Extra silent-study spaces in the Mile End Library

In response to user comments about the loss of silent study spaces on the second floor of the Mile End Library, Library Services are replacing the current study carrels and the map cabinets on the west side of the second floor of the Library (overlooking Library Square) with brand new units. These will have:

• four study bays instead of the three in the current carrels
• power sockets on the desks for laptops, etc.
• new, more comfortable chairs

This means that this study area will be unavailable while the current study carrels and the map cabinets are removed between Friday 19th and Sunday 21st February 2010, and the new furniture is installed on Monday 22nd February 2010. There will also be some noise and disruption on the second floor while the removal and installation take place, but we hope to keep this to a minimum.

At the end of this project there will be an additional 50 silent study spaces available on the west side of the second floor, and the map cabinets will have been moved to their new home near the video collection, also on the second floor.

Electronic resource free trial: Bibliography of British and Irish History

Queen Mary Library Services have a free 30 day trial to the Bibliography of British and Irish History. This provides bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and within the British Empire and Commonwealth, from 55BC to the present.

It is the successor to the Royal Historical Society Bibliography of British and Irish History, which was freely available online from 2002 to 2009. It is now published by Brepols.

To use the trial go to: www.brepolis.net, choose Enter databases and then choose BBIH, which is the only available option.

New electronic resource: Nexis® UK

Queen Mary Library Services now has a subscription to Nexis® UK, a large database of global news, country and company information. This gives our users access to:

• All the main UK newspapers, hundreds of UK regional newspapers, over 2,000 global newspapers, 750 newswires and over 7,000 licensed newsletters, journals and industry titles
• Company information for over 100 million companies worldwide, including company profiles, structure, named executives, financial reports and addresses. Company information providers include ICC Financial and Extel.
• Countries and markets data, including the BBC monitoring reports.

The newspaper coverage includes, and extends, the UK newspaper coverage previously accessed through Proquest at Queen Mary. Note that a QMUL Athens login is required for off-campus access.

New electronic resource: Sage Premier

Queen Mary Library Services has subscribed to the Sage Premier electronic journal package for 2010. This gives us electronic access to over 550 journal titles from the publisher Sage in the fields of business, humanities, social sciences, science, technology and medicine. The subscription includes access to all issues of the included journal titles from 1999 onwards. The complete list of Sage Premier journals can be accessed via the Library’s sfx e-journals list.

Whitechapel Library opening late; reduced service at Mile End Library on Saturday 23rd January 2010

Whitechapel Library will open late on Saturday 23rd January 2010, at 2 pm (instead of 10 am).

Mile End Library will be open for self-service and reference only from 11 am. The Help Point will open at 1.30 pm.

This is to allow time for staff training in the morning. We regret any inconvenience caused.

Mile End Library opens 8:30 am on the term week days

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.

Snow day - library closes at 4pm

Today, the Mile End library will close at the earlier time of 4pm.

West Smithfield will close at 4pm.

Whitechapel will close at 5pm.

Mile End library and the medical libraries will be opening at the usual time tomorrow, depending on the weather conditions.

Please watch this space to find out about the changes to opening times tomorrow.