Bay Library – your questions answered

Last week, we held some library induction sessions for School of Management students. Thanks to all of you who turned up –it was good to meet you! Thanks too to those of you who asked us questions via Slido, and to those who took part in the polls when we asked you questions. Click on the image below to see the interaction statistics for the week’s sessions.

The stats also show the most popular questions which were asked last week, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to answer these again on the blog for anyone who missed it last week. Here they are:

• If I fall asleep in the library will you kick me out?

If you fall asleep in the library, a member of staff will wake you up and suggest you go home to get some rest if you can’t stay awake! Bay Library is open 24/7, but the library space is for studying, reading and relaxing, not for catching up on your sleep, please.

• I like Harry Potter, are there any Harry Potter books?

We do have some Harry Potter books, but they’re written in German! (They’re for the language students at Singleton Park Campus.) Singleton Park Library does have a range of fiction that you might like to read, and Bay Library has a Book Swap in the self-service café that we encourage you to use, but for a bigger range of fiction which does include the Harry Potter books, why not join Swansea public libraries?

• Big up Giles

A shout out here to one of our subject librarians, Giles Lloyd-Brown! You can find contact details for Giles and the rest of the team on the front page of our Library Guide for School of Management.

• Can you bring takeaways in the library?

You can, but please eat them in the self-service café area. Drinks and cold food are allowed in the main study areas of the library, but please take hot food to the café.

• Will I get a follow back on Twitter?

Maybe! You can follow the School of Management library account at @SUBusLib.

If you missed your library induction last week, you’ll find the presentation, handout and a lecture recording on the New Students tab of our Library Guide. If you have any questions at any time, please come to the library or email us at buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

Click the image to see more stats from the library inductions

Welcome back returning students!

Welcome back to our returning students! We hope you enjoyed your summer break. There have been a few changes to Bay Library while you’ve been away:

In response to student feedback, we have brought together the library printers in a new Print Zone in the central area of the library. You can now go straight to the Print Zone for any printing, photocopying or scanning you need to do instead of searching the whole library for a printer that’s available.

8 more PCs have been installed in the library.

We have rearranged the library slightly to create 36 extra study spaces overlooking the study well in the central area of the library. We also have some new mobile tables to create a more flexible study space.

The Wellbeing Collection and our newspapers have moved to a new corner by the Group Pod. There is also some careers information in this area. The area is for quiet reading and relaxation.

The Book Swap has moved to the self-service café area. Please help yourself if you see something you’d like to read, but try to bring a book back to replace it!

We hope you like the changes. If you have any comments or feedback, please let us know. There is a suggestion box in the library, or our contact details are available on the library website.

RefME becoming Cite This For Me

We have important news for users of the popular free referencing tool RefMe. It has been announced today that RefMe will be changing to Cite This For Me on February 28th 2017. Full details on this news can be found on the RefMe website.

If you have a RefMe account you will still have access to your account and saved Reference lists until June 1st, 2017, but you will need to export them before this date or you will lose them.

If you want to create an account for Cite This For Me it will cost £6.99 a month but you are able to generate a reference list without creating an account. However without an account your reference list won’t be saved for future use.

There are a number of reference management tools on the market and Swansea University’s supported solution is EndNote. This comes in a free online version and the full desktop software, which is available on open access PCs in the library. As well as storing all your bibliographic references, EndNote can find and store PDFs plus it integrates neatly with Word to insert and format references. If you’d like to find out more about EndNote please look at our EndNote Library Guide.

 

Welcome!

It’s lovely to see lots of new students arriving at Bay Campus, and we’re looking forward to seeing returning students back soon. We’ll be giving away freebies in the library on Monday (26^th September), so come along and say hello!

New students will attend a library induction next week. You will be scheduled to attend one of the following sessions:-

Tuesday 27^th September  

11.00-12.00         Great Hall room 043

14.00-15.00         Great Hall room 043

Wednesday 28^th September

12.00-13.00         Great Hall room 043

Thursday 29^th September  

11.00-12.00         Great Hall room 043

15.00-16.00         Great Hall room 043

If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask the staff in the library or email your librarians at buslib@swansea.ac.uk. We’ve also set up an online space for you to ask questions – just go to https://www.sli.do/home and enter the event code #8891. This is open until the 7^th October. We’ll look at this during the induction sessions and make sure you have all the information you need!

One of the best places to go for the material you need is our Library Guides. Bookmark the page now as this is where you’ll find guides on using the best resources for your assignments, help with referencing and contact details for your librarians.

Welcome to Swansea University! We look forward to meeting you soon.

Your librarians – Giles, Philippa, Michele and Naomi

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management

We’d like to introduce you to one of our newer resources – The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. This online encyclopaedia brings together over 700 individually commissioned entries and a further 85 signposts, written by leading academics and practitioners. The entries define and explain theories and concepts in the field of strategic management, including general management, leadership and organizational behaviour.

