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New resource in focus: Aerial and Lidar Digimap

Digimap is an online map and data delivery service, comprising various collections, including Ordnance Survey and Historic. We have recently acquired access to two more modules: Aerial and Lidar Digimap.

Aerial Digimap 

This provides access to some of the highest quality aerial photography available for Great Britain, created and licensed by Getmapping plc. You can use a range of interactive tools, allowing interrogation and analysis of the data online and offline. You can also:

  • add annotations (text, point, lines and areas)
  • identify image capture date by clicking on the map
  • generate PDF, PNG or JPG files for printing
  • save maps to go back to or print later

Lidar Digimap

This offers detailed Lidar data from the Environment Agency and presents a model of the earth’s surface.

Uses of Lidar data are highly varied, from use in the creation of visual effects for virtual reality and film projects, to archaeology, forestry management, flood and pollution modelling.

You’ll need to agree to the new licence before using these new modules: please see our separate blogpost for more details. If you need help with Digimap, there are extensive help pages online for each component.

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To google or not to google?…That is the question

Can you remember life before Google?! It is such a huge part of our lives, that even those of us who can remember a time before it (hmmm, yes I am that old!), can’t imagine life without it now. It is great place to find the latest cinema listings or who won last night’s football match, but what about finding information for your latest assignment or research?

There is a time and a place to use Google, but you need to be aware of its limitations. Google, after all, is a business. It earns the majority of its money from advertising, and it will not reveal how it ranks its search results (every wonder how Wikipedia always appears at the top of every search you do?). A search that we do today and repeat tomorrow for a piece of research could give us hugely different results, with no explanation of why. We are also often bombarded with millions of search results and the reality of our searching habits mean that we rarely look beyond the first or second page.  Admittedly, advanced search features on Google and the use of Google Scholar can really help us to become a smarter and effective Google users, but is it enough for our own research? Are we finding everything that is out there?

We need to think about our information needs before we work out where it will be best for us to search. Imagine, for a moment, that we are want to buy a particular local cheese, which we love. Would we go to a general shop or would we go to a specialist deli? We are probably going to need to go to a deli. It is just the same when searching for information. Google may be great for some background information or a starting point of a project, but it may simply not give us the high quality, niche information that we need to give us top marks for an assignment. So what are the other options?

Aimee Cook, a Liaison Librarian here at Newcastle University, explains more.

So next time you think about googling something for an assignment, stop and check out Library Search and your subject guide first for the books, eBooks and specialist databases that are available to you. If you are going to use Google, make use of the advanced search features and get to grips with Google Scholar. Happy searching!

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

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Guest Post: A Review of Box of Broadcasts

BoB Screen GrabLaura-Jayne Beattie, a final year Law School student, takes a look at Box of Broadcasts, and reviews a film she watched using it (a Law Library favourite!).

BoB (Box of Broadcasts), available to all Newcastle University students regardless of degree discipline, is an excellent resource. Best of all, it’s FREE for students studying at Newcastle (just what a student wants to hear)! You just have to select the university from the list of institutions, sign in with your university login details (username and password), and away you go! You’re free to explore the thousands of television programmes, radio broadcasts and films available on the website. It’s incredibly easy-to-use, and reminds me a lot of Netflix, but is less guilt-free as most of these programs and films are education-related in some way. The broadcasts may relate to your degree or another academic interest of yours (e.g. psychology-related films).

You can watch live TV, or search (by name) for a pre-recorded film, radio show or television programme. The system holds over 2 million broadcasts, which have been shown on television or aired on the radio at some point since the 1990s. If you don’t have a specific film or programme in mind which you would like to watch, why not try out the advanced search feature? Click on the ‘Search’ icon, then on ‘Search options’, change as many or as little options as you like, and then hit ‘search’! A list of broadcasts matching your search criteria will be shown. I’m sure there will be at least one that interests you!

SCreen grab of BoBAfter a few minutes of exploring the website, I decided to choose a film from the ‘Law in Literature Newcastle University’ playlist. To find this, I clicked on the ‘Search’ icon (on the tab across the top) and selected ‘Public Playlists’. I then typed the playlist’s name into the search box. I was surprised at how many titles were available within this collection (all related to Law). I chose to watch ‘Legally Blonde’, a personal favourite of mine but one that I haven’t watched for years.

Here’s what I thought…

‘Legally Blonde’, a fun-filled film showcasing a story of love and success, shows Law in a new perspective and is a must-watch for any Law students (Yes, even you boys). It’s a feel-good film, and is motivational in terms of showing that anyone really can succeed if they put their mind to it! It’s particularly perfect for any law student who feels ‘out-of-place’ with the supposed societal ‘ideal’ of who should be studying law.

