Tag: Geography

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Routine for Referencing

What are the key steps to a successful routine for referencing? Of all the enquiries we get in the Library, referencing is the most common.

Referencing is the acknowledgement of the sources that you use in your work. You must reference all sources that you use in your assignment, project or dissertation, including words and ideas, facts, images, videos, audio, websites, statistics, diagrams and data.

Over the next two weeks weeks we’re focusing on referencing, giving you the routine for success. As a novice, you might need a little help to understand the steps and techniques for your referencing style.

We’ll tell you where to get advice and help

Understand why we reference and how

How to avoid plagiarism

How to manage your information to make your life easier and assignments less stressful, giving you the routine for success.

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Mobile Apps & Resources Guide

Collage of mobile app icons

Our mobile devices are great for helping us to stay in touch with friends and family, keeping us up-to-date with the latest trends and news on social media and, of course, for sharing cat videos.

However, your mobile device can also be a great tool for learning and study, if you’ve got the right apps!

With recommendations from students in SNES, (who have been using tablets on their course for the past year) our updated Mobile Apps and Resources Guide provides a host of freely available apps and mobile friendly resources that can help you get the most from your device. It includes apps for study and productivity, creativity and design, history, languages, business, science and more.

Screenshot of the Mobile Apps Guide page

So whether you’re just getting set up with your tablet or an old hand looking for something new to help keep you organised with your work or up-to-date in your subject area, our guide has something to help.

Some highlights include:

Microsoft Office Lens – this app helps you make documents or pictures of whiteboards screen readable. You can also use Office Lens to convert images to PDF, Word and PowerPoint files.

Pocket – allows you to save articles, videos and stories from any publication, page or app to read at a later time.

Trello  – a useful tool that helps you to organize and prioritize your projects using boards, lists and cards.

BrowZine –  a tool that allows you to access and keep up to date with key journal titles that the Library subscribes to in your subject area.

If you have any further suggestions for useful apps that we could add to the guide, let us know at: lib-sage@ncl.ac.uk

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Finding theses from elsewhere

Although the Library holds copies of all Newcastle University PhD theses and copies of theses written for other research degrees, you may find you need a thesis from elsewhere. If this is the case, our Theses and Dissertations guide is a good place to start. This tells you what print and electronic theses we hold and where to find other UK or international theses.

Ethos

Ethos allows you to search the details of 500,000 UK theses from over 120 institutions, from the 1970s to date. The full text of about one fifth of these is available for immediate download to registered users, and in other cases, you may be able to request a copy in digital or other format (for which there may be a charge).

Can’t find the theses you’re looking for? If all else fails, it may be worth checking to see if an institution has its own repository.

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OFF THE SHELF – National Poetry Day

Off The Shelf

National Poetry Day marks its 25th anniversary this year with a mass participation campaign that highlights poetry’s power to harness the truth about life.

In commemoration of the event, Teaching Fellow Sue Spencer will be returning to the Law Library and Walton Library to take poetry off the shelf and share some meaningful conversations about the truths that really matter.

Drop in for a one-to-one chat and she’ll offer a listening ear and a poem to inspire, soothe and comfort you!

Wednesday 2nd October, 3-5pm
Law Student Common Area, Newcastle Law School

Thursday 3rd October, 4.40-6.30pm
Walton Library, Newcastle University Medical School

No appointments necessary.

Brought to you in conjunction with the Medicine in Literature and Law in Literature Collections.

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Welcome to the University Library

Welcome

Whether you’re a fresher or a final year student we want to help you get the most from your Library. From discovering resources to finding the right study space, to where to go to get help with your coursework. We’ve made a short video so if you’ve only a few minutes to spare it’s all you need to get started….

