ACCESS CHANGE TO OGEL

Vendors of the Oil and Gas Energy Law (OGEL) database have implemented a change in access to full text content. For each new search session – the first time you click on a link to download a document you will be asked to supply a valid University of Aberdeen email address (in order to identify yourself). A message is then sent to your email containing a link back to OGEL. Follow this link to complete the download. You will need to do this only once per search session.

Problems have been reported over the weekend with the email setup. They have been reported to OGEL and we hope to have the service up and running again as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Elaine Shallcross
e.shallcross@abdn.ac.uk

There’s still time to let us have your views on the library

There’s still time to let us have your views on the library: our LibQual survey will remain open until midnight on 28 February.  Please do take a few minutes of your time to let us know what you think: we value all feedback and will read and consider all comments with a view to continually trying to improve what we do.  

Please go to https://www.libqual.org/survey/RWSVJA32HUL53VNY.

Thanks

HeinOnline launches new app

HeinOnline, an important legal research database, has launched an app for the iPhone and iPad.

Use the app to search the database (including by citation), view and download PDF files, browse by volume, and navigate through a volume using the table of contents. HeinOnline account/authentication is required.

More information is available online here.

Elaine Shallcross
e.shallcross@abdn.ac.uk

New ebrary app launched

Ebrary’s free app for the iPad® and iPhone® is now available from the App Store®. You will be able to access the database – both online and offline, as well use an option to import your own PDF documents – outside the ebrary platform – through the app itself.

We use Shibboleth to login to ebrary, so you need to use the Facebook sign in feature to open the app on your mobile device. All you need to do is link up your personal ebrary account to your Facebook account, then you can use the ebrary mobile app by signing in with your Facebook login.

This is what you need to do to set up your Facebook login link:

1. Go to your ebrary site and sign in to your ebrary account as usual
2. Once signed in, open the My Settings link at the top-right of the ebrary screen
3. Under Link your account to Facebook click Log In
4. If you have a Facebook account, enter your Facebook username and password and click Log In
5. If you don’t have a Facebook account, click Sign up for Facebook at the lower left
6. Once you’ve successfully logged in to your Facebook account, you’ll be ready to use ebrary’s mobile app

Elaine Shallcross
e.shallcross@abdn.ac.uk

Forthcoming Lecture: The Sobieski-Stuart Marriage & the Jacobite World

When: Saturday 10 December at 2pm
Where: Special Collections Centre (Lower Ground Floor) , University Library, University of Aberdeen, Bedford Road, AB24 3AA
Presenter: Professor Robert  I. Frost, Chair in Early Modern History, School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen

Opening a series of exciting events in connection to the current exhibition at the University Library, Rebels with a Cause: The Jacobites & The Global Imagination, this lecture draws on materials from the University’s rich holdings of Jacobite material. Professor Robert Frost employs the collections to examine the marriage of James III, the Stuart claimant to the British throne, to Clementina Sobieska, granddaughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland.

Special Collections Reading Room Opens Today!

I’m delighted to report that the Special Collections Reading Room in the University Library is opening for business today – Monday 5th December at 09:00. The new facilities are accessible from the staircase to the left of the entry gates on the ground floor, or via the left hand side lifts on the north side

Opening times for the SCC can be found here: http://abdn.ac.uk/library/get-started/opening-hours/#scc

Further information about the collections and is here: http://abdn.ac.uk/library/about/special/ (and relevant pages are being updated at present).

Thank you again for your patience and understanding during the moves. 

Chris Banks

MAINTENANCE: JSTOR – Friday 09 and Saturday 10 September

On Friday September 9 and Saturday September 10 JSTOR will be performing site maintenance that requires a “read-only” period for these two days. During this period you will be able to search, browse, and access and download PDF files for content in JSTOR. You will not be able to save citations, reset passwords, create or update MyJSTOR accounts.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

INFO: Summer Access to Queen Mother Library

A great deal of work will take place during the summer months to move into our new library from the current Queen Mother Library (QML). We will be maintaining access to QML and library services and facilities during those months. 

