After a successful trial in October 2023, we are delighted we have managed to secure a subscription to Policy Commons. We received some great feedback from academics about how the platform would fit in with teaching and learning in Schools including :
“This is an absolute treasure, especially for my research. I am also sure it will be an invaluable teaching resource for the environmental law module starting next semester.”
“There are huge amounts of so-called ‘grey’ policy literature that students working and being taught policy-oriented skills and modules cannot access because it is fragmented, hosted by various institutions and the organisations which commissioned such reports. Policy Commons makes the universe of policy-relevant literature, which is often the cutting edge of a field and more up-to-date than academic literature, accessible to students through just one easily searchable source. This is a highly recommended resource, which improves student skills, research and their written work”.
So if you aren’t familiar already, the database is one resource to locate publications from policy experts, NGO’s and think tanks. Publications include : -The Council of Europe -Environmental Law Institute -European Parliamentary Research Service -Center for Security Studies -OECD -World Bank Group -United Nations -International Institute for Environment and Development
This short video from Policy Commons tells you a little bit more
To access Policy Commons follow this link via Library Search
For many years we have subscribed to a business database from EBSCO. This provides access to a range of content including journal articles, trade pieces, industry reports and company information. We have just signed for an upgrade to move from Business Source Complete to Business Source Ultimate.
EBSCO have included a title list which is available here.
We are delighted to expand our content from this supplier and more importantly the terms of the licence now allow us to directly link to articles from the core journal, Harvard Business Review from our online reading lists (available in Leganto).
We are currently updating our help materials to reflect the name of the expanded product.
The search page and functionality remain the same once you enter the database.
The Library is trialling Screen Studies from Monday 9th October until Friday 8th December.
Screen Studies is a dynamic digital platform designed to support moving-image studies. It offers a broad range of content including books, screenplays, overview articles and learning resources from Bloomsbury, Faber & Faber, the British Film Institute, Focal Press and Auteur (LUP). Screen Studies covers cinema, its history and the surrounding context from 1850 to the present day.
We are trialling Policy Commons in October 2023. The database is a one stop shop to locate publications from leading policy experts, NGO’s and think tanks. Useful for students, staff and researchers across all disciplines it includes publications from across the globe including: -The Council of Europe -Environmental Law Institute -European Parliamentary Research Service -Center for Security Studies -OECD -World Bank Group -United Nations -International Institute for Environment and Development To find out more see video below.
To access Policy Commons follow this link via Library Search
To send us your comments or feedback please add to this post or email us.
Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. Currently, it offers over 2,831,415 tracks of fine recorded music.
Naxos Music Library Jazz is a comprehensive collection of Jazz music available online. Over 28,952 albums (272,292 tracks) are available and new albums are added weekly.
Naxos Works Database is your trusted resource for information about vocal, chamber and orchestral works. Use the database to find details about composers and their works, instrumentations, durations, publishers and work introductions.
Naxos Video Library is a performing arts video library with over 4362 operas, ballets, documentaries, concerts, masterclasses, competition and musical tour videos as well as footage taken from recording sessions.
OUP Law Trove has become part of Newcastle Law School life. For any new students joining us this year, what is it? Well, it’s a collection of e-books you will need to support your learning in the core modules of your degree programme.
This Oxford University Press e-book resource contains most of the essential, recommended and background reading titles you will find listed in your Newcastle Law School module handbooks. You can also find these on the Law Library shelves, and having these books available online too can be really convenient to you as a student.
If you’re asking yourself if you need to buy your course texts for 2023/24 then we can’t answer that question for you. The answer really depends on you. Ask yourself: can you work with e-books? Do you prefer to have your own copy of a book so you can fold pages, write notes in the margins or use a highlighter to annotate the text (*librarians across the world gasp in horror!*). Can the University Library provide a copy of the book you need to use? (We’ll answer that for you! We can’t provide a copy of every single book to every single student even if we wanted to.) We do advise you to try OUP Law Trove to see how easy it is to access, and how versatile it can be (including annotating the text!). It may just save you spending money on books where you don’t need to.
OUP Law Trove is mobile responsive, catering for those students with mobile devices. You can also use a Campus PC, or borrow a laptop from one of the libraries to access this resource.
Logging in You can access OUP Law Trove directly via Library Search (log in with your Campus ID & password), via your Reading Lists in your Canvas modules, and directly too. You can also go to OUP Law Trove and use the ‘Sign in via your Institution’ option in the left-hand login box on the homepage, and search for Newcastle University.
Further guidance on logging in is provided by OUP in this video (1:05 mins):
Searching From the OUP Law Trove home page you can immediately select to view those titles included in our subscription.
You can search OUP Law Trove by subject by using the browse option from the home page, or search by term for any author, title or keyword.
NB The results retrieved from either search will include all chapters and books related to your subject or search term, in alphabetical order.
Using the options in the left hand menu, you can narrow your choices by searching for a term within your results, by selecting the format of the results you want to see, or the availability (it makes sense to select those that are unlocked or free if you have not selected to view those titles included in our subscription) and updating your search.
