Enjoy trial access to scholarly content online

Information Services staff arrange free trials with prestigious publishers so that staff and students can enjoy temporary access to collections of e-books, e-journals and online databases: http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/elecinfo/trials/

We also receive notifications when publishers have enabled promotional access to their online content.

Is there any online content you would like to trial?
Let us know by e-mailing acastaff@aber.ac.uk
Campus-wide access is often available.

If you have accessed any of the content we have trialled recently, please contact us with your feedback with regard to its value to your learning, teaching or research. The feedback can help us identify resources to consider for future subscription or purchase.

Drop-in sessions with subject librarians

"I thought Primo was rubbish, but it turned out I was just using it wrongly..."

This academic year the subject librarians have been running drop-in sessions and taking information skills support out of the library and into departments. These drop-in sessions are regular times when you can come along with any questions about library resources, conducting literature reviews, referencing, using Primo etc. No booking required! Just drop in. The sessions run weekly until the end of term unless indicated otherwise, and some of them are new, so do have a look at the table below.

Researching Welsh Law: What is unique in Wales?

An addition to New York University School of Law’s Globalex Foreign Law Research articles is Researching Welsh Law: What is unique in Wales? by Lillian Stevenson, Law Librarian & Academic Services Manager at Aberystwyth University & Dr. Catrin Huws, lecturer and Director of the Centre for Welsh Legal Affairs in the Department of Law and Criminology at Aberystwyth University. It is intended as an introduction to researching Welsh law and covers the following topics:

1. The Welsh Legal System
2. Legal Wales
3. Devolution and the New Legislative Bodies in the UK Bibliography
4. Sources for the legislative process
5. Sources of Welsh legislation: public domain
6. Sources of Welsh legislation: commercial
7. Sources of Welsh legislation in print
8. Referencing and Citing Welsh legal authorities
9. Welsh Law Journals
10. Law Dictionaries – English/Welsh
11. Law Schools in Universities in Wales

You can read the full article here.

The OER mix in higher education: purpose, process, product, and policy

The knowledge and network society of the twenty-first century is driven by the power of the Internet and digital tools. One of its manifestations is a new approach to the production of teaching and learning materials, enabled by participatory media called Open Educational Resources (OER). 

OER success has been reported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA and the Open University in the UK, among others. It is unclear, however, how valuable OERs are in learning and teaching.

This article presents findings on the perceived value of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education and their potential for widening learners’ access to higher education as a direct response to the UK government’s agenda of social inclusion. Evidence was obtained from interviews and an online survey of students,academics, and senior managers.

The article concludes that for OER to have an impact on higher education in terms of learner benefit and social inclusion, institutions need to address the following issues:

• The purpose of Open Educational Resources
• Drivers for production of Open Educational Resources
• Processes involved in Open Educational Resource production that guarantees quality 
• Policies that promote the open sharing of Open Educational Resources

You can read the full article here.  

The More Books Campaign

Student surveys tell us you want more books. Now the More Books campaign is dedicating extra money to give you just that. So while academics remain the primary selectors of resources to be purchased for AU libraries you can have a voice too. Here’s how it works …

First check the Primo library catalogue at primo.aber.ac.uk.
Can't find the book you want?

If you can’t find the book you’re looking for, you can place a request via the online order form from the Primo home page. Please be aware, though, that a book can take between ten days and six weeks from order to its availability on the library shelves, depending on availability from our supplier.

Stressed by that first academic assignment?

Come to:

Step in, Step up to success, and stress less!

• Win a massage, free swims, a session with a personal trainer or a book token
• Enjoy a free snack and pick up a book menu
• Share your study hints and tips, and the challenges too
• Get relaxation hints and tips from Rachel Hubbard
• Be at the launch of More Books!

and bring your questions for:
• Heather Dyer and Elin ap Morgan, University Writing Fellows
• John Morgan, Student Support
• Jo Hyatt & Carolyn Parry, Careers
• Your Subject Librarians

13:00 – 16:00 on Wednesday 7th November
Hugh Owen Library

Sources for Courses: The Churchill Archive

All Images credited to churchillarchive.com, rights are reserved to the underlying copyright holders

Aberystwyth University is now providing access to The Churchill Archive, a digital library of modern international history that includes more than 800,000 pages of original documents relating to Winston Churchill. These range from items of personal correspondence straight to official letters documenting his communication with international leaders of his time.


The archive gives insight into the personal and professional life of Winston Churchill from his days in school to his final years as a statesman during the Cold War.

This archive is an exceptional resource that will be particularly useful for researchers and students of History, Literature and Politics. The online availability of this archive, which is based at the Churchill College, Cambridge, follows the completion of a two year digitisation process.

