A-Z of UWTSD Libraries...

Image courtesy of: Josh Filhol / Library A-Z

Hopefully you’ve been following our A-Z of UWTSD libraries series and discovering that we can offer all sorts of help, information, advice & support! Let’s continue our journey now, with the letter E…

E is for:

• Ebooks – We try to stock as many of the core texts on your module reading lists as we can…and where possible we’ll try and purchase Ebook versions too. The advantage of our Ebooks is that they can have multiple users at any one time, so if a particular book is in high demand and all our print copies are on loan, don’t forget to check the library catalogue or our website for available Ebooks. You can access them 24/7 from anywhere, on any device, so you don’t even need to make a special trip to the library! 
• Enquiry Service – If you’re struggling to find the information you need for a project or assignment, if you’re not sure where to start with our online resources, or if you just can’t find the book you want in the library, our Subject Librarians are always on hand to help. We can often be found on the enquiry desk or you can call into the office, email us, phone us, or contact us via the library social media pages. We’re here to help so don’t be afraid to come and ask us a question.
• Exhibitions – Many of our UWTSD libraries have regular exhibitions and displays. We like to make the library an informative and interesting place to be, whether that’s putting on a World War One family history exhibition, displaying university archive materials and memorabilia or highlighting books and DVDs from our collection in themed displays.
• Escape – Our libraries offer many quiet study areas where you can come and escape the hustle and bustle of the rest of the university campus, so if you need a refuge from the daily grind, pop into your local UWTSD library and find a quiet corner away from it all!

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

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!

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!

The Top 12 Most Popular E-Books of 2012!

We thought we’d bring you a top 12 of 2012 to end the term nicely – the most popular Swansea Met library e-books from the last 12 months!


1. Management & Organisational Behaviour by Laurie J. Mullins

2. Becoming an Outstanding Primary School Teacher by Russell Grigg

3. Research Methods in Education by Louis Cohen

4. Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning by Graham J. Hooley

5. Research Methods for Business by Mark Saunders

6. Exploring Corporate Strategy by Gerry Johnson

7. Marketing in Travel and Tourism by Victor T. C. Middleton

8. Assessment for Learning by Paul Black

9. Becoming A Teacher edited by Justin Dillon & Meg Maguire

10. Race, Culture and Counselling by Colin Lago

11. Essential Teaching Skills by Chris Kyriacou

12. Doing Your Research Project by Judith Bell

If you’ve not yet used an e-book, why not make it one of your resolutions to do so in 2013?
You can access them both on and off campus 24/7, via the library catalogue and web pages.

For further information/advice please speak to your Swansea Met subject librarian!

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!)

World Book Day 2012

As well as being Saint David’s Day today (come and buy your Marie Curie daffodil here at the Owen Library!) you may be interested to know that it is also World Book Day, when we celebrate all things related to books and reading. Last year the library staff shared some of their favourite reads with you here on the blog and you responded in your droves to let us know what books you loved too. This year we thought we’d go all hi-tech and focus on e-books!

Advances in technology mean that we can now have a portable library in our pocket; we can read our favourite books on virtually any mobile device, anytime, anywhere (I have many of the classics on my iPhone!). But perhaps the most exciting feature of e-book technology is its ability to add fantastic interactive dimensions to the reading experience. We can now see our favourite characters literally come alive on the page, sound effects and atmospheric music can be added, maps and diagrams can be manipulated by the reader, and children can ‘step into’ and actively participate in the fantasy world created by their bedtime stories.

We’d like to know what you think about e-books; whether you’ve used them, what devices you read them on (Kindle, iPad, iPhone), what you like and dislike about them etc. Imagine your favourite book...what interactive features would you like to see on an electronic version? I’m a big fan of gothic literature and I’ve found a great example of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as an e-book for iPad. Have a look at the video above to see some of the fantastic interactive features that are now possible and let us know what you think...

By the way, many of the core textbooks for SMU courses are also available as e-books. Have a look at your subject area on the library webpage to access them for free!

Happy World Book Day from all your SMU library staff.

Rekindle your love of reading - Part 2!

It's the return of our guest blogger, Nigel Morgan from Cardiff University library! After a few weeks of getting to know his new Kindle e-reader he's back to share his musings with us...

