The HardiBlog

Library Reading Room (Basement Level) Christmas/New Year Opening Hours Monday 17th December - Monday 24th December:  08.00-01.30 Tuesday 25th December - Wednesday 26th December:  Closed Thursday 27th December - Monday 31st December:  08.00-01.30 Tuesday 1st January:  Closed Wednesday 2nd January:  08.00-01.30

A database trial of Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive is now available until 26 December via http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/collections/databases/databasetrials/databasetrialfeedback/trialfeedback-eima/#d.en.26908 This is an archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are all included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews. If this database is of interest to you, please complete the trial feedback form available in the link above.

Good Luck - Go néirigh an tádh libh Remember Library staff are here to help if you've any trouble finding the books or information you need for your exam preparations. Just come to the Customer Services Desk or email library@nuigalway.ie .

A product update for ScienceDirect & Scopus is scheduled for Saturday, December 1 , and will extend full internet browser coverage to include Google Chrome and Safari.  During this scheduled maintenance, there may be minor disruptions to some ScienceDirect and Scopus functionality. For more details about the changes, please check the SciVerse  blog .

The Library is extending its opening hours as follows to facilitate those doing exams on the week beginning 17 Dec: Date Day Opening Hours Service Hours Dec. 14 Fri 8.30-17.30 8.30-17.30 Dec. 15 Sat 8.30-17.30 8.30-13.00 Dec. 16 Sun 8.30-17.30 Dec. 17 Mon 8.30-22.00 08.30-22.00 Dec. 18-21 Tues 8.30-17.30 8.30-17.30 Christmas/New Year Closing Saturday 22 December 2012 to Wednesday 2 nd January 2013 (Inclusive)                            

Éamon de Buitléar, distinguished wildlife filmmaker, traditional musician, author and former Senator has donated his archive to NUI Galway.  The archive relates to the life and work of Éamon de Búitléar, consisting of film, audiotape, photographs, correspondence, files and audiovisual equipment, and includes some material relating to his father, An Coirnéal Éamon de Buitléar. A series of 29 interviews totalling 18 hours, recently recorded with Éamon, contextualises the archive and is included in it. NUI Galway will digitise, catalogue, preserve and enable access to the archive through a partnership between Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge and the James Hardiman Library. The archive of Éamon de Buitléar will be a rich source for students and researchers in the areas of film- making, natural history, traditional music and the Irish language. These are all subjects of importance at NUI Galway and the University will make the digital archive available for exploitati...

Our current foyer exhibition is a display of material from the Music for Galway Archive. This is to mark the cataloguing of the collection. The archive offers researchers a unique insight into the establishment and growth of one the West's premier music groups while documenting the creative and administrative processes of Music for Galway's numerous achievements. The archive ranges in date from 1981 to 2011 and includes numerous series of original records documenting the Irish and international acts that played to audiences across Galway and the West of Ireland. The archive traces the relationship between Music for Galway and National University of Ireland, Galway, as the group found a home for concerts and their grand piano at the Aula Maxima on the University's campus. The archive consists of nineteen boxes of records comprising of a comprehensive record of Music for Galway's legacy. The archive includes records of productions including posters, flyers, in...

There will be an introductory training session on 'Managing References Using EndNote (for Windows)' held for taught postgraduate and undergraduate students in the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies as follows: Time: 1100-1300 Date : Monday 26 November Venue : Nursing Library PC Suite (access via Main Library). If you wish to attend this session please register via the link below: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4453231736/eorg # Further information regarding EndNote: http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/support/training/usefulguides/guidetomanagingyourreferences/endnote/

Sat. 1 st Dec. – Tues. 18 th Dec.  • Saturday 1 st Dec – Tuesday 18th Dec           O’Flaherty,  Larmor , Darcy Thompson • Monday 3 rd Dec – Tuesday 18 th Dec          Dillon, Tyndall • Saturday 8 th Dec – Tuesday18 th Dec          AC203 and AC204 • Saturday 1 st Dec – Sunday 2 nd Dec             Cairnes, McMunn & Dillon and AC213, AC214,     AC215 and AC216 • Sunday 9 th Dec & Sunday 16 th Dec             AC213, AC214, AC215 and AC216 • Saturday 1 st Dec – Sunday 2 nd Dec            AC201, AC203 and AC204 • Friday 7 th Dec – Monday 10 th Dec              Kirwan • Friday 14 th D...

