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Resource trial – Policy Commons

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.

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New modules added to our SAGE Research Methods collection

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.

You will find lots of guidance on how to get the most out of the datasets module on the SAGE Research Methods LibGuide.

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.

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.

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Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester Two 2022/23)

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.

Further information about Recommend a book.

In Semester Two, academic year 2022/2023 we successfully processed 61 requests in GPS totalling just over £6815.

A Companion to Roman Imperialism
A Field Guide to British Rivers: Implications for Restoration
Accountability through public opinion; from inertia to public action.
Advanced Introduction to Global Production Networks
Artistic Utopias of Revolt: Claremont Road, Reclaim the Streets, and the City of Sol
Black Skins, Black Masks Hybridity, Dialogism, Performativity
China’s Digital Silk Road Setting Standards, Powering Growth
China’s Futures PRC Elites Debate Economics, Politics, and Foreign Policy
Communication Strategies in Turkey: Erdogan, the AKP and Political Messaging Kindle Edition
Creativity and Conflict Resolution Alternative Pathways to Peace
Danger Zone The Coming Conflict with China
Defying the Dragon: Hong Kong and the World’s Largest Dictatorship
Explorations in Place Attachment
Feminist Theory Reader Local and Global Perspectives
Fighting for Abortion Rights in Latin America: social movements, state allies and institutions
Gender, Sexuality and Identities of the Borderlands
Geographies of Children, Youth and Families
Handbook of Alternative Theories of Political Economy
Handbook of the Sociology of Medical Education
Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War
Humanitarianism, identity, and nation : migration laws of Australia and Canada
Infrastructure Communication in International Relations
International Sanctions Between Wars and Words
Logos Warehouses Containers
Migration Studies and Colonialism
Nature Displaced, Nature Displayed: Order and Beauty in Botanical Gardens
Phenomenological approaches to moral philosophy
Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods and Applications (2nd ed)
Portfolio Society: On the Capitalist Mode of Prediction
Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World
Private Metropolis The Eclipse of Local Democratic Governance
Reframing the civic university: an agenda for impact
Refugees, Security and the European Union
Resource Conservation Economics and Policies
Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate
Routledge handbook of immigration and refugee studies
Routledge Handbook of Sport in the Middle East
Sanctions: what everyone needs to know
Serving a nation at war, 1939-1945: a review of the building and civil engineering work of John Laing and Son Ltd
Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender
Signs of life : photographs by Peter Sekaer / John T. Hill ; with contributions by Julian Cox and Christina Sekaer.
Steady-state economics: the economics of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth
Study of Americana: Washington, D.C. Region 1978
The Anthropology of Friendship
The art of sanctions a view from the field
The Economics of Natural Environments Studies in the Valuation of Commodity and Amenity Resources
The Gift of Freedom War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages
The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy
The National Security Law of Hong Kong : Restoration and Transformation
The Political Economy of Land Rent, Financialization and Resistance
The Political Economy Of Public Sector Reform And Privatization
The Routledge Companion to William Morris
The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain
The University and the City
The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence
Transcend and transform: An introduction to conflict work
Uncommon Places: The Complete Works
Urban planning and real estate development
Violence and Understanding in Gaza: the British broadsheets’ coverage of the war
Women crossing boundaries: a psychology of immigration and transformations of sexuality
Working Systemically with Refugee Couples and Families: Exploring Trauma, Resilience and Culture
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Oxford Bibliographies Online

After trialling on several occasions we have recently been able to purchase the Oxford Bibliographies Online collection which gives staff and students access to a comprehensive collection of articles published and reviewed by academics covering a wide range of subject areas. Users can personalise their experience by saving citations and articles to their own profile.

Oxford Bibliographies Online

Subject areas covered (click on subject to link to resource via Library Search)

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Royal Geographical Society Digital Archive (with IBG)

After a recent trial to the archive from Royal Geographical Society (RGS) we are delighted we’ve have managed to add this permanently to our collections.

