Introducing your Swansea Met library - The Griffith Library at Dynevor

The second part of our series highlighting the libraries here at Swansea Met features our lovely Griffith Library, at the Dynevor campus!

The Griffith Library opened as a brand new library back in October 2005, when the Faculty of Art and Design moved to its new Dynevor campus. Originally named Dynevor Library, in 2011 it was re-named in memory of Art and Design staff member Sue Griffith, an inspiring lecturer and advocate of libraries and learning.

 

You can find the Griffith Library next to the main reception at Dynevor. In terms of size, although on two floors we are the smallest of all the Swansea Met libraries. We do however have a wide range of facilities and resources primarily catering for the needs of students and staff within Art and Design, and also the Swansea School of Glass. As we are so conveniently located close to the city centre, we are also popular with members of the public, who can join us through a local libraries scheme (Libraries Together) and borrow a small selection of books!

In terms of facilities, we offer students and staff access to a fantastic selection of books and print journals, space to study, networked PCs, printers and photocopiers (providing A4 and A3 printing/photocopying - in black and white or colour). We also have WIFI for anyone wishing to access the IT network via their mobile device, and a tv linked to a dvd/video player to watch films etc.

If you are looking for somewhere to relax for a while, we have a range of daily newspapers that you can find in our reading area. We also have a small selection of fiction titles in that area which you can borrow, if you fancy reading for pleasure as a change to academic studying! Currently the fiction theme is ‘As Seen on Screen’ – titles that have all been made into films (and were featured recently in another blog post of ours on 9th January).

Alternatively, if you are looking for ideas/inspiration, besides books, journals and e-resources we have quite a few artworks dotted around (paintings, ceramics, and even a bronze!)

Our small, friendly team of library staff are on hand to offer help and advice as required. We can advise on a range of queries, from helping to locate a book to using our library e-resources on and off campus.

Term–time opening hours for the Griffith Library are as follows:
Monday – Thursday: 9.00am – 8.00pm
Friday: 9.00am – 4.30pm
Saturday: 10.00am – 4.00pm
(For vacation opening hours, please see the library web site)

During opening hours you can check out a book or DVD at the library counter, or why not give our easy to use self-service kiosk a go? On the subject of DVDs, we have a great range of films in this library, perfect if you fancy chilling out on an evening/weekend.

The Griffith Library has welcomed a couple of famous visitors during its time! The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury officially opened the campus in 2006. Cerys Matthews also visited us in 2008, whilst promoting Welsh Libraries.

 

Lastly, if you have any further queries about the Griffith Library, do get in touch! Visit us in person, or telephone on 01792 481 030. You can also keep up to date by following us and the other Swansea Met Libraries via our Blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

 

Introducing your Swansea Met library - Townhill Library

You may remember our series of blog posts last academic year in which we introduced your Swansea Met subject librarians. This year, we thought we'd tell you a bit more about our four Swansea Met libraries. Here we go!

Townhill Library

Welcome to Townhill Library! You’ll find us on the beautiful Townhill Campus where you can enjoy stunning views of Mumbles and Swansea Bay. It’s not all about the location, though; you’ll find plenty of books, journals and other resources here to help you with your studies.

You’ll find all sorts on our shelves, but we mainly support the subject areas of Education, Performing Arts and Psychology & Counselling. If you’re looking for something less academic, we have an excellent collection of novels and poetry books for you to browse and borrow. We like our classics, of course, but we have lots of books published during this century too! Take a look at our themed book display for inspiration. You’ll find it on the ground floor at the bottom of the stairs and the theme changes regularly.

We also have a Teaching Practice collection on the first floor. There you’ll find picture books, junior fiction (including teenage and young adult fiction) and non-fiction books in Welsh and English. This collection is primarily for our trainee teachers to use on school placement, but any Swansea Met student or member of staff is welcome to borrow Teaching Practice books.

If you’re looking for somewhere to read the latest copy of The Stage, or just kick back with a book, we have a comfy seating area on the ground floor. We have study spaces on each of the three floors in the library, but the best spot must be on the first floor by the window where you can take in that beautiful view of the bay!

You’ll find an open access computer suite on the top floor and some PCs on the ground floor. You can of course print and photocopy in the library (for a small charge!). You’ll find our photocopier on the ground floor with our journal back issues.