Congratulations to Peadar Nugent and Brian Bredin, pictured above, on completion of the Dublin City Marathon. This was the final instalment of Brian’s “Briathlon” in aid of Croí– on 6th May he cycled to Limerick , followed by the Limerick Marathon; on 2nd September he completed Ironman 70.3  and finally he cycled to Dublin in atrocious conditions and ran the Dublin City Marathon in 4 hours 26 minutes. If you’d like to support Brian raise money for Croí you can donate here– www.mycharity.ie/event/briathlon Peadar has run the Dublin City Marathon every year since it’s inauguration, and this year finished third in his age group. Massive respect and congratulations to both from all Library staff.   Marathon Men Congratulations to Peadar Nugent and Brian Bredin, pictured above, on completion of the Dublin City Marathon. This was the final instalment of Brian’s “Briathlon” in aid of Croí– on 6th May he cycled to Limerick , followed by the Limerick M...

Commencing on Tuesday 30th October it will be compulsory to show your University ID Card on entering the Library.  Please have your card ready for inspection as you approach the entrance door to avoid queues developing. This measure is being introduced to ensure that only registered users gain access to study places and facilities in the lead up to the Semester 1 exam period.

Please note that the Finding Books and Journals training scheduled to take place at 11.00 today (October 25th) has been cancelled.  The same training is available at 2.30 or 7.00 today.  It is also available at 7.00 tomorrow (Friday October 26th) and at 11.30 on Saturday October 27th. Apologies for any inconvience caused.

Please note that between today (Tuesday) and the close of business on Thursday you may experience some disruption from drilling noise on and off over these three days as the contractors on the Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Research Building (AHSSRB) fix shutters, form openings in the block work walls for services, drill-in reinforcement bars and pour small quantities of concrete which will necessitate a concrete poker. Unfortunately it is not possible to indicate specific times when this work will be undertaken during any day, but the good news is that it will be intermittent, though it may last for an hour or so at a time when the tasks are being worked on. Many thanks for your patience with these issues and sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.

On October 29th, SpringerLink will move to a new and much improved platform: http://link.springer.com . The new SpringerLink is faster, easier to use and optimized for most mobile devices. My SpringerLink: Individual accounts from the old SpringerLink will unfortunately not be migrated. You will need to go to link.springer.com and set up a new profile/account. Make sure to do this while on campus or signed into your campus account as you will then be automatically associated with NUI Galway's access rights. Meaning that remote access to link.springer.com is set up immediately. Training: Webinar training sessions are available throughout the coming months. During these sessions you will be informed about features and functionalities of link.springer.com. There will also be plenty of time to ask questions. We invite you to register for one of these training sessions via the Springer training page . An extensive FAQ and future training dates can be found...

The Abbey Theatre and National University of Ireland, Galway, have entered into a partnership to digitise the archive of the Abbey Theatre. The partnership was launched on 22 October 2012 by Ireland’s President, Michael D. Higgins. It is the largest digital theatre project ever undertaken, and heralds a new era of scholarship for Irish theatre internationally. The digitisation process has already begun and is based on the NUI Galway campus in the James Hardiman Library. The Abbey archive is one of the world’s most significant archival collections, running to almost 2 million pages. It has a wealth of extraordinary and unique material providing a fascinating insight into Irish theatre, history, culture and society. The archival material ranges from show posters, programmes, photographs, minute books to lighting plans, set and costume designs, sound cues, prompt scripts and audio files. The digital Abbey archive will be a major addition to the existing collection of literary and ...

From November 1 you may only pay Library fines online, via the  NUI Galway Online Print Service . Login and click on the Library Fines link on the left hand side. Full instructions are available at the  online payment of fines  page. Staff at the Customer Services Desk will not be able to take any cash payments from 1 November. If you have any queries please get in touch: library@nuigalway.ie (091) 493399 Facebook Twitter

We apologise for the noise being caused today by essential drilling works taking place at basement level in connection with the construction on the nearby Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Research Building (AHSSRB). This work is necessary in order to facilitate the replacement over the October Bank Holiday Weekend of the James Hardiman Library's (JHL) existing transformer with a larger one which can carry the load for both the JHL and the AHSSRB. The contractors have indicated that the work will continue for most of today but that this should see the end of the noisy elements associated with this particular job. We apologise unreservedly for the disturbance you are experiencing today.

