Early closure of Medical Libraries on Thursday 17th December 2009

Whitechapel and West Smithfield Libraries will close early, at 6pm, on Thursday 17th December 2009. Mile End Library will remain open until midnight as usual.

Extra silent-study spaces at Mile End Library coming soon

60 extra silent-study spaces will be installed on the second floor of the Mile End Library in the spring of 2010, before the beginning of the main exam revision period. These will be on the west side of the Library overlooking Library Square, where the map cabinets have been temporarily located since Summer 2009.

Earlier opening time for Mile End Library

In response to many requests, from the 11th January 2010 (the start of Semester 2), the Mile End Library will open half an hour earlier each weekday morning, at 8.30 am instead of 9.00 am. This means that users will be able to access Library facilities before 9 am lectures.
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Mile End Library Book sale

There will be a Book Sale in the Mile End Library on Wednesday 9th, Thursday 10th, Friday 11th, Monday 14 & Tuesday 15th December 2009, between 10am and 5pm.

"Take Flight" - Behind the Scenes Tours of the Archives

Take a flying visit through the fascinating collections in the Archives. To celebrate the opening of the new Caroline Skeel Archives Reading Room, the Archives will be running free Behind the Scenes Tours, for both staff and students, throughout November 2009.

There will be an opportunity to view the improved facilities for users and exclusive access will be granted to the secure vault where the collections are stored. The tour will also showcase some of the highlights from the Archives, featuring the eccentric, innovative and pioneering. Everything from ‘The Great Carles’, champion pigeon charmers, who delighted the People’s Palace with their performance in 1887, to the French student revolution of 1968.

The tours will be taking place on the following dates, November 9th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 30th. Tours will last 30 minutes and will take place between 12.30-2.30pm, exact time to be confirmed. To book a place on a tour or for more information email archives or telephone 020 7882 3873.

The Archives hold a wealth of fascinating institutional and personal archives, dating from the 18th Century to the present day. The collections document the rich history of the College, and provide vital evidence for research in the arts, humanities and social sciences and science and engineering. To find out more see the archive website.

Now open, Caroline Skeel Archives Reading Room

The Caroline Skeel Archives Reading Room opened on the 2nd Floor of the Main Library on 12th October 2009. It will provide easier access to invaluable historical collections.

The Archives chart the fascinating history of the College and also contain primary source material for subjects in the arts, humanities and social sciences, dating from the 18th century to present day.

The purpose built room is open Monday to Friday 9.30am-4.45pm and provides a dedicated space for users of the Archives. The room is supervised by specialist Archives staff, able to assist users to search the collections for relevant material.

Users will be permitted to order material on demand, up to 6 records at a time, for retrieval from the Archives storeroom. Copies of records are provided at reasonable rates, including photocopying and scanning services. Users are permitted to use their own digital cameras to take photographs of items from the collections, free of charge. Find out more here: www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archive/news.htm or visit the 2nd Floor and drop into the Caroline Skeel Archives Reading Room.

The room is named after Professor Caroline Skeel (1872–1951), who was a Lecturer in Classics and History at Westfield College. She was also responsible for the College library from 1902, attracting gifts from learned societies and others which substantially improved the collection.

For more information about the Archives collections or to make an enquiry see: www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archive email archives@qmul.ac.uk or telephone 020 7882 3873.

Did you know what happened on this day 127 years ago…?

Welcome to the new academic year! It is an exciting time of year for Queen Mary and the thousands of new students who will be settling in over the up and coming weeks. It is difficult to imagine the humble beginnings of one of Queen Mary’s predecessor colleges, Westfield College, which opened for the first time on this day 127 years ago, in Hampstead, North London…

Westfield College, one of the first ladies colleges in London, opened its doors on 2nd October 1882, welcoming just 5 students in total! The only teaching staff were the Mistress, Constance Louisa Maynard, and the Resident Lecturer, Katherine Tristram. The numbers gradually increased but it is quite a contrast to today where Queen Mary has a community of over 15,000 students and hundreds of lecturers!

Westfield College merged with Queen Mary in 1989 to form Queen Mary and Westfield College, better known today as Queen Mary, University of London. The Westfield Student Village at Mile End is one of the lasting legacies of Westfield College, making Queen Mary unique in being the only College of the University of London to have on-campus halls of residence. Meanwhile, the original site of Westfield in Hampstead, is now largely occupied by Kings College or has been converted to private flats.

