This summer we have completely updated our subject guides – these guides are a great first place to look for help with your subject resources. Continue reading
Category Archives: Library news
Discover Upgrade: What’s New?
Over the summer the Library team have been giving Discover, the library search engine, a bit of a face lift. Based on feedback from users we have been making improvements and enabling new functionality to bring you the best user experience we can.
If you have any feedback about the improvements made to Discover, please let us know by using our feedback form on the library website or by emailing library@gcu.ac.uk
Locking filters
In Discover, you can now lock the filters on the right hand side of the page. This ensures that the filter remains persistent during your search session, even if you start a new search. Continue reading
Discover Upgrade: What to Expect
Over the summer the Library team have been making improvements to Discover, the library search engine. All our enhancements will be going live on Monday 2nd July and while we are upgrading, users may experiences some issues while using Discover.
Behind the magic button: peer review
Students often tell us they’ve been asked to find ‘peer reviewed’ journal articles for an assignment. Librarians and academics sometimes talk about peer review in very general terms – ‘rigorous editorial process’, ‘evaluated by experts’, ‘reliable academic standard’ and so on. The language we use to talk about peer review tends to be quite positive and therefore it’s no surprise that on campus there seems to be a general consensus that peer review is a good indicator of high quality information. Continue reading
Festive Feedback 2017
We thought it would be useful to tell you about some of the comments we received during our festive Feedback campaign, and some of the actions that have taken place in response to your feedback.
We received 54 responses over the festive period covering these areas:
Are you working on your dissertation or Honours’ Project?
The Library has lots of useful resources that can help you with your dissertation or Honours’ Project.
Planning your search strategy
We have a range of books that can help you get started with your literature review and with your dissertation or project more generally (for example here, here and here). Additionally our online training package SMILE has lots of tips that will improve the quality of your research. Continue reading
Short loan laptops now available
The Library is pleased to announce the installation of a short loan laptop facility in the Saltire Centre.
Short loan (up to three hours) laptops are available for loan to GCU students and staff. The Lapsafe laptop vending machine is located on level 0 of the library, facing the café counter.
Laptops are provided fully charged for use around campus. You must have your student or staff card in order to use this service.
For further information on this service, please see the following webpage:
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/usingthelibrary/borrowing/borrowinglaptops/
Harvard Referencing Guide – Update Jan 2017
The Library has updated the Harvard Referencing Guide to expand the guidance on using in text citations.
The referencing style is unchanged. There is no change in how to compile your reference list and you will still choose the Harvard British Standard 2010 GCU Library output style in Refworks.
For more help contact your librarians.
Companies and Industry Information (Key Note and IBISWorld)
We are happy to announce that the library recently added IBISWorld to our collection of eresources.
IBISWorld is the UK’s most comprehensive collection of Industry Market Research and Industry Risk Ratings. Users can find extensive and up to date information on hundreds of UK industries, as well as global industry reports and Brexit impact statements. This resource will be of particular use and interest to users who are familiar with the Key Note resource, which was retired in July 2016.
You can access this resource directly from our Database A-Z by logging in with your domain username and password. For more information about IBIS World please visit the Companies, Business and Enterprise subject guide. If you require assistance using this resource please contact your librarian.
Introducing edShare@GCU
edShare@GCU is the University’s new educational resources repository. It allows staff to store, share and preserve a wide variety of learning and teaching materials in one central location. Staff can upload and manage their own resources and have the option to share them openly on the internet, with all members of the University, or with a select group of students or staff. The repository accepts any permanent resources created by GCU staff and provides a point of contact for copyright and intellectual property rights (IPR) advice within the GCU community.
Where do I start?
The repository can be accessed at https://edshare.gcu.ac.uk. You can log in with your domain username and password.
Why has this new repository been built?
The repository will enhance learning and teaching by enabling staff to manage, store and share a greater variety of digital resources, providing broader and deeper learning opportunities for students. It also supports flexible learning by allowing Continue reading
