Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Missing out?

I've been running a lot of training sessions for students lately on making the most of library resources. While it's well known that we provide access to the internet and free information - through services like Google - the fact that we also give access to online information that we pay for (like Mintel) is much less widely appreciated. Which is a shame because it looks like people may be missing out on a lot of high quality information that's available to them.

Friday, November 25, 2005

What's an RSS newsfeed, and why would I want one?

Once upon a time the internet was a collection of fairly static pages that people went and browsed. Thus the browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Firefox etc) became a key tool.

These days there are a lot more sites that offer up to the minute news (the BBC, FT, Google News, BizEd and blogs) and the RSS newsfeed is as useful for dealing with these as the browser is for static pages.

Basically what a newsfeed does is bring together in one place the latest updates from all the news and updating sites you want to check on a regular basis.

There are several newsfeeds, just as there are several browsers, but as a starting point a particularly user-friendly one is Bloglines.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Courses - Weblogs

Blogging live from the Aslib weblogs course in Birmingham today. I think I'll be posting about RSS feeds next - watch this space!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

New book - How to be a Student

It's one of those things that no-one ever actually teaches you, you just work it out as you go along. Unless you get your hands on How to be a Student by Sarah Moore.

I particularly liked these chapter headings.

  • Regular 'study snacks' are better than occasional 'study binges'
  • Understanding boredom
  • Sleeping enough (but not too much)
  • Remembering that lecturers and tutors are human too
  • Recognizing that information is not knowledge
  • Remembering that people thought Einstein was a slow learner
  • Getting to know your librarians and lurking in the library
  • Using all of your brain
  • Having some time every day when you're doing nothing at all
  • Reading
  • Writing a little bit every day
  • Using images and diagrams when you're taking notes
  • Believing in yourself

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Courses - Developing and managing ebook collections

This was a useful update on the state of ebooks in the UK and confirmed my suspicion that many things that would encourage their takeup are still not happening

  • no single comprehensive resource exists for ebook identification and selection

  • no standard business model or licensing agreement exists

  • each provider uses a different interface and software

  • ebook availability varies greatly between subject areas

  • more research needs to be done, especially qualitative analysis (currently being undertaken by JISC)

  • a large number of issues relating to the electronic delivery of information in general, not just ebooks, have not yet been fully resolved (copyright, archiving, security, authentication etc)

    During the day we had the chance to get hands on practice with several different systems. I thought it was interesting that one of the childrens ebook services had involved children in the design of the interface, and the result was both intuitive and enjoyable to use. (You can search for short books with blue covers about imaginary characters!) Not something that can honestly be said of many electronic resources, sadly.

    We also had the chance to compare our own experience with librarians from other institutions. It was encouraging to find that we are already doing some things that others are considering or are in the process of putting in place.

  • we have fully integrated catalogue records for our ebooks

  • we have a collection development policy that includes ebooks

  • we are using a variety of means to promote the use of ebooks (including blogging!)

    There are some areas we could investigate further, such as whether we could provide access to ebooks (and other eresources) for library visitors other than staff and students of the University.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

New books - Dark Angels

Can the writing you do at work ever be 'creative'? Dark Angels by John Simmons suggests it can.

"By developing creativity in everyday language and words, this writing guide helps businesses and business professionals strengthen their goals and generate fresh ideas. Suggestions for emails, reports, letters, memos, and proposals show how company communications can be clearer and arguments more effective with a few inspired changes. By allowing their inner dark angels to spread their creative wings, aspiring professionals will learn how to better engage with, and connect to, their audience with stories and emotion rather than cold analysis."

Friday, November 04, 2005

Starting a business in Portsmouth?

The COBRA database now provides local area profiles for those thinking of starting a business in a particular part of the country. There is a profile of the Portsmouth area, but not yet one for Southampton* - more areas are going to be added in future months updates.

* UPDATE! There is now.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

ABI Inform - new features for researchers

ABI Inform have recently added some new and improved options for business researchers including:

  • Full text US masters and doctoral dissertations
  • A new improved 'My Research' area for organising your references
  • Automated email alerts on your research topic
  • The option to export Harvard format references