Using programs from free-to-air TV

As many people will be aware the University pays a fee yearly to Screenrights that allows staff within RMIT University to copy and make use of free-to-air TV.

School staff are welcome to contact the Library’s off-air-recording service and arrange for selected programs to be recorded on DVD and added to the collection in compliance with the Screenrights Agreement.

See also the EnhanceTV site for information on educational TV.

Library survey winner

Thank you to students and staff who responded to our survey recently about services and resources. Such surveys assist us to be aware of those things you value and help us identify areas to improve.

Respondents to our recent survey were in the run to win a Nintendo Wii. I was very happy to see one of our School of Education students, Kate Francis, win the prize. I presented it to her recently and she tells us she is making good use of it.

Library Survey 2009: Tell us what you think

The Library is surveying users – we only do this once a year, and it is the best way to let us know what you need.  Could you please give us 10 minutes to tell us how we could improve the service?  The survey link is available from the Library website.

Meeting with your tutors? Why not ask your librarian along?

A lecturer asked me along recently to a meeting with sessional tutors. This was a great way for me to meet these staff members and give them information and answer questions about library services and resources. I spent just 15 mins but was able to explain library holdings of material for the course, point to library links we had in Blackboard, tell them about information literacy activities students would be offered, show them the where to find the APA referencing guide and the new subject guides, and give them my contact details for further help.

If you are meeting with tutors for a course, I’d be very happy to speak to them briefly and help them become familiar with the Library.

Are you preparing an online course?

Just a reminder that if you are preparing course material and wish to create links from Blackboard to our e-resources there are instructions available when you log in to the Learning Hub under  ”LIBRY RMIT University Library and your online course”. I am also very happy to assist with these links.

The other thing to remember is that if you want to request readings be digitized then the earlier the better when submitting such requests to our Digitization Unit. The turn-around-times become longer the closer we get to the beginning of semester.

Copyright management service joins Library

It was recently announced that the Copyright Management Service will join the Library as of January 2009.

An article in the latest Chronicle of Higher Education refers the growing role of libraries in scholarly communication . The Library already has the Digitisation Service, of course, and we are also involved in the development of a research respository for RMIT. The Copyright folk will be a great asset to the range of services provided by the Library.

Identifying and accessing items held elsewhere

Students/staff are sometimes wanting to find books and other material not held at RMIT Library. My message to students in various information skills classes is that there are always ways of identifying where such material is held and ways of accessing it.

First thing to do is to look up the item in the Library catalogue just to confirm that it is not held. If an item is held at another campus then you can use the catalogue ‘place a HOLD’ function to bring the item across to your home campus. When doing this, be sure to check the pick up location is your home library.

If we don’t have a book and you think it would be a good item for us to have in our collection then you can either email me with the details or submit a purchase recommendation form.

If a book is not held at RMIT University, staff and students can borrow from other Victorian academic libraries by presenting a student/staff card and CAVAL card to the library from which they wish to borrow. You will need to organise the CAVAL card from RMIT University Library prior to going to the other library. You can also borrow from academic libraries interstate just by presenting photo ID and a current RMIT University staff or student card.

If you want to find out where an item is held then Libraries Australia is invaluable for identifying where books, journals and other material are held around the country. The Library website also has links to the catalogues of other Victorian academic Libraries.

You can also request a book or copy of an article etc via Document Delivery Services. Simply register using the form on the website and you will be sent login details. Make your requests online and books will be sent to your home library and articles will be provided in digital form for you to download. There is no charge for this although quotas apply.

Are you preparing an online course?

Just a reminder that if you are preparing course material and wish to create links from Blackboard to our e-resources there are instructions available in the Library’s online course Lib2000. Log into the learning hub and select Lib2000 RMIT University Library and your online course. I am also very happy to assist with these links.

The other thing to remember is that if you want to request readings be digitized then the earlier the better when submitting such requests to our Digitization Unit. The turn-around-times become longer the closer we get to the beginning of semester.