New disability and inclusion research guide

Posted on by

New Library research guide

Disability and inclusion is an area of research which can cover a wide range of academic disciplines. In celebration of this weekend’s Disability Awareness Day, the Library has introduced a new online guide to support research into disability and inclusion-related topics. The guide takes the same format as our subject guides but focuses on the range of materials available from the Library and Special Collections relating to disability and inclusion.

It has been created to help you find some of the key resources the Library can provide in this area, as well as point you towards other useful online resources, libraries and archives.

We’d love to hear your feedback on our new guide, so let us know what you think!

Suggest more diverse library resources

You can also help us to diversify the Library’s collections by putting forward your suggestions for Library materials to help support a more diverse curriculum. All you need to do is suggest a book, DVD, topic or author for purchase in an area you feel is currently underrepresented in our Library collections and we’ll do the rest!

To put forward your requests for consideration just complete our Diversify our collections suggestion form.

If you would like to suggest other items for the Library, please complete our regular book suggestion form.

New titles purchased in 2018-19

Examples of material purchased from this fund include:

You can see all the Diversity fund titles purchased in current and previous academic years on our dedicated Library Diversity fund reading lists.

Kerry Webb, Associate Director (Academic Liaison and Support)

Library refurbishment: return to a single Library building

Posted on by
Chairs in front of a long enquiry counter where on the other sides a librarian sits talking on phone. Two people are talking across the far end of the counter.

Come to the Library building Welcome Desk where Library staff have relocated to assess all your library-related queries!

Library refurbishment has reached the significant point where services and study space return to one single building! Most services are already up and running in the Library building, with our contractors moving study space furniture and PCs back from the Library@URS building over the next days. The Library@URS building is now closed, as of 2 July 2019.

Services in the Library building

Books on shelves to left of table and chairs with packing crates sticked to right.

Overnight loan books moved back to the Library building to form Short Loan (formerly Course Collection) on the Ground Floor. You also collect ‘Holds’ here now.

Services now returned to the Library building include Library User Services’ Ground Floor Welcome Desk; the Short Loan collection of overnight loan material (formerly Course Collection); and the Holds shelf where you can collect requested material. Come to the Library building once more to receive Study Advice and Maths Support, or help from your subject’s Liaison Librarians.

Small beared-person behind counter helps long-haired person sitting on a stool infront of him.

Receive IT help in person at the IT Service Desk on the Library’s 1st Floor!

The IT Service Desk is now restablished on the 1st Floor, where more and more PCs will arrive to create an area for individual and group PC study, with two teaching rooms.

People sit on seats outside large building with glass front and metalic brown cladding.

Try out communal benches for groups or single seats for individual reading outside the Library Café this summer!

You may already know the well-established Library Café, but do try out the smart, new outside seating which includes communal benches for groups, and single seats for individual reading.

Coming to the Library building soon!

Quiet and group study area seating is due to return to the 3rd and 4th Floors over the next weeks. (We anticipate refurbishment of the 2nd Floor to be completed in time to reopen in August.)

View of construction site from above,. One shelter is roofed, another has beams raised above a concrete pad.

New cycle shelters are under construction, in line with the University’s environmental policies.

Work continues in several areas, including on new cycle shelters – which can be viewed from the new lift stairs – so note that there may still sometimes be noise and disruption in the Library building. Although the Library@URS is closing, a variety of alternative study space options remain across campus.

Further information

Library refurbishment forms part of the University’s ambitious 2026: Transform capital investment programme, which focuses on improving campus facilities and supporting the student experience by the University’s 100th anniversary of its charter.

To keep up to date with the latest Library refurbishment news, please visit the Library refurbishment webpage and look out for posts on this Library blog.

Rachel Redrup for University Communications

System upgrade 2 July – some services disrupted

Posted on by

Open laptop with notepadNext week we are upgrading our Library Management System. During the upgrade on Tuesday 2 July, between 19:00 and midnight, (after the Library buildings are closed) some services will be unavailable.

