The HardiBlog

  We are currently experiencing some problems linking to journal articles from EBSCO databases from within the Library catalogue. The problems happen intermittently, so you might not always have difficulty getting to EBSCO articles. When clicking the link to access an EBSCO article, you may find yourself landing on the EBSCO databases homepage, rather than the article you’re looking for. The problem is only for EBSCO journal article links, linking to journal titles from the catalogue is working normally. We’ve reported the issue, and our system providers are actively working on a solution. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you. As a workaround, take a look at the catalogue entry to see what journal the article is published in:   You’ll also find the Volume, Issue and usually Page Number for the article too. All you have to do now is do a catalogue search for the Journal title, and follow the link through to the journal homepage. From there yo

Christmas Entertainments [1740]. This pocket sized item comes to us, like some many other titles in this field, from the Delargy collection. This, the personal library of the renowned folklore specialist, Seamus Ó Duilearga [James Delargy], includes many rare titles, and was originally acquired by the library in 1981. The original edition of this book was published in 1740 but, as it was intended to be used to entertain around a winter fire, it was, as the later publisher asserts “thumbed out of existence”. It is full of fantasy tales of conjurors, witches and fairies. This nineteenth century reprint is itself a rarity now and harks back to a time when household entertainment depended almost exclusively on the oral tradition and the idea of Netflix or Now TV was far in the future!

IReL   has recently purchased journal backfile collections from Sage, American Medical Association and Wiley on a p erpetual access basis. The Sage, American Medical Association and Wiley collections were chosen based on  usage denials  data: evidence that many IReL users had been attempting to read these articles but didn’t have access.  Access to the titles in these three journal backfile collections is now available from the   library catalogue. Collection Development

Trial access to all  Elsevier e-Books (29,989 titles) has been extended until  12th January 2021.  A complete title list is available  here. NOTE: Fulltext access is only available via the library catalogue.  Please log in to http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/ and search for the Elsevier e-book you wish to access.  We very much welcome feedback from staff and students on this trial of Elsevier e-Books. A link to a trial feedback form is available from each Elsevier e-book record on the library catalogue. Collection Development

The Library requests that academic staff submit module reading lists via the Reading List Service for next semester by Friday December 4th. This will give us sufficient time to: review the reading list purchase available e-books purchase print copies of new books process the digitisation of requested chapters/articles check e-links All reading lists must be created and published using the   Reading List System . This enables us to process the reading lists efficiently and manage the volume of ordering and digitisation requests. It also ensures ease of access for students via the Blackboard module.  There are a range of short helpful video tutorials as well as our  printed guide  available from our  Reading Lists Page .  Academic staff new to the Reading List Service, may be particularly interested in the the following tutorials: Creating and Structuring a Reading List Adding Resources and Publishing your Reading List Requesting a Book Chapter for Digitisation  (two chapter limit or 2

  The Library has recently taken out a subscription to the Birds of the World database created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.    This resource brings together comprehensive, authoritative content from scholarly ornithology texts, sites, maps and images integrating all information into one central hub, including videos and audio clips of bird calls.  Birds of the World is the one of the most powerful ornithological resources ever created.  We decided to use the resource to show some of the common and less common birds that can be found on the University campus. A lover of water, there is a pair of Grey Wagtails residing at the stream that flows beneath the Concourse. The Grey Wagtail is a cousin of the very common White (Pied) Wagtail that bobs about the square in front of the Library. Another lover of water habitats, the White Throated Dipper  (or Dipper to his friends) is less common but a solitary one took up residence at the stream near the Bank of Ireland.    The Goldcrest

  Trades and businesses in early 20 th century Ireland This month, as many of our business are fighting hard to maintain their customers through online and take-way trading, we take a look at some of the businesses that existed in towns around Ireland on the eve of WWI. The Dublin, Leinster and Connaught Trades’ Directory was published in 1912, under the imprint of the Trades’ Directories company, based in Edinburgh and Birmingham. It includes 227 pages of county-by-county detail of businesses in cities, towns and villages in those parts of Ireland. It provides a snap shot of the types of trading activity that went on all around the country at that time. Over 100 years later, we can see that some of these enterprises are still with us while others, due to the passage of time or changes in fashion or technology, no longer have relevance. This page from the County Galway part of the directory shows how even a relatively small village like Ballygar, close to the border with County Ros

    In order to expand access to core resources, the Library has taken out a one year subscription to Sage Catalyst, a major collection of Sage UK e-books.  Sage Catalyst  is a collection of 500 premium textbooks that covers a broad range of subject areas including: Business & Management Geography Research Methods,  Social Work & Sociology  Media & Communication Psychology & Counselling Politics Nursing,  Education  Sample titles include: Andy Field. Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistic s. Fifth ed., SAGE LTD, 2017. David Silverman. Interpreting Qualitative Data . Sixth ed., SAGE LTD, 2019. Jonathan Crawshaw. Human Resource Management Strategic and International Perspectives . Third ed., SAGE LTD, 2020. James W. Neuliep. Intercultural Communication A Contextual Approach . Eighth ed., SAGE Inc, 2020. Chatfield, Tom. Critical Thinking : Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis & Independent Study . SAGE, 2018. T he Sage Catalyst titles  are acc