Defying all pre-conceptions derived from her appearance, Elle Woods gains a place at the prestigious Harvard Law school. While this was initially to follow her ex-boyfriend, who broke her heart just before he proceeded to study Law there, she soon develops a passion for Law and becomes top of the class. She helps to win a case while on work experience using her knowledge of fashion, and later delivers an inspirational speech at graduation saying words like “you must always have faith in yourself”. When making this speech, it’s clear from the smiles in the room that she has won the hearts of students and staff alike and made lifelong friends with her heart-warming personality. Graduating with a job in a high-ranking law firm, she puts her career ahead of everything and even rejects her ex-boyfriend who wanted her back towards the end of the film.

‘Legally Blonde’ relates to Law, as Elle overcomes sexual harassment while on work experience (Employment Law). Initially, Elle doesn’t report the man and decides to drop out of law school- possibly as she thought she wouldn’t be believed or that what happened wasn’t actually a crime (a common occurrence amongst victims in reality). Parts of Law lectures are filmed, and Elle overcomes stereotypes that are derived from her appearance (blonde female who evidently loves the colour pink) (Law, Gender and Sexuality). Despite not being a typical Harvard student, she still succeeds without letting these stereotypes stop her.

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Finding international news: a how to guide

The Library’s online news resources are strongest for the UK, but we do also provide access to a wide range of historic and contemporary international news resources. You can find links to all relevant resources in the international section of our newspaper guide.

Historic archives

Our strongest non-UK historic resources are from the USA, as we have access to the New York Times archive, together with various archives from the Civil War period, plus a collection of microfilms from the Civil Rights period. The availability of historic newspaper archives depends very much on digitisation programmes in the country concerned. We have included links to those which are freely available (and be sure to investigate the Europeana newspaper project, which aims to aggregate millions of newspaper pages across many European countries.)

Contemporary news

Nearly all international newspapers have their own web site, but you are unlikely to find free access to their entire archive. However, the Nexis database enables you to search across thousands of newspapers, news magazines and newswires from across the world (though primarily Europe and the USA), dating back over twenty years to the present day (precise date coverage varies by title). You can search in various ways, by country, language, or search an individual newspaper. Watch the video below to find out how to use this fantastic resource.

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Books added to the Library by students in SAPL (Semester Two 2017/18)

We have a service called “Books on Time” for students. This 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.

Further information about Books on Time

In Semester two, academic year 2017/2018 we bought the following items after requests from students in SAPL.

There were 53 requests from 29 students totaling £2330 (38% of requests from undergraduates, 34% from Postgraduate taught and 28% from Postgraduate Research)

Title Now in stock
Ageing and Intergenerational Relations: Family Reciprocity from a Global Perspective 1xlong
An Aboriginal Village in South Australia: A Snapshop of Davenport 2xlong
Anatomy of a Soldier 1xlong
Automating inequality: how high-tech tools profile,police and punish the poor 1xlong
Campus and the City: Urban Design for the Knowledge Society 1xlong, 1xebook
Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisited 1xlong
Cartographic Grounds 1xlong
City With a Hidden Past 1xlong
Climate Design: Solutions for Buildings that Can Do More With Less Technology 1xlong
Code and Clay, Data and Dirt 1xlong
Critical Studies of Innovation Alternative Approaches to the Pro-Innovation Bias 1xlong
Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic 1xlong
Die Wiener Hofburg 1705-1835: Die kaiserliche residenz vom Barock bis zum Klassizismus 1xlong
Die Wiener Hofburg 1835-1918 1xlong
Facing the planetary 1xlong
Formalizing Displacement: International Law and Population Transfers 1xlong
Global Universities and Urban Development 1xlong
Governance of the Smart Mobility Transition 1xlong
Healing Garden 1xlong
Immaterialism: Objects and Social Theory (Theory Redux) 1xlong
Inside Megaprojects: Understanding Cultural Practices in Project Management 1xlong
Interior Landscapes: A Visual Atlas 1xlong
James Casebere: Works 1975-2010 1xlong
Liverpool One: Remaking a City Centre 1xlong
Liverpool: shaping the city 1xlong
Logo Modernism 1xlong
Material Utopias 1xlong
Mémoires 1xlong
Of Planting and Planning: The making of British colonial cities (Planning, History and Environment Series) 1xlong
On Photography; Walter Benjamin 1xlong
Ottoman Izmir: The Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1840-1880 1xlong
Planetary Echos: Exploring the Implications of Human Settlement in Outer Space 1xlong
Public Transport: It’s  Planning Management and Operation 1xlong
Recto Verso: Redefining the Sketchbook 1xlong
Social Capital Theory and Research 1xlong
Space and Muslim Urban Life: At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez 1xlong
The Architectural Unconscious: James Casebere and Glen Seater 1xlong
The Ethnopoetics of Space and Transformation: Young People’s Engagement, Activism and Aesthetics 1xlong
The Nature of Health: How America Lost, and Can Regain, a Basic Human Value 1xlong
The Predictive Postcode 1xlong
The University and the City: From Medieval Origins to the Present 1xlong
The University and Urban Revival: Out of the Ivory Tower and into the Streets 1xlong
The University as Urban Developer: Case Studies and Analysis 1xlong
Time Saver Standards for Urban Design 1xlong
Transport Matters: Integrated Approaches for Planning City-Regions 1xlong
Urban Livelihoods: A People-Centred Approach to Reducing Poverty 1xlong
Urban Living Labs: Experimenting with City Futures 1xlong
Violence and the City in the Modern Middle East 1xlong
Walter Pilcher: Skulpturen Modelle Zeichnungen 1xlong
Work/Life: Williams Tsien 1xlong
Writing the Modern History of Iraq 1xebook
You can be Young and an Architect 1xlong
Young Citizens: Young People’s Involvement in Politics and Decision Making 1xlong

 

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Resource in Focus: Finding UK news with Lexis

Lexis is primarily a legal database, but it also provides access to UK news from 1990 to the present day.

