Thursday, April 05, 2012
Library news has moved
Library news has moved to http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/blogs/libnews.php. Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday Free Stuff: News audiovisual archives
- videos on Wikimedia Commons,
- photos on Flickr,
- and a mix of images, audio, and video on "The Pool", which also encourages remixes.
(Both the above are via Creative Commons Australia.)
And if you're interested in alternative ways of providing news, try Wikinews - a smaller project running on the same platform as Wikipedia - though the New Zealand portal is a little sparse!
Deborah Fitchett
Liaison Librarian
Friday, March 23, 2012
MultiSearch and some journal links: Sunday interruption of service
From approximately 1 pm to 2 pm on Sunday some of our externally hosted services will be unavailable. The most significant is the main MultiSearch search field on the Library Home Page. The catalogue will still work and so will specialist databases accessed through the Library's database links. However, in some cases, links to full-text will fail during this period.
The other area that will be disrupted is our Journals page (which is linked off our Homepage). Many of the links on this page will not work.
We apologise for these disruptions.
Friday Free Stuff: Life science articles on PubMed Central
It's run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and its strong growth is helped by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandate that NIH-funded research must be freely accessible via PubMed Central. (Other organisations have created similar mandates - most recently, Australia's NHMRC.)
Careful not to confuse PubMed Central (PMC) with PubMed! PMC is a free full-text archive, while PubMed is a free citation database. PubMed doesn't have any full-text itself, it just indexes and links to it - which might be on PMC or another free or open access publisher, or it might be on a database which UC may or may not subscribe to. Check with your liaison librarian if you're not sure. :-)
Deborah Fitchett
Liaison Librarian
Monday, March 19, 2012
Help guide the future of the Library at a stakeholder workshop
All workshops are 8.30am – 12.30pm, DA03 (Dovedale Village).
Undergraduate Students
19th April - Engineering, Science and Education
20th April - Arts, Business & Economics and Law
Staff and Research Students
23rd April - Engineering, Science and Education
24th April - Arts, Business & Economics and Law
For more information or to register your interest, please contact mary.watson@canterbury.ac.nz
Friday, March 16, 2012
Friday Free Stuff: New Zealand ebooks
My favourite site for these is the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, part of Victoria University of Wellington Library. One of its strengths is the interlinking between texts referring to each other - for example, the page for Wheat in the Ear (a fantastic novel about a woman growing up in 19th century Otira Gorge and Christchurch) links to The Puritan Paradox: An Annotated Bibliography of Puritan and Anti-Puritan New Zealand Fiction, 1860-1940: Part 1: The Puritan Legacy which discusses the novel among others of its time, and in turn is full of links to works by the authors etc it refers to.
The advanced search lets you narrow by language (English, Māori, and several others), place, year, and of course subject. Besides literature, NZETC has books on:
- Autobiography; Biography; Journals; Correspondence
- Contemporary Māori and Pacific Islands
- Historical Māori and Pacific Islands
- Language
- Literary Criticism and History
- New Zealand History
- Science and Natural History
Deborah Fitchett
Liaison Librarian
Friday, March 09, 2012
Friday Free Stuff: Learning languages
Some of my other favourite language sites include:
- He Kupu o te Rā - as well as getting a word emailed to you each day, the site has a pile of Māori grammatical information;
- the Ministry of Education has a scientific Māori dictionary Pūtaiao Online - navigation is in Māori, so look for the "Rapua te Papakupu Pūtaiao" box;
- Bitesized languages - another 'word of the day' type site for 12 languages, plus language games, language exchanges and question and answer sections (this is a "freemium" model website - some features are free, more advanced features may require a subscription)
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Level 3 update: have your say on what we keep in the collection
Work clearing Level 3 of the Central Library for eventual conversion into study space has started, and the Library wants staff and student input into any items that might be withdrawn from the Library’s collection.
The first step in clearing level 3 is to assess the collections for anything that might be withdrawn before items are moved elsewhere in the Central Library or into storage. The process for deciding what should be withdrawn involves extensive checking by librarians and consultation with academic staff.
We’re keen to involve as many members of the UC community as possible in this process, so that we can be sure that we end up with the best collection possible.
To enable this, the Library is providing you with a listing of books that have been proposed for withdrawal. The most common reasons for books appearing on the list are that they are duplicates; are damaged; contain out-of-date, misleading, or inaccurate information; or contain material that is considered out of scope.
