IReL subscriptions

Latest subscriptions available via IReL (the Irish Research Electronic
Library) include:

Taylor and Francis Journals (Informaworld): Access to the full text of over 1200 journals published by Taylor and Francis in biosciences, business, environmental sciences, humanities, pure and applied science and technology, social science, psychology and law. Timespan: 1997-

Westlaw IE: Irish legal materials database; contains Irish reported and unreported case law, consolidated/annotated legislation, and legal journals. Also offers a current awareness service providing updates on recent developments in Irish law.

Access these resources either via the Library’s list of databases:
http://www.ucd.ie/library/electronic_resources/library_databases/

Or by the relevant Subject Portal:
http://www.ucd.ie/library/subject_portals/

News and information about IReL is available at:
http://www.ucd.ie/library/electronic_resources/irel/

It's good to talk: Library Instant Messaging Service!

Did you know that you can ask Library staff questions online 6 days a week for up to 9 hours a day? The UCD Library Reader Services pilot chat service enables windows messenger users to contact the Library online. For more information and details about the service click here. I will be speaking about this pilot at the forthcoming LIR seminar in TCD later this month.

UCD Library at IUISC 2007

We are constantly developing our services to meet the needs of our readers. This has led to us being very innovative in many areas of our service. Confirmation of this is the record numbers of UCD Library-based staff that will make presentations at the Irish Universities Information Colloquium (IUISC) being held in Athlone this week. Josh Clarke and Diarmuid Stokes are talking about our many initiatives in relation to cyber librarianship. John McDonough is presenting on the The Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive Project. Claire Moran and Ros Pan are giving a paper about electronic resource management. Peter Hickey is speaking about collaborative learning environments. Best of luck to all of you! Click here for more details about the full programme of events.

Library Roadshow - Newman Building (near services desk) 10.00 - 14.00 Tuesday 6th March

Want to get up to speed with UCD Library online? The Library is running a service roadshow in the Newman building this Tuesday (6th March) between 10.00 and 14.00. Drop by and Library staff will show you how to best manage your library account and tell you all about the useful electronic resources available via UCD Connect. Enter the prize draw on the day to win a €100 One4all voucher and a runner up €50 voucher. For more information see www.ucd.ie/library or call 716-7627. Hope to see you there!

EndNote training

The application EndNote helps researchers manage and store references, and makes creating bibliographies easy.

During March and April UCD Library is offering introductory and advanced EndNote training at lunchtime. Full details are available from the EndNote pages on the Library's website

To make a booking contact Katherine McSharry at 7167149, or katherine.mcsharry@ucd.ie

Arrangements for St. Patrick's Day 2007

The James Joyce Library will be closed on Saturday 17th March. On Sunday 18th normal hours will apply (09.00 – 21.00 reading room only). On Monday 19th we will be open 09:00-17:00 (reading room only). Normal hours and service will resume on Tuesday 20th March.

Report on first Irish Conference about the potential of Second Life for educators

I attended the above event on Tueday (27th) evening. It was a perfect mix of usefulness and chaos that neatly sums up second life. Over 40 delegates from Ireland and around the world turned up. The image to the right shows them gathering. There was standing room only long before proceedings got underway as demand far exceeded the organisers expectations. The conference opened with a video of how second life (SL) is used in Harvard. While some delegates had technical problems at this point (this related primarily to them not having QuickTime on their PCs) most of us were able to enjoy this interesting example of how one of the Ivy League's finest is at the forefront of adopting SL. Streamed speech was used at this stage to address delegates. Following the video delegates were divided into two groups (students and educators) to discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of using SL. This part of the conference was conducted using the text-based messaging which forms the bulk of SL communication. A bizarre upshot of this was that the streamed music usually playing in Dublin in SL was audible again. This incongruous sound track included the Corrs, Enya and Irish 'rebel' songs. The debate that took place to this was as diverse as it was interesting ranging from theoretical issues to practical concerns. For example one delegate explained that exam boards in his institution would not accept SL work for assessment purposes. Another informed the group that he was successful in having SL work accepted as part of a portfolio of work students prepared. A major focus of the debate was how SL related to existing Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Moodle and Blackboard users reported that they have successfully integrated SL into both. After an enjoyable debate lasting about an hour most delegates retired to the Blarney Stone for a virtual drink. This is where things started to get a little peculiar. SL slowed dramatically as the number of 'drinkers' soared and eventually I left. Outside I bumped into two academics from a UK university that had attended the event. We were having a useful discussion (including trading presentations we have given about SL) until we were rudely by a large naked man giving away free cats. After bidding farewell to my two colleagues I simply flew off to Cybrary city. It’s all part of having a second life!