The top twenty most viewed papers for November are now available from the Spiral site.
For more information on Spiral, Imperial College’s digital repository, please visit the Spiral Repository page on the library website, or see the Spiral FAQ.
December 15, 2009
December 9, 2009
There are new Environmental Technology books available in the library, just in time for reading over Christmas! Please click on the icon below to view the list.
Don’t forget to check the loan arrangements and vacation opening hours too.
December 3, 2009
The Central Library offers extended loan periods on books over the Christmas vacation. You can see the full list on the library website.
The following special arrangements will apply at the Central Library:
- From Saturday 12 December, short and standard loans will be issued on request to Monday 11 January to all borrowers, providing there are still 4 copies in the library.
- From 09.00 on Friday 18 December, core texts will be issued to 11.00 on Monday 4 January.
Please ask if you want any books issued for the vacation, otherwise the usual loan periods will apply.
You can also check the Christmas Vacation opening hours on the Library website.
November 27, 2009
The library survey is still underway, and we’d love to hear your views! You have until Monday 30th November to fill in the survey and be in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon voucher. So far we’ve had 17 responses from Environmental Technology students – there must be more of you with something to say!
There’s more information about the survey on the library website, or you can just go straight to the survey itself.
November 16, 2009
Penny for your thoughts? How about £50?
Posted by Debbie Phillips under Library, newsLeave a Comment
Complete the 2009 Library Survey now!
The library wants to know what you think about our services and how you use them. Do you love e-books or want more books on the shelves? Is it easy to find what you want? Is the library too noisy or too quiet?
Tell us what you think by completing our survey – it only takes five minutes of your time and you could win one of three £50 Amazon vouchers in our prize draw!
Take the survey now at – http://www.imperial.ac.uk/library/survey
The survey closes on Monday 30 November so don’t wait too long!
We’ll be publishing the results of the survey in early 2010 and what you say will help inform us how we can improve services for you.
Paper copies of the survey are available on request.
November 11, 2009
We’ve added some new books to the Library’s Environmental Technology collection. We’ve changed the list slightly; you can still click on the title to go straight to the library catalogue, but if we have an e-book version, you can click the link in the last column to be taken straight to view that. We also have new material in the Haldane collection. Please click the icons below to view the files.
If you have any suggestions for books for us to buy, please let Katharine know. Last year, 17% of the books we bought were the result of a suggestion by a member of the Department, so we do listen to your suggestions!
November 4, 2009
The top twenty most viewed papers for October are now available from the Spiral site.For more information on Spiral, Imperial College’s digital repository, please visit the Spiral Repository page on the library website, or see the Spiral FAQ.
October 27, 2009
Library poll: tell us what you think of ebooks!
Posted by Debbie Phillips under Library opinion pollLeave a Comment
There’s a new poll on the library website. This time, we’d like to know what you think of ebooks. The poll is located on the right hand side of the page. It only takes a second to vote, so please tell us what you think!
You can see results of previous library polls here.
October 23, 2009
New search tools for Web of Knowledge
Posted by Debbie Phillips under online resourcesLeave a Comment
ISI Web of Knowledge has some new tools that may be of interest. The tools allow you to conduct a search across the ISI Web of Knowledge and easily perform an ‘All Databases search’.
1. Web Browser search extension
The search extension allows you to easily perform an ‘All Databases search’ directly from your browser’s search bar.
(Please note that only Firefox 2 and above and IE 7 and above are supported.)
Internet Explorer at: http://isiwebofknowledge.com/webtools/browsersearch/
Firefox at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11624
2. The ISI Web of Knowledge Widget for your Desktop
The widget is an icon that you can download directly your desktop to perform a search of ISI Web of Knowledge. Search terms can be entered directly into the box. You can download the widget here: http://wokinfo.com/webtools/widget/
If you have any problems using these tools or widgets, please contact the Mimas ISI Web of Knowledge helpdesk at: wok@mimas.ac.uk.
October 19, 2009
Resource of the Month: RSS feeds
Posted by Debbie Phillips under Resource of the Month, online resourcesLeave a Comment
RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. What this means is that it’s a handy way to keep track of what’s new with your favourite websites – without having to visit them every day. Essentially, you need an aggregator to read feeds, and then you need feeds to read!
To get an idea of what RSS feeds are, watch this short video from CommonCraft:
We’ve also produced a guide in the library with the information; you can download it from the Library guides section on Blackboard, or from below.
Two of the most popular aggregators, or feed readers, are Google Reader and Bloglines. You can sign up for an account with one of these for free.
Once you’ve got an account, you need to add some feed to it. Some useful environmental technology ones are:
The Environmental News Network has a variety of feeds, listed here.
The Guardian’s Environment section has a useful news feed, and also has some for specific areas, such as climate change.
The BBC offers several different news feeds. You can also set up a search feed through them, so for example you can be alerted to all news stories which mention ‘biofuels’. Instructions on how to do this are here.
If you like to keep track of Tables of Contents (ToCs) of journals, you can set up RSS feeds to alert you using a service like ticTOCs or Zetoc.
Similarly, you can often set up RSS feeds of searches in many databases, which can free up yet more space in your email inbox!
The library also has some tutorials available on:
How to search for RSS feeds
How to set up RSS feeds for specific searches
How to use Bloglines
How to use Google Reader