You can use the encyclopedia to create a list of topics for your revision and you’re able to bookmark any articles that might be of interest.

There are a number of ways to navigate around the encyclopaedia:

• Search by keyword, title or author
• Browse an A-Z list of entries
• Browse by themes

You can access the encyclopedia on campus by navigating to http://www.palgraveconnect.com/esm

You can access the encyclopedia off campus by searching iFind.swan.ac.uk and log in, when prompted, with your Swansea University username and password.

If you’d like more information you can access a guide to using the encyclopaedia here.

 

Library resources over Easter vacation

Easter vacation is almost here and we hope you enjoy your break. If you are planning to do some studying over the holidays, though, you’ll be pleased to know that in most cases your books will be automatically renewed until Wednesday 13th April 2016. There are some exceptions to this, so if you’re not sure, please check with the Library Desk in person, over the phone (01792 295697) or by email (library@swansea.ac.uk).

Bay Library is open 24 hours a day over Easter vacation, but staffed hours at the Library Desk may vary. You can check the information on the Opening Hours page of the Library website.

Image courtesy of Arvind Balaraman at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Beyond Books: Loanable Laptops available at the Bay

Do you know that you can check out more than books at the Bay Library? We also have laptops available for you to borrow.

We have 50 laptops which you can take out of the library for up to two weeks. These laptops are available for you to borrow at any time from the library desk.

We also have 30 laptops that can be accessed from our self-service machine and these can be used within the library, for as long as the battery lasts.

These laptops are available for you to borrow between 8am and 8pm. The self-service machine will display how many laptops are currently available.

Once you have finished using the laptop you can simply return it to the self-service machine, which will indicate the correct door to return it to.

Don’t forget to bring your student card with you, as you’ll need it to borrow laptops from the library.

What do I do next? Finding careers advice in Bay Library

My name is Gareth Smith and I am a part-time Senior Service Advisor at the Bay Library. I’ve previously worked at the Miners’ Library and the LIC at Singleton Campus. I’m excited about working in a brand new library on a brand new campus and all the challenges and experiences that will arise as a result of that. I’m also looking forward to the great view that we will have (for our three annual days of sunshine).

I’ve chosen Careers to feature in this blog because it’s something that both new and returning students will need to familiarise themselves with in the Bay Library to make sure that they’re making the most of the library’s career services.

Though new students will likely not want to be thinking about future careers yet, second and third year students might want to consult the literature we hold on the topic in the library. It’s located directly in front of the study well in the central area and contains books such as The Graduate Jobs Formula: How to Land Your Dream Career, Put Your Mindset to Work and (bizarrely) What Color is Your Parachute?. As well as these, there is a wealth of bilingual information sheets offering advice and guidance on CV writing, completing job applications and looking for part-time work. You’ll also find lots of information and advice on the Careers and Employability Service web pages.

If you have a more complicated query or would like to discuss your career prospects, bookings with a career advisor can be made either online or at the Library Desk. (The link to booking an appointment can be found under the ‘Careers’ tab of your MyUni page, or follow this link: https://myuni.swan.ac.uk/careers/). It’s particularly helpful for you to state your specific reasons for wanting the appointment during the booking process, as this helps the advisor tailor the session to your needs and ensure it is valuable and relevant.

Appointments can be made either on the day you book or on the following day, between the hours of 09.00 and 16.00. The Career Advisor at the Bay Library, Gareth Hill, will be here for appointments on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The sessions normally last half an hour and will be conducted in one of our interview rooms. These are located in the North Wing of the building and are signposted outside. Gareth will also be running drop-in sessions on Wednesdays between 14.00 and 16.00 for general queries with no appointment necessary.

How are we doing? Let us know!

Have your say! ISS (the library, IT and SEA – Swansea Employability Academy) would like to hear about your experience using our service. Please let us know what you think by filling out our short survey in English or Welsh. It should only take a few minutes and will help us shape our service for the future.

                     Image courtesy of fantasista at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Welcome new students! (And returners too)

It’s lovely to see our new library bustling with students today! Hope you haven’t had to queue too long to see our lovely staff at the Library Desk if you’ve had any questions to ask. They’ve been very popular!

It was great to meet so many of you at your library induction sessions last week. Remember, you can find lots of information online from your Subject Support pages on the library website and on Blackboard. (The library induction material is on Blackboard, if you’d like a refresher, or if you’ve lost your Need to Know Checklist!) If you missed your induction last week, don’t worry, we’re holding a couple of extra sessions this week:-

2-3pm Thursday 1st October, PC Room 1 in Bay Library

1-2pm Friday 2nd October, PC Room 1 in Bay Library

Please come along to one of these sessions if you couldn’t come last week. If you have any questions, please get in touch: buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

https://animoto.com/play/bsUtnSokc6zo6gl3vWm61g