Festive Feedback 2018

We thought it would good to update you regarding our 2018 festive Feedback campaign, and some of the actions that have taken place in response to your feedback.

We received 72 responses over the festive period covering these areas:

19 positive comments were directed to our library staff including:

“I feel library staff and librarians are very friendly and helpful.”

“I was happy with the quality of response and help I received from my librarian when I e-mailed for help.  She gave me clear explanations and was willing to help further by offering face-to-face help if I had not understood the e-mail.  Thank you!”

“Thank you so much for the drop in sessions. I also got to call in for some referencing clarifications – I was pleasantly surprised all my questions were answered. Wishing you & your family a Merry Christmas”

“Thanks a bunch for all the work you do!”

We also received a further 19 kind comments relating to the library as a study environment including:

“Great place to study! Really enjoying it.”

“Enjoy every moment, every second. Love you :)”

“I think you have done an excellent job in creating a great environment for the students to study in.”

“Very nice and cosy library. Excellent job!”

As with all feedback campaigns, we also look to find areas we can improve on. We received feedback relating to catering, temperature, PC availability, and opening hours.

In relation to PC availability, we have a tracker for our computer usage in the Saltire Centre found here. In addition to this, our lapsafe vending machine on level 0 allows you to borrow a laptop for up to 3 hours – ideal if you need to find a quiet area to study, or wish to use one of our bookable study rooms.

The library continues to support students with extended opening hours during exam times. This included 24-hour opening from 2nd – 25th January 2019. GCU also offers students access to the 24-hr lab in the Students’ Association building 365 days a year.

Comments relating to catering and temperature issues back to our facilities management department, and will continue to liaise with them throughout the year when feedback is received.

Please remember that we are happy to listen to your comments at any point throughout the year. Our roving library staff are available on all floors of the library, so should you need any help please don’t hesitate to ask them. Our library desk on level 0 is staffed between 9am and 8pm Monday –Friday, and between 10-6pm at weekends.

Alternatively you can follow and contact us on Twitter @SaltireCentre, or use our feedback form: https://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/contactus/feedback/.

 

Electronic Delivery of Inter-library Loan items

Journal articles, book chapters and conference papers supplied by the British Library will now be delivered to staff and students via the DRM Lite service.

Benefits of DRM Lite

  • No need to install plugins or special software.
  • DRM Lite allows you to view the item on any device with internet access.
  • Once you have downloaded the item, you will have access to it for up to 3 years and can print one copy.

How do I get articles via DRM lite?

  • There is no change to how you request the item through our inter-library loan service, Clio.
  • A link to the item will be emailed direct to you. To download it you will need Adobe Reader version 10 or above. This software is installed on all GCU staff and student machines and is available to download free of charge on your own devices.

Full information is available on our web pages. https://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/usingthelibrary/inter-libraryloan/drmlite/

Discover Upgrade: What’s New?

Over the summer the Library team have been giving Discover, the library search engine, a bit of a face lift. Based on feedback from users we have been making improvements and enabling new functionality to bring you the best user experience we can.

If you have any feedback about the improvements made to Discover, please let us know by using our feedback form on the library website or by emailing library@gcu.ac.uk

Locking filters

In Discover, you can now lock the filters on the right hand side of the page. This ensures that the filter remains persistent during your search session, even if you start a new search. Continue reading

Behind the magic button: peer review

 

Students often tell us they’ve been asked to find ‘peer reviewed’ journal articles for an assignment. Librarians and academics sometimes talk about peer review in very general terms – ‘rigorous editorial process’, ‘evaluated by experts’, ‘reliable academic standard’ and so on. The language we use to talk about peer review  tends to be quite positive and therefore it’s no surprise that on campus there seems to be a general consensus that peer review is a good indicator of high quality information. Continue reading

Are you working on your dissertation or Honours’ Project?

The Library has lots of useful resources that can help you with your dissertation or Honours’ Project.

Planning your search strategy

We have a range of books that can help you get started with your literature review and with your dissertation or project more generally (for example here, here and here).  Additionally our online training package SMILE has lots of tips that will improve the quality of your research. Continue reading