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...: