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.