To discover more about the fascinating history of Queen Mary visit the Archives website:
www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archive
or pop into the new Archives Reading Room located on the 2nd floor of the Main Library, due to open on 12th October.

Student volunteers required for web usability session, Monday 21st, free lunch and vouchers

The library is looking for returning undergraduate students who are interested in helping us to develop the user experience (UX) for our new online library catalogue interface, this Monday, 21st Sept. It will involve coming to an afternoon breakout session, in which we will be thinking through typical goal-based scenarios students have when using the catalogue. There are no prerequisites for this session and it will be of especial interest to students who are studying design / marketing / business / online systems / IT. Amazon vouchers, as well as a free lunch, will be given as a token of our appreciation for your valuable input to the library's user experience.

The session is being facilitated by Tony Rose, the UX Manager & Principal Consultant at Endeca. The new library catalogue will be implemented using the "Endeca enterprise search software".

If you would like to take part, please contact Damian Hippisley

The evolving Library: self-service issue and return

Installation of self-service issue and return in Queen Mary Libraries is proceeding on schedule, and should go live in all Libraries in the week beginning the 17th August 2009.

This will mean you can borrow and return books at Mile End, Whitechapel and West Smithfield Libraries with a minimum of intervention from Library staff, using your existing Library barcode and associated PIN.

Your Library barcode is found on the front of your ID/Library card; if you do not know your PIN, please ask at the Library counter.

Library staff will be on hand to offer help and support with the self-service system.

Installation of self-service issue and return adds to the services Library users can already access for themselves, which currently include checking loans and reservations and renewing items.

For more information about these new services, please check the Library website at http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/

The Westfield College Project

An exciting new project is now under way in the Archives to catalogue and preserve the historical legacy of Westfield College. The project is being supported by a grant secured from The Westfield Trust and will provide users with online access to catalogues of the archives of Westfield College, Constance Maynard (1849-1935), Caroline Skeel (1872–1951), and Ellen Delf Smith (1883-1980). These collections hold a vast amount of knowledge relating not only to the history of Queen Mary, University of London, but also to social history, Victorian values, religion in education and most predominantly women’s education.

To find out more please see Archives News.

-- Lorraine Screene --

Online access to Sage social science e-journal titles

In addition to our existing portfolio of Sage e-journal titles, QMUL now has online access to the following social science titles published by Sage:

• Accounting History
• Acta Sociologica
• Critical Sociology
• Feminist Theory
• Gender and Society
• Journal of Black Studies
• Journal of Macromarketing
• Memory Studies
• Men and Masculinities
• Sexualities
• Social Compass

These titles can be accessed via the Library's A-Z list of e-journals. Users will need to login with their QMUL Athens username and password when off-campus.

Want to improve your CV?

Need to find a job? Need help with your CV or job application? Come along to a CV clinic!

Mondays to Thursdays
13:00 - 13:45
QMUL Library

All CV clinics take place inside the pink study pods. If you are unsure, please ask at the Main Library reception.

These sessions are run by Queen Mary Careers (Room WG3, Queens Building, Mile End)
www.careers.qmul.ac.uk

Second JISC Observatory e-book survey 2009 results

Thank you for participating in the worlds largest survey on e-books!

The Library recently promoted a survey on e-books that many of you took part in. This survey was run at universities across the UK and over 23,000 staff and students participated. This was the second survey run as part of the JISC national e-books observatory project http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/ , the first was in January 2008. The surveys were exploring current awareness, perceptions and attitudes towards e-books and looking to see if these changed between 2008 and 2009.

Together, these surveys received over 48,000 responses - the world's biggest e-book survey ever undertaken! We would like to thank you for participating in the surveys. A student at Royal Holloway University of London won the £200 Amazon voucher prize.