24 October at 6pm Training Room, James Hardiman Library We are proud to invite you to attend this year’s first group workshop. The workshop will address common problems with essay writing and will include helpful exercises and tips. Early booking is strongly recommended. Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4608514190# Email: awctutors@gmail.com for more information.

You may have noticed some changes to the Library website and search tools recently. You may be frustrated by having to learn a new way of accessing the database, journal or book you need. You may be wondering why the library has changed your old route to information. Let us explain! In recent surveys of students, researchers and academic staff, we have received overwhelming feedback that the Library website didn’t meet your needs. Comments in those surveys showed that students found the site confusing and difficult to use. So as to understand what exactly the problems were, we carried out a usability study. During this study, we observed students and researchers carrying out some predefined, typical information seeking tasks. We encouraged the participants to think aloud and explain to us why they were making the choices they made and how they were setting about completing the task. The findings of the usability study and some focus groups we ran at the same time were undeniable....

The NUIG - GMIT Reciprocal Library Access Scheme will pilot between Sept 1 st and Dec 31 st 2012. Initially, this scheme will be open to all NUI Galway staff and research post graduate students, who will have external patron status in the GMIT Library. Our users will be able to borrow 5 items for 1 month from GMIT, for which they will need to produce an NUI Galway ID card. Regular Library rules, such as overdue fines and payment for lost items, will apply. Niall McSweeney

Did you miss our 'Getting Started in the Library' sessions last week? Are you realising now that with half a million books in the Library, you're not going to find the books you need without some help? Don't worry - it's not too late! The Library offers 'Finding Books and Journals' training sessions every day Monday to Saturday, which will get you started. When: Monday to Thursday 11.00, 14.30 & 19.00 Friday 19.00 Saturday 11.30 Where: Library Training Room, ground floor of the Library. No need to book - just drop in!

CONTEMPO STRING QUARTET CONCERT Library Foyer - Friday 21st September 1.00pm Galway Ensemble-in-Residence will be performing in the Library Foyer on Friday 21st September at 13.00. Take a break from your studies and enjoy some fine music including: Haydn Op. 76 no. 4 and Debussy String Quartet. All Welcome

New first year students - we hope that your Library welcome session gave you a head start in making the best use of the Library's services in supporting your studies. Please take five minutes to tell us what you thought, and you'll be entered into a draw for one of several fantastic prizes! Take our short survey - answer four simple questions to be in with a chance to win an iPad2 and other great prizes. Just click to win!

Fáilte - Welcome to all our new First Year Students Welcome to all our new first year students.  We're delighted that you have chosen to come and study in NUI Galway and we will do everything we can to help you be successful in your studies. To help you find your way around in your first weeks in NUI Galway, we are providing an introduction to Library services for all first year students - Getting Started in the Library. This introduction includes a tutorial on using our Library catalogue and a brief tour around the Library. Please sign up for a session aimed at your subject area.  Attending these sessions will save you lots of time in finding your way around the library's collections and will help you make the best possible start to your studies. SIGN UP NOW AND MAKE THE BEST START  If you've any questions now or later in your studies please come to the Library's Customer Services Desk - we will be very happy to help.

Welcome to all our new postgraduate students. We're delighted that you chose to come and study in NUI Galway and we will do everything we can to help you be successful in your studies. You will be meeting the subject librarian for your subject or our research librarian within the next few weeks, however to help you find your way around in your first few weeks in NUI Galway, we are providing drop in sessions on September 5th and 6th for new postgraduate students - Getting Started in the Library. This introduction includes a tutorial on using our Library catalogue and there will be tours of the Library available. September 5th and 6th 11:00-12:30 and 14:00-15:30 Library Training Room If you've any questions at all please come to the Library's Customer Services Desk - we will be very happy to help.

