Nuachtlitir a Leabharlaie James Hardima Library Newsletter Issue 34, February 2009 JAMES HARDIMAN LIBRARY INSIDE Library Lauches Digitisatio Service Future Focus Udergraduate Survey Stay Clued i with the HardiBlog Website: ote the search box! IReL Impact Survey 2009 Wickedpedia Better Wireless ad Laptop Facilities The Library i Numbers Update o E-Resources SCONUL Access Natioal Uiversity of Irelad Ceteary IUISC i Galway SFX Error Report Arts Research Support Libraria Budget Efficiecies
Library Lauches Digitisatio Service The Library has recetly acquired two ew high quality scaers; a Kirtas 1200 book scaer ad a Bookeye 3 A1 scaer. The Kirtas 1200, acquired i cojuctio with The Moore Istitute, is a high quality book scaer. This model, also used by Google Books, is capable of scaig over a thousad pages of a boud volume per hour usig a robotic arm to tur the pages. The Kirtas scaer comes with powerful OCR (optical character recogitio) software, which eables the user to capture the text from a scaed book or documet ad place it i a text file. Moore Istitute researchers have used the scaer ad OCR software to produce electroic editios of the works of Thomas Moore as part of the Thomas Moore Hypermedia Archive, ad i the digitisatio of Dubli Pey Joural as part of TEXTE: Trasfer of Expertise i Techologies of Editig project. The Bookeye 3 A1 scaer is suitable for scaig large format items such as ewspapers, maps ad ledgers. It is also suitable for scaig loose archival material, letters for example, because it is capable of automatically detectig the dimesios of a item before scaig it. If you are a member of NUI, Galway staff ad are iterested i usig the Library s scaig equipmet to support your teachig or research, please cotact Istitutioal Repository ad Digitisatio Libraria, Fergus Fahey - email: fergus.fahey@uigalway ext 5961. Fergus Fahey Istitutioal Repository ad Digitisatio Libraria.
Future Focus Like other Uiversity departmets, the Library has bee busily egaged with the Uiversity s strategic pla for 2009-2014. The process is very much at the draft stage but some key actio areas have emerged i relatio to how the Library might cotribute to the Uiversity s missio: A outward-facig ad customer-cetric approach to service delivery ad marketig New roles i exposig ad measurig research output to maximise the Uiversity s rakig A broader view of studet ad civic egagemet activities Partership campus-wide, regioally ad atioally for maximum effectiveess ad efficiecy Empowermet of users to avigate a complex ad icreasigly digital iformatio ladscape Provisio of high quality physical ad digital library eviromets Active offer of desigated services through Irish Strog focus o value for moey i the use of all resources, recogisig the imperatives of greater accoutability ad trasparecy As metioed, plaig is far from complete ad I would welcome ay commets you might have, either by email: joh.cox@uigalway.ie or phoe ext 3712. Joh Cox Actig Libraria
Udergraduate Survey The Library will be coductig a olie survey of udergraduate studets at the begiig of March. We wat to discover what studets thik about the Library ad its services. I particular, we wat to kow where we ca make improvemets. The survey is part of a ogoig series the last survey took place i 2006 so that we will be able to measure progress i Library services over a period. The Library would welcome a big respose from studets. We are especially kee to hear the views of part-time, distace ad access studets. Results of the 2006 survey are available o the Library website. Laurie Greefield Reader Services Libraria Stay Clued i with the HardiBlog Have you ever felt i the dark about the happeigs i the library? Well, if so, the HardiBlog is for you! The Hardiblog is the Library s ew web blog where you ca sig up to be otified with Library related iformatio set straight to your desktop as soo as it becomes available. This blog ca be accessed through the Library home page ad cotais iformatio o traiig o resources, otices, evets, liks to useful resources, hady tips ad tricks to make your olie life easier, quick guides to all the latest web techologies... ad aythig else we thik you might fid useful! You ca subscribe to the HardiBlog to receive emails or use your RSS reader to receive otificatio whe a ew article is added to the blog. Questios ca be submitted by form or through email. http://hardimalibrary.blogspot.com Soia Freaey Cataloguig Libraria
Website: ote the search box! IReL Impact Survey 2009 The search box located just below the Uiversity logo o the left side of the Library website is a real time saver. You ca eter a word or phrase ad locate matchig pages o the site i a istat. A ew feature, illustrated below, eables automatic searchig of your search terms i the Library catalogue as well. A survey to establish the impact of IReL, the Irish Research elibrary, o researchers work will take place i Sprig 2009. This survey will build o a equivalet exercise i 2007 which geerated a rage of positive feedback about the value of IReL ad has iflueced cotiued fudig of this resource by the Higher Educatio Authority ad Sciece Foudatio Irelad. I 2007 oe disappoitmet was the modest respose rate of 19% atioally, ad a cosiderably higher figure is the aim this time, ot least because the curret ecoomic climate poses some threat to cotiued fudig at curret levels. It will be vital to sed a strog sigal to fuders regardig the importace of IReL to the research commuity ad high participatio will help with this. The 2009 survey will be shorter ad very tightly focused o impact issues, so should ot take log to complete. More details will be provided soo. It is worth otig that feedback from the 2007 survey facilitated a umber of ew subscriptios idetified by researchers, eg SPIE Digital Library, Eviromet ad Plaig A-D ad the Irish Times archive.
