IS News Blog

If you are researching topics within the environment, agriculture, applied economics or food science have a look at our month trial access to CAB Abstracts. The trial will finish on the 20th July 2010. To access this database go to: http://isiknowledge.com and from the Select a Database tab in Web of Knowledge choose CABI: (1973-present). For a full list of the topics and publications covered in CABI click here.

On Monday 28th June, Information Services will begin the process of transitioning our existing Shibboleth Identity Provider service to the latest version. Shibboleth is an authentication system used at Stirling to provide access to some
of the Library’s electronic resources (http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/itsupport/accounts/shibboleth.php  ) and this upgrade is necessary because the current system we are using becomes unsupported at the end of June.

Due to major differences between the old and the new versions, the transition to the latest version of Shibboleth is not a simple “in place upgrade”. Instead it will be necessary to run both the old and the new version in parallel, whilst we wait for the various Service Providers with whom we interoperate to move from the old service to the new one (a process we have no control over). Once all our Service Providers have switched to using our new Shibboleth Identity Provider service, then the old service will be switched off.

Information Services are obviously working hard to make this transition as seamless as possible to end users, but, because of the way Shibboleth works, it is not possible to fully test the new system against all our existing Service Providers until they have switched from the old to the new system. Therefore there may be a few teething problems, especially with Service Providers who do not regularly update their information about available Shibboleth Identity Providers. We therefore intend to closely monitor all services during this transition period so that any problems can be quickly identified and resolved.

To further help minimise any disruption during this transition period, we have also switched a number of our existing Shibboleth protected resources over to using EZProxy authentication on the A-Z list (http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/resource-db/az-list.php ).

These resources will be switched back to using Shibboleth as individual providers transition to our new Shibboleth system.

If you experience any problems getting access to any of the Library’s Shibboleth protected electronic resources during this transition period (or at any other time for that matter), please don’t hesitate to contact the Information Centre on infocentre@stir.ac.uk

Regards,

Michael White
Shibboleth Project Manager

The target date for opening the new Library building on Stirling Campus is Monday 30 August 2010. The building has now been handed back to the university and we have the summer to finish off the inside and move books, equipment, services and staff.

 

Most of this work will be happening in the background throughout the summer, but we will need to close the Interim Library from Wednesday 25 August to allow us to reopen in the new building on Monday 30 August.  During this period, the interim library stock and the services will be relocated.

 

We hope that this will not cause too much inconvenience and please let us know if there are any particular groups of students or staff who could be affected by this closure period.

 

The Study Zone (temporary building next to Library) will remain open up until the new library opens.

 

You can see pictures of the Library on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Stirling-New-Library-Project/52701324641?v=box_3

When the Library is open there will be a regular tours for anyone who is interested.

 

Stirling University Library
library@stir.ac.uk

There will be some disruption to the Student Print & Copy System on 21st and 22nd July due to an essential upgrade.

 

On 22nd July the student printers are expected to be down for approximately 2 hours.

 

Printing will be provided in the Information Centre in the Interim Library at Stirling and the Library Lending Desk in Highland for any student who requires printing during the down time on the 22nd July.

 

Margaret Angell
Resource Manager

The Stirling Campus Library has purchased copies of the British Film Institute’s top 100 British films of the 20th century, which includes classics such as Brief Encounter, the Third Man and the 39 Steps. As we are now in the vacation period these DVDs can be borrowed for 7 days, rather than 24 hours. A full list of these DVDs can be see at http://delicious.com/StirInfoCentre/BFI and this list can be manipulated using the tags at the right hand side of the screen to show the films in the order they were listed by the British Film Institute.

 

Also available in the Stirling Campus Library are copies of the winners of the Man Booker Prize, http://delicious.com/StirInfoCentre/manbookerprizewinner and the winners of the Orange Prize for fiction http://delicious.com/StirInfoCentre/orangeprizewinner as well as books which were recently voted the top 100 books of all time, http://delicious.com/StirInfoCentre/100topbookslist. Nearly all of these books can be borrowed for 4 weeks.

 

For more information about joining the Library and finding these books and DVDs in the building please see: http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/libraries/collections/summer.php

Subject: Latest edition of ISSUE (IS newsletter) now out   The latest edition (number 81, June 2010) of the Information Services newsletter, ISSUE, is now available on the IS web site at:   http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/aboutis/issue.php  

 

Printed copies will be available later this week.  

 

Steve Boulton

ISSUE Editor

Academic Liaison and Development

Information Services

(01786) 466883

steven.boulton@stir.ac.uk

Search ChemSpider for chemical structures from your mobile phone. From your phone go to http://cs.m.chemspider.com

For the full version go to the Subject Research Guides for Biology or Biochemistry or click on http://www.chemspider.com

7th – 13th June is Alzheimer’s Scotland’s dementia awareness week. All of the university’s libraries have collections of books and electronic resources on this topic, a full list of these resources can be seen here. In addition we have a collection of Stirling authored research about dementia available from STORRE our institutional repository. The Stirling Campus is also home to the Dementia Services Development Centre which has a specialist library with a collection of 12,000 items about dementia. More information and a link to the Dementia Services Development Centre library catalogue is available here.

The Library has a trial of The Times newspaper’s Digital Archive (1785 – 1985) until the end of June 2010. You can access the archive from the A-Z list of online resources. We’re keen to know what you think about this resource, please send us your comments via our blog or in an email to library@stir.ac.uk