Protect your P@55W0rD!

Photo credit: Ryan McGuire, Gratisography

Maybe you're one of those people who makes a password so secure that it is immediately forgettable, maybe you devise passwords in memoriam of long dead  pets with a few !@*% thrown in for a little more security, or perhaps you do none of this? With our banking and other sensitive data predominantly managed online, not to mention, the constant hacking (or cracking?) of social media accounts, how are we supposed to stay safe online? Well, short of a complete rejection of modern life and living in a field somewhere, we thought you may like to take a look at this  interesting piece by Patrick Collinson. It gives some handy tips on creating and storing passwords. We’d advise you take all of this with a critical eye though; you only have to look at the comments to see what a contentious topic password security is! That said, there are some really basic steps in this article that can help to make your passwords more secure.    

World Book Day - Thursday 5th March



Thursday 5th March is World Book Day, and both University Libraries will be celebrating the event.

 

There's a World Book Day book swap in the Morrell Library foyer, University of York, from 12-2pm, if you've any books you want to exchange for something more to your liking!

 

Hull Uni Library will be taking to its various social media outlets to ask you about your favourite book. Follow the social media links at the Brynmor Jones Library homepage.

 

The University of York are also running a literary quiz with a chance to win the last five Man Booker Prize winning novels! More information can be found on the York World Book Day 2015  news item.

 

Throughout the day, both @HullUni_Library and @UoYLibrary will be providing Twitter with bookish updates, and we'll be getting involved too on our own Twitter account: @HYMSLibrary

Twitter for researchers: hints and tips

Social media, and particularly twitter, can be a powerful tool for researchers, in terms of networking, promotion and current awareness. Twitter particularly can be easily accessed via a variety of devices, meaning that you can follow a conference on the other side of the world via your mobile phone. It also allows you to follow fellow researchers, publishers and projects in your area of interest.

Tweets are up to 140 characters long and can feature links to websites and images. If an event is taking place, such as a conference, often a hashtag will be created that allows people to follow the conversation, such as #HYMS. If you know about a hashtag, you can search for it on twitter and see all the tweets that use that hashtag. You can also use the hashtags yourself to heighten your visibility.

If you would like to start using twitter, go to http://twitter.com and sign up for an account. You will be asked to fill out a profile and to start following people.

When you follow someone, you will see their tweets appear in the feed of tweets when you sign in. If you want to reply to a tweet you have an option to click reply under the tweet. You can also re-tweet a tweet if you think it is particularly useful and this will be visible to people following your Twitter account.

If you're unsure who to follow, try looking for the primary investigator on your research project, or for key journals in your research area.

Information is normally tweeted in real-time, so information is up-to-date. Information that is tweeted about includes:

• Publication of articles
• Publication of new research
• Discoveries that have been made in a particular field
• What is being talked about at a conference or public event
• Announcements about funding
• Changes in policy and legislation around research from various bodies

Some suggestions for accounts you might want to follow:

The BMJ @bmj_latest
BMJ_Open @BMJ_Open
The Cochrane Collaboration @cochranecollab
Research Councils UK @research_uk
University of Hull @UniOfHull
University of York @uniofyork
Wellcome Trust @wellcometrust

Don't feel that you have to tweet. It is okay to lurk and follow what is going on. However, the great thing about Twitter is how easy it makes it to connect with people around the world.

You can gather followers through connecting in Twitter, but also through other networks, so don't be afraid to include your twitter account on presentations, in communication via email and on business cards.