Christmas Library Opening Hours 2011

Main Library

Monday 19th December : 9.30am - 4.00pm

Tuesday 20th December : 9.30am - 4.00pm

Wednesday 21st December : 9.30am - 4.00pm

Thursday 22nd December : 9.30am - 12.00noon

Friday 23rd December : CLOSED

Monday 26th December : CLOSED

Tuesday 27th December : CLOSED

Wednesday 28th December : CLOSED

Thursday 29th December : CLOSED

Friday 30th December : CLOSED

Monday 2nd January : CLOSED

The Art Library and SPACE IT Centre are CLOSED throughout the Christmas break. 

Normal hours resume on Tuesday 3rd January 2012
(SPACE IT re-opens on Monday 9th January 2012)

You can return items by posting them through the Main Library Letter Box when we are closed.

Renew items online using the link at the foot of this webpage; by ringing (0191) 200 4020 and leaving a message (including your ID number) on our Answerphone; or by emailing libraries@ncl-coll.ac.uk.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from all at Newcastle College Library Services!

Track Santa

If you have little ones at home who can't wait for Santa to reach your house, then why not let them follow his progress on Christmas Eve?

Click here to track Father Christmas in 3D on Google Earth, or if you can't wait that long watch video highlights of his journey last year here.

Wishing you and all those you love a very Merry Christmas from me, Richard; and all the team at Newcastle College Library Services.

Harvard Web-CITE

Just in case you need it over Christmas, here's a quick link to our Harvard Referencing Microsite, a web resource to show you worked examples of how to construct Author-Date Citations and Reference List / Bibliography entries for virtually every source that you might use in your research.

This includes the usual books, journal articles and websites; plus more specialist sources such as Acts of Parliament, British Standards, Blogs, Photographs, Leaflets and more besides.

Just use the arrow icons at the top left of the page to navigate around the site.

More resources to help you with Harvard Referencing are available here.

Accessing e-Library

e-Library is Newcastle College Library's collection of e-books, electronic journals and specially selected online resources to help you with your assignments. This way you can still get access to information, even when we are closed over Christmas.

Links to the most popular resources can be found on the Research and Study Support page of this blog, but if you want to access the full collection, here's what you need to do...:

1. Firstly, you'll need to log on to Blackboard (NB NOT the new version's link if you are a FD student - use the login boxes below the blue strap that you would normally click on), then click on the "My Courses" tab at the top of the page (see "1" below)...:

2. Next, click on either "FE Library" (if you are a Level 1-3 student), or "HE Library" (if you are on a Level 4+ course), at "2" in the screenshot above.

This will take you to the Library pages on Blackboard. You'll need to select the fourth option on the screen, "e-resources"...:

3. After that, you'll have a choice of either e-books, e-journals, a drop-down menu to specific resources for particular Subjects, or an A-Z list of links to all of the products. Make your selection, then click on the relevant logos to access individual resources.

When you are asked for a Username and Password, just use the same ones that you use to access Blackboard. You MUST change your password from your date of birth to access e-library off-campus.

Full details of how to access e-Library can be downloaded here.

If you have any problems with any of these packages, please contact the College e-librarian - klaire.purvis@ncl-coll.ac.uk

Monument-al Christmas Movies

Are you feeling Christmassy yet? Want to feel even more festive? Then why not watch some of the all-time greatest Seasonal movies whilst doing your Christmas shopping in Newcastle.

Over the next couple of weeks, NE1 (a regional business development agency) are screening favourite festive films on the mobile giant screen at Grey's Monument, which you can watch from especially erected deck chairs and canopies at the top of Grey Street (apparently fleecy blankets will also be on hand!).

Here's the itinerary...:

Tuesday 13th December
12noon Scrooge (U) (1951)
3pm Scrooge (U) (1951)
5:30pm Scrooged (PG)

Thursday 15th December
12noon White Christmas (U)
3pm White Christmas (U)
5:30pm Elf (PG)

Tuesday 20th December
12noon A Christmas Carol (PG)
3pm A Christmas Carol (PG)
5:30pm National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (PG)

Thursday 22nd December
12noon Miracle on 34th Street (U) (1947)
3pm Miracle on 34th Street (U) (1947)
5:30pm The Snowman (U)

Special Offer Student Discounts on Software

Back in October, I told you about the free Newcastle College email account that you can set up to keep your college emails separate from your private ones (though you can get any emails redirected to your home account, if you prefer, as I talked about last month).