Some headline findings from the surveys:

• Use of e-books for study increased for students from 61.4% in 2008 to 64.4% in 2009 but the highest increase was use by staff, which increased from 58.9% to 64.9%.
• Surprisingly, over 63% of respondents said that they read the content of e-books from a screen with only around 6% printing pages out, however, the average time spent reading was only between 11 and 20 minutes.
• Over 54% of respondents said that they dip in and out of e-book chapters with only around 8% reading a whole chapter.
• Encouragingly, the percentage of teaching staff recommending e-books to students and placing direct links to them via the virtual learning environment or online reading lists increased between 2008 and 2009.
• There was no discernable difference between the use of e-books by age groups, although it does appear that men prefer e-books to women.
• Most staff and students get access to their e-books via the university library and dependency on this access had increased by 2009.
• Satisfaction with the availability of print textbooks through the library increased from 2008 to 2009 and this may be due to the availability of more e-books taking the pressure of the print copies.
• The results of the surveys will be used to develop the e-books market to help make sure that staff and students can get access to the books they need either in print or electronic format.

For further information on e-books in the Library please see Library e-books page http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/e-resources/ebooks.htm


For further information on the JISC national e-books observatory project please see www.jiscebooksproject.org

Hive extension now open

The extension to the Hive is now open. The new space is located in the link bridge & an area of the 1st floor of the Physics building, immediately adjacent to the existing Hive (Level One) study area.

The new area provides around 100 seats, with 25 QM Teaching Service workstations. It has wireless access throughout and also contains a bookable group study room.

The area is open from 8.00 to 20.00 each day (including weekends), with staff available between 11.30 & 15.30, Monday to Friday.

You can access the Hive extension via the external metal staircase to Level One or via the entrance to the Physics building next to the Chaplaincy (Hive entrance is on the 1st floor). Access with QM ID card only.

Online acccess to TheScientificWorldJOURNAL

QMUL now has online access to TheScientificWorldJOURNAL (TSWJ), a multidisciplinary publication which covers subjects ranging from biomedicine to the environment, including health and social sciences. This title must be accessed off-campus via our A-Z list of e-journals in order for users to be routed via our proxy server, which required users to login with their QMUL Teaching Services /Athens username and password.

Online access to Transplant Library via Ovid

QMUL now has online access to the Transplant Library database via Ovid. This evidence-based resource for organ transplantation is produced by the Centre for Evidence in Transplantation, and includes nearly 6,500 references to all reports (full articles and conference proceedings) of randomized control trials (RCT) in organ transplantation published since 1970, and is updated every two weeks. Transplant Library is accessible and searchable via MetaLib, the Library's e-resource gateway. Users are required to login using their QMUL Athens username and password when accessing these resources off-campus. This resource is funded nationally by the Department of Health for specialist centres and medical schools associated with those hospitals.

Online access to American Psychological Association (APA) databases via Ovid

QMUL now has online access, via Ovid, to the five subject-databases produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). This includes full-text content from journal titles included in the PsycARTICLES database (accessible via the Library's SFX service) and full-text content from books included in the PsycBOOKS database. All APA databases are accessible via MetaLib, the Library's e-resource gateway. Users are required to login using their QMUL Athens username and password when accessing these resources off-campus.

MetaLib: Psychology subject search

A new psychology subject search facility, featuring the option to search individual or groups of listed resources, is now available via the MetaLib gateway to electronic resources. Users should login to MetaLib using their Teaching Services account credentials in order to gain full benefit form the system.

Online access to British Psychological Society e-journal titles

QMUL now has online access to the complete package of 12 British Psychological Society e-journal titles via IngentaConnect. All titles are listed in the Library's A-Z list of e-journal titles. Users are required to login using their QMUL Athens username and password when accessing these titles off-campus.

Index to Legal Periodicals - SFX links now available

SFX links, which allow users to check the availability of references both online and in print, are now available in Index to Legal Periodicals via WilsonWeb. Users are also now automatically logged in to this resource when on-campus via IP address. For off-campus access users are required to login using their QM Athens account.

Online acces to the AES E-Library

QMUL now has online access to the AES E-Library, accessable via the Library's e-resources portal, MetaLib. The AES E-Library contains all the Audio Engineering Society papers from the AES Journal, conventions and conferences: over 13,000 fully searchable PDFs documenting the progression of audio research during the past fifty years. For off-campus access users are required to login via the University's proxy server using their Student Services/Athens account details.

West Smithfield Medical Library closed for work on lights from Monday 16th February 2009

West Smithfield Medical Library main reading room will be closed for about a week from Monday 16th February while the 3 large central light fittings are replaced. These lights are positioned directly over the books shelves and also in front of the Issue Desk, so it is just not possible to continue to run normal library services while this aspect of the project is in progress. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause, but the work is absolutely essential.

