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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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Politics: explore the best resources for your subject

As we are a few weeks into the start of term, it’s time to think about doing some wider reading for your assignments or perhaps making a start on your research project or dissertation. Library Search is a great place to start when you’re looking for information. In one simple search you will find books, Ebooks, journal articles and more.

However, there are times when you want to narrow down your search by limiting yourself to a subject specific database, such as Scopus or Web of Science. Perhaps you are looking for a particular type of information like election results, national referenda, changes in government so you could use the interactive Political Data Yearbook.

That’s where your library Subject Guide can help. We have put together your Subject Guide so that you are able to find the best resources and advice for your programme, all in one place.

We have grouped together the most relevant journal collections, databases, eBook collections and specialist resources we have, so that you don’t need to go hunting for the right database from the 300+ available at Newcastle University.

You will find links to Support for your studies too. These quick links will take you to resources to help you develop your own academic skills, including tools to help you plan a search, quizzes to test your knowledge and advice on how to find, evaluate and reference the best information for your academic work.

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Ebook collections for Social Sciences

As part of an Evidence Based Acquisition model linked to eBooks from Springer we’ve now got access for 12 months to following collections for Social Sciences.

Business and Management 2018, 2017

Education 2018, 2017

Political Science and International Studies 2018, 2017

Palgrave Business & Management 2015

Palgrave Education 2015

Palgrave Language & Linguistics 2015

Palgrave Political Science 2015 and Palgrave International Relations & Development 2015 

Economics 2017 2018

Finance 2017 2018

Earth and Environmental sciences 2018

After 12 months we will analyse which ebooks have been accessed and make decisions based on that usage for titles to include permanently within our collections.

As part of our permanent collection from Springer we already have access to

Social Sciences 2018

 

 

 

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School of GPS – new resources

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

Ones useful for GPS staff and students are :

New journals

European Journal of Political Research

A quarterly journal which provides short research notes outlining ongoing research in more specific areas of research. Access is available from volume one onwards.

Journal of Migration History

A multidisciplinary journal features articles on migration, mobility and related themes.  Access is available from volume one onwards.

Mobilization

A quarterly journal which provides research and theory specializing in social movements, protests, insurgencies, revolutions, and other forms of contentious politics. Access is available from volume one onwards.

Signs

Published quarterly, this journal examines theories and methodologies from a variety of disciplines and provides important links between feminist theory and the realities of women’s lives. Access is from volume one onwards.

New Resources

African American Communities 

This collection presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, correspondence, official records and in depth oral histories.

Race Relations in America

Collection of primary source material covering Civil Rights in the USA from 1943-1970.  Content includes photographs, correspondence, audio recordings, data and case studies, together with contextual features to help with interpreting the material.

Cambridge Histories Online

Search over 360 volumes of this major series, covering worldwide history from British and European History, Middle East and Asian Studies, Political Thought, and more. All volumes are also individually listed on Library Search.

De Gruyter

We have access to De Gruyter’s enire 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 sociology, political sciences and geosciences. All titles are catalogued individually on Library Search.

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.

Emerald eBook collection

We have bought a range of eBooks from Emerald these are all cataloged and available on Library Search.

Titles include:

Divorce, separation and remarriage the transformation of family 

Hidden hands in the market 

China and Europe’s partnership for a more sustainable world. 

Sunday Times Digital Archive

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

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School of GPS: New Springer and Palgrave eBooks

During this academic year we have made available a range of ebook collections from SpringerNature which includes titles from Palgrave.

This system has been using something called Evidence Based Acquisition to select the final purchase of ebooks based on the usage during the trial.

For the School of GPS we now have available 58 ebooks from this supplier.

The top 5 based on usage are :

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy

The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Theory

Aesthetic Labour

Democratic Legitimacy in the European Union and Global Governance

Political Communication in Britain

Please contact the Social Sciences Liaison Team if you wish to see a full list of titles; all are available on our catalogue, Library Search

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Peacebuilding journal

We now have full text access to Peacebuilding via Taylor & Francis.  It is a peer reviewed journal which provides analysis and insight on the policies and philosophies that underpin peacebuilding programmes.

You can access the journal via Library Search.

Please explore and send us your feedback.

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How to be a Fake News Ninja

As a University student it is imperative that you arm yourself against the barrage of fake news that can be found in today’s media.  To produce academically sound assignments and research, you need to be able identify and evaluate information quickly and with authority.

Here are 10 tips on how you can be a Fake News Ninja:

  1. Be aware: just simply knowing that not all information is created equal is the first step.
  2. Check the source: Where did the information come from? This can be tricky, especially on social media.
  3. Read more: don’t just rely on the piece of information that’s in front of you… go an find another reliable source and see if the facts are the same.
  4. Check the author: Do a bit of Google stalking to see if the author is credible.
  5. Check the references: does the item have references? What sources have they used? Are they credible?
  6. Check the date: watch out for re-posts old news items.
  7.  Check your biases: You own beliefs and prejudices can have an affect on how you accept information.
  8. Is it a joke?: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
  9. Ask a Librarian: Librarians are the original Fake News Ninjas.  Come and ask us about any reference that you aren’t too sure about and we can help you make an authoritative decision on  the information you use for your research.
  10. Knowledge is power: Read more about Fake News and how you can win the fight. Everything you need to know is in our Fake News Guide.

