Starting on the week of the 22nd of March, we will be open everyday until Saturday 15th May.
So here is the list of the Sundays and bank holidays we will be open from 11.00-17.00:
Sunday 28/03/2010
Friday 02/04/2010 (Easter WE)
Sunday 04/04/2010 (Easter WE)
Monday 05/04/2010 (Easter WE)
Sunday 11/04/2010
Sunday 18/04/2010
Sunday 25/04/2010
Sunday 02/05/2010
Monday 03/05/2010
Sunday 09/05/2010
We wish you all in advance good luck with the preparation and taking of your exams!
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be simply defined as "a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is being presented as your own work". That's not my definition", I've copied it from someone else (from here), which is why I've put it in quotation marks and given the link to where it appears ( a nice online dictionary named Wordnet).
There's often confusion over what constitutes plagiarism, but it's quite simple - see the definition above. I'd add a couple of words to that definition. At the end of the definition, I'd add "even inadvertently". We sometimes see assignments in which some text has been lifted word for word from another source, but the source is referenced in the bibliography. This, I'm afraid still qualifies as plagiarism. Why? Two reasons:
When you use the exact words of another, you must use quotation marks, otherwise the reader is led to believe that those words are your own. Secondly, there's no link between the text and the source; without any indication of where the non-original text comes from, the use of quotation marks is meaningless. Even if you're paraphrasing someone else's words
Hence in my definition of plagiarism above, I put the non-original text in quotation marks and I gave a link to the source of the quotation. When writing assignments, you need to put the source of any non-original text beside that text. You don't need to put the entire reference, the author's surname and year of publication will normally suffice. If you're unsure about referencing, why not take one of the library's great referencing classes?
There's often confusion over what constitutes plagiarism, but it's quite simple - see the definition above. I'd add a couple of words to that definition. At the end of the definition, I'd add "even inadvertently". We sometimes see assignments in which some text has been lifted word for word from another source, but the source is referenced in the bibliography. This, I'm afraid still qualifies as plagiarism. Why? Two reasons:
When you use the exact words of another, you must use quotation marks, otherwise the reader is led to believe that those words are your own. Secondly, there's no link between the text and the source; without any indication of where the non-original text comes from, the use of quotation marks is meaningless. Even if you're paraphrasing someone else's words
Hence in my definition of plagiarism above, I put the non-original text in quotation marks and I gave a link to the source of the quotation. When writing assignments, you need to put the source of any non-original text beside that text. You don't need to put the entire reference, the author's surname and year of publication will normally suffice. If you're unsure about referencing, why not take one of the library's great referencing classes?
Library Ireland Week 2010 - 8th - 13th March
It is soon this time of the year again when Ireland celebrates its libraries all over the country, be it public, corporate or academic libraries, and DBS library will take part again in this great event.
So from March 8th until March 13th watch this space, we will post some interesting facts about libraries all over the world (yes, did you know that you come from 60 countries over the world, so we will try to give you a flavour of the libraries of your countries!).
We will also have selections of resources in the library, leaflets and bookmarks.
For more info or comments, just send us an email at library@dbs.ie
Tuesday 23 February 2010
The DBS Careers service wants you!
...To be a fan on their Facebook page.
You can now get up to the minute news from DBS Careers Service on Facebook & Twitter. Keep up to date with live Job Alerts & News of upcoming Careers Events.
Become a fan of DBS Careers Service on Facebook or Follow DBSCareers on Twitter.
What are you waiting for?
You can now get up to the minute news from DBS Careers Service on Facebook & Twitter. Keep up to date with live Job Alerts & News of upcoming Careers Events.
Become a fan of DBS Careers Service on Facebook or Follow DBSCareers on Twitter.
What are you waiting for?
Thursday 18 February 2010
New database trial - Project Muse
Starting from Monday, we have a 45 day on-campus trial of the humanities collection of Project Muse. Project Muse is a collection of not-for-profit scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences, lauded for its stability, comprehensiveness, library-friendly usage terms and value as a research tool. Hence it's similar to JSTOR. Trial access is on-campus only and will last until the 6th of April. Here's the Project Muse website
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Library News - February
Ok, so it is in fact the middle of the month, but here's the February edition of the DBS library newsletter
Ask-A-Librarian
We're having a few problems with Ask-A-Librarian at the moment; you can type in the chat box, but we won't see what you're typing. We think we know what the problem is and how to solve it, so hopefully we'll be back up and running later today.
Edit: It's later today and Ask-a-Librarian is indeed back up and running
Edit: It's later today and Ask-a-Librarian is indeed back up and running
Monday 15 February 2010
Library catalogue (re-)upgrade
Ok, it took a while, but we did manage to (re-)install the latest version of the online library catalogue. Version 3.3 has a few nice features which I posted on before, and in lieu of writing about them anew, I shall find the last posting and copy n'paste:
If, like me (hey, it's my job!) you're interested in library catalogues (but let's face it, you're probably not), here's a preview of the next library catalogue upgrade, scheduled for the summer months if all goes well.
- Favourite searches - Readers can now save their favourite searches so they are able to run them again by simply clicking a link. Readers must log in to access this feature.
- Search history - Readers can now view a list of their most recent searches, and re-run them by simply clicking a link. Readers must log in to access this feature.
- Star ratings - This feature allows readers to rate items using a star rating system. Readers must log in to access this feature.
- Reader reviews - This feature allows readers to submit reviews for books and other catalogue items. Readers must log in to access this feature. Reviews will be moderated, as we don't want reviews consisting of streams of bad language (unless they're well written, perceptive and witty, and even then...).