You will still be able to …

  • search the Library catalogue, Enterprise.
  • access all our E-resources – so any e-books or e-journals you find on the catalogue will still be available via the ‘Click here to access’ links.

But you won’t be able to …

The upgrade is planned to be finished by Wednesday 3 July, but the system will be ‘at risk’ for the rest of the week whilst our Systems Team make sure everything is working correctly.

Sam Tyler, Systems Manager

Getting help out of staffed Library hours!

Posted on by

Blue and grey web icon used for Virtual Enquiry Service online chat

Did you know that if you have a library-related problem when University of Reading Library staffed services aren’t available you can chat online via the blue ‘Virtual Enquiry Service’ box on the Library webpage?

The Virtual Enquiry Service is available outside of normal staffed hours (See our opening hours webpage for more information).

The service is staffed by professional librarians from around the world working remotely to answer your queries from our website and other information we’ve supplied. So please don’t be alarmed if you find yourself chatting with a Librarian from the United States!

You can keep an email transcript of the chat. If they can’t resolve a particular issue they’ll refer you back to us during our staffed hours.

During staffed Library service hours, please do continue to contact UoR Library staff to help with your enquiries!

Matthew Pearson, Library User Services.

Library refurbishment update

Posted on by
Room of empty circular and hexagonal desks with chairs

Next session, the Library’s 1st Floor will become a PC area for individual and group study, with PC teaching rooms and the IT Service Desk. PCs will be installed over the summer, arriving soon.

Library refurbishment continues to progress well across all remaining areas.

Outside, you will have noticed the change of access to the Library, with both doors at the main entrance now open. Access will change again as external works progress. Hard and soft landscaping will continue as well as planting of shrubs. Steel work is also being delivered for the new bike shelters, which will be installed shortly.

On the inside the PCs from Library@URS will be move back to the Library building in the next few weeks.

As works continue there may sometimes be noise and disruption. Alternative study spaces are available in the Library@URS building for the time being, as well as a variety of alternative study space options across campus.

This refurbishment forms part of the University’s ambitious 2026: Transform capital investment programme, which focuses on improving campus facilities and supporting the student experience by the University’s 100th anniversary of its charter.

Further information

To keep up to date with the latest Library refurbishment news, please visit the Library refurbishment webpage and look out for posts on this Library blog.

Rachel Redrup for University Communications

BAME ‘Student life through a lens’ exhibition

Posted on by
Several large photographs placed on easels

See seven BAME students’ University of Reading experiences through their images and words exhibited in the Library until 5 July

Let the photographs on display in the University Library foyer tell you ‘a thousand words’ about student life for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students at the University of Reading … and how it could become more inclusive. You can also view the images and join the conversation online on Instagram at UoR Life Through a Lens.

Throughout 2018/19, seven BAME students studying literature and languages took part in the project ‘A Thousand Words: Student Life Through a Lens’, commissioned to better understand their challenges and generate suggestions for how to make the University more inclusive. Project participants were tasked with taking photographs that reflected their experiences of UoR student life, as well as preparing a short accompanying commentary. These are now on display in the University Library foyer until Friday 5 July 2019.

Participants reflected at focus groups on their own and others’ images and experiences. They reported a strong feeling of isolation and lack of integration prior to the project, and that there were not enough activities at Reading promoting awareness of cultural diversity among staff or students, or enough BAME role-models. Participants recommended a range of actions, including:

  • diversifying the curriculum and mainstreaming diversity,
  • developing stronger connections with BAME professionals through the University’s Careers service,
  • highlighting cultural events throughout the year, and
  • improving BAME representation at the University and the Students’ Union.

As a result of participating in the project, students reported an increased feeling of group identity, a better ability to express themselves, and a sense that their voices had been heard.

For the full project report please contact Dr Nicola Abram, who led the project with Katy Green, and Professor Jane Setter (School of Literature and Languages). It was funded by the UoR Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives Fund.

Rachel Redrup, Library

Use other libraries with SCONUL Access scheme

Posted on by

Are you going home for a break but still want to get some research done? Or are you someone thinking of visiting our Library and want your own access card to make your visits here that much easier?

