Thomson Reuters have recently announced the introduction of UK Dockets in Westlaw UK, included in our academic subscription.
A docket is a record of litigation events as a case goes through the courts, starting when a claim is filed through to judgment.
You can access UK Dockets from the Cases menu. This brand-new content set containing over 230,000 litigation events will make it easier for you to receive daily updates of new cases filed in the High Court — all in one place.
With UK Dockets on Westlaw, you can easily:
create daily alerts on new cases, specific courts or parties, and other events
track individual cases and be alerted to any changes
access every step of the case journey from a claim being filed to judgment and through to the appeals process
Having access to UK Dockets on Westlaw can provide you with confidence around never missing a case event.
Access Westlaw Edge UK and UK Dockets via our Subject Guide.
If you have any feedback on the service, please contact libraryhelp@ncl.ac.uk or leave your comments below.
Westlaw is one of our much-valued legal databases and can be accessed via our Law Subject Guide and Library Search, logging in with your Newcastle University Campus ID & password. One of the lesser-used aspects of Westlaw is its Books collection and it’s a resource that should not be overlooked.
Westlaw Books gives access to invaluable titles such as the White Book and Archbold, alongside comprehensive and authoritative coverage of common law through titles from the Common Law Library series, including Charlesworth & Percy on Negligence, Chitty on Contracts, and Benjamin’s Sale of Goods. While these are titles you will use more regularly in practice, all Newcastle Law School students are encouraged to become familiar with them during your time at University.
We also have academically-based books available in the Sweet & Maxwell Academic Collection to support your studies. These include Winfield & Jolowicz on Tort, Treitel on the Law of Contract, Megarry & Wade on the Law of Real Property, and Elliott & Wood’s Cases and Materials on Criminal Law (the latter being written and edited by former academics of Newcastle Law School).
To access this content, log into Westlaw and click on Westlaw Books in the menu at the top of the page.
You can browse through the 350+ titles included in the Library’s subscription plan, but if you know the book you are looking for, search by a title keyword, e.g. criminal.
If you want to browse those student-focused books, use the filters on the left-hand side of the screen. Scroll down and select ‘Sweet & Maxwell Academic’ in the Publisher/Series filter section.
This short Thomson Reuters video (1:56 mins) gives tips on using Westlaw Books effectively in locating bibliographic information (essential for referencing these titles in your work), searching the materials using keywords, saving your favourite titles for repeated use, and how to email, print, download, save into a Westlaw folder or simply view the material on the screen (in reading-mode too).
If you’re not a fan of videos and want a handy guide to download or print, then this Westlaw Books PDF will help.
If you have any comments or questions about Westlaw Books, or any other library resource, please contact libraryhelp@ncl.ac.uk or leave your comments here.
You know Library Search. You use it every day when you’re at University. Why are you going to read a blog post on it? Well, we’re wondering if you’re using Library Search to its full potential. Not sure? Then read on.
Library Search is Newcastle University Library’s discovery tool – essentially it’s how you find resources on the library shelves and access those invaluable resources online. But what else can it do?
Log in. Using your usual Campus ID and password, you can open up the full functionality of Library Search by telling it who you are. It allows you to:
Log into your library account to see what books you have on loan (which you may be finished with and could return to any library site), those requests you’ve placed and any books you have on loan that may have been requested by someone else. The standard library stuff, but it’s important too.
Save items you want to come back to (that’ll save you writing them down somewhere else). Find that favourite item and ‘pin’ it to your record. You can then access a list of your favourite books, journals or journal articles and label (or tag) them as to why you may need them, e.g. Herbology, Professor Snape’s essay, or Field Trip to Hogsmeade. That makes it easy to see what you need to use for each lecture, seminar or assessment.
Permalink. You can share an item with someone if you want to – copy the permalink to the clipboard and send it to someone you know may be interested.
Save your search. If you need to repeat your search then save it within Library Search so you don’t need to remember the keywords and connectors (AND, OR, NOT) sequence. This is important if you are scoping a search and need to record or change your approach. You can also ‘Personalise’ your results to a particular discipline – give it a try!
Set up a RSS Feed (yes, really!). The Rich Site Summary function allows you to be informed of changes to results in your saved searches. Handy, eh? Go to your Saved Searches and simply click the RSS icon.
