A-Z of UWTSD Libraries...

Image courtesy of: Josh Filhol / Library A-Z

Time to return to our A-Z journey through the highlights of UWTSD libraries…we’ve reached the letter N!

N is for:

·         Newspapers – Bring your assignments bang up to date by including some relevant news articles! You’ll find print copies of a selection of national and regional newspapers in most of our libraries and we also keep a limited amount of back issues, should you require them. You can also access newspaper articles via some of the databases in our online library.

·         Noise – Our libraries are divided into zones, quiet ones and noisy ones! We make provision for group study, individual study and silent study. Please work in the appropriate area and respect the needs of those who are sharing the library space with you.

·         Novels – If you need a break from all the hard core academic textbooks…why not borrow a novel from us? We stock a vast collection of classic and modern fiction within our library service! Take a look at our library catalogue or speak to a librarian if you need help locating anything.

·         National Libraries Day – It’s true, we’re so fantastic we have our own special day! At the start of February every year we have a national day dedicated to celebrating libraries and reading. So, remember to pop along to your local library next time, to see what events are going on and to show your support!

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!

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.