Thanks to everyone who completed our survey in November last year. Almost 2000 responses were received – about 15% of all Imperial students!

Areas of questioning included:

• Satisfaction with core library services e.g. study spaces
• Use and management of electronic resources e.g. adoption of social bookmarking tools
• Awareness and usage of library support services e.g. liaison librarians
• Suggestions for service improvement and change

The library team have a lot of information to work through. We will respond to your key concerns as soon as possible – we’re already discussing possibilities for more PCs with ICT.

In the meantime, see what you said about the Library at:
www.imperial.ac.uk/library/survey

Come and learn how to find information for your projects at the library’s introductory database sessions on the following subjects:

Business and related subjects using EBSCO Business Source Complete. Ebsco provides access to a wealth of business information including company and country reports and full-text journal articles. This session is for business and non-business students who need to find business information for their projects.

All subjects using CSA (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts). CSA (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts) covers major areas of research, including environmental sciences, materials science, biological sciences, engineering and computer science.

All subjects using Web of Science. This multidisciplinary database covers a wide range of subjects including science, engineering, humanities, medicine and social sciences. It also includes cited references for all articles.

All subjects using Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a service which uses the Google search engine, but searches only scholarly resources. This session will cover search tips, what Google Scholar can do for you, and the advantages and disadvantages of using Google Scholar

Chemical information using Scifinder Scholar. SciFinder Scholar is a key chemistry resource and also covers biochemistry, biology, pharmacology, medicine, and related disciplines.

Medicine and related subjects using PubMed This is the most comprehensive source for biomedical articles. This session is for students who need to find information in medicine and related subjects.

Engineering using Engineering Village. This is the most comprehensive database for engineering information and is a key resource for all engineering students.

Engineering using IEEE Xplore. IEEE Xplore provides full text access to technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics

Intelligent use of the Internet – learn which sources on the Internet to trust. We all use the internet but we don’t always know how reliable it is. This session will show you how to decide whether the information you find on the internet is valuable research or just plain rubbish!

Cross-search multiple databases using Metalib, the library’s portal. This information portal provides access to databases and electronic journals subscribed to by the Library. Many of the resources can be cross-searched, where a single search is carried out on more than one database.

RefWorks – learn how to store your references and create a reference list

Reading & Note Taking – learn techniques for improving your reading and note taking skills

Timetable

	Session
	CSA	Tuesday 9 February 2010
	Ebsco	Friday 12 February 2010
	Engineering Village	Thursday 4 March 2010
	Google Scholar	Thursday 25 February 2010
	IEEE Xplore	Monday 1 March 2010
	Intelligent Use of the Internet	Friday 19 February 2010
	MetaLib	Monday 22 February 2010
	PubMed	Monday 15 February 2010
	Reading and Note Taking	Monday 1 February 2010
	RefWorks	Friday 5 February 2010
	SciFinder Scholar	Thursday 18 February 2010
	Web of Science	Tuesday 9 March 2010

All sessions are in Training room 1 on Level 1 of the Central Library.

To book

Please complete the booking form at www.imperial.ac.uk/library/lrspbooking to register for any of these sessions.

The Spring issue of Impact is now available. This issue focuses on the research community, with articles on:

• Researcher interviews
• Library projects supporting researchers
• Open access publishing
• Working off-campus

You can pick up a copy from your nearest library, or you can click on the cover image on the right to view the pdf version online.

ScienceDirect will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance for approximately 12 hours from 1:00PM GMT Saturday, 23 January to 1:00AM GMT Sunday, 24 January.

For information on the new upgrades please see the ScienceDirect website.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

We have a new poll up on the Library website, and we’d love to hear your views! This time, we’d like to know how you visit the website. You can see the poll on the right hand side of the library website.

E-Journal records will be temporarily unavailable via the Library Catalogue from Tuesday 12th January 2010 at 2pm and on Wednesday 13th January 2010. This is due to essential maintenance of the Library catalogue. The records will be available again from Thursday 14th January 2010.

During this time you can access e-Journal resources via the A-Z Journal List as usual.

The top twenty most viewed papers for November are now available from the Spiral site.

For more information on Spiral, Imperial College’s digital repository, please visit the Spiral Repository page on the library website, or see the Spiral FAQ.

There are new Chemistry books available in the library, just in time for reading over Christmas! Please click on the icon below to view the list.

Don’t forget to check the loan arrangements and vacation opening hours too.

The Central Library offers extended loan periods on books over the Christmas vacation. You can see the full list on the library website.

The following special arrangements will apply at the Central Library:

• From Saturday 12 December, short and standard loans will be issued on request to Monday 11 January to all borrowers, providing there are still 4 copies in the library.
• From 09.00 on Friday 18 December, core texts will be issued to 11.00 on Monday 4 January.

Please ask if you want any books issued for the vacation, otherwise the usual loan periods will apply.

You can also check the Christmas Vacation opening hours on the Library website.

The library survey is still underway, and we’d love to hear your views! You have until Monday 30th November to fill in the survey and be in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon voucher. So far we’ve had 134 responses from Chemistry students, which is great, but we’d like to get more!

There’s more information about the survey on the library website, or you can just go straight to the survey itself.