Read our other blogs on Fake News to be aware of the consequences of Fake News and the history and growth of Fake News.

References
IFLA (2018) How to spot fake news. Available at: https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174 (Accessed: 23 March 18)

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The consequences of Fake News

A scan of some of our “Fake or Fact?” stories this week might raise a few smiles, but as we’ve seen increasingly over the past couple of years, Fake News can have far-reaching consequences.
Hands up, who’s had the awkwardness of friends or family members reposting dubious material on Facebook? If so, you’re not alone. Apparently, according to a MIT study published this year, based on three years’ worth of Twitter meta-analysis, fake news travels up to six times faster than genuine stories. False stories were up to 70% more likely to receive a retweet – often due the novelty or shock factor.

In the sphere of politics, this can have worrying consequences. The U.S. election in late 2016 coined the term for us and is a particularly rich source of Fake news and political spin. Business Insider lists some of the most influential fake news stories to surface during this time; from false claims that WikiLeaks had proof of Clinton arms deals with ISIS, to a fictional Papal endorsement of Trump, said to have received nearly a million hits on Facebook. Only this month, the Jakarta Post reported on concerns of Fake News polluting the build-up to the Indonesian Presidential Elections next year as Facebook groups flood the country’s web spaces with doctored videos; something that has previous lead to protests in the streets of the capital.

And even when we know we might be dealing with dubious information, Fake News can continue to wield influence. Newcastle University’s own Dr. Gavin Stewart, a meta-analysis expert explains “claims with no scientific proof cast doubt over those with overwhelming evidence, leaving us at the best confused and in the worst case making totally the wrong decision.”

A strong example can be found in the now discredited research of Andrew Wakefield. Back in 1998, Wakefield drew unsubstantiated links between the MMR vaccination and childhood autism. Despite the widespread exposure of the fraudulent claims and rebuttals from the medical community, vaccination rates of the MMR vaccine dropped, and last year saw a 400% increase of measles cases across Europe.

So what does this mean for you as a current student?
The National Literacy Trust has been conducting research into pupils’ critical skills, and worryingly, has found that 35% of teachers in the UK taught pupils citing fake news and satire as legitimate sources. A fifth of pupils between 8 and 15 believe that everything found online is trustworthy and true. The antidote to this is building on one of your core graduate attributes and competencies – critical thinking. Always check out stories you’ve found online before using them in your work. Who have they come from, how partisan is that group or author? Is the material satire? What does the author stand to gain? Employers in all industries are looking for graduate with sharp reasoning skills and sound judgement. As students producing work in the current “post-truth” climate, your job is a little tougher, but you can turn this to your advantage by proving you have the skills and the smarts to outwit the Fake News racketeers.

Read our other blogs on Fake News to learn about the history and growth of Fake News and how you can become a Fake News Ninja.

References
1. Vosoughi, Roy and Aral, (2018). “The spread of true and false news online.” Science, 359: 6380, pp. 1146-1151.
2. Roberts (2016) “This is what fake news actually looks like — we ranked 11 election stories that went viral on Facebook.” Business Insider UK. November 17th
http://uk.businessinsider.com/fake-presidential-election-news-viral-facebook-trump-clinton-2016-11/#5-hillary-clinton-sold-weapons-to-isis-and-it-was-confirmed-by-wikileaks-7)
3. Pearl (2018). “Indonesia battels fake news as elections looms” Jakarta Post. 15th March http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/15/indonesia-battles-fake-news-as-elections-loom.html
4. Newcastle university (2018) “Filtering out Fake News” 7th March. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2018/03/fakenews/
5. Houston, (2018) “Measles back with a vengeance due to fake health news” The Irish Times. Feb 23rd. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/measles-back-with-a-vengeance-due-to-fake-health-news-1.3401960
6. National Literacy Trust (2018). “Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills in Schools” https://literacytrust.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/all-party-parliamentary-group-literacy/fakenews/

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History and growth of Fake News

Fake News is nothing new and has been going on since time began!

Have at look at our timeline on our Fake News Guide for a snapshot of how Fake News has shaped history:

With the introduction of mass news with the invention of the printing press, and the massive up-rise in news being created and fed via social media, the growth of the term ‘Fake News’ and the actual production of Fake News stories has grown exponentially in recent years:

  • The term ‘Fake News’ is searched for in web browsers 70.8-118 thousand times a month.
  • #fakenews has over 251.2k mentions on Twitter
  • In 2017 Donald Trump mentioned the term ‘Fake News’ in public correspondence, 320 times!

Not only has the volume of Fake News grown, but also the speed that it spreads.  However, maybe there is a way we can slow it down:

Read our other blogs on Fake News to be aware of the consequences of Fake News and how you can become a Fake News Ninja.

References
Kiely, E. (2018) Trump’s Phony ‘Fake News’ Claims. Available at: https://www.factcheck.org/2018/01/trumps-phony-fake-news-claims/. Accessed: 23 March 2018).
Smith, R. (2017) The Numbers Behind Fake News. Available at: http://www.dailyinfographic.com/numbers-behind-fake-news. (Accessed: 23 March 2018).