 

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Summer professional readings

Looking for something to read this August – whiling the time away with your toes between the sand, the sound of waves splashing, and the sun warming up your bones? I know a summer read is normally something a bit fluffier, however you might want to read one these top reads that were recommended at two conferences I attended recently here on campus (Professional Services Conference and the SAgE PGR Conference).  All three books are conveniently available for you to loan from Newcastle University Library…click on the book cover to take you to the library catalogue entry:

Book cover of 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins

Book cover of 'where good ideas come from' by Steven JohnsonBook cover image of 'Creativity, Inc.' by Ed Catmull

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New service helps you search beyond our Library

A new search service, Library Hub Discover, has just launched, replacing the old COPAC database (which enabled you to search across UK academic and research libraries) and SUNCAT (which searched for journals elsewhere).

Library Hub Discover offers a new and improved interface to search across the catalogues of 100 UK and Irish academic, national and specialist libraries, with many more libraries due to be added soon.

A new related service, Library Hub Compare, enables you to analyse and compare library collections and identify relative strengths. So, if you want to assess which libraries in a region have particularly strong holdings relating to your research area, this is a neat way of doing it.

Read more about the new services and keep up with developments by following JiscLibraryHub.

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Be wise – start thinking about your Reading Lists

 

Although it’s now the summer vacation, it is time for our academics to start thinking about the reading lists for 2019/20. So, what resources are you going to recommend to your students to support your teaching? How will you ensure the Library has what you need in stock?

Use the Library’s Reading Lists to create, manage and update your own lists online. Or, you can send your list as an attachment to your Library’s Reading List team using our submission form.

Why use this service? Well, your lists will help the Library to order the correct number of copies of the titles you want to recommend, to decide on the appropriate loan periods of those printed books and enable access to electronic resources for your students. CLA scans (digitised book chapters and articles) can easily be requested through Reading Lists too. There’s no need to email us or fill out a separate request form; simply tag the item on your list and leave it to us.

Benefits for you include:

  • Your book orders and scanning requests will be dealt with seamlessly by a dedicated team of Library Staff.
  • It is an effective and efficient way of getting your Reading Lists to your students via Blackboard, alongside your teaching materials.
  • You can add resources from Library Search, any database or while you’re browsing the Web (via the “Cite it” tool).
  • You will provide accessible information to your students about their required reading, with live links to Library Search, eBooks, full-text journal articles and book chapters.
  • You can organise the resources to suit your needs, e.g. by week, topic, lecture or seminar.
  • You can tag the items on your Reading Lists so your students can clearly see what is essential, recommended or background reading.
  • In tagging each item, the Library can ensure appropriate stock provision for your students based on module numbers.
  • You can notify the Library and your students of any changes you wish to make to your lists automatically.
  • Reading Lists can boost student engagement with your subject and you can see the access statistics for the items on your list, providing valuable insight on how the students are using the materials listed.

So, Reading Lists are a great way to let your students know what they need to read, and to keep the Library informed too; they are the wise choice.

You can find information about creating and managing your Reading Lists, and making resources available to your students here. And if you have any questions about this service, please do contact us at readinglists@ncl.ac.uk

Have a good summer!

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Spotlight on OECD iLibrary

OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) it contains a vast collection of books, papers and statistics, some of which date back to the 1960s, it is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. OECD content covers over 100 countries.

Every year around 300 new titles are published, associated with the following themes:

  • Agriculture & Food,
  • Development,
  • Economics,
  • Education,
  • Employment,
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Finance and Investment
  • Governance
  • Industry and Services
  • Nuclear Energy
  • Science and Technology
  • Social Issues / Migration / Health
  • Taxation
  • Trade
  • Transport
  • Urban, Rural and Regional Development

You can browse by theme, country, or choose the type of content you require (for example, books, papers, statistics). You can also carry out simple or advanced searches.

If you’re looking for Statistics and Indicators?

OECD iLibrary contains all of the publications and datasets released by International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and International Transport Forum (ITF) since 1998 – present.

It presents all content so users can find and cite tables and databases as easily as articles or chapters in any available format: PDF, WEB, XLS, DATA, ePUB,READ.

For a quick introduction to OECD i Library, including how to search the database and how to use advanced features and find statistical information and indicators, take a look at the user guide.

You can  find details on other sources of statistics on our Statistics Guide.