- Reader preferences - Readers can now set their own default Enquiry settings such as the default display format, font size and whether Boolean icons ("and", "or", "not") are displayed.
- Google Preview - Catalogue records now contain links to Google Book Search previews (where these are available). The preview is then available when the catalogue record is viewed using the display format ‘Cover image with dynamically generated information’ (which we'll probably make the default display setting whenever I get round to it)
- Social bookmarking sites - Results screens now contain links to the social bookmarking sites Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Facebook and StumbleUpon.
If, like me (hey, it's my job!) you're interested in library catalogues (but let's face it, you're probably not), here's a preview of the next library catalogue upgrade, scheduled for the summer months if all goes well.
Library catalogue downtime
You may recall we had some problems with the library catalogue last semester. The problems were due to some subtle incompatibilities between the latest version of the library catalogue and our self-issue stations. We solved the problems by uninstalling the latest version of the library catalogue and reverting back to a previous version. In the interim the boffins at Heritage (our library management system suppliers) have been working away and now think they have solved the problem. Hence, this afternoon, from 2pm onwards, the library catalogue will be down as we attempt tp upgrade to the latest version again. Hopefully it shouldn't be down too long.
Friday 12 February 2010
More fun with emails
We've been battling with our library management system for a few days now and have finally succeeded in generating PINs for new students (to use the the library catalogue online) and an email message to send to the student with details of the PIN (and a few other logins too). We'll be sending this message to all new students imported into our library management system
The email looks like the following:
Please do not reply directly to this email, please contact library@dbs.ie if you have any queries
Dear Student,
This email contains details of some logins that you will need to access library and IT resources at DBS
You login to library PCs with your student number as both username and password (you will be asked to change the password upon first login).
You can access our ebook collection at http://www.dawsonera.com with your student number as username and date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy i.e. with no slashes as your password
A new PIN (Access Number) has been generated for you to provide access to the online library catalogue at http://www.heritage.dbs.ie. To manage your library account online login with your student number and PIN.
The new PIN is effective immediately.
If you have any questions please contact the Library.
Your new PIN is:
You can access all other library subscribed electronic resources via 'Search All Resources' on the library homepage, with your student number as username and date of birth (this time in the format dd/mm/yyyy) as your password.
If you have problems with any of the above, please contact the library.
Thank you,
The Library
Aungier St. 01 417 7572
Dame St. 01 417 8745
Portobello 01 478 7667
library@dbs.ie
The email looks like the following:
Please do not reply directly to this email, please contact library@dbs.ie if you have any queries
Dear Student,
This email contains details of some logins that you will need to access library and IT resources at DBS
You login to library PCs with your student number as both username and password (you will be asked to change the password upon first login).
You can access our ebook collection at http://www.dawsonera.com with your student number as username and date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy i.e. with no slashes as your password
A new PIN (Access Number) has been generated for you to provide access to the online library catalogue at http://www.heritage.dbs.ie. To manage your library account online login with your student number and PIN.
The new PIN is effective immediately.
If you have any questions please contact the Library.
Your new PIN is:
You can access all other library subscribed electronic resources via 'Search All Resources' on the library homepage, with your student number as username and date of birth (this time in the format dd/mm/yyyy) as your password.
If you have problems with any of the above, please contact the library.
Thank you,
The Library
Aungier St. 01 417 7572
Dame St. 01 417 8745
Portobello 01 478 7667
library@dbs.ie
Wednesday 3 February 2010
Overdues - again
We need to clear up some confusion about receiving overdue notices on Monday about DVDs that you are told are due back on Monday.
DVDs are day loan material, which means they are due back on the following day. You borrow them on a Monday, they are due back on a Tuesday. You borrow them on a Tuesday, they are due back on a Wednesday and so on. Our library management system is therefore programmed to think that DVDs borrowed on a Friday are due back on a Saturday, so on our system they are due back on a Saturday. Because we love you so much (yes, it's true) we let you keep DVDs borrowed on a Friday until Monday. Who wants to come into the library on a weekend if they don't have to? Come Monday however, our system sees them as overdue, and as we have automated our overdue process, you see the email. Like the previous entry on overdues, below, don't worry about it (so long as you return your DVDs on Monday). We'll look into a fix for this though
DVDs are day loan material, which means they are due back on the following day. You borrow them on a Monday, they are due back on a Tuesday. You borrow them on a Tuesday, they are due back on a Wednesday and so on. Our library management system is therefore programmed to think that DVDs borrowed on a Friday are due back on a Saturday, so on our system they are due back on a Saturday. Because we love you so much (yes, it's true) we let you keep DVDs borrowed on a Friday until Monday. Who wants to come into the library on a weekend if they don't have to? Come Monday however, our system sees them as overdue, and as we have automated our overdue process, you see the email. Like the previous entry on overdues, below, don't worry about it (so long as you return your DVDs on Monday). We'll look into a fix for this though
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Overdues
We owe some of you an apology; a small number of library users may have received overdue notices dated 21st March 2010 concerning current loans that are overdue. If your loans have a due date after 02/02/10, then they're not overdue and if can ignore any message dated 21/st March 2010. We're investigating the causes and once again apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Monday 1 February 2010
Readability
No, not the linguistic concept, but a neat tool for improving the readability of web pages. Go to the Readability site and follow the instructions; drag the Readability bookmarklet to your browsers bookmark toolbar and click the link and choose your options whenever you want to use it. Readability can strip all clutter around the text of a webpage making reading it much simpler. It may be useful for readers with visual impairments and those who use screen readers. What an idea. Why didn't I think of that?
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