CIS is produced jointly with the National Building Specification (NBS) especially for architects, civil and structural engineers, building control officers, building services engineers and other professionals in the construction industry. CIS provides fundamental industry information and legislation, as well as additional sector material. The extensive range of full-text documents cover all aspects of the building, engineering, design and construction process in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
The Construction Information Service (CIS) is a comprehensive online collection of over 28,000 construction related standards, regulations, technical advice and articles from 500+ publishers. Content is updated weekly, neatly organised into topic based supplements and delivered through a function rich and easily accessible online portal.
This collection is an invaluable resource if you are studying:
Many of our Engineering courses
Architecture, Landscape and Planning
Geography
Subjects covered include:
Building regulations
Environmental/land Planning
Planning control
Urban planning
Waste/water management
Earthworks/foundations
Land drainage
Law/legislation
Transport facilities/planning
Tunnelling and underpinning
Engineering
Materials
Groundwater control
Roads
loads/stresses
…and much, much, much more!
Searching
Within the CIS search box you can enter your keywords or browse by subject in the left-hand menu. There is also an Advanced Search option. There is also plenty of help with how to use CIS under the Help option on the left-hand menu:
Access
CIS is available through our catalogue, Library Search. If you are on campus no password is required. If you are off campus you will need to log in using your University campus ID and password. You can also find it under the Journals and Database tabs in our Subject Guides, and on our Standards Resource Guide.
Copyright
Every document in The Construction Information Service has copyright permission from the publisher. Some publishers do not allow use of their documents or will only give permission for certain titles. Publishers who do give permission can also place an embargo on certain documents, resulting in a delay between publication and inclusion in CIS.
We now subscribe to the Manchester University Press Hive International Relations e-book collection. The collection provides 65 e-books written by leading names in the field covering key issues and debates on global issues such as foreign policy, gender, global ethics, environmental politics and terrorism..
Manchester International Relations aims to explore and analyse the critical approaches to the study of global issues – from authority; citizenship; foreign policy, gender, war and peace to global ethics; human rights; media; environmental politics and international law.
This online resource will help you understand contemporary international relations and the forces that are reshaping global politics in the 21st century by examining international political systems, international political theory, and developments in contemporary global politics throughout Europe, the USA, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
We have recently subscribed to Fortune Magazine Archive – an extensive cover-to-cover collection of the long-running business magazine dating from its very first issue in February 1930 through December 2000.
Subjects Covered in this magazine:
American business
International business
Economics
Industry
Technology
Published monthly by Time Inc., Fortune Magazine sought to provide news and analysis of both American and, later, international business, economics, technology, and industry. Each issue featured vivid color illustrations and photographs, as well as high-quality feature articles, published at a time when most business magazines were merely black and white compendiums of statistics and figures.
Articles and cover pages are fully indexed and advertisements are individually identified, ensuring researchers and readers can quickly and accurately locate the information they seek. Fortune Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-Century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.
We now subscribe to the Manchester University Press Hive political studies e-book collection. The collection provides 165 books written by leading names in the field covering political events, ideas, movements, roles of government, voters, parties and leaders and the way these elements shape society as a whole.
This online resource will help you to understand contemporary political problems in their historical perspective and will cover key themes such as political thought, concepts and theory, international politics, globalisation and democracy through the ages.
Key features & benefits
A wide-ranging, authoritative coverage of the history of politics, edited and authored by key figures in the field
Cuts across boundaries of political science, public administration, anthropology, social policy studies and development studies and facilitates a conversation across disciplines
Includes extensive original research on recent and ongoing political events, such as Brexit
Our Recommend a Book service for students allows you to tell us about the books you need for your studies. If we don’t have the books you need, simply complete the web form and we’ll see if we can buy them. For books we already have in stock, if they are out on loan please make a reservation/hold request using Library Search.
In Semester One, academic year 2020/2021 we received 79 requests from 42 students totalling £8,254 worth of book orders. We bought the following items after requests from students in NUBS:
Newcastle University now subscribes to the Bloomsbury Architecture Library Core Collection, which offers an indispensable collection of resources to support the study of architecture, urbanism, and interior design.
Explore 5,500 years of the world’s architecture through Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture 21st edition; browse through an interactive visual timeline of global architectural history; study in-depth buildings pages; or undertake research through Bloomsbury’s extensive library of architecture e-books. All these resources – and more – can be accessed through the Bloomsbury Architecture Library Core Collection:
Produced in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects and the University of London, and exclusive to the Core Collection, the landmark new edition of this iconic reference work includes:
Two volumes, seven parts and 102 chapters that clearly divide 5,500 years of architecture by cultural context, resources, and technologies for easy comparative analysis
Unparalleled detail on the world’s architecture from pre-history to the present day
A global focus, reflecting the very latest scholarship in global architectural history
Descriptions of thousands of major buildings, accompanied by over 2,200 photographs, drawings, and building plans including new and original material.
This is the first full re-write since Banister Fletcher was alive, with updates by over 100 experts.
Explore an extensive library of eBooks from Bloomsbury’s fast-growing, forward-thinking list of architecture publications. Topics range from architectural history, to architectural politics, urbanism, landscape, and interiors – all designed to provoke further thought and support research.
Individual building pages bring together the most essential information about the world’s most important buildings all in one place.
These pages include a building’s location, dates, architects/designers, building type and key materials. It also includes images and short descriptive text, plus useful links through to the rest of the resource.