Welcome back to all our returning students!  We're delighted to see you back, it's been very quiet without you. To help you make the best start possible to the new academic year, we're holding some drop in sessions on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th of September. Over the summer we've made some changes to the Library's website and catalogue in response to the feedback you've given us.  We'd love to show you our new simpler and more powerful search interface. Drop in for a 15 minute demo September 5th and 6th 11:00-12:30 and 14:00-15:30 Library Training Room

The Library Website and catalogue, Aleph, Primo, and Aran will be unavailable on Monday 27 th and Tuesday 28 th of August for a brief period to accommodate a series of reboots necessary for the installation of upgraded system software. We hope to complete this activity over the two days between 13:00 and 15:00, during which time one of more of these resources will be unavailable. During this time it will not be possible to issue or return books via the self check or book sorting machine, all queries will need to be handled manually via the circulation desk. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this essential maintenance work.

  ScienceDirect, Scopus, Hub, Applications, SciVal, and Journals Consult are expected to be offline and unavailable for approximately 19 hours beginning Saturday, August 25th, 2012 for scheduled maintenance for a new release. What are the changes you will see with this new release? ScienceDirect:     Effortless access to relevant information thanks to a new design for journal article and book chapter pages as well as improved user experience for RSS feeds, image search, and other features. Scopus:                Easy updates with Alerts Features functionality improvement. Hub:                     Faster and friendlier search capability through several new features. Please click  here  to find out the details of the new featur...

Croke Park's famous Cusack Stand takes its name from Michael Cusack (1847–1906), one of eight men present at the founding of the G.A.A. in Hayes's Commercial Hotel, Thurles, Co. Tipperary on 1 November 1884.  Cusack was appointed honourary secretary of the new organisation, whose aim was to promote and codify Gaelic games.   Prior to the founding of the G.A.A. Cusack had founded the short-lived Dublin Hurling Club in February 1883 and Metropolitan Hurling Club in December 1883. In 2007 the nieces of Cusack's daughter in law Kathleen O'Connell donated a collection of documents and photographs associated with Cusack and his family to the James Hardiman Library at NUI Galway.   Among the most important historical items in the collection are the complete minutes of the Dublin Hurling Club, from 1883. Cusack was Vice-President of the club, a predecessor to the national organisation founded the following year. In addition, there is a diary kept by Cusack on a v...

The opening hours for week beginning 30th July are as follows: Monday 30th July- 8.30-22.00 Tuesday 31st July- 8.30- 22.00 Wednesday 1st Aug- 8.30- 19.30 (self-service after 12.00) Thursday 2nd Aug- 8.30-19.30 (self-service after 12.00) Friday 3rd Aug- 8.30-17.30 Saturday 4th Aug- 10.00-17.00 (self-service only) Sunday 5th Aug- closed Monday 6th Aug- 10.00-17.00 (self-service only)

Please note that the University's Managed Print Service will be unavailable from 08:30 to 13:00 on Thursday 26 July 2012 so that essential maintenance work can be carried out. As a result there will be no access to printing, photocopying or scanning in the Library for the duration of the downtime. We apologise for any inconvenience caused

"Walter Macken - Galway Playwright", an exhibition on the theatrical career of Walter Macken, will take place from 16th July - 26th August, looking at his early life, career in the Taibhdhearc, Abbey and elsewhere, as well as his writing of plays. The venue is the foyer of the James Hardiman Library at NUI Galway, where the exhibition will run from the 16 July until the 26 August 2012. This period covers the Galway Arts Festival, Galway Races and the final week coincides with Heritage Week. The exhibition will include materials held at the Bergische University Wuppertal, Germany, as well as the Library's own holdings, including the  Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe  collection and Siobhan McKenna collection. In parallel with the exhibition there will be a series of talks on Walter Macken’s life and writings for the theatre. These will take place in the exhibition area on Tuesdays at 19.30 . The schedule is: 17 July : 'Dreams on Paper' by Ultan Macken....

Due to necessary maintenance work being carried out in the University Data Centre this Saturday July 14th, the following Library services will be unavailable from 9.00 until 20.00: - Issuing, renewing and returning books - Library website - Library catalogue and discovery interfaces - PC Suites - Printing and photocopying - WiFi access The Library will still remain open for in-library use of materials. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this essential maintenance work.