This resource covers national and regional newspapers, as well as broadsheets. We speak to a lot of students and academics who don’t realise that this resource covers publications such as The Times Educational Supplement and The Times Higher Education (although we now also have an institutional account for The Times Higher Education. Details of how to set up an account and access it can be found here).

For more information on what sources are covered by Lexis, simply click on ‘Sources’ section located in the top right hand corner once you are logged in. Below is a short introductory video of how to access and find information in Lexis. If you are looking for information on how to access international and historic newspapers, as well as business and TV/audio news, then check out our newspaper resources guide.

 

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Reading Lists

Have you discovered your Reading Lists yet?

Reading Lists are what you need to access and read to get understanding of the subject on the module(s) you are taking. It’s not just the Library saying this – these lists came from your lecturers!

The Reading Lists are a list of essential, recommended and background reading for your module. Each item has a quick link through to Library Search (to find where the book may be on the shelves) or there could be a direct link through to the eBook or online journal article. It’s an efficient way of accessing your reading and can save you loads of time.

Log into Canvas to access your Reading List

If you have any questions about your Reading Lists then ask your lecturer, or if there is a technical issue then email readinglists@ncl.ac.uk for assistance.

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Calling all second years!

Find out how to become a confident and effective user of digital search tools and resources.

Does the summer and your first year of uni seem like a distant memory? Are you starting to feel like the work has cranked up and that you need some extra help?

As we’ve been out on campus teaching and chatting to you lovely second years, you have been telling us that it’s got very serious all of a sudden and you’re starting to feel overwhelmed. But never fear, the library has some great new academic skills guides to help you find, evaluate and manage your information in order to help you get those top marks for your assignments. These are transferable skills that will underpin all your work here at NU and which will ultimately help you get you that job you have always wanted.

So what are you waiting for? Save yourself some time and stress by getting your information skills up to scratch now. And remember, your friendly Library Liaison team is always here to help!

 

 

 

 

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School of APL – new resources

We are delighted to announce some new journal titles and other resources available from the University Library.

Ones useful for APL staff and students are :

New journals

Design Issues

This journal presents a scholarly forum for the history, theory, and criticism of design. It provokes inquiry into the cultural and intellectual role of non-architectural fields, from graphic design to industrial design. We have access volume one onwards.

New Resources

Architectural Digest (archive)

This is an extensive collection of the magazine from it’s first issue in 1920 to 2011. This title is published monthly by Condé Nast and has a strong reputation with architects and interior designers. Topics covered include information on architecture, arts, antiques, travel destinations, interior design and products.

Aerial Digimap 

This additional subscription through Digimap provides access to some of the highest quality aerial photography available for Great Britain. This is created and licensed by Getmapping plc. Use a range of interactive tools, allowing interrogation and analysis of the data online and offline.

You can also:

  • add annotations (text, point, lines and areas)
  • identify image capture date by clicking on the map
  • generate PDF, PNG or JPG files for printing
  • save maps to go back to or print later

Aerial Lidar

Lidar Digimap offers detailed Lidar data from the Environment Agency and presents a model of the earth’s surface.

Uses of Lidar data are highly varied, from use in the creation of visual effects for virtual reality and film projects to archaeology, forestry management, flood and pollution modelling.

De Gruyter

We have access to De Gruyter’s entire ebook collection until June 2019, after which we will buy access to the most well used titles. This currently covers over 27,000 titles related to numerous subjects including architecture and design. All titles are catalogued individually on Library Search.

Sunday Times Digital Archive

We’ve now added the archive for 2007-2017 to our newspapers collection.

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New site licences for Digimap

From the 1st of August 2018, all Digimap Collections (except Aerial & Lidar Digimap) will start new licences. This means when you access Digimap for the first time after this date you will need to agree to the new licences before you can access the platform.

This process will only happen once a year, so you will not be asked to do this everytime you log in. You don’t need to re-register any of your details, just follow the on screen prompts and agree to the new licences for each Collection.

All saved maps and download history will remain and won’t be affected by this process.

The use of content from this service is outlined in the Educational User Licence which can be found at:

http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/webhelp/os/copyright/licence_agreement.htm

Licence FAQs can be found here.

If you require any further help or clarification about the use of the data for Educational purposes, please contact Digimap via:

Additional library support and accessing Digimap can found on our helpguide.