Renewing your books at the Self-Issue

Good news - you can now renew your library books at the Self-Issue Machine.  You don't need to bring the books with you!

(1) Begin by selecting Borrow -- Account Info -- Renew Items

(2) Scan your student card and select the option to Renew Items.  You will see a list of books currently on loan to you, and their due dates.

(3) Select the items you wish to renew by touching the relevant check-boxes.

(4) The screen will tell you whether your renewals have been successful.

(5) Select Finished to get a receipt with the new due dates.

(6) Collect your receipt to finish!

Featured Journal: Computer Arts

November's featured journal is the stylish, information-packed Computer Arts.

The contents include: 

Features

• Delight your clients: why happy clients equal a healthy balance book for your design studio
• Showcase: our selection of the world's best new graphic design, illustration and motion graphics work
• The power of dreams: from cog to hands: how W+K's inspired work for Honda became one of the most talked-about campaigns in advertising history
• Underline studio: when does simple design become truly elegant?
• Tara McPherson: we meet the creative whose distinctive style melds childlike whimsy with dark Gothic undertones

Culture

• Trends: an illustration-led approach to videogames, plus a new poster that celebrates the beauty of print
• People: we chat to ustwo's Tim Smith about how he bagged his dream promotion, peek inside Bleed's massive Oslo office, and celebrate the kooky style of blogger and illustrator Grace Danico
• Places: take a stroll around Mexico City's creative districts with designer and illustrator Melissa Chaib
• Events: London was buzzing with creative activity this month.  We report from AGI Open, the Global Design Forum and our very own Generate

Insight

• Design-savvy clients: Computer Arts editor Nick Carson explores the value of the client's side of the story, and how our inaugural Brand Impact Awards scheme plans to tap into it
• Get your hands dirty: all the planing and strategic thinking in the world can't replace genuine hands-on experience, argues Hoss Gifford
• My year-long labour of love: are extended personal projects worth the effort?  Sabrina Smelko shares her experiences

Projects

• The final countdown: how Sawdust took a stack of dry data and turned it into a stunning book, with the help of some custom ribbon-inspired type
• Ink on paper: Illustrator Ollie Munden, aka Megamunden, brought his passion for tattoo art to Laurence King's new grown-up colouring book
• Denim short: Tasked with turning the vision of iconic photographer Rankin into a TV spot, Realise Studio set about exploring G-star Raw's clothing into thousands of pieces

You can read a preview of this month's issue here: http://visualmaniac.com/previsualization/220-delight-your-clients.  Or you can read the full print magazine in the library!

Need headphones?

You can borrow them from the library desk on day-loan.

(image: "headphones" by shinji akhriah via Flickr)

Boolean Search Terms

One Search is an excellent source of information when you are writing an assignment.  One Search allows you to search all of the library databases at once.  The library databases are made up of hundreds of thousands of online journal articles, magazine articles, conference papers etc; it is full of scholarly content that is suitable for your college work.  When you search the library databases, you are searching the words within those articles. 

So, the search engine does the legwork.

You, however, need to do the thinking!  While One Search is very good at locating topics (or search terms) within articles, it isn't particularly intuitive.  It relies on your search strategy to find results.  Therefore, the better your search strategy, the more likely you are to retrieve relevant articles!

With this in mind, have a look at this video from Carneige Vincent. Learn about how Boolean Operators can help to improve your search with the help of  pirates, ninjas, ninja-pirates and cephalopods!

Increasing access to core texts

Have you seen the library books marked library use only?  They have a pink sticker on the spine and labels on the spine/front of the book.

 

 

 

Library Use Only books are usually core texts.  At the start of each semester, we ask your lecturers which books they think will be in high demand. 

 

We usually make the first copy "library use only" and the other copies "short loan", or 1-week loan. 

 

While we cannot always buy more copies of a book, we can try to increase the number of students who can access each book in this way!

 

You can read  more here: http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/scorm/view.php?id=54704

ITB Open Day

Looking forward to today's Open Day! 

There will be short library tours throughout the day to introduce prospective students to ITB.  We look forward to showing everyone around.

If you are thinking about coming to ITB next year, here are some useful websites:

• ITB Student Hub: find information about topics such as the Shuttle Bus, Parking, Accommodation lists, Sports Facilities etc.
• Library Homepage: find resources such as the Library Catalogue, News on the Blog and Facebook pages, Contact Details etc.

(Image source: "Come In We're Open" by bryan birdwell via Flickr)

Student scanners

Did you know that the library has two student scanners?  You can use them to create an electronic copy of a print document.  Sometimes, when they need to photocopy a colour document, students will scan it and then print it.

 

Learn more about scanning here:

 

Student laptops: 3-hour loans

Great news this morning.  We have 5 new student laptops to lend!

Our 23 existing laptops will continue to be day loans.  The new 5 laptops will be 3-hour loans.  This should increase the number of students who can access a laptop each day!

Do you remember childhood trips to the library?

This weekend, The Daily Edge reminded us of the 9 things you really miss about your childhood library trips!

What would you add to the list?

Your library. Your interests.

It's Day 4 of Library Ireland Week.  Your library.  Your interests.

Have you checked out ITB Library's fiction books yet?  Click here to browse nearly 800 titles...

 

And click here to browse nearly 150 DVD titles...

Your library. Your assignment.

It's Day 3 of Library Ireland Week; today we are looking at how your library can help you with assignments and projects.

Finding scholarly information
Sometimes your lecturer may give you a list of books to use... you can search the library catalogue

Sometimes you need to search for information without a book list... you can search the library databases

Referencing the information you use in your assignments
When you use information from a book, journal, website etc. in your assignment, you need to reference it to acknowledge that it came from a different writer.  Read more about Referencing using the Harvard Referencing System or Referencing using the IEEE Referencing System here.

