Warm Wishes from ILS

Please remember that the ground floor of Fountains is open 24/7 throughout the Christmas vacation but ILS is closed from 21/12/2013 - 02/01/2014. Check the FAQ section of our website if you need assistance during that time.

We from ILS wish all researchers a very happy and restful Christmas season and all the best for 2014.

Issues with ZETOC

We know that a number of you use ZETOC, especially for their Alerts service. We had a number of complaints over the weekend that you were having trouble accessing the database. It seems as though it was an issue with Athens authentification and EduServe assures us that things are now back on track. If you are a ZETOC user, please check that your alerts are still correctly configured, as we were told that they may be in some disarray. If you're still experiencing issues, please let us know immediately.

What is ATHENS?

A common query we receive regards Athens membership and access.  There seems to be some confusion out there regarding what it is and how it works, so we thought it would be a good idea to outline it here.

What is Athens?

Athens is a system for controlling access to web-based subscriptions.  Each university links the journal and database subscriptions they have to the Athens passwords/accounts of their members.  So, Athens access at one university will differ to Athens access at another.

I have an Athens account from my previous study. Can I carry on using that?

Probably not.  As Athens accounts are linked to your current institution, it is likely that your previous account was cancelled when you left your previous course.  Subscriptions to online journals and databases are, in the main, linked to users being current members of an institution. 

Does York St John offer Athens access?

Yes, it does.  Here at York St John, your Athens account will let you access resources which are provided by Information Learning Services. 

So what is my Athens username and password?

Some institutions choose to offer separate Athens usernames and passwords.  At York St John, as a University member, your Athens details are incorporated into your normal YSJ account when you log in to Discover, the Library search tool, or when you access a database via the ILS website.  In order to access our resources, including electronic books and the full text of journal articles (to which we have a subscription), it is vital to access them via the ILS website or the YSJ virtual desktop.

Why have I been asked for an Athens username and password?

Normally you will only be asked for Athens details if you try to access e-resources to which Information Learning Services does not subscribe, or if you try to access them in a way that does not allow you to be recognised as York St. John university member, e.g. from a Google search.  In this case, simply run your search on Discover and you will see the resources for which we have a subscription.

Please note that some health workers and students are entitled to NHS Athens accounts.  These are separate to the York St John ones.  To find out more about whether you are entitled to this service and, if so, how to use it, just ask your Academic Liaison Librarian.

Check before you publish!

There has been news over the weekend regarding the rights that researchers sign away when they publish in journals.  Specifically, Elsevier have asked academia.edu to take down PDFs of articles, published in their journals, that authors have made publicly available via this site.  This is because the authors have broken their copyright agreements with Elsevier in doing so.  ILS can offer further advice on this issue, but basically it is up to the author to check what they are and are not allowed to do with their journal article according to the agreement they sign with the publisher.  You cannot assume that you can re-use or redistribute in any form.

If you would like to know more about this, there is an excellent overview at http://www.theinformed.org.uk/2013/12/culture-clash-elsevier-academia-edu-and-copyright/ ILS will also be offering more guidance on this topic in researcher sessions in the New Year.

Reminder - your chance to feed back to us

Just a quick reminder that we are currently surveying PhD and MPhil research students about the resources ILS offers and our future plans.  If you would like to let us know what you think, please fill out the questionnaire at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XCC5NBR

Thanks to those who have already done this.  It is much appreciated.

New Journals for Film and Performativity

YSJ has purchased access to 2 new journals of interest to those working with concepts of adaptation.

Adaptation from Oxford University Press

Image courtesy of OUP

“…is an international, peer-reviewed journal, offering academic articles, film and book reviews, including both book to screen adaptation, screen to book adaptation, popular and ‘classic’ adaptations, theatre and novel screen adaptations, television, animation, soundtracks, production issues and genres in literature on screen. Adaptation provides an international forum to theorise and interrogate the phenomenon of literature on screen from both a literary and film studies perspective.”   More from the journal's website...

Image courtesy of Intellect

Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance from Intellect offers

“…historical, theoretical, practice-based or pedagogy-orientated considerations and discussions of adaptation and translation processes and practices in/for performance in the context of one or more of the following areas: theatre; film; television; dance; music; opera; audio-culture; gaming; graphic narratives.” More from the journal's website...

These subscriptions (and many others) will be live from January 2014. To find out more about what ILS offers to Arts researchers and to make requests for new resources, contact your Academic Liaison Librarian, Lottie Alexander.

Jealous? You also have an Academic Liaison Librarian in charge of resource acquisition. Find out who she is here.

British National Formulary

Attention health researchers! YSJ will have access to the British National Formulary (BNF) and the British National Formulary for Children (BNFC) starting in January.

The BNF is:

"Compiled with the advice of clinical experts this essential reference provides up-to-date guidance on prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines.

It details all medicines that are generally prescribed in the UK, with special reference to their uses, cautions, contra-indications, side-effects, dosage and relative costs.

The BNF reflects current best practice as well as legal and professional guidelines relating to the use of medicines. It is intended for use by prescribers as well as by pharmacists, nurses and other health-care professionals."
More from the BNF website

For more information on resources for Health and Life Sciences, contact Jane Munks or Victoria Watt. 

Want to know more about online thesis access? Training opportunity

We've had the following message from the British Library, advertising a webinar on their EThOs service, through which you can search for and access British theses:


EThOS (http://ethos.bl.uk) is the national database for PhD theses,
managed by the British Library. It's a fantastic resource for
researchers, with over 100,000 UK theses freely available to download
and use for your own research, and another 200,000 available to search
and scan on demand.

Join us for a free webinar to learn how EThOS works. Find out how to
search for and download theses, and what to do if a thesis isn't
available. If you're a PhD student, find out what will happen to your
thesis once it's completed. We'll also explain how EThOS works with UK
universities to support the whole research cycle, making the theses more
visible and available for new researchers to use and build on.

This webinar is aimed at researchers, students, librarians and anyone
who is interested in finding and using PhD theses.

Host: Sara Gould, Development Manager at the British Library, who
manages the EThOS service. Sara will answer questions after the webinar.

Webinar on 10 December 2013, 11.00am GMT, register at
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5131544266794515713

Help us improve! Short survey for researchers

As part of our commitment to improve the offerings we have for postgraduate researchers, we would be grateful if anyone on an MPhil or PhD course could fill out this short questionnaire.  It shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes to complete and will help inform future developments.

Thank you!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XCC5NBR

Unlimited inter-library loans

Did you know that, as a researcher at York St John, you are entitled to unlimited inter-library loan requests?  Our team is here to help you access information that isn't immediately available and will search the country for a library willing to supply.

For more information, check out our guide.

Your academic liaison librarian

We have a dedicated librarian for each subject area at York St John and they can provide support throughout your research.  Why not book in for a 30 minute tutorial, to discuss how we can best help you?

http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/information-learning-services/information-learning-services/services-for-you/staff/academic-liaison.aspx