Simplifying access to electronic resources at the University of Hull: Athens to Shibboleth

In the week beginning 27th January University of Hull will be changing the authentication system used to provide access to ebooks and ejournals from Athens to Shibboleth. When logging in with Shibboleth, use your Hull IT userID and password instead of the one specific for Athens, meaning that you will drop the "hul" from your username when logging in.  If you are already logged into one of these services you will not need to login to e-resources again during the same web session.

To use Shibboleth, please look for this login option when visiting e-resources (it may also be labelled as 'Institutional login' or 'UK Federation', or similar), select 'University of Hull (Shibboleth)' from the list of institutions and log in as directed.  The Library Catalogue will also provide instructions where appropriate for different resources.  If you have any difficulties, please contact libhelp@hull.ac.uk.

While most resources will change to Shibboleth, there will still be some resources that use Athens and some that offer both Athens and Shibboleth for a while, but these will be phased out by 31 July 2014. Resources that are currently accessible through the library proxy server or using a generic username and password stored on the University of Hull portal will be unaffected by these changes.

Brynmor Jones Library redevelopment: Floor 7 reopens

What’s going on?

·         The new 7^th floor will open on Thursday 23 January.  This exciting area contains the Observatory, a flexible learning space with over 170 seats, the Cube, a controlled environment that will eventually contain the BJL collection of rare books, three group study rooms, and an information and resource point.  There are fabulous views across the city.  The rare books destined for the Cube are currently being stored at the Hull History Centre where they have been assessed by experts who are now doing conservation work on some of the more fragile and vulnerable items.  Once this work is finished the Rare Books will be moved to the 7^th floor and will be available for consultation.  The arrangements for booking an appointment will be advertised in the next few weeks.   

·         All the new toilets on floors 3, 4 & 7 will be functional from Thursday. Refurbishment of the stairwells toilets and the stairwells themselves will commence next week.  As a safety precaution, and to allow the contractors to start this work, the west stairs will be used for emergency evacuation only and the east stairs for general circulation and evacuation.  Routes will be clearly signed and staff will be on hand to assist.

·          Books destined for the new 6^th floor are expected to move from the ground floor decant area on Monday 27 January.  These books are Music (M – MT), Classics (PA) and Languages and Literature (P –PT).  This floor is planned to open the week before the middle of February and will confirm the exact date as soon as it is known.

·         The opening of floor 5 should take place before the end of February and of floor 2 in March.

Brynmor Jones Library Redevelopment update

Refurbishment of the public lifts in the Brynmor Jones Library will begin on Monday 20th January. This means that there will be two lifts available only in the tower block section of the library for a significant period of time.

Web of Knowledge to become Web of Science

Thomson Reuters are updating Web of Knowledge on 12 January 2014. The platform will undergo a name change to Web of Science, with the Web of Science database changing its name to Web of Science Core Collection. While all of the features of the platform will remain, the interface will look and work a little differently.

Happily Thomson Reuters have created some materials to help users through the transition to the new interface:

A PDF guide is available at http://images.info.science.thomsonreuters.biz/Web/ThomsonReutersScience/%7bd75b8aa8-43b7-484c-a319-d93b93f216b8%7d_wos-corecoll_qrc_en.pdf?elq=1979b37d5e7c437189e43b0196683e53&elqCampaignId=8112

YouTube videos are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/WoSTraining

"The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World"

If you're back at work or studies but already planning your next holiday you could do worse than look at Emily Temple's thoughts and picture of the 20 most beautiful bookstores.

The nearest one is Alnwick (though they could have possible considered the Waterstones in Bradford for a UK contender, or the Mill Bookshop in Saltaire...: ). Anyway, the photos are beautiful...

See

http://flavorwire.com/254434/the-20-most-beautiful-bookstores-in-the-world/

Brynmor Jones Library Redevelopment update: access to medical ethics and law books in the Law Collection

The Brynmor Jones Library at the Univerity of Hull has issued the following update about access to their law collection, currently housed on the first floor of the library, which contains texts that may be useful to HYMS students and staff when reading about medical ethics and law:

        In the course of our ongoing review of safety on site, it has been concluded that there will be a risk to safety over the next few weeks if we maintain public access to the space on the first floor of the tower where some of the Law books are currently being kept.  

·         With effect from Monday 6^th January, public access to this space with therefore be ended, and the Library will instead provide an on-demand retrieval service for any Law books housed in this area.  Requests will be met within one hour from 9am to 9pm throughout the week, including weekends.

·         The Law books will be moved to their permanent location on the second floor of the tower in time for its opening early in March. All Law books in heavy use continue to be available as normal in the High Demand Collection in the Reading Room

·          Remember that extra study space and PCs have been reserved for students in a variety of locations on campus during the January exam period.  Details can be found at http://www2.hull.ac.uk/lli/bjl-redevelopment/extra-study-space.aspx .  The Library will also be open until 2am throughout the examination period.  We are looking forward to the opening of floors 2,5,6 & 7 of the tower between the end of January and early March to add to the fantastic new space that we have already opened.