Bloomsbury Architecture Library features an interactive timeline, putting the world’s key buildings and architectural history in perspective. It provides context for movements, themes and periods throughout 5,500 years of history.
Users can click on the images to discover more, with links through to the Building Pages and in-depth reading via reference articles and book chapters.
Browse the world’s architecture through the interactive world map. The map links through to the rest of the resource, and highlights the number of building pages and articles available per region. This feature supports smooth and straightforward location-specific research.
From abacus to ziyada, the Sir Banister Fletcher Glossary contains over 900 key architectural terms, clearly explained and defined. Taken from Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture, the glossary covers a complete range of technical, design, and historical terms, including non-English language vocabulary, and serves both as a core reference resource and an invaluable primer to enhancing the reader’s understanding of global architectural history.
So clearly a resource full of invaluable material that you can use in your assignments, projects and dissertations. If you have any questions about this resource please contact us: lib-socsci@ncl.ac.uk.
We have recently purchased online access to the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. This reference collection gives you an authoritative and comprehensive source of information on the discipline of human geography and its constituent, and related, subject areas. The Encyclopedia includes over 1,000 detailed entries on philosophy and theory, key concepts, methods and practices, biographies of notable geographers, and geographical thought and praxis in different parts of the world.
This online copy of the Encyclopedia features extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy.
As a globally recognised market analyst, Mintel produces hundreds of reports into UK-specific consumer markets every year. Each report provides a unique overview of a market’s dynamics and prospects, giving you the knowledge to devise informed and profitable marketing strategy. Mintel is also one of the many Business specialist databases that we subscribe to here at Newcastle University, which you can access via Library Search, or along with many other of our resources via our Business Subject Guide.
Mintel also produce an excellent podcast, A Little Conversation Podcast, on YouTube which covers ideas and new perspectives on how we eat, drink, shop, groom and think – from the key issues impacting society to trends in food, beauty, tech and retail, they discuss what consumers want and why.
So if you are looking for an alternative resource in market research, have a look at these podcasts. You can subscribe to their podcast via their website or where you normally download your podcasts.
Here’s their latest podcast which is looking consumer behaviour of upcoming holiday shopping:
One of my good friends is the middle child of three siblings – born between two siblings with strong identities of “the eldest” and “the youngest”- and feels that she gets “forgotten about” or “neglected” by her parents (but of course she never is).
You could compare second year at University to feeling like the second child – not as exciting and ‘new’ as the youngest new-born (first year) nor as distinguished and knowledgeable as the eldest (final year at University) – but definitely never to be forgotten about.
Research conducted by Liverpool John Moores University found that second year students can suffer from ‘underperformance and withdrawal’ (Thompson et al., 2013) and that ‘around a third of undergraduates experienced a slow down in their academic progress during second year’ (Milsom, 2015). So don’t worry if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed and disengaged as you enter your second year of studies, you are definitely not alone.
So how can you get out of your slump?
The research by Liverpool John Moores University highlight the importance of recognising the challenges faced by second year students and identify support that can help you rise to meet them (Thompson et al., 2013).
The Library have definitely not forgotten about our much loved second years, and we’ve been thinking about how we can help – here are our top three ways that the Library and our resources can support you during your second year and how you can hopefully kick-start your engagement with the Library and your studies…
1. Find inspiration
As a second year, you may often feel disengaged, so take some time to remember what you love about you subject; explore your reading lists and Subject Guide(s) to find some wider reading on your favourite topics in your subject area – this may help you build your subject knowledge, help you think about what you want to focus on in third year and remind you why you chose this subject in the start.
The reading lists for your modules is an excellent places to start any refresh. Watch this short video (2:44min) on how to find and use your reading lists:
Another place to re-engage with your subject is our Subject Guides. These guides are created by our ingenious Librarians (*ahem) and are collections of subject specific resources to help you discover reliable and authoritative information for your studies. Remember, if your studies are interdisciplinary, you might have to use multiple guides to ensure find relevant resources.
2. Refresh and build on your skills
Second year is a great time to take some time to refresh or build on your information and academic skills, so you are prepared for your studies becoming more challenging and intense as the year progresses and then transitioning into third year.
Boost your motivation this year by setting yourself small and achievable goals. These could be to improve a mark from last year, to read more widely or to refresh a skill that would be useful for employment. Our Skills Checker is an excellent tool to help you identify an area of information skills to work on.
Once you have identified the areas to work on, check out the ASK website for help and has advice on developing your academic skills. It is your guide to where you can go for support on all aspects of your academic life. With online resources to help you with your academic and study skills, covering topics such as academic integrity and referencing, exams and revisions, learning online and academic writing, you will find the support you need to study successfully.
Also discover our Skills Guides for help on finding, evaluating and managing information and useful guides on subject such as how to use EndNote, how to create an academic poster or how to identify fake news.
Our Employability Guide is another superb guide to show how developing your information and digital literacy skills can help prepare you for your future careers, and don’t forget, Newcastle University’s award-winning Careers Service provide expert advice regarding your future plans.
3. Ask for help
The Library is always here to help, so contact us by email, chat, phone or by social media 24/7 to ask any question regarding the Library services and resources.
The Library Liaison team and the Writing Development Centre are also available to meet (via Zoom or Teams) for a one-to-one appointment to help you on any aspect of Library and academic skills that you need help with. You can book an appointment via Library Help.
I hope we have reassured you that you lovely second years are definitely not forgotten and that we are here to help you on your academic journey every step of the way (*oh so cheesy). These are difficult times but with a bit of grit and determination we have confidence that you will succeed in every way.