Our term time opening hours are:-

Monday – Thursday                        8.30am-9.00pm

Friday                                                8.30am-7pm

Saturday                                10am-4pm

Sunday                                   12pm-5pm

And as if all that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got some lovely members of staff to help you find your way around! Just ask at the counter if you’ve got any questions about the library or need help finding a book. You can borrow and return books and DVDs at counter too, or use our self-service machine if you’d prefer. If you’re struggling with our online resources or just don’t know where to start, Assistant Librarians Suzanne Taylor and Philippa Price will be happy to help. You can contact Townhill Library on 01792 482113, or just call in and see us during opening hours!

Normal service has resumed!

All four Swansea Met libraries are open again today after having been closed yesterday due to the bad weather, so feel free to pop in! We'll be here from 10am - 4pm. Take care on the roads and pavements if you are going to Townhill library as they are still pretty trecherous.

 

If you are still snowbound where you live and can't make it into the library today, don't forget about all our fabulous online resources that you can still make use of, take a look at the library website for all the details!

 

Swansea Met closed due to snow!

Swansea Met has announced that it will be closed today (Friday18th Jan), so that means the libraries are closed too, sorry. Our online resources are still available, of course, so please take a look at our databases and ebooks if you have any studying to do. Online resources are accessible from the library website. Find ebooks using the Library Catalogue Quick Search near the top of the homepage. To access online journal articles, try the Digital Library by clicking the blue link on the homepage, or our databases, which you can access by clicking on your subject area near the bottom of the homepage.

If you are planning to visit one of our libraries over the weekend, please phone before you set out as some or all libraries may be unable to open if there is still a lot of snow around. Contact numbers for each library are on the website and below:-

Griffith Library (Dynevor) 01792 481030
Owen Library (Mount Pleasant) 01792 481141
Swansea Business School Library 01792 481023
Townhill Library 01782 482113

You could also try Swansea Met's main switchboard on 01792 481000. Stay safe everyone!

Education on the Web – NFER’s guide to help you search effectively for online information about Education

We hope that all you Education students out there are already aware of the fantastic resources that the library has to offer you. You’re probably pretty familiar with our e-books and our online databases which let you find and access thousands of journal articles on and off campus. What about the rest of the web, though? There’s lots of information out there, but finding relevant and accurate sources can be tricky. Luckily, the NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research)  has produced a document to help!

Education on the Web: a Tool-kit to Help You Search Effectively for Information on Education does exactly what it says on the tin! It’s a free guide which systematically guides you through the process of finding literature through databases, websites and search engines. As well as helping you search for information, the guide also recommends good websites for different purposes, looks at using Web 2.0 tools for research and offers advice for sifting through the results of your literature search. If you’re embarking on a dissertation, research project or assignment, it’s well worth a look!

Remember that there’s plenty on offer in the library too, be it on the shelves or online. If you need any help finding or accessing resources for Education, just get in touch with Philippa Price or Suzanne Taylor at Townhill Library. Check Moodle for Philippa and Suzanne’s contact details, or give them a ring at Townhill Library on 01792 482113. We’re happy to help!

As Seen on Screen - Part 2!

The Griffith Library at Dynevor has a fantastic new selection of fiction for you this term, on loan from our colleagues at the Townhill Library! The theme is ‘As Seen on Screen’ and we have a dozen titles now available to borrow including ‘War Horse’, ‘Atonement’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’.


So if you fancy giving yourself a little break and reading for pleasure instead of for studies, pop into the Griffith Library - you’ll find them on our fiction trolley in the newspaper reading area!

Hollywood Costume

 

During the Christmas vacation I was lucky enough to visit the Hollywood Costume exhibition at London’s V&A museum. The exhibition occupies 3 display halls and houses over 100 of the most iconic costumes from almost a century of cinematic history. The themed halls explore various aspects of costume design and its impact on cinema storytelling. Some of the costumes on show have been painstakingly restored and are on public display for the very first time. There are costumes from the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood such as Dorothy’s blue gingham dress and ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (my personal favourite!), Marilyn Monroe’s infamous white dress from the Seven Year Itch, along with classic costumes from Cleopatra and Gone with the Wind as worn by Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh. If that doesn’t take your fancy there are also contemporary classics from films such as Superman (it took me a while to spot that one…as it was above our heads!), Twilight, and the Bond movies.

 

 

The exhibition runs from 20^th October 2012 until 27^th January 2013 so there’s still time for you to pay a visit…but if London is too far to travel, I have a solution – get yourself along to the Griffith library at our Dynevor campus because we have a copy of the fantastic exhibition book! You can find it at shelfmark 791.43026/HOL (I enjoyed the exhibition so much I bought the book for myself in the museum gift shop afterwards!).