You can use the FollowMe system to print from your own laptop or home computer

ISA have launched a trial Internet printing service for the FollowMe system.

This will allow you to print from your own laptop or home computer and will operate if you are on campus, in residences or even while working from a café in town!

For more information including installation instructions see:
http://www1.aston.ac.uk/ict/studentguide/printing/internetprinting/.

Maintenance on the Self Service Laptop system - 25/01/2013

Lapsafe, who supply the Library with their self service laptop system will be running essential maintenance on the system at 22:00 on 25th January 2013.  This may mean that the service is unavailable between 22:00 and 22:30 on 25th January while the work is carried out.

If you have trouble returning your laptop during this period please return them to staff at the Welcome Desk.  You will still need to show your card to staff when handing in the laptop.  If you have any queries please contact us on library@aston.ac.uk

The new database Business Source Complete - an update

The new database Business Source Complete (BSC) from EBSCO is the upgraded version of Business Source Premier (BSP) - it contains all the peer-reviewed journal & trade magazine titles from before, plus hundreds of new titles as well as a vast range of other resources. As such, we've now decided to show the links to just BSC on all the Library webpages, A-Z databases list & various LibGuides in place of BSP.

If you are a student wanting business information, we recommend that you use the Enhanced Business Searching Interface (BSI). BSI is EBSCO's highly focused user interface created especially for business researchers. It provides an easy way to both browse and search for country economic data, company profiles, industry market trends or potential, and market research. Full-text coverage in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics is covered.

We hope you gain lots of use from the new BSC database - happy searching & researching!

Invitation - Library focus group on Library fines and reservations

Dear students

Do you have views on Library fines and the reservations system?
We would like to invite people who can attend a Focus group on:

• Wednesday 23 January 5:00pm or
• Thursday 24 January 4:00pm

We will reward you with tokens to the value of £40 for 1.5 hours of your time.

Please email a.e.brady@aston.ac.uk asap if you would like to attend so that we can reserve a place for you.

Thank you
Angela Brady
LIS
 

Online resources logging in system unavailable morning of Monday 21st Jan

**This upgrade has now been rescheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd January) morning.**
Due to an essential upgrade, the Open Athens authentication system will be unavailable on Monday 21st January from 9.30 - 11.30. This means that you will be unable to log into online journals and databases for this period.

Library Water Coolers

Please help us to keep the water coolers in the Library in good order by not emptying your bottles into the drip trays, as this can very quickly put them out of action until the tray can be emptied. If a water cooler does need attention, then please notify a member of Library staff. Thank you for your co-operation. Library Team

The dark matter of charisma

Prof John Gaffney (LSS) has published an article in Berfrois about Adolf Hitler's charisma.

Gaffney, John (2012). The Dark Matter of Charisma: Lessons from the Nuremburg Rallies. Berfrois, Dec 19. Available online http://www.berfrois.com/2012/12/john-gaffney-hitlers-dark-matter-charisma/.

Library SmartSearch Issues

We are currently experiencing some issues with the workings of Library SmartSearch.  These are:
1. When accessing it on-campus you are being asked to log in as if you were off-campus
2.  Some of the results in the search list have an option "Linked Full Text" but doesn't take you to the full text.  Instead you get a screen saying record not found.

These problems has been reported to our supplier and we will provide you with an update as soon as we have one.  All other functionality is unaffected and the majority of content is still accessible.

Update to access problem for Library SmartSearch

Our suppliers are still working on the above problems.  However, we have put a temporary fix in place to try and ensure that everyone has access to the full content of Library SmartSearch whether they are on or off campus.

To access Library SmartSearch you should:
1.  Go to http://www.aston.ac.uk/library and click on the Library SmartSearch logo
2.  You will be taken to a log in screen.  Here you should enter your Aston University username and password then click on Login.
3.  You should then be taken to the main search page for Library SmartSearch but be logged in and able to access content.

We will keep you updated on progress but if you have any problems please email library@aston.ac.uk

Resolution to issues with Library SmartSearch

We are pleased to report that our supplier has applied a patch which seems to have fixed the issues mentioned in this post.  You should now be able to access Library SmartSearch and all of its content without a problem.  If you have any problems please let us know by emailing library@aston.ac.uk

Improved access to Library SmartSearch

Library SmartSearch was introduced this academic year as a combined search facility for printed books, full text electronic books and journal articles.

Towards the end of last term we held a focus group with students to obtain feedback on the new facility. In general, this was very positive, but revealed some frustration and confusion relating to the positioning of the search-box within the Subject LibGuides. Consequently, the Library SmartSearch link from the Library home page now takes you to a single Library SmartSearch page that incorporates:

• Search box for Library SmartSearch 
• Links to Subject LibGuides for advice on additional sources of information 
• Quick links to databases and journals that you may frequently use

We hope this will make searching for the resources you need simpler and quicker.

Nick

Dr NR Smith
Director
Library & Information Services

Study Spaces in the Library

Group Study Spaces
Most of the group study spaces are located on the ground floor. There are quiet study carrels on the 1st floor and group study spaces in the Learning Development Centre.

 Flexible Study floor
The 2nd floor of the Library is a flexible study area. For most of the year it is for group study but during the third term it changes to silent study only.

Single Silent Study
The 3rd floor is always for single silent study. If you need to talk to someone, please move to a group study area or to the stairwell. If you are disturbed by noise from other students on this floor, please contact a member of Library staff or text 0121 204 4489. Staff will deal with the problem immediately.

Please help us to create a good environment for study and look after you belongings at all times.

Business & management resources keep improving!

Our new subscription to the database Business Source Complete (BSC) will greatly enhance the business & management information resources available to you.  

The new package (provided by EBSCOHost) dramatically increases the range & number of full-text resources on offer at Aston adding to the content we already subscribe to via Business Source Premier.  For example, in addition to thousands of full-text academic journal & trade magazine titles, we now also have over a million company information records, over 19,000 industry reports, over 9,000 business case studies, over 8,000 analyst reports & some 2,500 market research reports.  In addition to this enhanced coverage BSC still includes thousands of country economic reports & SWOT analyses, of course, and, as importantly, also offers exciting new resources such as video seminars, executive interviews & author profiles.

We hope you gain lots of use from the new BSC database which you can access via the Databases list in Library SmartSearch

Thomson Reuters Q & A Sessions in January 2013

Do you use the financial numerical database Datastream? Are you working in the ABS Trading Room with Reuters 3000xtra database? Would you like further help extracting data?

Thomson Reuters are offering Question and Answer sessions for students using the Datastream and Reuters 3000xtra databases. If you are having problems extracting data and would like advice please feel free to sign up for one of the Q&A sessions.

· Client trainers from Thomson Reuters will be holding online Q&A sessions to answer your questions regarding data on DataStream
 · No need to have the product in front of you, just the question that you want answering
 · No need to join a conference call, they will use Adobe chat… however, if you really want to talk to a trainer they will provide a number to call
· To sign up, email: knowledge.networkUKI@thomsonreuters.com stating the date, time and product session as well as your University email address.

Leave the rest to Thomson Reuters! They will email you with the login details for the 1 hour sessions.  
Dates and Times are:
Datastream
Tuesday 22nd January 2013 – 11:00
Wednesday 30th January 2013 - 14:00  

Reuters 3000xtra
Wednesday 23rd January 2013 - 14:00
Tuesday 29th January 2013 - 11:00

Regards
Malcolm Horne
Business Information Specialist