You can use RefWorks: an online tool that helps you to gather your references and create your reference lists.

If you have any questions about how to find scholarly information for your assignment, or how to reference the information you use in your assignment, let us know: LibraryInfo@itb.ie

Your library. Your student hub.

Welcome to Library Ireland Week!  Did you know that your library contains a hub of information and services centred on student needs?  The library desk, the student information desk (SID) and the computer services helpdesk are all located in the library building.

In addition, you have 24/7 access to the ITB Student Hub: a website dedicated to sharing all sorts of information that is relevant to you! 

from passwords to parking to progression forms ...

from email to exams to electives ...

from letters to lockers to library databases ...

If you have any suggestions for content, let us know!  LibraryInfo@itb.ie 

Your library. Your screen.

It's Library Ireland Week and this year's theme is Think Outside The Book!

Do you know the different electronic resources that are available in your library?

There are 12 PCs for group work

• located on level 1 in the green zone
• one PC per table so that they can be used by more than 1 student

There are 20 PCs for individual work

• located on level 1 in the orange zone
• several PCs per table so that they can only be used by 1 student at a time

There are 23 Student Laptops

• overnight loans
• wi-fi enabled
• can be used in the library, elsewhere on campus or at home

 

There are 10 Galaxy Tablets

• 3-hour loans
• wi-fi enabled
• can only be used in the library

This Library Ireland Week: think outside the book!

Conferring

Congratulations to all the students who are graduating today.  You all scrub up well!

We hope that yourselves and your loved ones have a fantastic day.  All the best for the future!

Doing assignments? Familiar with TurnItIn?

TurnItIn is academic software.  TurnItIn has a large database of scholarly information including hundreds of thousands of publications, millions of student papers and billions of websites.  When a student submits an assignment, usually via Moodle, the text is checked against TurnItIn's large database.  It checks for similarity in the text.  Lecturers and tutors can then review any instances of similarity to ensure that the assignment adhere's to ITB's plagiarism guidelines.

When students write assignments, they often include the ideas, words, thoughts, opinions and facts generated by other writers.  This is a normal part of academic writing; however, it is vital that these sources are referenced correctly within the assignment.  TurnItIn is used to detect information that has been taken from another source but has not been referenced correctly.

Have a look at this video guide from Oxford Brookes University to understand how TurnItIn works:



Source: http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/page/view.php?id=54698

Doing assignments? Have you proofread your work?

Have you ever lost marks in an assignment for silly reasons - like spelling mistakes, unclear explanations, missing references?  If so, proofreading your work may may help to improve your marks.

Have a look at this quick tutorial to learn more:

Source: http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/scorm/view.php?id=54843

(Did you spot the mistake above?)

Doing assignments? Quoting or paraphrasing information?

Are you doing assignments at the moment?  Are you using information from sources like books, online journals and websites?

 

Including such information in your assignments is good scholarly practice.  The information can be used in two ways:

• Quotations: the information is written word-for-word from the source
• Paraphrases: the information is re-written in the student's own words

In college assignments most information is paraphrased!

Both quotations and paraphrases must be referenced correctly.  Have a look at this short tutorial to learn more about quoting and paraphrasing: http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/scorm/view.php?id=54822
 

Doing assignments? Have you searched the online databases yet?

Do you need to research a topic for an assignment this week?  Have you been asked to use scholarly information?  If so, the library databases might be just what you need!

The online databases are a great place to find information for your assignments and projects.  They include journal articles, conference papers, magazine articles etc.  The information is scholarly and suitable for college assignments.

You can search across all of the databases using One Search.  It is located on the main library page:
http://blanchlib.itb.ie
 

Some hints for searching!
Sample assignment: discuss the impact of gender roles on identity

• search for keywords or topics, e.g. gender roles, identity. The search engine matches your search terms with the words in journal articles so including terms such as discuss or impact is unlikely to make your results more relevant   
• use inverted commas around phrases, e.g. "gender roles" so that you find articles that include the phrase "gender roles" rather than articles containing the words gender and roles
• use limiters to refine your search results e.g. limit to "full-text articles" or "peer-reviewed articles", limit by subject, publication year, format etc. 

And finally, you may need your library PIN number to log in to the databases.  Contact us at libraryinfo@itb.ie if you do not know what your PIN number is!


(top image: "Magnified (8/365)" by Jake Bouma via Flickr)

Do you have a RefWorks account?

It was great to see a big jump in last month's RefWorks statistics.  Over 160 ITB students and staff used their RefWorks accounts in October 2013!

For those of you who haven't created a RefWorks account yet - it is a handy online tool that allows you to keep track of the sources you are using in your assignments.  It also allows you to create reference lists for those assignments.

For instance,
Jack has 4 assignments this semester: Corporate culture, Domestic heating, Motivation and Network security.  He has created a folder for each assignment

Each folder holds the references for that assignment.  The references include:

• recommended library books
• articles that he searched for on the library databases
• websites from scholarly sources

 

Some of Jack's assignments require him to find information himself.  After searching the library catalogue, online databases and some scholarly websites, he has found 5 sources that he plans to include in his assignment.

Jack's sources do not come from a book list; he needs to keep track of them himself.  RefWorks is a great way to do this.  Jack can build up a collection of sources that are relevant to the subject he is studying.

RefWorks will also help him to generate a reference list from the Network Security folder.

 

Learn more about RefWorks by visiting the library's online tutorials:  http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/page/view.php?id=53904.  

Any questions?  Contact us at LibraryInfo@itb.ie!