Then follow the instructions below to see if you could join the SCONUL scheme!

What is SCONUL?sconul logo

The SCONUL Access scheme is a reciprocal relationship between many university libraries across the UK and Ireland allowing members of the different institutions to make use of each other’s libraries.

What access can I get?

Depending on whether you are a full or part-time student, an undergraduate, postgraduate or staff member, you could be eligible for borrowing books or reference access to other SCONUL Access member libraries.

How do I apply?

Go to the SCONUL Access participating libraries page and select your status and home institution.  You will then see a list of all the libraries that you are eligible to use. Select the library that you wish to use and click on the ‘apply for access’ button and complete the online form.

You will receive an email authorizing your registration at all the libraries you are eligible to join.  Simply take your email and University Campus Card along to the Library you wish to access and you will be issued with your own access or library card.

Remember you only need to apply once – you can use the same email to join as many libraries as you want!

Note: Not all libraries are members of the scheme, and not all members of the scheme accept all types of users. Each library participating in SCONUL Access chooses which types of users to accept under the scheme. The SCONUL Access participating libraries page will only the display the ones you can use. If you are unsure please contact the Library.

Further information

If you are a current University of Reading student or staff member looking to use another institutions library please follow the link here.

If you are a member of another institution looking to use the University of Readings Library resources please follow the link here

Matthew Pearson, Library User Services

Library refurbishment: Change to entrance

Posted on by

You can enter the library from the left-hand side (nearest the cafe).

Next Tuesday 28 May, the area around the current right-hand Library entrance doors will be closed off. The doors to the left of the entrance will be opened in their place. This is to allow for work to be finished on landscaping around the entrance.

These changes will affect the out-of-hours Book Drop next to the entrance, which will be inaccessible while this area is closed off. You will still be able to return books inside the Library building from 09:00-22:00 every day and in the Library@URS building which remains open at all times except Saturday night.

These works are expected to take about one week. Once the works are complete, both sides of the entrance will be available.

Also from next Tuesday, the Library can only be accessed from the direction of Palmer quad and Edith Morley. If you are coming from the direction of Library@URS, you will need to cross the quad towards Edith Morley and approach from that direction. These works are expected to take several weeks.

Further information

To keep up to date with the latest Library refurbishment news, please visit the Library refurbishment webpage and look out for posts on this Library blog.

Katie Winter, Trainee Liaison Librarian

 

Nancy Astor exhibition at UoR Library

Posted on by

Lady Astor, first woman UK MP, is depicted next to a representation of her desk, strewn with letters about her appointment and work.

Visit a small free, public exhibition celebrating Nancy Astor, the first female member of parliament in the UK, on the University Library building’s ground floor. This is the latest installation to occupy our new exhibition space created as part of the Library Refurbishment Project, in the foyer beside the Library Cafe, outside card-operated Library entrance barriers.

Kindly funded by the Friends of the University, this exhibition reflects the work on Nancy Astor that Dr Jacqui Turner curated for Parliament’s Vote100 ‘Voice and Vote Exhibition’ in Westminster Hall in 2018 celebrating the centenary of the first women to gain the vote in 1918. Our thanks to the Vote100 Project Management Team for their kind permission to use their materials.

Dr Jacqui Turner is a Reading Lecturer in Modern Political History. Part of her Astor 100 research project work marking 100 years of women MPs, her research of the Nancy Astor Papers, held at the University of Reading Special Collections, has uncovered an array of letters and documents that chart Lady Astor’s career and life. These represent the most comprehensive collection of papers of any female politician. They include political correspondence 1919–1945 and parliamentary papers, general correspondence 1900–1964 and large volumes of newspaper cuttings 1908–1964. American-born, Nancy Astor succeeded her husband as Conservative MP for Plymouth in 1919, becoming the first woman to sit in the House of Commons, and continued until her retirement in 1945.

You can follow Astor100 and see more from the Astor Papers via our Twitter exhibition @LadyAstor 100 ‘An Unconventional MP: the political life on Nancy Astor in 50 documents’. Also, keep up to date with what else is going on, including efforts to raise a statue of Nancy Astor in her Plymouth constituency, via Jacqui’s Twitter feed @Jacqui1918. 