Trial access to all Elsevier e-books  is now available until 12th November 2020.  This e-book collection consists of 29,989 titles. A complete title list is available here. NOTE: Fulltext access is only available via the library catalogue. Please log in to http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/ and search for the Elsevier e-book you wish to access. We would welcome your feedback on this trial of Elsevier's e-book collection. A link to a trial feedback form is available from each e-book record on the library catalogue. Collection Development

Sage Knowledge Video Education is a streaming video collection. It contains 630+ videos comprising of over 120 hours of video. This subject collection was developed in partnership with leading academics and practitioners, to deliver educational and research-oriented video mapped to curricular needs.  Sage Knowledge Video Education offers a practical view into a full range of teaching settings and situations, from early years to educational leadership, to support students needing to understand theory or how to apply it in practice. View the complete title list. The videos cover a wide range of subject areas including: Classroom Discipline and Organization Early Childhood Education Educational Administration and Leadership Learning Theories Research Methods for Education Special & Inclusive Education Staff Development & Professional Learning Teaching Diverse Students Teaching Methods & Learning Styles Working with Parents, Families & Communities etc. Access to Sage Know

Please see the Update from Ovid: On 29 September, the NLM supplied us with an unexpected and unusually large set of replacements, containing 1.62 million records.  As we start to implement this huge update over the next weeks, we want to inform you, as it may affect some saved searches, and AutoAlert result counts for Ovid MEDLINE . What does this mean for Ovid MEDLINE users? We expect the impact for most Ovid users to be minimal, but we do recognize the following situations: If existing search strategies contain searches that include the IO or the JA field, they may retrieve different results after the updates are implemented. Please note that regular keyword searches (.mp) on Ovid do not include the Abbreviation fields, and are not affected. All status “In-Process”, “In Data Review” and “PubMed-Not-MEDLINE” records that are replaced will be alerted on. If your AutoAlert does not have “History deduplication” enabled, the updated records will

Open Education Resources (OERs): Benefits to Academics There’s a new open education project starting soon in NUI Galway (Jan 2021). We want to hear from interested and enthusiastic NUI Galway academics. NUI Galway is to provide Ireland’s first OER service and publishing platform for students and staff . The OER platform will create and promote open, free, and reusable OER learning materials. The main benefit of OERs is the reduced cost of learning materials for students. This is great, but what about academics? What’s in it for academic staff? It turns out that many of the benefits for students have corresponding benefits for academics. Often, academics who use OERs see specific benefits for themselves and their career as well. For example, building an international profile in a specialised area using your own content and getting instant authoritative global reach. Main benefits Students Does not add costs Provides supplemental learning materials Helps students c

Tugtar cuireadh duit iarratas a dhéanamh ar phost mar theagascóir scríbhneoireachta le Gaeilge ag an Ionad Scríbhneoireachta Acadúla i Leabharlann Uí Argadáin. The AWC is looking for new tutors to join our team in 2020-21. Please note, you must be a current student at NUIG to apply for this position.  Currently we are looking for tutors with Irish as well as tutors with English.  Cuireann an tIonad Scríbhneoireachta Acadúla tacaíocht sa scríbhneoireacht ar fáil do mhic léinn OÉ Gaillimh, déantar cuir i láthair ar an scríbhnoireacht acadúil, agus eagraítear roinnt tograí taighde agus pobail. Cuirfidh teagascóirí seisiúin aonair ar fáil ar líne do mhic léinn fochéime, chomh maith le tacaíocht aisioncronach leis an scríbhneoireacht, agus tacóidh siad freisin le forbairt an Ionaid Scríbhneoireachta Acadúla trí ábhar a dhearadh, ábhar a aistriú agus ceardlanna a reáchtáil. Íocfar an táille chaighdéanach le haghaidh ranganna teagaisc leo. Má theastaíonn uait iarratas a dhéanamh, ba cheart na

JOVE - Journal of Visualised Experiments is now available through the Library Catalogue .  JOVE is a video library dedicated to teaching the practice and theory of scientific experiments across Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Clinical Skills and Psychology.  NUI Galway users now have access to JOVE Science Education, JOVE Journals, JOVE Core and Lab Manuals. Academic staff wishing to make use of JOVE in their modules can avail of the services and assistance of JOVE's Curriculum specialist Niamh Connolly , who can help to integrate JOVE videos into your module.  In addition, you can find lots of information on what's available from JOVE and how to embed it into your teaching at https://www.jove.com/resources/institution .

  Archives and Special Collections -  more time for researching in your favourite Reading Room! We are pleased to announce that the opening hours for the Archives & Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Building have been extended for the remainder of September. As you probably know, we had been opening on Monday and Friday mornings since 20th July. From Friday 11th September, we will also be open in the afternoon on those days . Please do note, though, that the room will be closed for lunch between 12.30-13.30 . Remember that it is necessary to request your material in advance. If you wish to consult books they can be requested online through the library catalogue. If you want to consult an archival collection, please email the archivists at libarchives@nuigalway.ie with details of what you need. Staff will get back to you about your request and you can then nominate a day/time for consultation. Please be sure to read the instructions for using the Reading Room during t