Replacement of the central light fittings is the final stage of work on the lights in the library. The lighting contractors have already replaced lights round the perimeter at ground and gallery levels. The new lighting provision will provide a better work and study environment for all as well as improving energy efficiency.

While the main reading room is closed, the library basement study area at West Smithfield will be open to student use for 24 hours per day. This study area provides access to PCs and group study facilities but it will not be possible to use book or journal stock from the main reading room.

If you have any queries about book loans, renewals or document supply while this library is closed, please call ext. 8188 (020 7882 8188) or email medlibs@qmul.ac.uk


Marie Montague
Acting Medical Librarian
m.b.montague@qmul.ac.uk

Ebooks week Monday 9th to Friday 13th February 2009

The Library now has over 3,000 ebooks covering a wide range of subjects and we are promoting collection this week. Come along to the Library to see what is available, talk to your subject librarian or look at the library web-page for further information

http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/e-resources/ebooks.htm

Online access to 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers

In addition to 19th Century British Library Newspapers, QM Library Services users now have online access to the 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers. This is the most comprehensive collection of early English newspapers, as well as pamphlets and books, from the collection of the Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817). Both collections are fully searchable via the vendors search interface. A QM Athens login is required for off-campus access.

Free scanning available at all Library photocopiers

It is now possible to scan documents for free at any Library photocopier. All you need is your QMUL ID card and a USB storage device. If you need any help feel free to ask any available member of staff.

Scanning instructions for Library Photocopiers:

1. Select the USB Print & Scan tab
2. Insert USB storage device into slot - front top left of copier
3. Once device has been detected, select it using the touchscreen.
4. Press the scan button on the bottom right of the screen and start scanning by pressing the green button.
5. Once all desired pages have been scanned select the Save button and logout as normal.

More detailed scanning instructions can be found here: www.library.qmul.ac.uk/pdfs/scanning_instructions.pdf

Chance to win £200 Amazon vouchers in JISC NeBO exit survey

The JISC national e-books observatory project (NeBO) started in October 2007 and ill run to July 2009. The project is now conducting an exit survey to gather student and staff attitudes to e-books in 2009. This survey is seeking views of staff and students following the provision of e-books to all universities in the UK.

You are under no obligation to take part in this survey. Any information given will be held securely and under no circumstances will any findings be divulged other than at highly aggregated level. The survey is being conducted through a third party, Survey Monkey, and you can check their privacy policy here: www.surveymonkey.com/Monkey_Privacy.aspx

Participants in the survey will have the chance to win £200 in Amazon vouchers. To go to the Survey click here [Click here]
NeBO is currently providing universities with 36 e-books in the subject areas of:

• Business and Management
• Engineering
• Media Studies
• Medicine

For further information, please contact
Marie Montague or ext 2488

QMUL Library Services opening, Tuesday 3 February

Owing to the continued adverse weather conditions we will be CLOSING EARLY today, Tuesday 3 February.

- Main Library Mile End.: the Issue counter will close at 5 pm. the Library building will be open until 9 pm offering reference and Self Service facilities.

Any queries about the service should be directed to library-enquiries@qmul.ac.uk

- West Smithfield and Whitechapel Medical Libraries will both close at 5 pm.

Any queries about the service should be directed to medlibs@qmul.ac.uk


We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Online access to American Economic Association titles

Library Service users now have online access to all American Economic Association titles via Aytpon. The new titles American Economic Journal: Applied Economics and American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics are available, as well as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Please see our A-Z list of e-journals in order to access these and all other titles we subscribe to.

RIN survey about researchers' access to e-journals and other resources

Can you spare 15 minutes to answer an online survey? The survey is investigating some of the obstacles you face as a researcher when accessing licensed information resources, and how you overcome these obstacles. The survey is part of a study, commissioned by the Research Information Network (www.rin.ac.uk), to understand the nature and scale of limitations and barriers encountered by researchers when seeking to access such resources. The survey is hoping to reach as many researchers as possible, across a range of disciplines. Your input will provide vital insight to these issues and how they may be resolved going forwards. You can access the survey from 12th January here:

www.surveymonkey.com or email lburns@outsellinc.com.