The Archive of the RGS covers the history of geography exploration, colonisation and decolonisation, anthropology, international relations, climate science, gender studies, cartography and environmental history throughout the British Empire from 1482 to 2010.

As you’d expect the resources vary from manuscripts, correspondance, reports, proceedings, maps, charts, photographs, atlases to name just a few. Many of these primary source materials have never been digitised before and are available through Wiley for the first time.

These are available as digital images which can be analysed and downloaded.

The archive contains specific collections including the Everest Collection; the David Livingstone Collection; the Sir Ernest Shackleton Collection; the Stanley Collection; the Younghusband Collection; the Speke Collection; and the Gertrude Bell Collection.

There are different ways you can search and browse the collections including choosing your content type first e.g. photographs

Then you can use some of the search functionality to locate what you’re interested in.

Other ways to search

On the homepage you’ll see these links :

The analysis hub lets you search for a keyword or term and see a timeline of when it was most used, which collections look important and related keywords.

The explorer let’s you look for photos and maps across all of the sub collections.

The place of publication browser let’s you use an interactive map of the world to navigate to the area you’re interested and highlights all relevant materials.

In terms of use, permissions and Copyright I’d recommend checking our their webpages for these.

We think this resource will be useful for both teaching and research purposes for those interested in all aspects of geography. We hope you love checking out the digital tools and functionality on the Wiley site.

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Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions

In the library we love these short guides from OUP who provide a variety of great concise books on lots of different topics.

We’ve recently updated this collection so it includes to most recent publications from OUP published in 2022 and 2023.

This series offers concise introductions to a diverse range of subjects—from artificial intelligence to folk music to medical ethics—in 35,000 words or less.

Each one of these big little books provides intelligent and serious introductions written by experts who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make even the most challenging topics highly readable.

On our catalogue, Library Search you can search by keywords like in the screenshot below so “very short introduction” and browse through or add in Oxford to add in results for that publisher. Re-sort your results to “newest” if you’d like to browse through the latest ones added to our collection.

Or visit the OUP Very Short Introductions website directly and then filter using the subject categories. OUP have arranged the titles under headings such as Medicine and Health, Arts and Humanities, Law, Social Sciences

if you are accessing off campus then once you’re on the OUP site please click “sign in” (on the left hand menu and select Newcastle University from the list to enter your Campus ID and password.)

Oxford University Press also have a podcast you can subscribe to about titles and topics in this collection.

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Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester One 2022/23)

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.

Further information about Recommend a book.

In Semester One, academic year 2022/2023 we successfully 7 processed requests from 7 students (2 PGR, 4 PGT and 1 UGT) in GPS totalling just over £181.

Chip War The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology

Feminist Theory Reader

On Burnley Road: Class, Race and Politics in a Northern English Town

Policy Analysis and Public Choice: Selected Papers by William A. Niskanen

The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea’s Global Cyber War

The Rainforests of Britain and Ireland: A Traveller’s Guide

Viticulture: An introduction to commercial grape growing for wine production / 2nd

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Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester Three 2021/22)

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.

Further information about Recommend a book.

In Semester Three, academic year 2021/2022 we successfully processed 32 requests from 12 students (11 PGR,  1 PGT and 0 UGT) in GPS totalling just over £2300.

A womanist pastoral theology against intimate and cultural violence

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Global Governance Challenges

All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work

Being feminist, being christian: Essays from academia

Capital and Ideology

China orders the world : normative soft power and foreign policy

China’s Rise and Rethinking International Relations Theory

China’s War in Korea Strategic Culture and Geopolitics

Christianity, Patriarchy, and Abuse: A Feminist Critique

Dirty Work: Essential jobs and the hidden toll of inequality

Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945-1980

Essentials of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Ethical Value Networks in International Trade: social justice, sustainability and provenance in the Global South

Gynecologic Ultrasound, An Issue of Ultrasound Clinics

Home

How China Sees the World Insights From China’s International Relations Scholars

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy

Leviathan on a Leash: A Theory of State Responsibility

Race, Culture, and Gender: Black Female Experiences of Violence and Abuse

Rape Culture, Gender Violence, and Religion

Reimagining Theologies of Marriage in Contexts of Domestic Violence: When Salvation Is Survival

