Wave goodbye to earlier editions of Pharmacy ebooks from Elsevier Elibrary

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓

On 31 August, a major update will affect the Elsevier Elibrary platform, which offers a range of the key pharmacy, pharmaceutical science and biomedical science textbooks available through your subject pages.

The older editions of many of the textbooks currently offered will be removed and any notes attached to them lost.  Only the latest version of each book will remain available.  It will not be possible to transfer notes between editions automatically: you will have to manually transfer any notes you wish to keep.

For these three ebooks, only these new editions will be available from 31 August:

Only the most recent existing editions of the following textbooks will remain available:

  • Aulton’s Pharmaceuticals
  • Community Pharmacy
  • Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology
  • Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine
  • Pharmaceutical Analysis
  • Wheater’s Functional Histology

If you have any queries or concerns, please email the Science Faculty Librarians Ann and Sarah at sciencelibrarians@port.ac.uk.

 

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New eBooks – June 2019

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What follows is a list of new electronic books received by the Library during June 2019 ordered by title. More complete details, as well as listings from previous months, are available on our website’s New Books page in the form of downloadable Excel spreadsheets.

Read more ›

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New Books – June 2019

Posted on by uoplib — No Comments ↓

What follows is a list of new books received in the Library during June 2019 ordered by classmark. More complete details, as well as listings from previous months, are available on our website’s New Books page in the form of downloadable Excel spreadsheets.]

Read more ›

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How to look out for your mate – an expert guide

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓

Adult holding red square in front of own face, on which is drawn an unhappy faceHelping a mate or family member when they are low or bereaved can be extremely challenging and there is no easy way to know what (or how much) to say.  What is clear is that when people are very low or distressed, having someone reach out to them and offer to listen was essential.  A large study of Canadians suffering from chronic pain and suicidal thoughts found that those with someone who provided “emotional security and well-being,” had an 87 percent chance of going into remission from their suicidal thoughts, a rate far higher than among those who did not.  Support was the biggest factor encouraging recovery from mental health problems.  Read more ›

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Graduating? Congratulations (just please pay your library charges before you go)!

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓

Credit cardIf you are graduating and getting ready to move on to bigger and brighter things even than university life (congratulations, by the way!), please could you check that you do not owe the University any money before you finally leave?  If you have library debts of more than £10, you will need to pay for these.  Once your course is ended, you will need to pay either in person at the Library Help Desk or quickly and securely online (from anywhere) through the University Online Store.

Full instructions are available on MyPort (just follow the instructions under “Pay Fines and Replacement Charges in person or via the Online Store”. You can always ring us or chat to us online if you have any queries or concerns.

Thanks!

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A brief look at the life of a postgraduate…

Posted on by Anne-Kathrin Reck — No Comments ↓

Man sat in conversation with a dragonPostgraduate study is a totally different animal.

What do I mean by this? First of all, you are more mature and experienced than when you started your undergraduate studies. You should be more focussed as well. Which direction do you want to go in? Do you want to deepen your knowledge in a particular field? What are your long-term goals?

Two things stand out for me. First, question your motivation. Second, are you prepared to become a truly independent learner/ researcher?

This independence thing is worth scrutinising a bit more – never expect to feel immediately comfortable in these new shoes from the start. A lot has been written recently about feeling like an imposter.  For example, see this website on ‘imposter syndrome’. This makes interesting reading and everyone will take away different things. You might become aware of your perfectionism, your over-sensitivity towards criticism or your feelings towards other people’s success. Think about it! Talk about it!

Open bookAs a tip, write your own story(book): the challenges you are expecting, the choices you make, the outcomes you are expecting. Coupled with sensible timetabling, this should be a helpful tool for your time management as well as your reflections.

Even though I am stressing the independence (of thought, action, from others etc), realising that you are part of a bigger group while on your course and making good use of this, is essential. So, working and building good relationships with your peers and tutors, particularly your supervisor at later stages, needs to be planned well. Look for opportunities to ask questions, network, socialise.