There are no plans to close QML and we will be offering fetching and retrieval services for books and materials which may become temporarily unavailable as stock is relocated. It remains our firm intention to provide access to our stock and other services and facilities during the move and will be doing everything we can to minimise disruption to students who may need to undertake dissertation, resit and other work in the summer, and academic colleagues and visiting researchers who may be undertaking research work.

We shall be publicising arrangements in due course.

Laurence Bebbington (Deputy Librarian)  laurence.bebbington@abdn.ac.uk

Judging a book by its cover: what bindings can tell us about books

Friends of Aberdeen University Library

The Friends’ Annual General Meeting, to be held from 7 to 7:30pm in the Old Senate Room on King‘s Campus, on May 26^th, will be followed by a chance to listen to a talk by expert Jane Pirie, Information Officer and Rare Books Cataloguer from Special Libraries and Archives, about the ancient art of bookbinding. Come along and learn about the materials and techniques used, and see some of the beautifully crafted examples from our collections.

Thursday 26th May 2011

in the Old Senate Room, King’s College

At approximately 7.30 p.m.

(following the Friends AGM, at 7.00 p.m.)

All welcome

Light refreshments will be served after the meeting

 

 Sheona Farquhar, s.c.farquhar@abdn.ac.uk

King’s Museum door is now open!

King's Museum

If you’ve been walking along the High Street in Old Aberdeen recently then you may have seen that the new King’s Museum at No. 17 is now open! Neil Curtis, Head of Museums, and the University Museums team have at last been able to display a very special selection of the University’s many extraordinary objects, which go on show after months of intensive planning and preparation. The launch of this inviting wee exhibition space has received a great deal of  media coverage, featuring in the Press and Journal and Evening Express as well as on STV, NorthSound 2 and Original 106 FM.

King’s Museum is a place for the whole community. Entry is free, and all are invited inside to enjoy some of the treasures from the University’s 500 years of collecting. Some are stunning, some are strange and many are surprising! The exhibition area is the perfect size to pop in as you’re passing by on the High Street, and there are even seats and tables where you can bring a drink or snack if you fancy a slice of culture with your cuppa! 

King's College Mace, Aberdeen 1650 and Painting of King's College from the South East by James Cassie, 1848

We’re keen to make this as engaging and interactive a place as possible and will be offering a increasing variety of events and opportunities for students, staff, schools and the wider public to get involved with this local trove of history and heritage.  Look out for frequent updates on exhibitions, workshops and projects, or visit www.abdn.ac.uk/kingsmuseum/ for the latest news.

In the few short weeks since opening on April 18th the new museum has welcomed well over 500 visitors.   The opening exhibition, ‘100 Curiosities’ displays 100 objects from the collection, selected by 100 people who each wrote 100 words to explain their chosen item’s significance. Ranging from the silver ceremonial mace of King’s College and a fossil Cretaceous mosasaur to a Pictish carved stone and a confiscated tiger penis, the objects show the variety of items that the university has looked after for hundreds of years.   The people who have chosen them are almost as diverse, including university academics and students, local adults and children, overseas donors and experts, artists, authors and poets. Among the many visitors, Sheena Blackhall, the well-known North-East poet has written poems inspired by the exhibition, which are now on display in the museum.  

Neil Curtis, Head of Museums explains, “Although this exhibition was inspired by 17th and 18th century cabinets of curiosity, I hope that the exhibition shows the continuing importance of curiosity as we try to understand the meanings of objects. It has been fascinating to see the variety of ways in which people’s curiosity have been inspired by the collection”  

Curious? Come in and see for yourself!

King’s Museum is open on weekdays (9.30-4.30) and Saturdays (11-4).   
Tel: 01224-274330

Georgia Brooker, g.brooker@abdn.ac.uk