Sources for Courses: Media and the Memory in Wales

Aberystwyth University has partnered with Culturenet Cymru and the BBC to produce a website dedicated to showcasing the historical effects of media in Wales.

Media and the Memory in Wales, as listed in Databases A-Z in Primo, is a useful resource particularly for students of Welsh and Welsh History. The website provides a database recording the depictions of significant moments of political and cultural history in Welsh Media, focusing specifically on the personal recollections of people from different areas of Wales. These recollections are organised as they pertain to different geographical regions and particular historical events.

Meet Your Academic Services Librarian #8

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the librarian for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS); Geography and Earth Sciences; and Sport and Exercise Science.

Steve Smith
Faculty Lead for Science and Library Research Support Coordinator

My name is Steve Smith.  I joined AU Information Services in April 2008 following the university’s merger with the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, having been the IGER Institute Librarian on the Gogerddan campus since August 2000.  I now have general responsibility for coordinating IS support for sciences within the IS Academic Services Group, liaising directly with IBERS, IGES and Sport & Exercise Science.   Additionally, I coordinate support to postgraduates and research staff across al departments.  Following a period as Site Librarian at Thomas Parry Library on the Llanbadarn Campus from August 2010, I will be based at the Hugh Owen Library from August 2012 onwards.

Meet Your Academic Services Librarian

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the Graduate Trainee in Information Services.

Kieran Smith

Hello, I’m Kieran and I am the one and only Graduate Trainee in Information Services during the academic year 2012-2013, following in the footsteps of my predecessors Adam Murlewski and Patrick Glaister.

In the summer of 2011, I graduated from Aberystwyth with a degree in English Literature. Prior to this, I worked at the University as a note-taker, and had also worked in a public library for a few years.

I decided to apply for the role of a graduate trainee in the hope of gaining valuable experience. My role here is widely varied and involves working in four teams including Academic Services. As a trainee, I am learning how Academic Services works alongside these other teams in order to produce a coherent library and information service.

Mass Observation Online: British Social History 1937-1972

An important purchase by the University Library

Visit Mass Observation Online: http://www.massobservation.amdigital.co.uk/
Find it also via Databases A-Z in Primo . Off campus access is available via Shibboleth (Sign in to Primo) and VPN.
Mass Observation Online is now available for students and staff at Aberystwyth University following an in-perpetuity license purchase by the University Library.
The famous Mass Observation research project gathered data about the social attitudes of Britons via questionnaires completed by volunteers, by investigators recording behaviour and conversation in public places and events, and through a panel of diarists.
Find instructions here to start exploring straight away.

Meet your Academic Services Librarian #6

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the librarian for English & Creative Writing, Modern Languages and Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

Joy Cadwallader

My name is Joy Cadwallader and I was a monitor in the library at school, an online library catalogue builder in my 20s, an IT help desk advisor in a library in my 30s and now learning and teaching librarian in my 40s. The books have been following me around :)

At work I am interested in how librarians can help students when they find that more is expected of them e.g. when beginning a degree, starting a dissertation or becoming a postgraduate. This coming academic year I plan to spend more time in academic departments so you can ask me questions in passing and I can find out more about how and when we can best help you via training, resources and support. In my spare time I am studying for a Library & Information Masters (part-time by distance learning), adding some theory to the observations and feedback at work.

Meet your Academic Services Librarian #5

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the librarian for Computer Science, and Mathematics and Physics.

Sahm Nikoi

I grew up in a part of the world characterised by “book famine”. In the West, the concept of a library brings up a particular image; this image is completely different in many parts of Africa today where libraries are frequently described using terms like “community resource centre”, “rural library”, “suitcase library”, “barefoot library”, “camel library” and “home library” to mention a few. After sixth form, I was posted for my National Service to a community in Cape Coast where I worked with the Ghana Library Board to promote reading skills in primary schools. Because the main library was a few kilometres away I was forced to find some innovative ways of delivering library services to the community and the wheelbarrow provided the answer, an experience which gave birth to a lifetime career in Library and Information Services. I therefore like to describe myself as the wheelbarrow librarian (see pg. 184).

Meet your Academic Services Librarian

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the librarian for Education and Lifelong Learning, and Welsh and Celtic Studies.

Elgan Davies

I came to work in the University Library, the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, straight from school as Library Assistant in the General Library at the Old College, which was the main university library at the time when all the arts departments were located in town. I stayed for two years before leaving to do my degree in Welsh and Welsh History and then a year’s Postgraduate Diploma course at the College of Librarianship Wales (now the Department of Information Studies) which was then an independent institution.

