64% of visitors to our Second Life branch say 'what an excellent idea'

From March to May this year we ran the first survey in our branch in Second Life (SL). While a very basic survey it indicates positive trends in relation to our SL involvement with most visitors having a very positive view of the project and intending to return to our SL branch. A major challenge is making people aware of our presence as most found us by serendipity or ‘other’! Not a new problem for Library services but one particularly challenging in SL. You can find out more about this brief survey by visiting our Second Life branch and collecting the survey notecard. A new survey is now running in the branch, please complete it if you can! Thanks to all of our respondents!

Cathal (SL: Gortadoo Ewing)

Managing Environmental Research Data

The UCD Urban Institute Ireland is running a seminar entitled Managing Environmental Research Data Seminar featuring Dr Shane Colgan (ERC Co-ordinator EPA) and Dr. Peter Mooney (ERC Research Fellow NUIM) on Monday 11th June 2007 14:00-16:00. For further details contact the Institute at uii.admin@ucd.ie

Summer Endnote Sessions

A number of lunchtime EndNote Introductory and Advanced sessions are planned during June and July this year.

Full details on dates, venue, time, bookings, contact etc are available at: http://www.ucd.ie/library/students/information_skills/endnote/training.html

UCD Library - Instant Messaging

May 2007 is already (with a few days to go) our busiest month for Instant Messaging (IM) at the level 1 desk in the James Joyce Library since we started IM in 2006. We have had 34 IMs so far this month alone (just beating November 2006 and March 2007). We have already had more IMs in the first few months of 2007 than we did in all of 2006. Thanks to all in Reader Services for their involvement in our IM pilot. Please remember that if you want to contact us using IM from a PC that does not have the MSN client installed and/or does not permit downloads you can use MSN's webmessenger service. For information about IM in UCD please click here.

Cathal

Major Educators conference in Second Life

On May 25th the first ever International Best Practices in Education Conference will take place in Second Life. Already 800 educators and researchers from all over the world have registered. Registration is free and all participants will received a free in-world goody bag. For more information and to register please see: http://slbestpractices2007.wikispaces.com/

UCD Library has been in Second Life since March 2007. You can visit us in Cybrary City.

Cathal

Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland

“The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland holds a unique place in the study of the Irish economy and Irish society. Since its foundation in the autumn of 1847 the Society has analysed the major changes that have taken place in population, employment, legal and administrative systems and social services… No other single source provides such a comprehensive picture of social change over such a long period". - from "The Spirit of Earnest Inquiry" by Mary E. Daly,
1997

The proceedings of the Society are recorded in its annual journal which is now freely available online from the TCD Tara Archive:

www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/1080
http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/1080

Summer 2007 JJL opening hours announced!

The James Joyce Library's summer opening hours include a 13% increase in opening hours, a 37% increase in service hours and for the first time Saturday opening in July and August. For more details please see the library's website. These service developments are based on feedback received from academic staff and postgraduates. Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.

Cathal

Library Newsletter Questionnaire

Our newsletter, http://www.ucd.ie/library/news/pdf/libno14.pdf aims to inform you about the range of services and resources the Library offers, in addition to highlighting issues and developments in research and publishing. We would be grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to fill in this online survey about the newsletter, Your opinion will help us improve and enhance the Newsletter.

The survey, which will only take a couple of minutes, is here

Our apologies if you have already filled in our survey.

Ashwin Babu Kailasa is UCD Library’s new Endnote coordinator. He will be organising Endnote sessions during the Summer (and beyond). In the meantime, if you have any specific Endnote queries, please contact Ashwin at endnote@ucd.ie OR 01-716 7149.

World Bank Publications Online:

UCD Library now subscribes to World Bank Publications Online. This is available at:

http://www.ucd.ie/library/electronic_resources/library_databases/index.html#worldbank_online

Keep those books all summer! And don't miss you chance for free copier credit and coffee!

Staff and postgraduates can now renew long loan books until the end of September (29.9.07)! You can renew online through UCD connect, through the My Account feature of the Library catalogue, on the phone (716.7639) or at library service desks. Please note that the usual terms and conditons about recalls etc apply. For more information please contact any library desk.

A brief reminder that UCD Library's Advanced Information Skills Group (AISG) is organising a focus group to gather feedback from PhD students who took part in our information skills sessions during the2006/2007 academic year. These sessions were provided as part of the Graduate Schools' Core Research Modules.The focus group will be held in room 130 in the James Joyce Library on Thursday 10th May from 14.30 - 15.30. Your feedback will help us to evaluate the effectiveness of our sessions and to plan for next year. All participants will receive €10 in photocopier credit as a token of our appreciation. Tea/Coffee will be provided. To register for this focus group please e-mail: Cathal.mccauley@ucd.ie Or mailto:OrJulia.barrett@ucd.ie before 13.00 on May 10th.

Thanks,

Cathal

Library newsletter

The latest issue of Library@UCD, the UCD Library Newsletter, is now available. This features information on the successful pedagogical collaboration between the School of Economics and the Library; handy tips on searching Academic Source Premier database – an excellent source of over 4,500 full text scholarly journals in a wide range of subjects; details on some of the beautiful maps available in Special Collections, etc.

Library@UCD is available at:

http://www.ucd.ie/library/news/index.html#newsletter_april

Find it@UCD

Ever been frustrated when trying to access the full-text of an article after finding a citation in a bibliographic database? Over the past month or so, the UCD Library has implemented a hyperlinking solution to bridge the gap between citations found in certain research databases and the full-text of the source articles.

This solution, called ArticleLinker, can now be found as a feature in many of the Library's e-resources. Just look for the blue "Find it@UCD" logo next to the citation records in your search results. Click on this logo, and if the Library subscribes to the full-text of the source article, you will be taken directly to the article. This works off-campus as well, as long as all databases involved are accessible off-campus.

Some of the databases now featuring this technology include:- the EBSCO databases (Academic Search Premier, Business Source premier, CINAHL)- the CSA databases (British Humanities Index, Psycinfo, GeoRef, ERIC...)- Web of Knowledge (Web of Science, BIOSIS Previews...)- OVID databases (including Biological Abstracts, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, INSPEC, Geobase...).

Further information is available at: http://www.ucd.ie/library/electronic_resources/article_linker/index.html