We love databases!

This week, we’ve chosen to have a look at Education Source. This database can make a claim to be the most authoritative resource for anyone studying in the area of education.  As the world's largest and most complete collection of full-text education journals, it covers  all levels of education from early childhood to higher education and also provides insight into educational specialties,  such as multilingual education and testing.

Coverage dates back as far as 1929  and the impressive content includes:  more than 2,000  full text  journals, indexing and abstracts for 3,500 journals, 550+  full text books and monographs, and 1,200 full text  education-related conference papers.

It has a clear and easy to use interface.  Our subject librarians love it! Why not have a look and see what you can find?  If you’d like a hand or more information, contact alison.evans@uwtsd.ac.uk 

We love databases!

Over the last few weeks we've been highlighting some of the fantastic journal and newspaper databases we have available for you in our online library. There are thousands of full text articles available for you to access free of charge, from anywhere, 24/7, spanning across all academic subject areas.

This week we've chosen to put the spotlight on Hospitality and Tourism Complete. This collection of scholarly research and industry news contains more than 1.18 million records, with full text articles from over 520 publications including journals, company and country reports and books. Coverage dates back as far as 1938 and includes international as well as British publications.

You can print, save or email the articles, as well as setting up a personal log-in to create email alerts for topics of interest...you can even get help with your referencing and citations!

So if you are a student of tourism, catering and hospitality, or event management, this database has loads to offer...so, what are you waiting for?!

We love databases!

Today we're continuing our series promoting the many and varied (full-text) library databases we have to offer, with something for our health based students - CINAHL (Cumulative Index of Nursing & Allied Health Literature).

CINAHL is a valuable research tool that provides full-text access to over 550 nursing and health journal publications, dating back as far as 1981 (that's more than 3.2 million records!). As well as journal articles it also provides access to selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, audiovisual materials, book chapters and more. This fantastic database covers a wide selection of topics ranging from nursing and public health, to social care and child welfare.You can print and email articles to yourself, get help with referencing and citation...and even set up email alerts to bring all the latest research on your chosen topics straight to your inbox! What could be easier or more convenient?

So, next time you're struggling to find up-to-date information for your projects and assignments, remember to give our databases a try! It can save you time, effort and money! You can access all our databases quickly and conveniently, on and off campus, via our Swansea Online Library page...all you need is your UWTSD login and password.

International Arts Education Week

You'll find loads of art books and journals downstairs
 in Griffith Library!

The third annual UNESCO International Arts Education Week runs from the 19^th to the 23^rd May this year, so it’s nearly upon us. UWTSD Swansea has a rich heritage of arts education, so we’re sure it’s a topic close to your hearts! This year, the theme is Arts for Peace, which builds on the vision laid out in the UNESCO document Seoul Agenda: Goals forthe Development of Arts Education.

Griffith Library at Dynevor is, as you’d expect, the place to go for art books, journals and dvds, but Townhill Library has recently had some new books in about education and the arts too. So, if you’re looking for a book to help you Understand Art History or one on Inspiring Writing in Art and Design, you know where to come!

We’ve also got tons of resources online, so if you want e-books or e-journals, take a look at our catalogue. We’ve also got a whole host of databases to help you find images, journal articles and other information.

Phew! With all that, it looks as though we are definitely ready for International Arts in Education Week!

Some of the art books on offer in Townhill Library

A Belated Christmas Present From Us!

Happy New Year and welcome back to all our UWTSD Swansea students!

We have a belated Christmas present for you to help with your studies this year...some new library databases as well as upgrades to some old favourites!

  

Here are the details of the new databases/upgrades:

 

Academic Search Premier (New) *

Art Source (Upgraded)

Business Source Complete (Upgraded)

CINAHL Plus Full Text Unlimited (Upgraded)

Education Source (Upgraded)

Humanities Source (New) *

SportsDiscus Full Text Unlimited (Upgraded)

Databases that have been upgraded will now give you access to even more journal titles as well as more extensive availability of 'full text' articles.

If you want to take a look at our new databases...

Humanities Source:
Humanities Source is a comprehensive database covering more than 2,100 journals, books and other important resources published worldwide in the humanities, with a focus on literary, scholarly and creative thought. It provides indexing and abstracts for articles, essays, and reviews, as well as poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations.