Another benefit to setting this up is that it means you can take advantage of the special offers on Microsoft, Kaspersky, Adobe and other big-name software packages that are available from Software4Students, a programme designed with Microsoft to help students, teachers and parents access professional versions of software for home use. There's software for MACs, web design, music, even voice recognition, as well as anti-virus and office packages.

To give you some idea of the prices, at the time of writing, they are offering MS Office Professional 2010 and Windows 7 together for a bundled price of £64.99 with free delivery. Amazon are charging £342.14 for the Office suite alone.

All you need to qualify is proof of your student-status, such as a valid "ac.uk" email address, like you get when you set up your Newcastle College outlook account.

Might be worth a look, either for yourself or a family member who wants something computer-related for Christmas. I've personally used this company in the past and will definitely do so again.

Printer Credits

The P-Counter Machine

At the start of the term, your Newcastle College Student IT account was pre-loaded with 50 free printing credits, meaning you could print off 50 sides of A4 paper in black and white for free.

If you haven't already done so, you might be running out by now and if you try and print off your assignment without topping up, your work wont be  released from the print queue.

Topping up is easy - you can either pay at one of the Library counters (at Main Library, Art Library, PITS or SPACE), or use the P-Counter Machine beside the IT desk in the Main Library. Just log on to it as if you were logging on to Blackboard, insert your coins (this machine does NOT give change!!!), hit the silver "finish" button and wait for the flashing lights to turn red.

Additional credits cost 2p per page, however - a word to the wise - don't put too much money on. You are going to get another free 50 credits at the start of January, then a further 50 credits after the Easter break.

Passwords

A warning for you. Remember setting up your College IT network password when you started back in September? Well, you need to update this every 90 days - a period that is due to expire over the Christmas break. The problem with this is that, should you need to do any college work over the holidays, you wont be able to access Blackboard.

You wont be able to get on again until you come back onto campus and log on to one of the College computers.

Newcastle College's IT Development team are working on an "off campus" solution for this, but in the mean time you can get around the problem by resetting your password now. Next time you are in College, log on to a PC computer, hit "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" then click on "Change Password".

Alternatively, come to any Library Counter, or the PITS Desk or Enquiry Desk in the Main Library, and we'll reset your password for you.

CD Drive 2011

If you're anything like me, you've probably got loads of old CDs knocking around at home that you never listen to anymore. Perhaps you've copied all the tracks to your PC already or you've moved on to listening to new artists. Perhaps they were unwanted gifts in the first place.

Newcastle College Students' Union and Library Services might have the solution - why not donate your unwanted CDs to the Library and share the music with our other students?

Simply drop your unwanted disks into the CD barrels in the Main Library foyer or the Students Union rooms in Parsons Building and we'll add them to our stock.

All our CDs are available for seven day loan, and you can take out up to three at once with your valid Student Card from our Main Library branch.

Automatic Harvard Referencing Generator

Take the drudgery out of Referencing...:

Strike Day - 30th November 2011

(by Swanksalot on Flickr. Creative Commons)

Like the rest of Newcastle College, Library Services is closed to customers on Wednesday 30th November 2011, because of the impact of the National Public Sector Union strikes across the UK.

If you need to renew your books, please click on the library catalogue link at the foot of this blog page; ring (0191) 200 4020; or email us at: libraries@ncl-coll.ac.uk

Access to our electronic resources is unaffected, so you can still use our e-book and e-journal resources 24/7 either via the FE/HE Library link on the "My Courses" page of blackboard or through the Research and Study Resources link in this blog.

Normal service will resume from 08:45am on Thursday 1st December, and apologies for any inconvenience this closure may cause.

Newcastle Winter Book Festival

The Newcastle Winter Book Festival brings together venues across the city to celebrate arts and literature. Exciting and entertaining speakers at this year’s festival include: David Almond (writer of Skellig), Viz's Simon Donald, poet Liz Lochhead, Ann Cleeves, Hugh Cornwell and Tam Dalyell.

Explore the golden age of detection at a talk on Agatha Christie or, for fans of more graphic crime, hear about what pathologists can discover from a victim's final moments by examining corpses and blood splatters from a real CSI. Alternatively, perhaps you'd prefer to attend a lecture on the influence of painter John Martin on the work of Romantic poets, plus there are also helpful sessions for aspiring authors and playwrights.

This year’s Festival has quite a quirky feel – with a 24 hour non-stop fringe event running at Northumbria University Library, a festival club in the evenings at the Star and Shadow in Byker, a walking tour of ‘Haunted and Bloody Newcastle’ as well as ‘Writers for Hire’.

The Winter Book Festival takes place from 24 – 27 November 2011 at venues across Newcastle. Click here for more information.

