scary than Table of Contents alerting services today.

Some of you, especially if you are doing research work, may already be registered with the ZETOC service managed by the British Library to set up alerts and receive the Tables of Contents of your most frequently read journal titles by email.

The e-Library Information Navigator (eLIN) service linked from the library homepage will allow you to set up a collection of links to those journals you refer to most frequently and will also mail you Table of Contents (TOC) alerts for those titles.

The process is as simple as logging in to ELIN or registering an account with the service if you haven’t used it before. After that, you can use the Journals search page to look for your favourite Engineering & Design titles then ‘Add to your Collection’.

By default, all titles in your Collection will automatically send you TOC alerts to the email address you registered. You may find the ELIN service a bit more straightforward to use, the convenience of having links to your favourite journals saved in one place will stop you having to browse the epic A-Z e-journal listings and there’s even some evidence that the ELIN service can get TOC alerts out to you faster than ZETOC…

If you’ve any queries or problems using the service or would like more information about ELIN, don’t hesitate to contact your Subject Librarian.