IS News Blog

Due to new procedures at the British Library we will only be allowing one renewal per DDS book due to the British Library now charging £4.20 for each renewal.  In addition if the book is not returned on time we will automatically be charged even if it is still in transit. 

 

The loan period for a book is now five weeks. We would ask users requiring a renewal to give DDS a weeks notice.

 

Document Delivery is a service not only for staff and postgraduates. Third and Final year students can register to use DDS for material not available in the library for any projects, book reviews and final year dissertations.

 

For more information see:
http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/libraries/dds/dds-stirling.php

 

Document Delivery Service
ill1@stir.ac.uk

StirGate is Stirling’s academic search engine. It will help you locate books and journal articles for your essays, reports and research. It searches many of the library’s electronic resources including the library catalogue, several large databases (including Historical Abstracts, Business Source Premier, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ERIC etc) and many of the library’s electronic journal archives (including Science Direct and JSTOR).

 

To help you get the most out of StirGate, Information Services is offering a series of free lunch time training sessions. Please note, you must book a place at these sessions, see below for details.

 

Stirling Campus

 

5th March 12 – 1

6th March 12 – 1

7th March 12 – 1

8th March 12 – 1

9th March 12 – 1

 

All sessions will be held in the Library Seminar Room. To book a place at one of these sessions please email library@stir.ac.uk. Hot and cold drinks and muffins will be available.

 

Highland Campus

 

7th March 1 -1:30 in the Library Training Room.

We have begun gathering a list of apps that might be useful for your studies or research. If you are a student you can login to the App Wiki, add apps and comment on entries. Students and staff can view and rate the apps.

Access the App Wiki directly or from the A-Z list of online resources or from the mobile phones and tablet help pages.

Let me know if you have found a useful app!

Elizabeth Andrews

Subject Librarian

Do you use any Web 2.0 technology in your research? Would you like to share your experience with other researchers at the University of Stirling at an informal Teach Meet event? The University of Stirling’s inaugural Web 2.0 Teach Meet event will take place on Tuesday 27th March from 2pm until 4pm in the Enterprise Zone in the Stirling Campus Library. We would like to invite speakers to deliver short presentations (5 or 10 minutes max) on how they use Web 2.0 tools in research. If you are interested please contact Sarah Kevill: s.j.kevill@stir.ac.uk

 

What do we mean by Web 2.0 technology? Here are a few examples: podcasts, wikis, Facebook, mobile apps, YouTube, blogs, social bookmarking, geospatial applications and mashups.

 

What is a Teach Meet? It’s an informal sharing of experience event at which several speakers deliver short presentations. It’s free and refreshments will be available!

Microsoft have announced that they are ending their ‘Ultimate Steal’ offer which has allowed students to buy Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc)  at discounted prices.

 

From 1st April, companies which offer the Ultimate Steal deal (usually c£40) will no longer be able to sell Office at a discounted rate to students.  The Ultimate Steal will be replaced by Microsoft Office University 2010 which Microsoft are currently selling for £69.99.

 

To benefit from the discounted rate, go to the IS web page ‘Guide to buying IT’ and follow the links to the different authorised software sellers. Check all to see which is cheapest then buy online.

 

Information Centre

The new Staff Card will now operate as your Library Card.

 

The new card data has been used to create a new library record which has been merged with your old library record so that all books on loan, your borrowing history etc is preserved.

 

The one thing that you will have to do is reset your password for accessing “My Library Record”. Go to the Library catalogue and click on “my record”, followed by “forgot your password” and follow the instruction on screen.

 

If you have not yet collected your new Staff Card, you may for now continue to borrow on your existing card. If you encounter any difficulty with your new card in the Library, please go to the Lending Services desk at the Information Centre on level 2.

 

If you require assistance with resetting your PIN, please phone 01786 46(6620) and select option 1 for the Library then 1 for Lending Services.

 

Lending Services

Getting started with a University Library can be a daunting prospect. To help overcome this Information Services is running two free training sessions on 27th and 28th February 2012 which will cover:

 

• how to search the library catalogue
• finding printed and electronic books
• finding printed and electronic journals
• how to use the short loan area
• how to renew books online

 

The informal training will take place in the Library Seminar Room on the Stirling Campus from 11 – 12. There is no need to book, simply turn up with your reading list.

British Library Sounds is a gateway to explore an amazingly diverse collection of sound recordings. Previously known as Archival Sound Recordings this resource was relaunched at the end of January 2012. To access British Library Sounds use the A-Z list of online resources.

 

Here are some of the types of recordings British Library Sounds contains:

• examples of accents and dialects from across the UK
• wildlife recordings from across Europe
• oral history recordings
• classical music including recordings of works by Bach, Mozart and Chopin
• world and traditonal music collections

Materials can be used for teaching, learning and research purposes.

Succeed can now notify you via email of events in Succeed such as a new item of content being added to a module that you are taking or that a new assignment, survey or test is available along with other events. A short document has been created on how to set up email notifications: 

http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/teaching/Succeed/help-guides_students.php

 

Please note that notifications are for staff too! Certain events in the system are for staff (like an assignment being submitted). See the document for details.

 

Notifications can also be accessed on your smartphone via mStir – http://m.stir.ac.uk  - and look for the Succeed Notifications icon. You will need to login to mStir to see your notifications (this service should be available from Thursday 16th February).

 

Simon Booth

Succeed Administrator

Succeed will be taken down at 8.00am on Wednesday 15th February to make some small changes to the configuration of the system and update a security certificate. The system should be down for no more than 30 minutes. 

 

Apologies for any inconvenience.

 

Simon Booth
Succeed Administrator