We encourage you to browse the list, and comment and vote on any of the items to support their withdrawal or retention. Each item will remain on the list for three weeks from the date they are added. Your input will be used to inform final decision making.
Monday, March 05, 2012
EPS Library - Level 2 and 3
All floors of the EPS Library have now re-opened providing access to Engineering and Physical Sciences print collections. The Library has six student discussion rooms on Level 1 and Level 2 that you can now book, along with spaces to study in quiet or in a group. The Information Desk is located on Level 1 and staff are happy to answer any questions you have. Library tours will continue this week at 11am, 2.10pm and 3.10pm on a drop in basis so you don’t need to book.
Coral Black
Manager - Branch Libraries and Learning Hubs
Friday Free Stuff: Open Folklore
The website itself is essentially a portal to open access folklore studies from a variety of projects (such as World Oral Literature. You can browse these by format (books, websites, grey literature, or journals) or use the search functionality. Another feature is the American Folklore Society Ethnographic Thesaurus which you can browse online - when development is finished, it will also be downloadable.
But the project as a whole is also actively working with copyright holders to 'liberate' material - meaning the content available is constantly growing.The project's Outreach Lead, Jason Baird Jackson, talks more about this in a Creative Commons-licensed conference paper: Another World is Possible: Open Folklore as Library-Scholarly Society Partnership.
Deborah Fitchett
Liaison Librarian
Thursday, March 01, 2012
New art work commemorates the February 22 earthquake
Installed in the foyer of the James Hight Library, Neil Dawson's sculpture commemorates the February 22 earthquake.
Artist: Neil Dawson, b. 1948
Title of work: Pulse Two
Date of work: 2011
Accession#: UC/APC/1216
Collection: Art Purchases Committee Sub Collection
Media: Screen printed acrylic. edition 3/6
Brief description: The forms are abstractions of GeoNet’s maps, showing earthquake locations and magnitudes.
Dimensions: 800 mm diameter
See more information about the UC art collection
Restricted access to L10 and L11 Central Library
From Wednesday 7 March until further notice levels 10 and 11 of the Central Library will closed with library staff having access to retrieve items. The call ranges covered are A-DS 480.999.
Remediation work requires access to the floor of Level 11 and the ceiling of Level 10. These two levels are now considered as construction zones and should only be entered should only be entered by Library staff. Please place a request for any item from these two levels.
The University apologises for any inconveniences this remediation work may cause you.
Joan Simpson
Manager, Central Library and Learning Hub
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
All libraries will remain open
During the time of the UC memorial service today all libraries will remain open.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Taking Level 3 Central Library to the next level
Finding that ideal spot on campus to get through your study can be a challenge, especially around exam time. So to help make your study experience a little easier, throughout the latter part of this year we'll be refurbishing Level 3 of the Central Library along the lines of last year's Level 2 refurbishment. This will mean you'll have access to a lot more study and discussion spaces, with the kinds of facilities you’ve been asking for (including lots of power points for laptops and plenty of wireless access).
To accommodate this extra study space, all print resources will need to be cleared from Level 3. This won't take away access to any of the resources you use; it'll just make that access a little different. Some items will be shifted to open shelving elsewhere in the Library system. Others will go into storage onsite or offsite. Other items may be withdrawn permanently from the Library collections as they no longer meet collection criteria , or are held electronically or elsewhere in a UC Library. Academic staff are being consulted throughout the process to ensure that the items you need for your learning and research remain readily accessible. If you need assistance on accessing the Library's electronic resources, consult a librarian or take one of the many tutorials the Library offers.
Level 3 was closed off following the December earthquakes due to some minor damage, and will remain so until print resources have been cleared. But if there’s something held there that you want, Library staff can retrieve it for you at any time. Just ask a librarian or make a request through the catalogue.
We know that when it's complete, Level 3 will be one of the best study spaces on campus. While we can't guarantee we can make your work any easier, we’ll do everything we can to ensure you have the best environment in which to get it done.
Heather Jenks
Associate University Librarian
Monday, February 20, 2012
Level 4 Central Library reopens
Central Library is pleased to reopen Level 4 to users. For details of the status of each floor please see Central Library and Learning Hub Access status for each level 2012 (PDF).