Further guidance on accessing and navigating books within Law Trove is provided by OUP in these videos (2:28 mins and 2:41 mins):
Personalisation You can create a Personal Profile to experience the full functionality of OUP Law Trove, including bookmarking and annotating (without writing on your books!). Click the ‘Sign In or Create’ button on the top menu bar and follow the instructions to set up your profile.
Once active you can access your saved content, searches and annotations quickly and easily.
Further information on the benefits of creating and using the Personal Profiles feature is provided by OUP in this video (1:54 mins):
Reading Lists and Handouts You may find your module teaching staff are using the DOI: for a specific book or chapter from your Reading List or module handout. What’s a DOI? A Digital Object Identifier. It’s a ‘permalink’ (permanent link) to the specific materials you need to read and looks like a weblink (which it is, essentially). If it doesn’t directly link to OUP Law Trove then add https://dx.doi.org/ to create the full DOI link. You will still be asked to login using your Newcastle University Campus ID & password to gain access to the materials.
Tips Search OUP Law Trove directly for your resources if you can. Library Search and your module Reading Lists are linking to most of the books, and some of the chapters available, but not all. You may find more resources by performing a keyword search; the results could show a useful chapter in another book that you would never have thought to search in.
You have access to some great employability and study skills information in OUP Law Trove too. Whether you are wondering what academic writing actually is, how to write a case note, how to prepare for a moot or dealing with an exam, there are materials in Trove to assist you alongside the Academic Skills Kit made available to you by the University, the University Library and the Academic Skills Team.
Finally, scroll to the bottom of the contents page of a book to see if there are additional resources available:
Further information on the online resources, including multiple choice questions (MCQs), is provided by OUP in this video (1:47 mins):
We think you will find OUP Law Trove very useful in supporting your studies at Newcastle Law School. If you have any feedback or questions, please leave a comment or contact libraryhelp@ncl.ac.uk.
Following a successful trial of the resources in 2022-23, we have added two additional modules to our SAGE Research Methods collection. Through the Library you now have access to a host of guidance, worked examples, teaching resources and practice materials from SAGE Research Methods, SAGE Research Methods Video, SAGE Research Methods Datasets and SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation.
Datasets
SAGE Research Methods Datasets is a collection of hundreds of teaching datasets and instructional guides that give you the chance to learn data analysis through hands-on practice.
This new resource is a bank of topical, practice datasets, indexed by method and data type. For academic staff, the datasets have been optimised for use in your teaching and can be used for in person teaching or within Canvas materials. This will save you the time of sourcing and cleaning data for use by you and your students.
The decisions researchers make when analysing data can be a mystery to students embarking on research for the first time. Through practicing analysis using real data from SAGE Research Methods Datasets, you can see how analytic decisions are made, helping you become confident researchers.
Quantitative datasets are taken from surveys and experiments and come with instructions to analyze the data in SPSS or R.
Qualitative datasets are taken from academic research projects, providing bite-size examples from interviews, focus groups, documentary sources, and more, plus advice on how to approach analysis.
SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation will help all researchers, from beginners to more advanced practitioners develop the fundamentals of data and design necessary to create impactful visualisations. Through a series of practical video tutorials, text guides and practice datasets, the resources will help you identify the chart types that best fit your specific data story.
Researchers increasingly grapple with complex or big data and need to present their data in an understandable, easy to interpret, and informative way to disseminate their research successfully. Mastering the skills and techniques of data visualisation is, therefore, key for any researcher. This new resource will help you and your students to communicate data with impact so that audiences can grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns and relationships easily.
You are able to search and browse by data and chart type to find how to guides and explainer videos, explore a directory of data visualisation software and access datasets to help you practice communicating data.
During the summer months we have acquired access to a range of electronic resources for the SAgE Faculty to help support teaching and research activity. All of these great resources are available from Library Search. Here is a snapshot of some of the other new and updated collections.
E-book collections
We have invested in updates to our perpetual access e-book collections from a range of society, professional and academic publishers. Individual e-book titles will be returned in a basic search by author, title or keyword. Collections include:
We also have collections activated in Library Search for evidence based acquisition (EBA). This approach enables access to a lot of academic content to which we wouldn’t normally be available to us. Through EBA, publishers open up their e-book collections on receipt of a deposit paid by the Library for a 12 month period. Once the access period is up, we select the most used titles up to the value of the deposit to form a collection of perpetual access e‐books.
The EBA collections of most relevance for SAgE for 2023-4 include:
We have acquired access to two additional modules within the SAGE Research Methods platform to complement the existing book and video resources.
Datasets
Students and researchers exploring new statistical techniques often find that hands-on practice is essential to the learning process. Master new methods with sample datasets before applying them to your own data. The datasets included in SAGE Research Methods Datasetsare taken from government sources and academic research and demonstrate both qualitative and quantitative methods. Each dataset is presented with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to best demonstrate how the method is applied.
Data visualisation
SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation will help all researchers, from beginners to more advanced practitioners develop the fundamentals of data and design necessary to create impactful visualisations. Through a series of practical video tutorials, text guides and practice datasets, the resources will help you identify the chart types that best fit your specific data story.
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.
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.
