Library news and reminders

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Visiting the Library for study space or click & collect?

The one way system in the Library

To help to keep us all safe, please continue to follow the Library Covid- 19 Code of Conduct; it is important that you

  • wear a face covering,
  • practice social distancing
  • stick to the study space allocated by the booking system
  • follow the one-way systems and other procedures in place in the Library and on campus.

 

Finishing your studies soon?

If you are finishing your studies at the University soon, please return any outstanding print or other media as soon as you can. If you are not local to campus and are in the UK, please use our Freepost service to return your loans. If you are not in the UK, please get in touch with us for guidance on alternative ways to get your loans back to us safely.

Return loans in the Book Drop flap to the right of the Library front doors

 

New events!

You may have noticed a new addition to the library homepage. We have created ‘New Events‘ to provide a one-stop-shop of information! Although we are still not yet able to provide in person events, there are plenty of learning and study opportunities on offer. Look out for forthcoming webinars and further online support from Study Advice and the Academic Liaison Librarians. We’ll be posting more information about these events on our social media soon, but in the interim, see the Study Advice Webinars LibGuide for details.

New events section on the Library website.

 

Vacation loans

If you are leaving campus for the summer vacation, our vacation loan period should make like easier!

We have renewed all loans, with the usual exceptions such as Inter-library loans, for continuing students until Tuesday 28 September, so why not make the most of the opportunity for some really great summer reading, by taking part in the UoR Reading Challenge and borrow some items before you leave!

June 2021 summer reading challenge- read a book set in a country that you would like to visit.

Library User Services

Geomni – a new type of Digimap data

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We now have access to a new service as part of Digimap, available both through Digimap Roam and Download.  Geomni consists of three parts, all of which can be accessed through the basemaps button on Roam.

  • UKMap: a modern, highly detailed, feature-rich mapping database of Greater London. Its unique, innovative design offers users a flexible choice of integrated map features within a single geographic information source.
  • UKBuildings: a unique database created and regularly updated to help you understand the age, structure, characteristics and use of commercial, public and residential buildings across GB.
  • UKLand: a maintained, national land information database providing a detailed consistent breakdown of the use of land across the UK
UKMap (London)

UKMap (London)

UKMap, despite its name, actually covers London within the M25. There are several different parts. In Roam use Basemaps to find:

  • Base (London) – similar to OS MasterMap but with more land use information. Includes unit information within shopping centres.
  • Aerial (London) – at a resolution of 10 metres.

In addition, using the Overlay tab, you can add:

  • Upper Floors (London) – shows content of upper floors of shopping centres
  • Tree Canopy (London) – shows indicative canopy of trees

Download gives two more Greater London datasets:

  • Terrain DTM – Digital Terrain Model
  • Terrain DSM – Digital Surface Model
UKBuildings.

UKBuildings.

UKBuildings is a national database of building attributes. It includes information about building area and height, as well as relative age (eg Historic, Post War, Modern) and use (eg Residential, Religious, Retail with offices above).

UKLand is a national database of land use (rather than cover). It allows the identification types of land use eg mines/spoil areas or business and retail parks and could be used for planning and risk assessment.

UKLand

UKLand

To access Geomni, go to Digimap – you will need to register and accept the licence conditions first.

Judith Fox, Map Librarian

 

Summon upgrade 29 May to 30 May- some services disrupted

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Summon have recently informed us that they will be undertaking some updates that will result in system downtime for up to 24 hours from 02:00 Saturday 29 May to 02:00 Sunday 30 May.  

 This means that Summon will be available for searching, but some of the links may be unavailable. The E-Journals Finder will also be unavailable during this period.   Open laptop

 If you have been planning to use Summon for research the weekend of the 29- 30 May, we would recommend downloading any articles or chapters you will need from Summon before the outage, so that your studies are not impacted.  

 There will still be some access to E-resources via the Enterprise Catalogue  (for eBooks) and the A-Z database (for journals, articles, eBooks and databases). However, the A-Z database list is not a definitive list of our resources, so please do access and download anything you think you will need beforehand.  

As always, please do contact the E-Team at eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk or via our e-resources problem report form, if you have any concerns or queries.  

We apologise for any inconvenience this outage may cause. 

Lindsay Warwick, E-resources Team

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia

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May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia aka ‘IDAHOBIT’ Day.

Rainbow flag flapping in the wind with blue skies and the sun

The LGBT+ Libguide (Library resources for researching LGBT+ related topics) is a really great starting point to find out more about LGBT+ resources (https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/LGBT)!

Are you are interested in helping to continue to diversify the Library collections? If so, why not submit a resource suggestion?

The Library Diversity Fund, was created to help ensure increasing access to knowledge and resources about intersections and protected characteristics. This means that we can continue to build the collections, specifically in areas that are currently underrepresented in the Library.

Visit the official IDAHOBIT website today https://may17.org/ to find out more about how you can develop awareness and celebrate diversity.