Wickedpedia How wicked is Wikipedia? It depeds o your defiitio of wicked. Some will prefer to defie it as evil, but others will opt for the slag versio excellet. There is certaily a divisio of opiio. May are cocered about the quality of the articles, ad some academics have goe as far as baig the citatio of Wikipedia articles i assigmets. Cocers are raised because of the way i which Wikipedia is compiled. Basically, ayoe ca write articles, ad ayoe ca edit articles, although Wikipedia itself refers to the eed to follow its editig policies ad ay edits should be to a appropriate stadard. Wikipedia is differet to a established, published ecyclopedia such as Britaica, which relies o experts to cotribute articles. Wikipedia is a ogoig work, ad its supporters claim that older articles ted to be more comprehesive ad balaced, sice a commuity of iterested parties keep a close eye o quality. Also, it is possible to view how a article has chaged over time. The About Wikipedia pages war that ewer articles more frequetly cotai sigificat misiformatio, uecyclopedic cotet, or vadalism, although there are checks to make sure that such articles are removed. It seems that Wikipedia appears ready to itroduce a system that prevets ew ad aoymous users from istatly publishig chages. The ew system is called flagged revisios, whereby oly registered, reliable users would have the right to have their cotributios appear immediately o Wikipedia. Other cotributors would be able to edit articles, but their chages will be held back util oe of these reliable users has flagged the revisios. Wikipedia has a distict advatage over prited ecyclopedias, sice it is beig cotiually updated. As log as it is used wisely, it is a useful source of iformatio. Perhaps users eed to be educated by academics ad librarias, sice ay source should be checked agaist other kow reliable sources. Commo sese should dictate check the citatios listed ad ever use ay ecyclopedia as the sole source of iformatio. A ecyclopedia is a first port of call whe it comes to researchig for a assigmet. It will set a topic i cotext ad lead to further detailed readig. Laurie Greefield Reader Services Libraria Better Wireless ad Laptop Facilities I recogitio of the icreasig umber of laptop users i the library we recetly udertook a project to istall a additioal six wireless base statios, thereby esurig optimal wireless cover throughout the buildig. Simultaeously we istalled 191 extra power poits o study tables throughout floors Oe ad Two. This iitiative, i additio to supportig laptop use as a study/research tool also addressed the health ad safety issue of trailig flexes resultig from the use of wall mouted power poits.
Update o E-Resources The Library i Numbers the umber of hours the Library opes weekly 94 durig term time. the umber of e-books accessible through the Library catalogue 346,657 351 the umber of databases available the umber of portals you eed to access these databases e-kowledge 1 the umber of seats i 1,645 the three Libraries 424,843 the umber of books i stock Followig a period of itese egotiatios, a ew cotract has bee agreed with Elsevier that will give the seve Irish uiversities access from 2009 to 2012 to Sciece Direct. I order to secure a deal that all the Libraries could afford, give curret budgetary costraits, it was ecessary to covert existig subscriptios to Elsevier titles to olie oly access. This meas that 86 joural titles will o loger be available i hard copy i the Library. However, they are fully available SCONUL Access Bad A: staff ad researchers; Bad B: part-time udergraduates ad postgraduates, distace learig, placemet ad full-time udergraduates; Bad C: full-time taught postgraduates. Full-time udergraduates are offered access, but ot borrowig privileges. For more iformatio, visit the SCONUL website: www.scoul.ac.uk. Also check the Library s website for advice o usig other libraries electroically from the Library catalogue or e-kowledge, ad secure log-term access is guarateed. Sciece Direct cotiues to be part fuded by IReL. Other ew resources added recetly, thaks to IReL fudig, iclude: Grove Music Olie, JSTOR Arts & Scieces VI Collectio ad the Irish Times Archive o Proquest, offerig greatly improved search fuctioality tha before. SCONUL Access is a reciprocal access scheme. It grats borrowig privileges to a rage of uiversity library users i Irelad ad the UK. Each member library chooses which types of user to accept uder the scheme. There are three bads of user
Natioal Uiversity of Irelad Ceteary The 100th aiversary of the foudig of the Natioal Uiversity of Irelad (NUI) was celebrated last year. This icluded the publicatio of two books: The Natioal Uiversity of Irelad 1908-2008: Ceteary Essays. Dubli: UCD Press, 2008. ISBN 9781904558842. Shelf Number 378.417 NAT A Cetury of Scholarship: Travellig Studets of the Natioal Uiversity of Irelad. Dubli: Natioal Uiversity of Irelad, 2008. Shelf Number 378.3409417 CEN There are two NUI Galway coectios of ote with the first of these titles. A tollamh Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh is oe of the editors ad has cotributed a chapter etitled The Positio of the Irish Laguage, ad there is a chapter o the Natioal Uiversity of Irelad, Galway by Dr. Séamus Mac Mathúa. Both books are available i the Library at the shelf umber give above. IUISC i Galway The Irish Uiversities Iformatio Services Colloquium (IUISC) will take place at the Radisso Hotel i Galway o 4-6 March this year, with NUI Galway ad Dubli City Uiversity as joit orgaisers. This year s theme is The Chagig Service Relatioship ad staff from the libraries ad computer services of both host istitutios have worked hard to provide a varied programme ad rage of speakers, reflectig a broad sectoral ad geographic spectrum. Olie registratio is liked from the coferece website.