Rachel Redrup, Library
with Dr Jacqui Turner

Get ready for summer vacation borrowing

Posted on by

Term will end on Friday 14 June and standard loans will be extended for all taught students from Thursday 6 June.

Any standard loans borrowed by undergraduates or taught postgraduates will have their due date extended until 1 October or until the end of your course, whichever is earlier and will not be recalled.

For all other Library members standard loans will continue as normal, meaning they can be recalled.

7-day and Overnight loans operate as normal throughout the vacation for all users.  Please continue to check your Library account as fines will accrue on any overdue 7-day and Overnight loan items.

Remember:

  • Standard loans – yours all summer if you are an undergraduate or Masters student!
  • 7-day loans – loan periods remain the same for all users.
  • Keep checking your emails and Library account for any recall notices.
  • Course Collection loans – remain the same, due back at 11:00am the next day.
  • Fines – pay online via the Campus Card Portal, in person at the Information Desk, or over the phone.

More Information

Please visit our website for more information.

Matthew Pearson, Library User Services

Library refurbishment: three lifts in use

Posted on by
Three glass lifts on two floor levels.

All three smart, new lifts, and the staircase behind, are now in use on the south side of the Library building.

Library refurbishment continues to progress with all three new glass lift cars now in operation, and the staircase behind in use.

Use the new lifts to reach group study space on the 1st Floor, and books and materials on the 3rd and 4th Floors. Meanwhile, refurbishment continues on the closed 2nd and 5th Floors. Behind the hoardings, the demolition of the central staircase beside the old lifts is now complete with the removal of the old lifts continuing.

The works involved in removing the old lifts may sometimes be noisy an disruptive. Alternative quiet and silent study spaces are available in the Library@URS building, as well as a variety of alternative study space options across campus. A guide to the availability of study space across the campus can be seen here: Study space update.

This refurbishment forms part of the University’s ambitious 2026: Transform capital investment programme, which focuses on improving campus facilities and supporting the student experience by the University’s 100th anniversary of its charter.

Rachel Redrup for UoR Communications

Tools to help you master referencing – workshops this term

Posted on by

A light bulb indicating an ideaHave you been marked down for inconsistencies in referencing? Are you fed up with writing all of your references for your dissertation by hand? There are programs that store your references and help you create bibliographies in Microsoft Word. We’re running sessions throughout the Summer Term covering a couple of options available – whether you’re preparing for your dissertation or starting your PhD, come along and find out how much time you can save! You can book onto any of these beginner sessions on RISIS under the Actions tab.

Mendeley

Mendeley is designed to make storing references as simple as possible. We mainly recommend it for undergraduate and masters students, but it can also be used by researchers. Its main feature is ‘watched folders’ – any time you add a PDF to a selected folder, Mendeley will automatically retrieve the details. You can also 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 PDFs, Mendeley is a good option for you. It has both online and desktop versions – both are free to use, but only the desktop version works with Microsoft Word. Workshops are taking place at the following times:

  • Wed 15 May, 14:00-15:00
  • Wed 29 May, 14:00-15:00

Desktop EndNote

Desktop EndNote has many more features than Mendeley and is designed for postgraduate researchers and staff. You can store a huge number of references and PDFs. In addition, you can select from thousands of referencing styles or create your own – great if you’re writing for publication. It’s free on all campus PCs through Apps Anywhere, but is costs around £96 to install on your own computer. We’re running workshops at the following times:

  • Wed 8 May, 14:00-16:00
  • Wed 22 May, 14:00-16:00

EndNote online

We’re not offering any workshops this term on EndNote online, but if you are interested in learning more about this free, web-based reference manager then take a look at our EndNote online guide. You can also contact your Liaison Librarian for 1-1 help.

Book your place

Sign up to any of our sessions through the Actions tab on RISIS. 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 Liaison Librarian.

Jackie Skinner, Liaison Librarian