Receive an email alert when there are new results for your saved search. This can save you time in your research as Library Search will inform you if there is a new publication available which matches your search terms. Switch it off when you move onto a new subject area by accessing your Favourites list and deselecting the alarm bell icon.
Finally, if you’re writing up your assignment and can’t remember the essential elements of a reference, then use Library Search for guidance. The Citation tool will allow you to view a suggested citation and to copy it to your clipboard for use in your work.*
*BUT (you knew that was coming, didn’t you) ensure you choose the correct style and check your citations for accuracy before including them in your work. It pays to know your required referencing style and not to rely on automated or generated references. If you want to learn more about referencing then see our Managing Information guide and Cite Them Right. Cite Them Right is a great resource which will remind you of the importance of referencing, how to reference and will give guidance on how to cite those more tricky materials such as conference papers, newspaper articles, social media posts and more. Finally, there’s a new tutorial with lots of interactive questions so you can test yourself too.
If you know of any tips or tricks in Library Search that aren’t mentioned here, then leave us a comment and share them!
Love books? We hope so. Do you want to know more? Take a journey into the history of the book with Literary Print Culture.
Literary Print Culture: the Stationers’ Company Archive, 1554-2007 is a resource which will show you the primary source documents from the City of London archives. Covering the history of the book, publishing history, the history of copyright and the workings of the early London Livery Company, explore the variety of documents to uncover the story of the role the Stationers’ Company played in the history of the book trade.
This archive contains a huge range of primary sources, showcasing a diverse range of material from the archive of the Stationers’ Company archive including:
Constitutional Records
Court Records
Membership Records
Financial Records
Trade Records
General Administrative Records
Charities and Property Records
Before you begin, we’d recommend clicking Introduction, in which you can learn more about its scope and features.
The primary sources are supplemented by contextual essays and other commentary to give you ideas for interpreting and exploiting the archive.
You can browse or search the archive contents by clicking Documents(to browse) or one of the two Searchbuttons. You can filter your search in various ways, e.g. by document type, year or theme.
For some of the documents in the archive, you can now use handwritten text recognition to enable you to search the handwritten items effectively. Split-screen viewing enables you to view a document and its index simultaneously.
Have you used Literary Print Culture? Please feel free to post your comments and experiences by clicking Leave a comment below.
Historic Digimap is an online map and data delivery service, available to all staff and students of Newcastle University. It delivers access to historical Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain dating from 1846-1996 across various scales, including 1:25,000 and 1:10,650.
If you are a first time user of Digimap then you will need to complete a brief registration form and agree to the license agreements for each collection, but that takes seconds and then you’re ready to go!
Viewing historic maps (3:36 min)
If you want to ‘roam’ through the ages in an area, then you can use the timeline tool to see how the landscape has developed through the years, or view two maps side-by-side to compare and contrast your findings. Imagine looking at the Newcastle University Campus and seeing what used to be on the site before buildings such as the Henry Daysh Building, Stephenson Building and Philip Robinson Library graced us with their facilities!
Once you have your area of interest, the Roam service will allow you to view, annotate and print the map in PDF format. Data Download will allow you to download OS data for use in GIS/CAD (if you wish!).
The full scope of what Historic Digimap (and the other collections available to you including Ordnance Survey, Geology, Marine, Environment, Aerial, Lidar and Improvement Service) are covered in EDINA’s comprehensive Help service:
(Improvement Services is an organisation dedicated to the improvement of local government services in Scotland. This data collection comprises of 37 local authority datasets, such as planning applications, green belts and school catchment areas. A wealth of information, who’d have thought.)
Go on, give it a try! But please do read EDINA’s Digimap FAQs on what you are permitted to do with the data you use, to ensure you comply with the educational use licence.
Overdosed on Christmas carols? Or want to know more about the voices behind that ‘Fairytale of New York’ song you’ve heard so much during the last few weeks!? You need Rock’s Backpages.
Rock’s Backpages is an online library of music journalism: 40,000 classic articles and 600 audio interviews pop’s finest writers, spanning over 60 years across all pop genres.
You can read articles on Slade, Bjork, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, our own Maximo Park, Queen, Lamb of God, 50 Cent or 5 Seconds of Summer. Perhaps you are researching jazz, country or folk? There’s something here for you.