SFX Error Report The Library has recetly added a little feature to the Fid E-Joural service to help you help us if you spot a mistake. With thousads of e-jourals to admiister, from time to time the iformatio i the SFX box might ot be fully accurate. For example, you might ot have access to a volume of a joural, eve though the scree says you should. With our ew automatic error report feature, you ca ow tell us if you spot iaccuracies quickly ad easily. So the ext time you use Fid E-Joural, if the iformatio i the meu does ot match what you ca access i the joural, just click o the report cotet error lik at the bottom of the scree. We will automatically get a otificatio with all the details about the joural you were lookig for. Please iclude your cotact details too so that whe we have fixed the problem we ca let you kow straight away. Ad remember: if you caot fid the joural you are lookig for i Fid E-Joural, it is worth doig a search i the Library catalogue too. Roá Keedy Electroic Resources Libraria
Arts Research Support Libraria Gwe Rya has take up the ewly created post of Research Support Libraria for Arts, Humaities ad Social Scieces. This positio is the last of three relatively ew Library posts created to support the Uiversity s strategic research objectives. Researchers i the Scieces, Techology & Medicie will be familiar with Rosarie Coughla. Fergus Fahey started i his role as Istitutioal Repository & Digitisatio Libraria last year ad he has created a system to store ad make opely accessible the Uiversity s research publicatios as part of the atioal IReL Ope project. For more iformatio see Fergus Fahey s article o page two. Gwe is eager to meet ad start workig with researchers throughout the Humaities ad Social Scieces to support their iformatio eeds, ad to advise o the effective use of library resources throughout the research process. She will also have a key role to play i assistig researchers make best use of curret research performace measuremet tools relatig to publicatio ad citatio couts. You will fid Gwe i the Research Support office o the first floor of the James Hardima Library ad she is cotactable at gwe.rya@uigalway.ie or ext 5959.
Budget Efficiecies: Uiversity advice to budget holders o Library spedig To maximize efficiet budget deploymet, the Uiversity issued a umber of poits of advice i early November to budget holders (also posted to Uiversity Itraet) regardig a rage of expeditures, icludig the followig poits specific to Library spedig: Limit ew subscriptios to jourals ad maximize the use of those available through the Irish Research elibrary (IReL) which delivers over 25000 e-jourals, satisfyig most demad. Elimiate duplicatio of cotet betwee prit ad olie formats; the Library takes about 1500 jourals i prited format, some of which are also accessible olie. Develop a policy towards the use of olie jourals oly. Olie jourals reduce the eed to bid, cost less ad do ot require expesive storage space. Use your books budget allocatio wisely cosider carefully the umber of copies eeded ad ecourage studets to purchase copies of core texts where appropriate. The secod ad third poits refer to oduplicatio of prit ad olie formats, ad this is somethig we have already begu to implemet. This practice is already commo at other libraries as there are cosiderable additioal costs associated with hadlig ad, especially, storig both prit ad olie jourals. Olie access for may jourals is secure postcacellatio, or i the evet of the publisher goig out of busiess. We will therefore be favourig the olie format o its ow to the maximum extet for jourals. Library Committee discussed this issue at its December 2008 meetig ad it was agreed that secure olie access would be a essetial prerequisite i ay trasitio to electroic-oly access. IReL should cotiue to reduce Iter- Library Loas as material previously uavailable locally is ow available olie.
www.library.uigalway.ie Published by James Hardima Library, Natioal Uiversity of Irelad, Galway. Tel.: +353 91 492540 Fax: +353 91 522394 E-mail: library@uigalway.ie Web: www.library.uigalway.ie/ Issue Editors: Joh Cox, Soia Freaey, Laurie Greefield; Productio ad Illustratios: Niamh Coolly