Talking allowed

Levels 2 and 4 of the Library are silence-free zones.  Talking is allowed! You can discuss with your fellow students and phones are OK if set on vibrate.  If you find it too noisey, you don’t need to plug your ears.

Try levels 1 and 3.  These floors will be calm if you need a bit of peace and quiet to think and study.  The open study space on levels 1 and 3 as well as the individual and communal silent rooms on level 3 will offer space to think.  

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

Plagiarism - whose idea was that anyway?

Photo by ryancr on www.flickr.com

Don’t do it!  Don’t be accused of dishonesty or fraud - or worse, lack of academic integrity!  Avoid plagiarism. Don’t steal someone else’s ideas - or cheese.

According to one source (1), plagiarism comes from the Latin plagiarius meaning kidnapper, seducer or plunderer. While some of us might aspire to seduction, none of us want to plunder or kidnap. But - that’s exactly what you do if you plagiarise. You steal what’s not yours.

Try these tips to help avoid plagiairsm -

Plan your essay or paper.  If you’re using other people’s work, think about how you’re going to include them in your text and how you can get a balance between your own ideas and those of others.

Take detailed notes while reading. Be systematic with taking notes. If you want to use a quote, get it down word for word. If you want to cite a paper (i.e. mention it in your text) - get all the details (authors, title, journal, volume, issue, page number and page for quote).  Misquoting and inaccurate references for the papers you have cited are forms of plagiarism. 

Cite your sources. OK - you want to get credit for the ideas in your paper.  Make it easy for the marker to know which ideas are yours.  Citing your sources can help.  It attributes the idea or quote to the person who orginated it.  This shows you have read the work of others (this is good) and have used it to support or highlight your own views (this is also good).  Citing your sources can strengthen your work.   The references at the end of your work allow the reader to find and read the sources you have used - for their own work or to verify what you are saying is correct.  Get some more tips from this animated guide to referencing

Know how to paraphrase. This is not just changing a few words in a piece of text. It is putting the concepts you have read about into your own words.  This gives your work more coherence.  It also shows you have some understanding of the underlying concepts. 

(1) Harper, D. Online Etymology Dictionary. Available online http://www.etymonline.com/index.php? Accessed 28.4.08.

Marion Kennedy
Subject Librarian

Creative Commons licence for photo on this post

The Good University Guide

The Good University Guide was published last week. Included are detailed league tables for most of the universities in the UK.  There’s also an introduction to the guide at The Independent.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Online access to OECD publications

The library now has a subscription to SourceOECD Economics

SourceOECD Economics includes online access (from January 1998 ) to all OECD books, periodicals, and databases related to national accounts and general economics. 

It includes the

• OECD Economic Outlook and its database, the OECD Economic Surveys
• Main Economic Indicators and its database
• Annual and Quarterly National Accounts and their databases
• Central Government Debt
• the OECD Factbook
• OECD Economic Studies
• Economic Policy Reforms
• OECD Journal of Business Cycle Measurement and Analysis

You can access these publications at SourceOECD Economics (access from off campus is via the VPN ) and the titles will be added to the Library catalogue soon.

Catherine Ure
Subject Librarian

Don’t let referencing weigh you down

 
Photo by Rocketeer www.flickr.com

Typing up your references can be a pain.  Maybe you’ve fogotten where you got that good quote from.  Perhaps you’re missing the page numbers of that really good article you read.  Details of your reading might be all over the place - written on hand outs or various word documents, scribbled on sticky notes or jotted on the back of your hand and now washed off.  AARRGH!

Then there’s all those commas, colons and full stops to get in the right place.  That last thing you want to do is get your puncuation wrong -

Photo by juliebee www.flickr.com

But you CAN’T BE BOTHERED!  You’ve finished your essay.  You don’t want to spend hours typing up references. All you want to do is relax. 

If all this sounds familiar. . .

          could be the answer to your dreams.

Using EndnoteWeb you can download and store all your references in one place on the web.  Add notes and abstracts and, best of all, print out your reference list (bibliography) AUTOMATICALLY in your chosen style.  No need to worry about all those commas, colons, italics or underlining.

Sharpen up your referencing skills and don’t worry about the punctuation.  Register via Web of Knowledge and  . . .  relax.  Let EndnoteWeb do the work for you. 

EndnoteWeb is freely available to all members of staff and students at Heriot Watt University.  Get more information and a tutorial or pick up a quick reference card in the library.