 

Emma Allison, Library User Services

How the other half lived – Country Life Archive database trial

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Interested in the culture and lifestyle of the British upper classes from 1897 to 2005? We have a trial to the archive of Country Life magazine until 4 June. Find out more about fine art and architecture, the great country houses, society news, and rural living throughout the 20th century. All pages are searchable and reproduced in full colour.

Access to the Country Life Archive is now available on- and off-campus until 4 June.

Help us to decide

Please send any feedback about this e-resource to Charlie Carpenter, Academic Liaison Librarian for History (c.a.carpenter@reading.ac.uk).

Sophie Dorman, E-resources Team

System maintenance 6 May – some services disrupted

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Open laptopOn Thursday 6 May from 21:00 to 22:00, the Library Catalogue, Enterprise, will be down for routine maintenance. This means that some services will be unavailable during the down period:

You will still be able to…

  • Use Summon for online access to journal articles, book chapters, and much more!

But you won’t be able to… 

  • Access the Library catalogue.
  • Request a book through our Click and Collect services.
  • Access your online Library account to renew your loans or pay fines.
  • Place an Inter-Library Loan request.
  • Request items from Closed Access or the Store.

The upgrade is planned to have finished by 22:00, but we will still designate the system as ‘at risk’ on that day. We will let you know if Enterprise will be unavailable for longer than initially planned.

If you have trouble accessing e-resources you can contact the E-resources Team at eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk, or you can fill in a Problem Report Form.

If you want to talk to someone about your account you can contact the Library at library@reading.ac.uk.

Sophie Dorman – E-resources Team 

Summer Term Library news

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Welcome back- or if you’ve been using the Library services through Lockdown 3.0, hello again!

 

Some of you may have noticed that throughout the lockdown period, we have been renewing your loans, where possible, to help alleviate any concerns regarding items becoming overdue. Now that we have reached the final term of the current academic year, we thought it might be helpful through exam season. Consequently, we have taken care of renewals again by extending all loans (with the usual exceptions) until Friday 11 June 2021.

 

Please continue to use the Click and Collect service to get access to the physical resources you require. Click and Collect is available Monday to Sunday 10:00 – 21:00 during the Summer Term.

Mini Maypole

Image courtesy of MERL: Museum of English Rural Life

 

More good news! The Library will be open on the next two Bank Holidays – Monday 3 May and Monday 31 May.

On Monday 3 May, opening hours will be 08:30 -19:00 for study space, and Click and Collect will be available between the hours of 10:00 – 19:00.

 

Please continue to keep in touch, and let us know how we can support in you in achieving some well-deserved successful outcomes.

Library User Services

It’s fixed! – Study space bookings system unavailable

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Apologies for the technical problems we were experiencing with the study space bookings system this morning. The situation has been resolved, and the bookings form should be working as usual again.

If you have any further issues, please email library@reading.ac.uk, and we will try to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Library User Services

 

OneDrive and EndNote – moving EndNote files from your N: drive

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Laptop and book seen from above, person's left hand on book and right on keyboard. onDo you use Desktop EndNote? Do you currently store your EndNote files on your N: drive? Don’t move them to OneDrive!

Why not store my EndNote files on OneDrive?

When you use Desktop EndNote, especially when inserting references in Word documents, it constantly reads and writes information back to your EndNote library. If you use your files on a cloud-based location, such as OneDrive or iCloud, this means your library can become corrupted over time. Instead you should store your EndNote files on your computer’s local hard drive, such as in Documents or on the Desktop.

However, you will need to check that your chosen location is not automatically syncing to a cloud service. On a Windows computer open the File Explorer and right-click on the relevant location and select Properties. If you are unsure just create a new folder on the C: drive where you will store your EndNote files. For Mac iCloud users we suggest creating a separate folder in your Home folder and saving your EndNote libraries there.

How should I copy my EndNote library to my computer?

To ensure you copy both the library and associated data folder follow these steps:

  1. Open your EndNote library.
  2. Go to File > Save a copy.
  3. Select the location on your computer’s local hard drive and save it with the same name as your original library. This will copy the library and data folder to the new location.
  4. Open your library from the new location when you are ready to use it again.
  5. Delete the old library and data folder on your N: drive.

How do I backup my files?

Files stored on your computer are vulnerable if you suffer any computer failures so it is important to take regular backups of your EndNote files. There are two ways of doing this:

  1. Sync your library with EndNote Online
    Set up the sync option on Desktop EndNote. This will involve creating an EndNote Online account. Once linked with Desktop you can set it to automatically sync. See our guide for step-by-step instructions. Note that you can only sync one library to one EndNote Online account, so if you have multiple libraries (not recommended) you will need to create multiple Online accounts using different email addresses.
  1. Take regular backup copies
    Use the ‘File > Save a copy’ or ‘File > Compress library’ option in Desktop EndNote to create a backup copy of your library and data folder. The backup copies can be saved to OneDrive – just don’t open them from there.

Need help?

If you have any questions about using EndNote please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian.

Contact DTS with any questions about the N: drive migration or OneDrive.