RowersWalkers in IcelandSocialising can happen in a society or sports group. You will be surprised how well this fits into your busy week, once you start enjoying it and you get a buzz out of it. This, of course, then feeds into your motivation; a wonderful thing.

During your studies, allow for stops and starts without losing your momentum.

Last but not least – eat well, sleep well, and explore your natural environment.

A bit of yoga anyone?

Image reference: Image of walkers in Iceland reproduced from Pep’s Place under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence.
Posted in Thing of the Day Tagged with: ,

VLeBooks platform migration (July-August 2019)

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓

Ebook migrationThe VLeBooks platform is to be migrated to a new online reader during the week beginning 29th July 2019.  This collection currently comprises 29 ebooks, and includes any ebook titles ordered from Askews & Holts.

Notes stored in the current VLeBooks reader and details of which books have been saved to the ‘bookshelf’ will be lost during the migration to the new platform.  Users of the platform should by now have received notice from the supplier asking them to export any notes they have saved to the platform and make a note of any books on their bookshelf by Friday 12 July.

We will let you know further details, including the exact date of the migration, as these are made available.

The existing catalogue link to this platform will remain the same after the migration.

If you have any concerns or would like to seek advice on how to export notes and capture bookshelf contents, please get in touch.

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It’s National Writing Day!

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓

Person writingIt’s 26th June again, which means it must be National Writing Day.  I’m celebrating by writing this blog post.  I might move onto some emails later, and I will certainly be working on a book chapter for a scholarly monograph at some point today.  Writing comes in many forms, from tweets to blog posts to essays to novels… captions in comic strips… I think I made my point some time ago, so I’ll move along 😉

The point of National Writing Day is to help everyone recognise that they are a writer, that writing drives our society in the social information age, and that writing for purpose or for pleasure is a truly wonderful thing.  Poet Laurie Bolger is inviting everyone to “freewrite” a seven minute story today.  Sounds like something that could usefully distract you from concentrated work for long enough to reset your concentration – remember the Pomadoro study method?  More short breaks makes for better retention and understanding!

Click here to watch the introductory video and get started.

Posted in Thing of the Day Tagged with: ,

Happy Refugee Week!

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓

RefugeesThis week people try to focus on the plight of those unwillingly forced from their homes by  People desperately seeking refuge have become a stigmatised group in recent years.  The term ‘refugee’ has become politically charged and carries with it fearful connotations of invasion by a tidal wave of the exploitative and the desperate.  It is a sad indictment of our modern society that so many people are prepared to decide whether or not to honour the human rights of those seeking to escape persecution elsewhere based only on what the media decide to tell them.

I attended a lecture given by a barrister specialising in defending the rights of those seeking refuge in the UK and was shocked and appalled at the difficulty of genuine refugees to have their stories heard, and of the persecution they suffer at the hands of the immigration service, often when they were in the UK only because this was the only way to catch another flight to Canada.  Listening only to mainstream media can leave us with a slanted view of refugees and too often those seeking refuge are conflated with economic migrants seeking better paid jobs in the West.

Read for yourself a first-hand account of seeking refuge from persecution by former refugee Ahmad Danny Ramadan, a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, storyteller and an LGBTQ-refugee activist.

 

Amnesty International refugees and family competition

On Facebook?  Tell Amnesty International what “family” means to you and enter their competition.

Enter the Amnesty International competition on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

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Westlaw is changing

Posted on by David Bennett — No Comments ↓
Gavel and scales of justiceWestlaw is changing.  On Monday 5 August 2019, the Westlaw interface will change completely.  An early look by our Law subject team has suggested that there will be:

Changes we are happy to see

  • You will be able to highlight passages in seven different colours and add sticky notes!  No-one is yet certain (even the supplier’s product trainer) whether book passages can be highlighted in more than one colour at once, though.  We know this because our Assistant Law Librarian asked them.  That’s how in-depth our product questions get: we give supplier trainers a run for their money!
  • Westlaw certification is being updated and will be relaunched for the start of the new academic year.  Even if you completed Westlaw certification already, it is well worth taking it again for this new system!
  • The new folder system will be more sophisticated, with additional sharing and annotation options and a new favourites feature.
    Read more ›
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