Access the Library to easily browse by artist, genre or publication:
Follow @rocksbackpages on Twitter for news of recently released articles or features on artists and their music, listen to the weekly podcast which highlights the latest additions or sign up to receive their newsletter.
subject databases and other specialist information sources for your discipline, such as digitised archives and multimedia resources.
links to great new learning resources to help you refine your academic skills.
our latest blogposts: regularly updated news, tips and features from your Library’s Liaison Team.
You may want to seek out images from the Bridgeman Education database which provides access to over two million images, including paintings, posters, artefacts and photographs, from galleries and collections worldwide. All images are copyright-cleared for educational use, and cover a wide range of themes.
If you’re tired from exploring the Campus then kick back and watch a programme dedicated to The History of Empire, the blossoming of art and philosophy in the Ancient World, or listen to Melvyn Bragg discuss the Greek Myths on Box of Broadcasts.
Whatever subject you are reading, explore the possibilities through Library Search, our Library Guides or ask a question via Library Help and we look forward to seeing you in and around the Library soon.
Mass Observation. Wow, sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? It should!
This resource offers revolutionary access to one of the most important archives for the study of Social History in the modern era. You can log in using your Newcastle University Campus ID and password to explore original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, diaries, photographs and interactive features dating from 1937 to 1972.
If you’re interested in learning more about the topics currently influencing our lives, it would do no harm to research the social history topics available within Mass Observation such as anti-Semitism, the economy, austerity, education, women at work, religion, mining, news, the Government, smoking, drinking, sexual behaviour, propaganda, unemployment and writing (to name just a few!).
If you want to know more about Mass Observation and to see some samples from the collection, then you could take a look at the Mass Observation Twitter feed, or there is a recorded webinar available for you to watch via YouTube in order to get the best out of the resource.
Depending upon your source, “black literature” can be defined as books and peer-reviewed published journals. This is the familiar material you will source and use through your University Library and its catalogue.
Grey literature is something else entirely. Grey literature is research or material that is not produced by commercial publishers. It may be wholly unpublished or published in a non-commercial form. Think along the lines of industry-related materials, academic publications, government publications and think tank papers.
GreyNet, the Grey Literature Network Service has more detailed information on this vital research resource.
Grey Literature can be unique and an important source of information. There is a range of grey literature you may need to consult to ensure your research is complete. Examples of these materials include:
Working papers
Conference proceedings
Theses and dissertations
Government and official publications, including Green and White Papers, Select Committee papers, legislation
Policy statements
Research reports
Newsletters
Fact sheets
Blogs
Transcripts
Pre-prints and post-prints of articles
Technical reports
Professional guidelines
Patents
Standards
Market research
Data, e.g. Census, economic data, statistics
Most databases, available via your Subject Guide, will allow you to limit your search by document type, including grey literature, which does improve accessibility to this type of material.
Operated by Bielefeld University Library this search engine indexes open access academic literature. The Advanced Search option allows you to search for specific types of grey literature.
Box of Broadcasts provides access to over two million programmes from over 65 TV and radio channels, including most of the UK’s freeview network, all BBC TV and radio content from 2007, and several foreign language channels. You can view archived programmes, record new ones, create clips and playlists and see transcripts. (This resource is not available outside the UK.)
The Institute of Education Digital Education (University of London) Resource Archive (DERA) is a digital archive of all documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education.
Provides access to all 3,530 globally-acclaimed instructional videos produced in 2008 by the United Kingdom’s Department of Education to train and develop teachers’ skills through demonstrations and commentary by teachers, administrators, and other educational experts.
Newcastle University theses are available in the eTheses Repository. Other UK theses may be available via EThOS. There is not one single source for locating non-UK theses. The Guide will give you some starting points.
UK Legislation is freely available online but be aware there may be delays of up to 2 weeks before any updates appear. Use your subscribed databases available via the Law Subject Guide.
The list can go on…
Once you have located your grey literature, do question it using the CRAAP test – currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose. Consider what is publicly available versus a subscribed (or paid for) resource. It may be biased and you should include that assessment in your work.
And finally, don’t forget, not everything is available online!
Not sure which journal article you’re looking for? Do it the ‘old school’ way and browse through your favourite journals using BrowZine without having to trek to the library or newsagents to flick through the magazines.
BrowZine is a publisher-neutral reading and discovery platform for eJournals. You can browse complete issues, set up a personal bookshelf of your favourite titles and receive notifications when new issues are released.
Set up your personal account using your University email address and BrowZine will always recognise you as a member of Newcastle University and give you access to the full-text articles it contains.
