Pages

Thursday 18 December 2008

Problems with missing History books?

I have had quite a few queries about missing books this term. Here are a few tips. 9 times out of 10 a missing book is not actually missing just misshelved. Before you try making a reservations for a book apparently not out but not on the shelf try these things and you may find your missing History Library book…
• Try adjacent shelves to left and right.

• Try a few shelves above and below.

• Mistakes often compound themselves so occasionally there can be two sequences within a few shelves.

• If Shelfmark starts with 3 e.g. 338.1, try 538… or even 838…

• 942.**** can often be found mis-shelved at 943.****

• Often worth trying in the “Q” section.

• Check on the “Re-shelving” shelves

Good Luck! If this doesn’t work and a book is really essential for a particular reason you can always get in touch with me.

Happy Christmas, Clare

Wednesday 10 December 2008

A plea for help with my research

I am doing some research into librarians teaching and I want to interview participants from the Level 1 English workshops on referencing that Bob and I are running on Fridays at the end of this term (28th November, 12th and 19th December). The purpose of this project is to establish whether information literacy teaching in workshops improves the information literacy and resarech skills of School of English undergraduates. I also hope to explore whether this teaching is enhanced by the intervention of a librarian in the teaching as well as a subject specialist: an English lecturer. If any of you who are attending the workshop would be prepared to consent to being interviewed and taking part in a focus group I would be really grateful. The interview will be really short - probably no longer than 10-15 minutes long. I have booked a room in CILASS for the interviews and you can pick a time to come along between 2-4pm on either 12th or 19th December. I really hope some of you can help. If you want to volunteer please drop me an email to c.scott@Sheffield.ac.uk. I have an information sheet and a consent form available if you want to take part.

Many thanks, Clare

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Level 3 Dissertation Session 10 December

Hello Level 3 History Students,

Amanda Power has asked me to run a session for you on Library Resources that will be useful for your dissertations. The session is planned for Wednesday 10th December in the Student Auditorium 3-5pm. I hope to see you all there. I am planning to cover:
1. Western Bank as a research library
Are you aware of Special Collections and the National Fairground Archive?

Image from the Special Collections archive

Have you ever made use of the Wolfson Suite and the microfilms housed there? Do you know the best way to access newspapers and which ones we have historical access to? Do you know about the Record Societies materal and the Parliamentary Papers and where to find them in the Western Bank Library.

2. I also plan to have a look at some electronic resources that you may find useful for your research. Have you ever made use of the main history databases: Royal Historical Society and Historical Abstracts? Do you know how to search effectively? Are you familiar with the useful online collections: ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online) and EEBO (Early English Books Online)? Are you confident that you understand the difference between a database and a journal provider such as JSTOR or Swetswise)? Do you know what to do when the linksolver between a database and the Library catalogue does not work quite as it should?

3. Have you ever considered searching for material in other libraries and how to go about it? This last two issues may be particularly relevant to you over the Christmas break.

I look forward to seeing you all and hope it will prove useful,
Clare