A great response to my blog entry on Amazon Kindle last month! So, I thought I'd let you know how the Kindle and I (great title for a musical!) have been getting along.

I've now read 4 complete books and it's been a generally positive experience. Once the eye gets accustomed to a smaller amount of text per page, it is easy to adapt. I can understand why Kindle is so popular with many of those who commented in the blog.

And what fun it is linking to the Kindle store for browsing and buying. I get tempted like a child in a sweet shop. The problem is, it's so easy to just click away and make multiple purchases, magically delivered to your device in an instant. I've gone a bit mad buying a series of CJ Sansom books which I really didn't need. I've also found that it's easy to accidentally purchase a book, though thankfully it's very easy to 'unpurchase'.

I'm disappointed that many of the titles I want to buy are unavailable in Kindle format. I was unable to buy one of my favourite classics Ulysses. Also, Paul Scott's popular Raj Quartet. I've also found that certain books don't fit well into Kindle format: I 'returned' a complete works of Shakespeare in which the alignment of the text was dreadful.

The disadvantages are obvious. I agree with Sue Owens that in dim lighting conditions a standard printed book is better. Though of course you can enlarge the text - I'm wondering whether to get one for my 83 year old mum who will only read large print these days.

Sadly, Kindle isn't great for displaying images. The maps in those Sansom books are illegible - as far as I can tell, You can't zoom into them. And everything is in monochrome. It's not difficult to see the areas in which Amazon will need to make improvements. Another disadvantage: I'm a nosey parker and love seeing what other people are reading on the train or station platform. Kindle doesn't facilitate this. Though, I guess if one is reading something really trashy it is a definite boon!

A welcome surprise is that you can actually 'lend' books to other Kindle owners. Ideal for book groups. And as with all ebooks, searchability is a key advantage. If like me you are a bit of a dope and need to recap on earlier passages, the ability to tap in a keyword and home in on relevant passages is brilliant. I guess this is useful if you are reading something racy and want to home in on the naughty bits!

Well, I certainly intend to carry on using my Kindle though I will not completely forsake printed books - I'm currently wading through a print copy of Name of the Rose, another popular title unavailable for Kindle.

I'll be back to give my final blog entry soon to share some thoughts about the wider implications of Kindle for reading and book production in the future. Happy reading!

Rekindle your love of reading!

This week we have invited a special guest blogger!

Nigel Morgan (pictured above) is a subject librarian at Cardiff University. He will be sharing his thoughts and experiences of the Amazon Kindle e-reader with us (please feel free to add your own comments too!). Here's his first instalment...

Having been surrounded by people obsessed with gadgets on my daily train commute, I'd resisted the temptation of Amazon's Kindle. However, with no space for extra IKEA bookcases to house my growing collection (I'm a sucker for those 3 for 2 offers!) I finally succumbed. And very smart it looks too in its flashy navy and scarlett fabric jacket (a £5.99 budget version of the official protective case). But what a palaver linking it to my wi-fi. With a 26 digit code to enter and lots of fiddling with buttons on my router, I felt drained of energy and enthusiasm before I'd got the thing running. I was hopping mad!

Now that I've chilled, I'm proud to tell you that I've downloaded my first books. Firstly, "Smith" by Leon Garfield (a kiddies book from the 1960s - I'm in a book club and it's this month's choice). Also, "Mr Chartwell" (about a rather nasty talking dog) and "The Crimson Petal and the White" (a ripe 'n racy tale of Victorian vice to get the heart pounding). First impressions: mild irritation. I wasn't aware that when you advance a page, a negative of the new page flashes up briefly like an X-ray burning into your eyeball. Hmm. Not the seamless transition I'd envisaged. Hope I'll get used to it.

My Kindle will be accompanying me on my commute for the first time this week. Very risky, as I've absentmindedly left enough paperbacks on trains over the years to stock a small branch of Waterstones. I don't relish the prospect of losing a £111 piece of kit. Perhaps I should chain it to my belt? My first read will be the riveting "Smith". Was I right to abandon my print paperbacks? Will I look a bit geeky? Will let you know how I get on.