The Ceiling Refurbishment Project on floor 1 of the James Hardiman Library is nearing completion and is moving into the final phase. Commencing on Monday 9th July access to stock between the class numbers 001-320.8 will be restricted for the next two weeks. From the end of the coming week and up to Friday 20th July Library Staff will be facilitated to retrieve material on behalf of users from this area between 10.00-10.30 and 13.00-13.30 daily. If you require an item of stock shelved in the restricted area please complete a Book Request Form available at the Customer Services Desk on the ground floor. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this necessary maintenance work.

Subsequent to recent campus network infrastructural changes users are currently experiencing difficulties logging into Library services.While this issue is outside of direct Library control, we are endeavoring to have it rectified immediately and expect this issue to resolved very quickly.

A new exhibition is currently running at the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway, to display and share some of the treasures and unique material of the James Hardiman Library Archives and Special Collections and also of the Galway Harbour Commissioners.  A display of archival material relating to the history of Galway Harbour, takes place in the foyer of the James Hardiman Library, NUI, Galway from the 29th June - 13th July. Containing material from Galway Harbour Commissioners and from  a  varied cross section of the holdings of the James Hardiman Library, the display will chart the growth of Galway's harbour from medieval times to the present day. The exhibition is open 8.30am - 10pm Mon-Thurs, 8.30am - 5.30pm Fri, and 10am - 5pm Sat.

Slides from Scopus training presented by Peter Darroch of  Elsevier are now available at: http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/support/training/usefulguides/

Slides from Web of Knowledge training presented by Don Sechler of  Thomson Reuters are now available at: http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/support/training/usefulguides/

As of Monday morning 11th June, it will not be possible to access or locate books in the following areas for a period of one week: 810 – 838.8 KEL  ·            930 – 998.2 This is due to essential maintenance works. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience.            [All stock between 838.8 KEL and 930 is available for consultation – please use rear (emergency) stairwell to access it] If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the  Customer Services Desk.

"The Web, they say, is leaving the era of search and entering one of discovery. What's the difference? Search is what you do when you're looking for something. Discovery is when something wonderful that you didn't know existed, or didn't know how to ask for, finds you" [ http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/11/27/8394347/ ] bX, a relatively new product acquired by the Library, is a remarkable scholarly article discovery service, recommending alternative or companion scholarly articles when using the SFX feature of a database, based on article usage- a bit like "Recommendations for You" within Amazon. So how does it work? Within SFX it uses the article you've just found to recommend 20 new articles that other users were also interested in. How do I avail of this service: Within your article search click on the SFX button: A list of recommendations will appear under the link to the article: Have y...

If you are working or studying from off-campus during the summer, you may wish to search for what e-books or e-journals the library has available. The following steps will lead you to e-books on your chosen topic. Remember you must Sign In for off-campus access to e-books or e-journals to work!! Step 1: Sign in, so as to ensure you're recognised as an NUI Galway user, even off campus. Step 2: Carry out your search - simply enter the author, title or subject keyword that you are interested in. Step 3: Click on 'Show Only Online Resources', which appears just above your result list. This will limit the results to items that match your search criteria and are available online. Any hardcopy printed books or journals will be omitted. Step 4: If you are only interested in e-books you can now use the Refine my Results functionality on the right hand side of the screen to narrow your results down to books only. Simply click on the word 'Books' under 'Resourc...

Slides from the Mendeley training presented by Ted Vickey from DERI in May 2012 are available at  http://www.slideshare.net/tedvickey/mendeley-training-2012 Description Introduction to Mendeley open source bibliographic management software for researchers. Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network.

  As of Monday morning 11th June, it will not be possible to access or locate books in the following areas for a period of one week:- 320.9 - 499 650 - 659 700 - 809 This is due to essential maintenance works. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience.  Please note that following this there are 2 further phases of this work:    From approximately Monday 25th June the 800-900 section (middle floor section covering literature, languages history, etc) will also be temporarily closed off for two weeks (with Library staff access for the second week) From approximately Monday the 9th of July the 0-320.8 section will be closed off for two weeks (with library staff access for the second week).   If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Services Desk.