Academic Search Premier:
Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary journal database providing access to over 4,700 journals in all the major areas of academic research.

Links to all these databases are available via the library website in the usual way.
Happy reading!
 

12 days of Christmas at the library

Have you spotted our 12 days of Christmas on the library Facebook page yet? We’ve been using the run up to the festive period to let you know about some of the resources and services available from your UWTSD Swansea libraries. In case you missed it, here they are, with links to more details!

On the first day of Christmas, my library gave to me… a subject librarian to advise me,

 

On the second day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 2 external borrowing schemes to use other libraries,

On the third day of Christmas, my library gave to me… lots of books to borrow, some for 3 weeks,

On the fourth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 4 amazing campus libraries in Swansea,

On the fifth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 5 Open Access IT zones with internet and printing facilities,

On the sixth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 6 ways to get in touch with your library,

On the seventh day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 7 fabulous Ebsco databases with access to 1000s of journals for your subject,

On the eighth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 8 more amazing databases offering journal articles and more to help with my research and assignments,

On the ninth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 9 great study skills books,

On the tenth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 10 popular Ebooks to read online

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 11 subject areas to choose from

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my library gave to me… 12 months of open libraries!

So there you go, there’s lots on offer to help you with your studies all year round. Please get in touch if you have any questions. Nadolig Llawen!

Read all about it! Infotrac Newsstand and Welsh Newspapers Online offer online access to 1000s of newspaper articles

Looking for newspaper articles? The written press is an excellent way to keep up to date with current affairs, whatever subject you’re studying. Many newspapers offer articles free to view on their website, but with big names like The Times and The Telegraph introducing subscription services, it’s not always possible to read the articles you want for free…or is it? Here at Swansea Met libraries, we’ve just introduced the Infotrac Newsstand database, which offers full-text access to articles from thousands of newspapers. It’s really easy to search through these different newspapers for articles on any topic you’re interested in. So, trainee teachers can keep an eye on the latest proposed changes to the National Curriculum and Business students can monitor the latest economic news. You’ll find Infotrac Newsstand listed with our databases and accessible on and off campus. Give it a try!

If your interest in newspapers lies more in their historical value, why then we have a database to help with that too! Well, actually, we’ve got the National Library of Wales to thank for this one. Welsh Newspapers Online is a free resource which offers access to millions of newspaper articles from the NLW’s collection. The database mainly covers newspapers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and is available in English or Welsh. It’s also accessible from our databases page. You can find out more here, including a list of the newspapers in the collection, everything from the Aberdare Leader to Wythnos a’r Eryr. There’s also a video about this collection on the NLW’s You Tube channel. It’s available in Welsh and English and has some beautiful shots of the National Library, as well as information about the collection!

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!

World AIDS Day 2012

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. Every year since 1988, 1^st December has been the day when people across the world unite to remember those who have died from or are living with HIV and related conditions. It’s also a chance to celebrate the progress that has been made in the fight against the disease and a reminder that there is still more to be done.

You can find out more about World AIDS Day, including Facts & Stats and How to Get Involved, on the official website. You’ll also find lots of information on the World Health Organization (WHO) website, which has links to their strategy and operational plan documents for tackling HIV.

Health students, and anyone else with an interest in this area, might like to take a look at the Websites page of the Health subject area on the library website (just scroll down our homepage and click the Health tab near the bottom). Health & Social Care librarian Samantha Scoulding has gathered together a number of reputable websites that you might find useful in your studies. From there, you’ll also be able to see a selection of excellent Databases for Health students. CINAHL Plus and Science Direct in particular might be very helpful if you’d like to find out a bit more about issues surrounding HIV and AIDS. Both of these databases offer full-text access to articles from academic journals. Just type your keywords in to find an article you like and then you can print it out, save it, or read it on the screen!

We love... the Bridgeman Education database for beautiful images

Bridgeman Education is the digital image database for the Bridgeman Art Library. It gives you access to thousands of pictures for free! Our subscription allows you to search and download these images to use for educational purposes (please don’t use them for commercial reasons or you’ll get us all in trouble!). So, if you’re looking for examples of Paul Cezanne’s work, or would just like to find a picture of a Yorkshire Terrier (well, why not?), Bridgeman Education is the place to go! All images are of the highest quality, so much so that you can even zoom in to admire the brush work on the paintings.