By the time I returned to the university as a member of staff the slow move ‘up the hill’ had quickened and the Hugh Owen Library had opened as the main university library. The oil crisis and ‘winter of discontent’ of the nineteen seventies put the brakes on things for a few years and I was asked to look after the General Library, or the Undergraduate Reading Room as it was then known, serving the remaining teaching departments still located in town who were waiting for the Arts Block Three building to be built, but it never was.

Law and Criminology Resource Update

 
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
Sign up for e-bulletins and lots more.

Casetrack
Searchable database of transcripts of cases available to us at no cost for academic purposes only. Automatic access on-campus but separate login and password required off-campus (send an email to lis@aber.ac.uk to obtain the username and password, stating your full name, AU login, and your course module number).

Sources for Courses : LION (Literature Online)

Literature Online or LION as it is listed in Databases A-Z on Primo is an excellent resource for students of English. Make sure to Sign In to Primo http://primo.aber.ac.uk and go to Databases A-Z to find LION. You can select English as the category to display all English Databases or search in the Name field.  

New website of maps from the past launched

The broadest single collection of historical maps from around the world is now available online.

The site, described by its creators as "like Google for old maps", will act as a central repository to a vast collection of maps held by institutions across the globe. It is the first time that access to such an extensive collection has been made available online, making it easy to find and compare maps through time in a highly visual way without the need for specialist knowledge. The service, hosted by the University of Portsmouth, launches with over 60,000 maps which will double by the end of the year.

Visit Old Maps Online to search maps by place, date or collection. Find other JISC content sites.

Sources For Courses: EDINA Agcensus

Students doing Agriculture Degrees here at Aberstwyth University may find  EDINA agcensus  very useful for their studies. It provides online access to data derived from UK Agricultural Censuses. There is a wealth of information available dating back to 1969 and recently statistics have been added from the 2010 Censuses.

The Agricultural Census is conducted in June each year by the government departments dealing with Agriculture and Rural Affairs for Scotland, England and Wales (i.e. SEERAD, DEFRA and the Welsh Assembly's Department for Environment, Planning and Countryside). Each farmer declares the agricultural activity on their land via a postal questionnaire. The respective government departments collect the 150 items of data and publish information relating to farm holdings for recognised geographies.

The Primo Roadshow

Bringing the library to you!
Feel free to drop by with questions about Primo or finding resources on the following dates (more will be added later).

• Thursday 28 June, 1pm – 2pm,  Room 017/018 Department of Information Studies, Llanbadarn Campus
• Thursday 19th April, 1pm-2pm, Room 017/018 Department of Information Studies, Llanbadarn Campus
• Thursday 8th March, 2-4pm, foyer of Penbryn 5 (Department of Psychology / School of Education Lifelong Learning), Penglais Campus
• Friday 9th March, 10am-1pm, foyer of Penbryn 5 (Department of Psychology / School of Education Lifelong Learning), Penglais Campus
• Tuesday 13th March, 10am-12pm, foyer of Department of Information Studies, Llanbadarn Campus
• Wednesday 14th March, 10am-1pm, foyer of Penbryn 5 (Department of Psychology / School of Education Lifelong Learning), Penglais Campus
• Thursday 15th March, 10:30am-1:30pm, foyer of the William Davies Labs (IBERS), Gogerddan Campus, Penrhyncoch

Meet your Academic Services Librarian #3

This term we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the Psychology librarian.

Karl Drinkwater
I'm one of those people who came to Aberystwyth to do a qualification (in my case an MSc in Information and Library Studies) then stayed, because it was easier than trying to catch a train out of the town. That was over thirteen years ago and I have been working as a librarian at Aberystwyth University ever since. My areas of specialism include information literacy (how we find, evaluate and use information); electronic resources; resource discovery systems; social media; and support for international students. I am also the librarian for the Psychology Department. Until recently I worked part-time as an e-learning technologist for JISC RSC Wales too.

On the Ystwyth Trail

Holdings of printed journals collections

Please can you disseminate the following to colleagues in your Department:

Information Services is continuing to review holdings of printed journals collections in line with the IS Collection Management Policy.

The list of titles here has been identified for withdrawal under the UKRR scheme having had no demand in the last 10 years. Please review this list and let us know if you believe they should be kept at AU. Please bear in mind that titles offered to UKRR are accessible in perpetuity from the British Library where they are kept in environmentally sound conditions. You must state your reason for wanting to keep these titles by 30th March 2012.

Thank you.
Val Fletcher vvf@aber.ac.uk
Collection Management Team Leader, Information Services.

Why use your library?