Off Campus Library Services

The Off Campus Library Team answer your emails, responds to postal loan requests and much more. Meet them by watching this new video..

The University of Sunderland hosts a public lecture series and Scottish crime writer Val McDermid gave the last lecture of 2012 called ‘A Life in Crime?’

You can now watch this lecture online  at www.kaltura.com/tiny/02oa

Looking ahead there are some cracking speakers throughout 2013 including:

Alastair Stewart OBE (ITV’s Chief News Correspondent)
Jan 24th. 6:30pm

Baroness Estelle Morris (Politician)
Feb 21st, 6:30pm

Lord Davis Puttnam (Film producer and former Chancellor of the University of Sunderland)
March 27th, 6:30pm

Professor Robert Winston (Scientist, Doctor & TV presenter)
April 18th, 6:30pm SOLD OUT

Michael Wood (Historian & TV presenter)
May 2nd, 6:30pm

Terry Deary (Horrible Histories creator)
May 23rd, 6:30pm

Tickets are free but should be booked from the University Online Store.

Last week was Open Access week - but as tumblr was down at the end of last week and I was unable to blog, I’m unofficially extending it so I can write this blog post.

There are loads of great Films, Videos, Talks & other media freely available online. Here are just a few:

TED & TEDTalks

Ideas Worth Spreading. There are talks or performances by leaders and prominent figures in every discipline and you can search or browse by subject, length or by using TED categories such as ‘inspiring’ or ‘funny’. You can download the TED apps too. Watch this short 3 minute video which impressed me:

Internet Archive

There are loads of great open access resources at the Internet Archive including films, music and ebooks. It’s a fantastic resource. Here are some of my favourite things from the Internet Archive:

12 Creepy Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (Audio)
In honour of Halloween which is in 2 days time. Listen to tales such as The Tell Tale Heart and The Raven.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Ebook)

A quick (and completely unverified) look at Wikipedia tells me that Lewis Carroll spent quite a lot of time in Sunderland. The Lewis Carroll Society of North America (also quoting Wikipedia)  highlights the following:

Lewis Carroll was a frequent visitor to the area. He wrote most of Jabberwocky at Whitburn as well as “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. Some parts of the area are also widely believed to be the inspiration for his Alice in Wonderland stories, such as Hylton Castle and Backhouse Park. There is a statue to Carroll in Whitburn library. Lewis Carroll was also a visitor to the Rectory of Holy Trinity Church, Southwick; then a township independent of Sunderland. Carroll’s connection with Sunderland, and the area’s history, is documented in Bryan Talbot’s 2007 graphic novel Alice in Sunderland.

From Wikipedia Entry on Sunderland

If you’ve signed up for an online library workshop, please check your University Email Account a few days before the date you chose.

We will email all students who’ve signed up with joining instructions. Its very easy to join the workshop - you just need to click on the hyperlink we send you.

If you are unable to login to your University email account because yo do not know your University User ID or password then get in touch with us as soon possible and we will advise you of your details.

You can email us at libraryhelp@sunderland.ac.uk

If you’ve not signed up for a workshop but would like to and want to know more about how it will be conducted please watch this short video we’ve made about the Vyew software:

In the workshops we explore ‘Discover’ and how you can use it to find information for your assignments.

You can sign up for a workshop at http://bit.ly/ULS-library-online-workshops

We usually recommend that you access electronic journals using Journal Search as it saves you a lot of time and is really easy to use.. but what about when you can’t use Journal Search?

Journal Search and other University IT services are unavailable for part of this coming weekend due to essential maintenance. If you can we recommend that you plan ahead and obtain what you need from the library in advance, however if you do need to access e-journals here’s what you can do:

• Go to www.athens.ac.uk and login to MyAthens with your Athens username and password.
  
• Check the list of resources for the one you want. Click on the link and you will be taken to the database.

Watch the video below:

Things to keep in mind:

• a small number of databases are not available through Athens.

Library staff will be on our Christmas vacation between the 23rd Dec 2011 and the 4th January 2012 but if you need library help during this period you may find the following useful:

Forgotten your Athens Account?

Watch this YouTube video which demonstrates resetting your own password (best viewed in full screen)

Other Online Videos & Tutorials

We have a number of other online videos to help you make the most of our resources including:

• Finding E-Books using the Library Catalogue
• Finding Journal Articles
• Interpreting your reading list (the difference between book & journal references)

Check the Skills For Learning Pages for more help & Support:
         

Staffed IT helpline

If you require help please email library@sunderland.ac.uk. Your email will be forwarded to our IT Helpline who will try their best to assist. If they are unable to do so they will forward your message to us and we will reply to you as soon as possible after 4th January.