QR codes in the catalogue

A QR code is like a two-dimensional barcode. Here's one:

If you have a QR code reader and a camera on your smartphone (and most of you have smartphones these days), pointing your phone at the above should return:

McClave, H. ,Communication for business ,658.45 MCC

Which you may recognise as Henry McClave's popular textbook, Communication for Business and its classmark (658.45 MCC). Last year, with the assistance of our Library Management System vendor, we introduced QR codes into the library catalogue, the rationale being that instead of writing interesting book details on pieces of paper or your wrists, you could store some details on your mobile by pointing your phone at the QR code on display. We have upgraded our library catalogue since then, and in the new version, QR codes are present on every page. These codes only contain the URL of the page on display, so if you scanned the QR code on your mobile, your phone’s browser would open the library catalogue page that you were looking at on your PC. A bit pointless really. We've spoken to our library management system vendor again and they have given us the ability to display once again author, title and classmark, which hopefully is more useful to you than the URL of the page that you are looking at on the catalogue.

Goin' mobile

To celebrate our mobile resources day, we've created a mobile friendly version of the library blog

Simply enter this URL into your phone's browser http://mippin.com/dbslibraryblog or if you have a QR code reader on your phone, point it at this

Reminder: Mobile resources days (26th and 27th Jan.)

Remember that the the Library is offering two days of training about resources available on Smartphones, PDA, etc.

So don't miss your chance to know more about these!

The mobile resources information desks will be available in:

- AS Library on Wednesday 26th January

- DS Library on Thursday 27th January

Zotero goes standalone

The library promotes the use of Zotero as a utility for management of citations and bibliographies, to the extent that we now run occasional classes in its use. Its one notional disadvantage, until now, is that it is only available for the Firefox Internet browser. That disadvantage is no more as Zotero is now available as a standalone product. One caveat, this is an alpha release (you may recall I mentioned that mobile JSTOR is a beta release: beta is better than alpha when it comes to the Greek alphabet and software development). Alpha releases, because they are test releases have the potential to do bad things, such as cause crashes or data loss or leave the fridge door open at night so that all your chilled food goes off. Hence do bear that in mind. Zotero though is fantastic and well worth using for your assignments and dissertations.

JSTOR goes mobile

As use of the Internet through mobile devices increases, an increasing number of websites and services now have mobile-friendly versions. JSTOR have now followed EBSCO in developing a mobile version of their service, JSTOR Mobile. As the name suggests, it's a version of the JSTOR electronic resource specifically tailored for mobile devices. It's still at the beta stage, so what's described below might change.

As you'd expect, the interface is a stripped down version of JSTOR



You enter your search topic and get a list of results. If you click on a result, you will be presented with a mobile-friendly citation as seen below



The authors' names are hyperlinks that lead to results of searches for the author, you can email yourself, or immediately click, a link to the full-text in the "full" JSTOR site or you can view individual pages.

On-campus, if you are connected via a wi-fi network, you won't need to login, but without wi-fi, or if you are off-campus, you will need to login. To access JSTOR this way, you will need an Athens account Contact the library for if you want to be set-up on Athens (and Athens account will give you access to "full"-JSTOR, Dawson, Lexis-Nexis and other DBS library subscribed resources). Mobile JSTOR is by no means perfect, but as stated above, this is a Beta release, so hopefully an improved product will be available soon.

JSTOR mobile is best used for only searching JSTOR and emailing the citations to yourself so you can read the articles on a PC or laptop at a later time. You shouldn't need to login to be able to do this.

Careers Office Extended Opening Hours

We're pleased to announce that our Careers Office is extending its opening hours to better cater for part-time students. Careers appointments are now available up until 6.30pm on Monday evenings and students can book an appointment on the Careers Office website

Mobile resources days - 26 & 27 Jan. 2011

Get the best of the Library resources on your smartphone or PDA!

To learn more about resources available on any Smartphones and PDAs just pop in to our mobile resources information desks in:

- AS Library on Wednesday 26th January

- DS Library on Thursday 27th January

Single Sign-On Update

We now have most of our resources set up in Athens, our single sign-on system. There are one or two still missing, but we are trying to address that. If you are a DBS student reading this and want stand alone access to (very nearly) all our resources anytime and anywhere then contact me. We will of course be announcing this with more fanfare in the near future.

Library class cancelled (06/01/2011)

Dear students, note that today's Library class on law resources is cancelled.

Happy New Year & Sunday opening

Dear Students,
All the Library staff wish you a very happy new year 2011, filled with happiness and success in your studies!
And we would like to remind you that the two libraries will be open this coming Sunday (9th January) from 11.00 until 17.00 to allow you preparing for your winter exams. Good luck to all!