You can access Bridgeman Education on or off campus from the library website’s database pages. If you need any help accessing this or any of our other resources, please ask your friendly librarian. We’re happy to help!

Would you like online access to thousands of UK newspaper articles, old and new?

No problem! The Newsbank database, freely accessible via the SMU library website, offers access to articles from over 350 local and national UK newspapers. All the major national newspapers are indexed from The Guardian to The Sun and you can search through decades’ worth of editons. So, if you’d like to know what Libby Purves had to say about the Boat Race protestor in The Times yesterday, or if you’d like to search the archive for newspaper articles which mention Swansea Metropolitan University (1,419 of them when I checked: the latest from yesterday’s Western Mail, and the oldest also from the Western Mail in 2007!), then Newsbank is the database for you.

And that’s not all! Newsbank also compiles Special Reports, a collection of articles, websites, videos and images based around different topics. Special Reports available this month include Earth Day, Poetry Around the World and Financial Literacy Month, so you can see that there is quite a variety of topics on offer!

We’d definitely recommend giving Newsbank a go. If you’d like some more information or have any questions about this or our other resources, please ask a librarian.

Having trouble finding relevant journal articles?

You’re very welcome to call in to your SMU library and ask to speak to a librarian for help, of course, but you might also like to take a look at some guidance from the National Library of Wales.: http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/content/students. The guidance includes some very useful tips on Effective Searching that can be used to help you find better results when using internet search engines and library databases. This brief guide provides a nice overview of how search engines work and how you can get the best out of them. It’s well worth spending a couple of minutes clicking in and finding out how to apply some simple strategies that will help you to find more relevant journal articles and resources!

This information is available on the Natioanl Library of Wales’ database Welsh Journals Online. This is a freely available database which is accessible via the SMU library web pages or by accessing the database directly. The database holds digitised versions of Welsh journals that can be browsed and read online.

If you would like to develop your internet search skills further, don’t forget to look at the Internet Detective tutorial, which we looked at on the blog back in November. Or just come in and ask a librarian!

More good news for researchers of business information!

As readers of this blog will know, SMU Library is currently running a free trial for the Key Note business information database until 7th March 2012. We have now also arranged to run a concurrent, free trial for Passport GMID until 8th March 2012.

Passport GMID is a global market information database and analysis tool containing comprehensive data and reports across all industries, countries and consumers.
Subscribers use the system to support a wide range of business functions and research projects:

Industry analysis
Export and market entry strategies
Trend monitoring
Company analysis
Country profiling
Consumer and household profiling
Lifestyle analysis
Modelling and forecasting
General business reference

A Passport GMID subscription includes:
10 million internationally comparable market statistics on industries, countries and consumers.
18,000 full text market reports, company reports and country reports.
Expert analyst comment on emerging industry trends, country trends and consumer trends.
Details of thousands of information sources to aid further research.
Powerful data analysis functions allowing users to customise data for specific needs.

To access Passport GMID, go to the business subject pages on the library website. Click on the Databases tab in the top left corner of the screen and then find Passport GMID in the alphabetical listing.

We currently subscribe to Datamonitor360 for marketing and company information. Why not compare this service to Key Note and Passport GMID? Never has so much business data been available to SMU library users at the mere touch of a button or two ...

Calling everyone with an interest in market research and company information!

SMU Library has arranged a free, online trial of the Key Note database until 7th March 2012.

Key Note is a leading provider of market intelligence in the UK. Offering a combination of market research and company information on one easy-to-use platform, it is possible to perform a dual search for company information and market research in one simple step.

Market research: analyse every major market sector, including brand strategy, buying behaviour, competitor analysis, market forecasts, SWOT/PEST analysis, etc. All reports are available alphabetically if you click in to the first pod on the main page of the site.

Company information: access to up to 5 years of company financial information for more than 7 million UK companies, including a ‘People Search’ for directors. The key ratios offered are profitability, efficiency, liquidity, gearing and employee performance, as well as company overviews, detailed accounts and performance analysis.

To access Key Note, go to the business subject pages on the library website. Click on the Databases tab in the top left corner of the screen and then find Key Note in the alphabetical listing.

