Working on an assignment over the holiday?

Some of you will have assignment deadlines in January and will be working hard over the Christmas holiday period researching information and writing up your essays and reports.  The University Buildings are closed from the 23rd December 2017 and re-open from the 2nd of January 2018 but you can access information 24/7.

Where can you find information?

Start with your reading list.  Go to your module on Blackboard and find the link on the menu page called Readings.  This will link through to your My Module Reading List.  Check out the relevant sections in the textbooks that might help with your assessment and view the "Further Reading" at the end of the chapter(s).  This usually recommends other books or journal articles that you can read.

Then use Library SmartSearch.  This is a search engine that allows you to search across the books and journal articles in our Library.  You can use the search box to find a particular book or journal article title but you can also search across the collections by topic.  If you are looking for articles on a topic then use the Advanced Search feature to allow you to type in your key search terms.




 Looking for other types of information...you may find the subject LibGuides a useful place to look.  The LibGuides provide access to individual research databases covering a wide

range of subject areas including industry reports, standards, statistics, company profiles, financial data, case studies and much more.

The Great Library Brain Boost
In Week 6 and 7 of the academic term, the Library Information Services Team provided a workshop programme to support students through their first assessments across the Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes.  

You can review the presentation slides and in a lot of cases there are also lecture recordings via the The Great Library Brain Boost LibGuide .  Some of the highlights include:

• Strictly Business Data - finding company and industry reports​
• Advanced Literature Searching
• Getting more out of Google    

Information Specialists
You can also contact your Information Specialists for advice on talking through your assessment task, finding different kinds of information sources and evaluating information to add in to you essays and reports.  There is an Information Specialist for each School and the names and contact details are available from the LibGuides and the Library contact pages 

Finally...
If you have a question while the Library Building is closed over the vacation, please try viewing the Ask the Library Frequently Asked Questions or browse the Library website for information and advice.

Good Luck everyone.

Aston authors/researchers: sharpen your Open Access & Open Data know-how

Do you have questions about Open Access publishing or Open Data? Would you like to know more about the policies and how to achieve compliance, e.g. for HEFCE, RCUK and the EC? Do you need help to upload publications and/or datasets to our repositories (Pure / e-prints)?

Whether you are new to Aston or require a refresher session, specialists in Open Access (Malcolm Horne), Open Data (Ammar Wahid) and Pure (Paul Jones) will be running a training session in MB525b on the following date:

Thursday 15th February 2018, 2-3pm

After the session there will be time for optional hands-on help.  To book your place please contact openaccess@aston.ac.uk