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!

Essential upgrade means e-books unavailable Saturday 8th December

Due to an essential upgrade, many of our e-books will be unavailable this Saturday (8th December). We're very sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Each of our 4 libraries will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, so you can still come and borrow books off the shelves. You could also try searching our Digital Library or databases for journal articles on your subject. Just ask a librarian if you need any help!

Top of the ebooks

Have you discovered our ebooks yet? We’ve got hundreds of books available online. Where possible we always try to buy ebook versions of the books on your reading lists to go with the copies on our shelves. And we’ve got ebooks of titles we don’t have on the shelves too! If you have trouble finding a book for your assignment, it’s always worth checking to see if we have it available online, or if we’ve got any other ebooks that fit the bill.

You can look for ebooks in exactly the same way as you’d search for a “real” book using the library catalogue, which you can find on the library homepage. If you need any help, just ask!

In case you were wondering, our six most popular ebooks since September 2011 are:-

• Management and organisational behaviour (8^th ed.) by Laurie J. Mullins
• Essential teaching skills (3^rd ed.) by Chris Kyriacou
• Beginning teaching (3^rd ed.) by Janet Moyles
• Becoming a teacher: issues in secondary teaching (3^rd ed.) by Justin Dillon and Meg Maguire (we also have the 4^th edition, Becoming a teacher: issues in secondary education, available as an ebook)
• Personality, individual differences, and intelligence by John Maltby, Liz Day and Ann Macaskill
• Research methods for business students (5^th ed.) by Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill

(We were going to give you our top five, but there was a tie for fifth place!)

The Kindle Dilemma...

Image: Tina Phillips / freedigitalphotos.net

Many SMU bloggers have joined me in praising the new reading experience which Kindle offers. However, have we stopped to consider the likely impact this will have on the future of the good old high street bookseller?

I can't remember when I last bought from Waterstones. I used to spend a fortune there. I visit the Cardiff branch at least once a week. Yet, I'm ashamed to say I use my visits to choose the books I eventually by from Amazon. Does this sound familiar?

Last week, the entire Waterstones fiction stock was included in their 3 for 2 offer. I was in a righteous mood and determined to make a purchase. However, they didn't have the titles I wanted. Instead, I whipped out my Kindle, had a fnatastic time surfing the more extensively stocked Kindle store and snapped-up 3 more downloads. Even better value than 3 for 2!

It pricks my conscience that as a new Kindle devotee I am further helping Amazon increase its iron grip on the book market. Bookshops are likely to suffer in the long term. And I would hate not to have a well stocked bookshop for browsing.

So, is Kindle bringing us closer to that dreadful scenario - the bookshop-free high street? Borders has disappeared and if Waterstones foundered, we'd be left with just WH Smith. Perhaps I should take an ethical approach and split my purchases evenly between Kindle ebooks and print copies bought in a bookshop? Realisitically, it boils down to the fact that I'm not prepared to pay the higher prices levied by bookstores. I am not alone. Many would mourn the demise of the high street bookseller, but in the interest of their pockets are exclusively patronising online suppliers.

To safeguard their future, bookshops need to change, though I'm not sure how. Some bookshops already sell ereaders. Should they have instore download stations for purchasing ebooks? But then, why would you bother going into a bookshop to buy downloads when you can do this at home or on the move with the new Kindle 3G?

The 'book' will survive but I am not so confident about the longevity of the non-virtual bookseller. If Kindle changes the nature of book retailing, I'm not convinced this will be for the better. I certainly feel uneasy about contributing to this trend. Sadly, I know I will not be changing my behaviour. I will continue to buy my books online and most of these will now be Kindle formats. I also know that in doing so I may well be shooting myself in the foot. How do other blog readers stand on this issue? Over to you...

I'm going to sign off now. Thanks to my ex-colleagues at SMU for inviting me to contribute to their excellent blog and thanks for all the interesting responses. Happy Kindling!!

Nigel Morgan

SMU's favourite e-books

Have you ever wondered which e-books are the most popular with SMU Library users? Well wonder no more! Here are our top 5 most accessed e-books so far this year (there are actually 6 titles as there's a tie for 5th place):-

1. 'Becoming a Teacher: Isues in Secondary School Teaching' (3rd ed.) by Justin Dillon & Meg Maguire


2. 'An Introduction to Counselling' (4th ed.) by John McLeod


3. 'Management and Organisational Behaviour' (8th ed.) by Laurie J. Mullins


4. 'Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning' (4th ed.) by Graham J. Hooley, Nigel Piercy & Brigitte Nicoulaud


5. 'Contemporary Issues in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour' by Elizabeth Parsons & Pauline Maclaran / 'Race, Culture and Counselling: The Ongoing Challenge' by Colin Lago

We have hundreds of titles available electronically and lots of you have been making use of them, which is good to see. For those of you who haven't yet discovered our e-books, you can find them on our catalogue by searching just as you would for a normal book. You can do this in the library or from anywhere in the world through the library website. You could be swotting from your course text book whilst sunning yourself in the South of France or whilst enjoying the view from a tent on the Gower (just as long as your course text is available as an e-book and you have Internet access and something to view it on!). If you'd like to find out more about our e-books and how to access them, please contact the library to ask.