Posts Tagged ‘inductions’
My linoit board of tasks today
Hello all, I am Philippa and I joined the LRC team two weeks ago. I have just finished my Masters in Information and Library Studies so it’s wonderful to be able to see how everything I’ve learnt has real life applications. I have been busy learning the ropes and meeting everyone.
Here are some key online resources I have been becoming familiar with:
Dawsonera ebooks
Available through the MyAthens sign on page. This is great for accessing books 24/7 and you can’t lose them or spill coffee on them! We are keen to add more ebooks and get them used more by everyone. They can be a bit difficult to handle to start with, but it is possible to read online or you can download and/or print out useful segments (being respectful of copyright restrictions).
TIP: I found out for downloaded ebooks in Adobe Reader you can customise the colour settings of the paper background and text. This is under the options toolbar: Edit –> Preferences –> Accessibility then checking the box ‘Replace document colors’.
Referencing handbook
We held referencing induction sessions with the access courses. Getting all the right bits of bibliographic information in the right order can be frustrating but correct referencing is essential for academic integrity.
TIP: I write out the full reference when taking notes from a resource. The details don’t have to be in the right order straight away – although it helps. As long as you jot down the key fields like author, date and title then you can often revisit the resource by looking it up on the catalogue or on the internet later. The handbook produced by the University of Lincoln can help you when it comes to writing out the references in full. The handbook can be found on the VLE (under the blocks Library and Learning Resources –> LRC Referencing and Plagiarism –> Text Assistance).
Linoit (memo board)
I was introduced to this virtual pinboard for memos and tasks (or anything you want!). I found it simple to post ‘stickies’ and to peel them off once they are done (in the right hand corner of the sticky).
TIP: I like changing the colour of the sticky memo and giving it a cute icon to make task management more appealing. You can read more about task management in Stella Cottrell’s book ‘Skills for Success’.
If you have any tips or good experiences using these resources please comment below or come and talk to me during the week. I would be delighted to hear from you either way!
Get Creative with Copyright
Posted on: July 11, 2014
While our Learning Resources Centre (LRC) Manager was following the exhibition track at the Academic and Research Libraries’ Group (ARLG) annual conference at the University of Sussex she picked up this handy guide explaining how copyright works for those working and creating material in the creative industries:
It lists the contact details of key agencies protecting the rights of the creators.
The Copyright Licensing Agency have an excellent website area CLA Further Education dedicated to how copyright works for those working in Further Education colleges. Plus they’ve done a guide for students.
There’s also a handy website called Copyright User which explains how copyright protects those who create images, music, film and other works. It’s useful for anyone wanting to copyright the material they have created or use copyrighted material and avoid breaking the law.
The LRC team teaches students on the Access to Higher Education Business, Health and Human Sciences Humanities and Social Sciences and Preaccess about copyright as part of their induction.
CoLRiC Got To Leave Old Durham Town
Posted on: May 30, 2014
On 16 May the LRC Manager went to the Council for Learning Resources in Colleges (CoLRiC) annual roadshow at New College Durham. CoLRiC Roadshows are great for sharing good practice and learning about what is new and happening in college libraries as well as networking.
The Durham roadshow kicked off with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) session on using Socrative from North Warwickshire and Hinckley College (Ihar Ivanou) included talks on college mergers at Coleg Cambria (Patrick Cox), learning hubs at Dundee and Angus College (David Scott), Higher Education in Further Education at Wiltshire College (Janet Waters) and an update on the Six Book Challenge by the Reading Agency (Genevieve Clarke).
The roadshow also included a presentation on the one of the CoLRiC Best Practice Award winners Oldham Sixth Form College (Corinne Walker) who had changed their library induction into a television-styled quiz and the CoLRiC Beacon Award Winner for 2013 Northern College (Sean McKernan) on the Effective Integration of Libraries/Learning Resource Centre (LRC) services in the Curriculum.
We also got a tour of New College Durham’s LRC (Mike Dann) – pictured above and below which had displays showing You Said, We Did based on student suggestions and a special display on stress helping students to reduce exam tension and nerves…
Our Comic Muse
Posted on: February 21, 2014
This week the Learning Resources Centre (LRC) team have been getting ready for the Women into Management (WiM) set of inductions starting on 28 February.
Our LRC Manager will be giving the students a tour of the library, showing them how to search the catalogue on and offsite and use our self-service issue computer to borrow material. As we’re a small college – and only have one issue computer – we show the students how to use the barcode reader to issue material on their borrower card one by one. If there’s 15 students then obviously this takes a while so the team decided to create something interactive that we could load onto the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as a reminder.
As the team were strapped for time – and didn’t want to spend hours editing a film – they first tried doing a video on the iPad. But it seemed a bit shaky and unprofessional almost like a scene from Acorn Antiques! Then we tried downloading Jing to do screencasts but still needed a video rather than a screencast to demonstrate how to scan with the barcode reader. Our LRC Assistant found Storyboard That a piece of freeware/subscription site where you can create comic strips that you can then embed into websites, VLEs or share with others.
The result – two comic strips; one showing how to borrow material using a barcode scanner and the second how to return material via the return bin. They’re now both embedded on our VLE’s LRC Services page.