We currently subscribe to Datamonitor360 for marketing and company information – does Key Note provide a better alternative for your needs? Have a look and let us know what you think!

Change to 'Art Full Text' database

If you use our 'Art Full Text' database, you will now see a change to how it looks! The resource has been taken over by EBSCO Publishing, and is now running from their platform.

On a practical note, SMU staff and students can still access the database both on and off-campus via the 'Art Full Text' link on the library webpages. Plus you still have access to the same breadth of Art & Design e-journals as before.

However, if you do need help navigating your way around the new screens, please don't hesitate to contact myself or one of the other SMU Librarians for assistance!

Gwen John – lost watercolours discovered

A collection of 23 paintings by Welsh artist Gwen John (1876-1939) have been discovered in the archives of Princeton University Library. You can find out more from this BBC News article and this blog entry from Princeton’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. This is a significant find, particularly as Gwen John’s work was rarely exhibited in her lifetime. The watercolours are currently on display in the university’s Firestone Library, but only until the 31st December, so you’ll have to hurry across the pond to New Jersey to catch them before the end of next week!

It’s unlikely that many SMU staff and students will make it to Princeton to see this collection, but it provides a perfect excuse for us all to find out a bit more about the woman herself. During her lifetime, Gwen was somewhat overshadowed by her artist brother Augustus John, but in recent times she has risen in status. She led a fascinating life – taught by Whistler, she modelled for and became romantically involved with Rodin for a time – so why not look her up on our databases Oxford Reference Online or Art Full Text? You’ll also find lots of books about Gwen John and her brother at Griffith Library on our Dynevor campus – just look them up on our catalogue, Talis Prism.

What the Dickens?

Charles Dickens, that is! The Victorians contributed a great deal to our idea of a traditional Christmas – cards, trees, and even the ubiquitous Christmas robin can all be traced back to nineteenth-century Britain. Arguably, no Victorian has had a bigger influence on our notion of Christmas than Charles Dickens himself, so it seems appropriate to think about the man and his work at this time of year. He was born in 1812, so 2012 will mark his bicentennial. There are sure to be lots of celebrations and events to mark the occasion, including a Dickens season on the BBC this Christmas. Look out for lots of film and television adaptations, new and old, of the author’s novels and stories!

If you’d like to find out more about Charles Dickens’ life and work, try our databases Oxford Reference Online and Literature Online. Many of Dickens’ novels are available to borrow from Townhill Library, including a collection of his Christmas stories – A Christmas Carol (the ultimate festive tale!), The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man. Perfect for getting you in the mood for some seasonal cheer! If your tired eyes are feeling a bit over-worked this late in the term, BBC Learning has an audio version of A Christmas Carol available on their website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/english/a_christmas_carol. For you budding primary school teachers out there, there are even teacher’s notes available to accompany the reading!

All this is sure to get you in a festive mood and banish any “Bah! Humbug!” feelings brought on by a busy term! Enjoy this final week, and in the words of Tiny Tim, God bless us every one!

On this day in history...

...the world was shocked by the fatal shooting of Beatle John Lennon, outside his New York home in 1980. Though quite a young child at the time, I personally recollect seeing the story on the news and I'm sure they played one of his songs as a tribute, 'Woman'.

If you are interested in seeing videos of news stories or programme scripts relating to this story and others, take a look at our database 'NewsFilm Online'. It is a JISC funded service from the ITN and Reuters archive and contains over three thousand hours of footage and around sixty thousand stories.

SMU students and staff can access NewsFilm Online via the library web pages www.smu.ac.uk/library then click on the 'Online Resources A-Z' list, and then 'Databases'. You'll see Newsfilm Online on the list, and if you click on the title it will take you into the resource. Lastly, you can access it both on campus, and off-campus also with your current network login details.

Hospitality & Tourism Complete

Image: sixninepixels / freedigitalphotos.net

A brand new library database is now available for all SMU students and staff to use - Hospitality & Tourism Complete. This is a FULL-TEXT database providing extensive access to journal articles, industry reports, conference proceedings and news within the subject areas of hospitality and tourism. Coverage dates back to 1965 with almost 1 million records indexed, of which more than 490 different publications are available in full-text.

You can access this new resource via our library website.