Resilient life: the art of living dangerously

Securing the Belt and Road Initiative Risk Assessment, Private Security and Special Insurances Along the New Wave of Chinese Outbound Investments

Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches

The Disability Bioethics Reader

The Dynamics of Russia’s Geopolitics: Remaking the Global Order

The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality, and Gender

The Populism Interviews: A Dialogue with Leading Experts

The Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture, 2022

The Woman’s Bible 

Think Tanks and Power in Foreign Policy: A Comparative Study of the Role and Influence of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1939-1945

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Spotlighting Scopus and ScienceDirect: new features from Elsevier.

Scopus

The Scopus Search Results page has been redesigned, the following new and exciting features include: –

  • Search functionality on search result page itself
  • User-friendly filters/facets and customized different views on how the results are displayed
  • A new an intuitive page layout

Why not try the new version for yourself! Just perform a Scopus search then click on the ‘try the new version’ link at the banner at the top of the page. If you want to know more just click on ‘take a tour’. You can easily return to old version by clicking on the link ‘return to old version’.

If you want to know what else Scopus have done in 2022, have a look on their website.

We are hosting a Scopus webinar on December 8, which is a great opportunity to come and find out more about getting the most from the database.

Scopus webinar booking

ScienceDirect

The Topics pages on ScienceDirect have been compiled into a new homepage, and offers a way to:-

  • Search all Topics pages
  • Search and browse within specific subject areas
  • Register to receive recommended articles based on your search activity.

The extracts provided on ScienceDirect Topics are written by experts and are drawn from foundational and reference materials. The source materials used include major reference works such as encyclopaedias, journal review articles, monographs, book series and handbooks.

For a list of ScienceDirect topics, have a look on their website.

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Guest Post: A 3rd year’s hints and tips, all things law and non-law

About me

My name is Lia, and I am a 3rd year undergraduate law student. The modules I am doing this year are Employment, Careers, Company, Mediation, Evidence and Commercial. I am originally from Peterborough but love Newcastle so much that I want to stay here after I’ve finished studying! My career aspirations are hopefully to become a commercial solicitor in Newcastle.

What do I know now that I wish I knew when I first started?

My 1st year was very different to the norm as I was the Covid year, which made my 2nd year even harder having to learn to adapt to in-person teaching. My advice would be to work 9-5 during the week and give yourself as much time off in the evenings so that you can go out, hang out with your friends, and do extracurricular societies and sports clubs.

1st year and 2nd year are all about making mistakes and learning from them, so never be too hard on yourself. It is more important to always get feedback from coursework and exams, knowing that whatever questions you have other students, the librarians and lecturers will all be able to help.

Seminars are also everyone’s saviours as they literally ask you to prepare the exam questions. I think you should prepare these to your best ability and try do some follow up work on the seminar after you have had everyone’s input.

Client Interviewing

In my 2nd year I entered the client interviewing competition with my friend, Daisy. This was highly rewarding as we learnt how to conduct ourselves when meeting clients and eventually won the competition overall.

The best part of our prize was that we got free work experience at Ward Hadaway, a regional law firm in Newcastle. I completed seats in Real Estate and Commercial litigation whilst I was there.

Text reads: To the winners Daisy and Lia, Newcastle University Law Society Client Interviewing Competition 2022. Two photographs show each winner smiling.
Image from Newcastle Uni Law Society Instagram @nulawsociety

Now, in my 3rd year, I am one of the client interviewing officers this year for the law society. This year Daisy and I are hoping to make the competition better than ever and help participants develop their skills by offering more training sessions than previous years and more competitions. I really advise any 1st or 2nd years to do this as an extra-curricular as it doesn’t take up too much time, looks great on your CV and is judged by Ward Hadaway solicitors who offer money and work experience as a prize!

Favourite Places…

To Study

To Eat Out

For Drinks