Jackie Skinner, Academic Liaison Librarian

Take the pain out of referencing with EndNote or Mendeley

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Have you been marked down for inconsistencies in referencing? Are you fed up with writing all of your references by hand? Gearing up to doing your dissertation? There are tools that can take the pain out of referencing by storing your references and helping you create bibliographies in Microsoft Word.

We’re running workshops this term covering two of the options available – whether you’re working on essays, your dissertation, or starting your PhD, come along and find out how much time you can save! You can book onto either of these beginners sessions on RISIS under the Actions tab.

Desktop EndNote

Desktop EndNote is a comprehensive reference management system and is designed for postgraduate researchers and staff. You can download accurate references from many databases, such as Web of Science. Use the ‘Find Full-text’ feature to automatically download and attach PDFs for those references. In addition, you can select from thousands of referencing styles or create your own – great if you’re writing for publication. It’s available on all campus PCs through Apps Anywhere, and can be downloaded free on your own computer via the IT Self-Service Portal. We’re running online workshops at the following times this term:

  • Wed 28 April 14:00-15:00
  • Wed 19 May 14:00-15:00

There’s also an online version of EndNote which we recommend to undergraduates and masters students.

See our EndNote guide to find out more.

Mendeley

Mendeley is designed to make storing references and PDFs as simple as possible. We mainly recommend it for undergraduate and masters students. You can drag and drop PDFs directly into your library or use its Web Importer for details of websites and other sources. If you work a lot with article PDFs, Mendeley is a good option for you.

Workshops are taking place at the following times this term:

  • Wed 5 May 14:00-15:00
  • Wed 26 May 14:00-15:00

See our Mendeley guide to find out more.

Book your place

Sign up to any of these workshops through the Actions tab on RISIS. The sessions will take place online via MS Teams.

If you can’t make any of the specified sessions but would like to know more, take a look at our reference management guide or contact your Academic Liaison Librarian.

Jackie Skinner
Academic Liaison Librarian

Introducing your new Library Study Space Assistants… and other important updates for the summer term 

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We hope you found some time to relax over the Easter vacation. 

We’re looking forward to continuing to support all students this summer term, whether you’re on campus or studying remotely. Remember our expert teams, including Academic Liaison Librarians, Study Advice and Maths Support are all available to provide advice and support online. 

If you’re studying on campus this term, we’ve summarised some important developments for you to be aware of when visiting our building.  

New Library Study Space Assistants 

We’ve recruited a team of 10 new Study Space Assistants to help keep you and our colleagues safe this summer term. They’ll be available to help you find your pre-booked seat, provide advice about alternative study space at busy times, and ensure you’re aware of the safety measures currently in place (see below). You’ll notice them in Study@URS too. 

Keeping our Library safe for everyone – what you need to know

Remember hands, face, space to keep all Library members and staff safe

While the positive progress of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown is welcome news, it’s vital that we do not become complacent and risk a worsening of the pandemic in the UK. We all have a role to play to take the necessary precautions to keep those around us as safe as possible.

In the Library, as well as our usual ‘Code of Conduct’, you must: 

  • wear a face covering at all times, even when sitting at a desk and studying alone, unless you are exempt;  
  • keep a 2 metre distance from others (this includes those from your own household when using the Library, to help us enforce these rules with minimum intervention);  
  • take the stairs rather than the lift, where possible (if you need to use the lift, you must use it alone); 
  • sit in your allocated seat only; 
  • vacate your pre-booked seat promptly at the end of the period for which it has been booked; 
  • follow all one-way systems;  

and 

  • bring your Campus Card and keep it on your desk so it is visible to staff, this will help them check you are sat in your booked seat without interrupting you 

We would like to thank all of you who have been continuing to follow these rules to help protect us all. 

If, however, a member of staff or one of our Study Space Assistants notices that you are not following these rules, they will let you know and you will be asked for your details. If this is the first time you have been spoken to, we will record your details but no further action will be taken – we understand that accidental lapses happen from time to time.  You will be given a short letter to explain why your details have been taken. 

If you breach the rules a second time during the current academic year, we will issue a formal warning in accordance with our Student Disciplinary Procedures. If your details are taken for a third time, you will be issued with a fine of up to £200 (again, in line with our Student Disciplinary Procedures). For further incidents, a higher fine or other penalty (such as a ban from the Library) may be imposed. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this update. We wish you every success for the summer term ahead.  

Your Library Team

Easier path to view full-text via Summon

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We will shortly be amending the process to access online material you discover via a Summon search from our homepage. The change will also affect some links in Talis and the “Find Item @ Reading” button you may see on some platforms. 

When you use these links, you will now be directed to the Item Finder page – from here you can click the prominent blue ‘Read full-text article’ to be taken through to the article. 

The item finder page, including the prominent blue button you will need to click to access the full-text

 

This change will improve the linking for some platforms which were incompatible with the Summon sidebar.

If you have any questions, please contact the E-resources Team at eresourceshelp@reading.ac.uk

Sophie Dorman, E-resources Team