Marion Kenendy
Subject Librarian

Creative commons licence for the images in this post.

New books in the Library - 24 April

Added to the library recently were books on matrix modeling, logistics, health promotion and several other topics.

For the full list of new books, go to the New Books section of the Catalogue.

Selected new titles in Riccarton Library include Estates: an intimate history, by Lynsey Hanley. You can search inside this book at Amazon.  Also added to Riccarton Library was a copy of Logistics freight transport: domestic and international: for managers and students, by Stuart Emmett.

A copy of Deluxe: how luxury lost its lustre, by Dana Thomas has been added to the library at Galashiels.

Information on how to place a reservation for a book is available.

Information on suggesting books for the library is also available, or you can let the Subject Librarians know if you have any suggestions for new titles.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

News of new websites, blogs, and more!

If you’re interested in new and noteworthy websites of relevance to students, academics and researchers, news from the scholarly publishing industry, new academic and library blogs, and much more, then check out the May 2008 issue of the Internet Resources Newsletter.

The newsletter is edited by Marion Kennedy, Catherine Ure and myself.  It’s monthly, and its free.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Libraries unleashed

Today’s Education Guardian includes a Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-sponsored supplement entitled Libraries unleashed, which looks into the impact of ICT on academic libraries, JISC’s contribution to their development and some of the challenges being faced by libraries in the digital age.  As well as being online at the Education Guardian website, a paper copy is available in the newspaper area of level 2, Riccarton Library, and also in the library at Galashiels.

Here are some quotes from the supplement:

Academic libraries are changing faster than at any time in their history.

Spending on libraries and learning spaces over the next five years will be enormous, at around £1bn, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Most academic research is publicly funded, yet the tax-payer cannot get access to its results.

A recent survey shows many students from the so-called ‘Google generation’ lack the basic skills needed for online research.

Students of all ages need to learn to make independent assessments of the quality of material by looking at the authors’ experience, funders, use of sources, and where published.

By embracing the interactive, user-generated world of web 2.0, libraries can ensure they keep pace with bold new ways of learning.

Initial research suggests there is considerable room for university library expansion into e-books.

The expectations of students are one of the biggest drivers of change in libraries.

…although young people are generally at ease with computers, they rely heavily on search engines, view rather than read, and lack the critical and analytical skills to assess information they find online.

The move to digital content has fundamentally altered how librarians support researchers in the last 10 years.

There are items in the supplement on the Saltire Centre, the Quiet revolution in Web 2.0, Academia’s big guns fight ‘Google effect’ and interviews with several librarians on how their role has changed over the past few years.

This is an interesting, thought-provoking supplement, which shows just how much libraries are changing, and will need to continue to change.

How do you think Heriot-Watt Library should develop over the next few years?  How do you think the Library should address the challenges of the digital age?  Why don’t you let us know, either by posting a comment on this blog, or letting us know if you have a comment, complaint or suggestion.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

New books in the Library - 17th April

Added to the library recently were books on human rights law, project management, reservoir engineering and several other topics.

For the full list of new books, go to the New Books section of the Catalogue.

Some selected new titles in Riccarton Library include another copy of the 8th edition of Economics, by David Begg, Stanley Fischer and Rudiger Dornbusch. You can search inside this book at Amazon. Also added to Riccarton Library was a further copy of Introduction to project management, by Kathy Schwalbe.

A copy of the 2nd edition of Pattern cutting for lingerie, beachwear and leisurewear, by Ann Haggar has been added to the library at Galashiels. Some more information about this book is available at Google Book Search.

Information on how to place a reservation for a book is available.

Information on suggesting books for the library is also available, or you can let the Subject Librarians know if you have any suggestions for new titles.

Roddy MacLeod
Senior Subject Librarian

Reminder - books due back Friday 18 April

All books which you borrowed for the vacation are due for return by Friday 18 April, as are any books which were recalled during the vacation.
If you wish to keep them for longer, you can renew them at any time before the deadline by logging on to your Library record (via Patron functions) in the catalogue. Simply select the books you want to renew, and then click on the “Renew Items” button. Remember - you cannot renew a book if someone else has reserved it, if you have any overdue books, or if you have more than £2.00 outstanding in unpaid fines.

If you need help renewing your books, or of you have any questions about borrowing, contact the Service Desks in the Riccarton or Galashiels Libraries.

Gill McDonald
Reader Services Manager