Wi-fi access at Newcastle College Libraries

You can access the internet from your own laptop/ tablet PC or wifi-enabled SMART phone at either of Newcastle College Library's branches (and at various other locations around the campus).

Call up your device's Wireless Network Connections, then select the ncl-coll-guest network and click "Connect".

Open your web browser (eg Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome), and you'll be directed to this Welcome page...:

Fill in your usual Username ('s'+ Student ID number) and your College password (the same one that you use for Blackboard), then select "Student" from the FQDN drop-down box. Within 5 seconds you should be live on the 'net.

If you have any IT related problems, go to the Helpdesk in Parsons Building room 503.

A downloadable version of these instructions is available here.

Banned books

(Muskingum University Library on Flickr. Creative Commons)

Go on, be honest - have you ever read any banned books? Actually you probably have, if you've ever read Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter!

Click here to see a list of some of the popular titles that have been banned around the world.

London Libraries (2011) Banned Books 2011. [Internet]. Available at: http://www.banned-books.org.uk/ [Accessed: 18 Nov 2011].

Referencing Revisited

Further to the earlier posting about Harvard Referencing, here's a Slideshare presentation with some worked examples (and appalling puns - sorry!) covering some of the more advanced rules and percularities of the referencing Standard that we use at Newcastle College...:

More resources to help you with Harvard Referencing are available here.

Free e-books from Newcastle City Library

In addition to using Newcastle College's e-book collections (available from MyiLibrary and ebrary), and Google Books, you can also access electronic and even audio books through Newcastle City Library.

Search the full collection of their resources by clicking this link, and if you want to download anything, all you'll need to do is download this software for ebooks and this software for audio books.

Access information for all of these platforms is available anytime on the Research and Study Resources page at the top of this blog.

Harvard Web-CITE

Here's a quick link to our Harvard Referencing Microsite, a web resource to show you worked examples of how to construct Author-Date Citations and Reference List / Bibliography entries for virtually every source that you might use in your research.

This includes the usual books, journal articles and websites; plus more specialist sources such as Acts of Parliament, British Standards, Blogs, Photographs, Leaflets and more besides.

Just use the arrow icons at the top left of the page to navigate around the site.

More resources to help you with Harvard Referencing are available here.

Renew Online

You can extend the loan period of items you have borrowed from Newcastle College Library by renewing online.

Simply go to http://library.ncl-coll.ac.uk/, use the Library Catalogue link in the Library pages of NCG Online, or click on the Library Catalogue logo at the foot of this blog; then log in using your usual Newcastle College Username (eg 's' + your Student Number); the Password is "12345" (unless you have changed this for yourself).

Logging in to the Library Catalogue

  

Click the word "Loans" in the left-hand menu or, from the Home Screen, double-click "Current Loans" in the My Portal Summary section beneath the Search Box....:

The Renew Icon

When the list of items you have out comes on screen, click on the green "Renew" button next to the items you wish to keep for longer.

The new return date will be listed in the "Due Date" column.

The Renewal Screen

NB: You cannot renew items that are overdue or have been reserved by other Library Users.

Click here to get automatic reminders of when you need to renew your library items.

A guide with full details of our Online Catalogue's functions and features can be downloaded here.

Harvard Referencing

Here's a cut-down version of the Referencing and Plagiarism presentation that I'm currently delivering to classes around Newcastle College. It explains all about Author-Date Citations and Reference Lists/Bibliographies, features some worked examples and contains at least two dreadful jokes.



If you think it would be useful for me to come and do the full version of this presentation with your class, please tell your tutor to drop me an email. Alternatively, if you are having trouble with referencing, then feel free to get in touch with me yourself. My contact details are at the foot of this blog.

More resources connected with Harvard Referencing are available here.

SPACE

Finding it hard to get on a PC at Newcastle College?

Now that Enrolment is over, Newcastle College Library Services are pleased to announce the re-opening of our second Drop-in IT suite in SPACE, the hexagonal building at the top of the main Ryehill Campus car park.

This Computer Centre has over 70 PCs available for you to use as and when you need them (no need to pre-book) - far more than are available in any of the Learner Zones - plus printing and a range of cut-price stationery to buy.

Opening hours are 9:15am - 4:20pm, Monday to Thursday; with a 3:45pm finish on Fridays.

Don't forget there are also computer facilities, with expert help on-hand from the Brians, at PITS in the Main Library every day from 8:45am into the evening.

Putting the READ in DREAD this Hallowe'en

(By SheepRUs on Flickr. Creative Commons)

Darkness falls across Ryehill site,
As Hallowe'en descends this night,
And if you crave something spine-tingling to scare ya,
Venture into our Leisure Reading Area.

