When we started this blog last year, an intention was for various members of the Library staff to introduce themselves one-by-one in blog entries, and say who they were and what they did.
So far, no one else has stuck their head above the virtual parapet to post, so here goes with myself.
I’m Roddy MacLeod, and I’ve worked in Heriot-Watt University Library on and off for a long time. I “escaped” twice, once to work in the University of Malawi Library, and once to work in the University of Botswana Library (I’m centre-towards-the-back in the photo of UB Library staff shown below).
There are two parts to my job at Heriot-Watt - I’m a subject librarian, and I also work on various externally and internally funded projects.
Along with the other subject librarians, I help staff the Library’s Enquiry Service, where we can be asked questions about access to bibliographic databases, how the Library Catalogue works, how to do a literature search, or anything else concerning the Library’s collections and services. I liaise with the School of the Built Environment about the Library’s collections and services, often suggesting books or other materials for purchase. I take part in library orientation for new students, and occasionally give more detailed seminars on aspects of literature searching for students in the SBE. There’s quite a number of distance learning students in the SBE, and I frequently get emails from them about finding resources or using the numerous databases available to all students and staff at Heriot-Watt. To help distance learners, we developed a set of support pages.
Along with other senior members of the Library staff, I post entries to the spineless? blog, and in the future I’ll be looking at various ways to market the library and make sure that everyone knows about the myriad of materials and services available.
Like the other subject librarians, I produce How To Find Out guides. These are useful guides to finding and using information. The one I edit is How To Find Out in the Built Environment. If you want an even more detailed guide, try Information sources in engineering, which I edited with Jim Corlett - its on the reference shelves at 620 MAC.
The projects I’m involved in include TechXtra, the freely available service where you can find articles, books, the best websites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, thesis & dissertations, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing.
Another project I work on is called ticTOCs. The aim of ticTOCs, which has been funded by JISC, is to develop a freely available service which will transform journal current awareness by making it easy for academics and researchers to find and use journal Tables of Contents (TOCs) through the use of RSS. If you’re interested in ticTOCs, there’s a public blog which gives news.
Other things I do include editing the Internet Resources Newsletter, along with two of the other subject librarians - Marion Kennedy and Catherine Ure, and I help keep Pinakes: a Subject Launchpad up to date with Dave Bond, the Information Systems Librarian. Occasionally, I write articles for various publications, such as this one on RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and this one on the repository infrastructure. My home page gives more information.
So - if you’ve any questions about finding information in construction, building or planning, or if you want to suggest material for the built environment collection, come and see me. My desk is on Level 2 of the Library, or you can phone me on ext 3576 or email me at: r.a.macleod@hw.ac.uk
Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian
Posted by Marion Kennedy
Have you had a chance to use any of the ebooks yet?
