AdForum - Off-campus access

There have been problems with off-campus access to AdForum.  As a result we have provided a link for Aston University staff and students to use, from within the Library Matters Blackboard module as a temporary solution.

To access AdForum from off-campus, please go to Library Matters on Blackboard and then navigate to the Logging in / Passwords folder and select the AdForum link.

Lydia Matheson
Information Specialist, LIS, 20 December 2013.

Library - Book loans during the Christmas vacation period

Library opening hours during Christmas vacation period

The Library closes at 22:00 on Friday 20 December for the Christmas vacation.
The Library re-opens at 08:00 on Thursday 2 January 2014.
From 2 January, the Library will be open 24/6 until Friday 7 February (inclusive).

Book loans during the vacation period

• Please return any books that you don’t need during the vacation to the Library by 18:00 on Friday 20 December.
• The outside book box will not be available when the Library is closed.
• Please ensure that you renew your books via your Library Record when they are due throughout the vacation period.
• If you can’t renew a book because someone else has reserved it, then you will need to return it when the Library is open or post it back to:

Public Services Co-ordinator

Library and Information Services

Aston University

Aston Triangle

Birmingham

B4 7ET

Please note: fines of £3.50 per day are charged for overdue books which have been reserved by someone else. However, charges do not apply on the days that the Library is closed from Saturday 21 December until Wednesday 1 January inclusive.

E-resources

You can continue to use e-resources throughout the vacation period via your University username and password

• E-books are available via Library SmartSearch - do a keyword search and then Limit by Material Type and select E-books
• Please check the LibGuide for your subject if you need guidance on finding resources

If you have any questions in the meantime, please email library@aston.ac.uk

Thank you
Library Public Services Team

Open Access Survey in UK

Thomas Eger and Marc Scheufen, researchers from the University of Hamburg, are conducting a survey on the experience of academic scholars with, and their perception of, open access publishing. One of their objectives is to examine the commonalities and differences between the academic disciplines.

Surveys have already been conducted in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Benelux, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, India, Brazil, and Egypt.

They are now, in co-operation with Prof. Guido Westkamp from the Queen Mary University of London, extending the survey to British universities. 

If you would like to participate in the survey, please complete the questionnaire.  It is estimated that this will take about 10 minutes.  Your participation will help to provide valuable information regarding the recent discussion on how to organize the dissemination of academic publications in a globalized and digital knowledge society.

Library - Christmas vacation opening hours

Season's Greetings from Library Staff

The Library closes at 22:00 on Friday 20 December for the Christmas vacation.
The Library re-opens at 08:00 on Thursday 2 January 2014.
From 2 January, the Library will be open 24/6 until Friday 7 February (inclusive).

Please see the website for further details.

Thank you.

We wish you all a good break over the vacation period.

Log in problems

There is a problem with our login authentication affecting Blackboard. Staff and students who are trying to login to Blackboard by going directly to vle.aston.ac.uk are getting an error saying "valid authentication credentials were not provided."

This problem is also affecting access to the My Library Record functionality, preventing people from logging on to renew their books.

We understand ISA are currently working to resolve the problem. In the meantime please email library@aston.ac.uk if you need to renew your books or email isa_helpdesk@aston.ac.uk if you continue to have problems logging in to other systems.

Update

This problem has now been resolved by ISA and you should now be able to log in to your Library Record. Please let us know via library@aston.ac.uk if you are still experiencing problems.

Open Access: The Facts

Open Access publications are publications with unrestricted access and reuse.

In 2013 ‘Wiley’ carried a survey to understand the current state of open access.

Some of the key results of this survey are illustrated in the infographic below.

Key Acronyms used:
OA: Open Access
APC: Article Processing Charges
CC-BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
CC-BY: Creative Commons Attribution

Library book loans during the Christmas vacation

Library opening hours during Christmas vacation period

The Library closes at 22:00 on Friday 20 December for the Christmas vacation.
The Library re-opens at 08:00 on Thursday 2 January 2014.
From 2 January, the Library will be open 24/6 until Friday 24 January.

Book loans during the vacation period

• Please return any books that you don’t need during the vacation to the Library by 18:00 on Friday 20 December.
• The outside book box will not be available when the Library is closed.
• Please ensure that you renew your books via your Library Record when they are due throughout the vacation period.
• If you can’t renew a book because someone else has reserved it, then you will need to return it when the Library is open or post it back to:

Public Services Co-ordinator

Library and Information Services

Aston University

Aston Triangle

Birmingham

B4 7ET

Please note: fines of £3.50 per day are charged for overdue books which have been reserved by someone else. However, charges do not apply on the days that the Library is closed from Saturday 21 December until Wednesday 1 January inclusive.

E-resources

You can continue to use e-resources throughout the vacation period via your University username and password

• E-books are available via Library SmartSearch - do a keyword search and then Limit by Material Type and select E-books

If you have any questions in the meantime, please email library@aston.ac.uk

Thank you
Library Public Services Team

Looking for datasets?

Are you looking for datasets for your dissertation, project or assignment? 

Why don't you browse the Business & Management LibGuide, choose the Databases tab and then Datasets.

There are a selection of resources available on a single page including subscription databases (Passport), freely available statistics (UK Data Service) and dataset search engines (Zanran and Quandl)

Have a look at our LibGuide and explore what is out there..