Your Library has much fearful fiction to be read -
Tales of vampires, of werewolves, of zombies undead,
Tales of haunting possession by a nightmarish spectre,
Or of macabre madmen like Hannibal Lecter.

We have all the True Bloods, if that's more your thing,
Vampire Diaries, Twilight, James Herbert, Stephen King
(But if you prefer something a little less gory,
We have biogs, Crime and many a Love story).

Your blood may run cold, your body may shiver,
But at Hallowe'en, Horror is the best kind of Thriller!

A-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha........

By Jason F. Kruegar.

Come and check out our Fiction section to the left of the Issue Desk at Main Library - and Happy Hallowe'en to yooooooou!

October Reading Week Library Opening Hours 2011

by Wiccked on Flickr. Creative Commons.

Main Library

Monday 24th October : CLOSED
Tuesday 25th October : 9.00am - 4.00pm
Wednesday 26th October : 9.00am - 4.00pm
Thursday 27th October : 9.00am - 4.00pm
Friday 28th October : 9.00am - 4.00pm


Art Library

Monday 24th October : CLOSED
Tuesday 25th October : CLOSED
Wednesday 26th October : CLOSED
Thursday 27th October : CLOSED
Friday 28th October : CLOSED

You can return items by leaving them in the Book Return Dropbox in Mandela Building, or by posting them through the Main Library Letter Box when we are closed.

Renew items online using the link at the foot of this webpage, by ringing (0191) 200 4020 and leaving a message (including your ID number) on our Answerphone, or by emailing libraries@ncl-coll.ac.uk.

Have a good Reading Week!

Normal hours resume on 31st October 2011

Library Catalogue is back!

Our Online Library Catalogue is finally back online after the downtime this week for essential maintenance.

Click here or the logo at the foot of this blog to renew your loans, reserve library items or browse our collection of resources 24/7.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused whilst the system was off-line.

Tips and tricks for searching with Google

If you are researching on the web, then you'll probably use Google, the biggest and best known Internet Search Engine.

What many people don't know, however, is that there are lots of hidden features and shortcuts that you can use to ensure that you get the best information for your studies quickly and easily.

Watch this video to find out more....:

Library Catalogue is offline

Heritage, our online library catalogue which enables you to search for books, place reservations and renew items over the internet, is currently unavailable as it is undergoing essential maintenance.

We hope to have the system back up and running shortly.

In the meantime, please ring 0191 200 4020 or email libraries@ncl-coll.ac.uk with any library queries or to extend your loans.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Newcastle College Library's Online Catalogue

Our Online Catalogue means you can easily search for, and reserve, resources from Newcastle College Library via any PC, Smart Phone or internet-enabled device, 24/7.

All you need to do is go to http://heritage.ncl-coll.ac.uk/heritage, or click on the Library Catalogue logo at the foot of this blog.

Once you've entered the site, use the Search Box just like you would use Google...:

Type in an Author, Title or Subject keyword then click on the magnifying glass icon. If you want to restrict your search to just e-books, DVDs or journals, for instance, click on "Advanced" and then select the appropriate options from the drop-down menus.

The Results Page shows you what we have in stock....:

Click on the blue title hyperlinks for more information, including the "Shelfmark" number, indicating where you can find the item on our shelves; plus whether it's currently on loan, and if so, when it's due to be returned.

(NB the results are sorted by "Shelfmark" order, not by relevance; so its worth scrolling through the results to find the most prevalent Class number. This will reveal the most useful resources for you).

To place a Reservation for an item currently on loan, click on "Reserve" then type in your Newcastle College ID number (without the 's'). We will then txt you as soon as the item becomes available (so please let us know if you change your mobile phone number).

A guide with full details of our Online Catalogue's functions and features can be downloaded here.

Welcome...

I'm Richard, Learning Support Librarian at Newcastle College Library Services. Its my job to ensure that the Library has all the books, journals and e-resources, recommended by our lecturers, in stock and ready for our learners; and to help students make the most of these resources in their research and assignments.

Welcome to the "Library Richard" Blog - a new way for me to try and support you in your studies. Its a method by which I can let you know about our services and recommend some resources or approaches to you, but also a means for you and I to share ideas and tackle any issues that you might come across in your studies / research, particularly if you can't come into College.

Please feel free to just read the blog if you prefer, but I'd particularly welcome any comments or suggestions that you might want to make (anonymously if you like) to individual posts or generally using the Your Comments, Suggestions and Questions... page on the navigation bar below the Blog title above.

I really look forward to hearing from you....