Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.
You are invited to drop in on our Discovery Day on Monday, 23 February, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Main Library. This event offers a valuable opportunity to engage with the exceptional resources available to support the development of dissertations and theses as part of our broader Dissertation and Thesis Festival.
Students engage with stalls at Discovery Day in October 2025 at the Main Library.
At Discovery Day, you will have the chance to meet representatives from leading database publishers (databases that allow you to fully research your topic), receive expert guidance, and pick up some freebies! Our Academic Support Librarians (ASLs) will be present to assist you in navigating library resources, inform you about upcoming festival events, and offer tailored advice to support your academic progress. Colleagues from Research Data Support and Digital Skills will be there to help you find out more about support for your dissertation and thesis work. And from 1-2pm, one of our Royal Literary Fund Fellows (RLFF) will be on hand so you can find out more about writing support available to you from the Library.
Grey literature can be a rich resource when researching for a literature review or dissertation topic. It can help you find current and emerging research, viewpoints of individuals such as patients and consumers, and more in depth or practical coverage of topics.
It can also help you to mitigate against 'publication bias’, where studies showing positive research results are much more likely to be published in journals. A search for grey literature will help to ensure that all relevant results, even if negative, are located.
'Grey literature' refers to a wide range of information which is not formally or commercially published, and which is often not well represented in library research databases. Here we’ll give several top tips for finding and using grey literature. ...continue reading "What is grey literature and where to find it"
Unlock the potential of your dissertation or thesis at Discovery Day!
Join us on Monday 27 October, 10am–2pm at the Main Library for Discovery Day, your chance to explore the amazing resources available for your dissertations and theses during our Dissertation and Thesis Festival. ...continue reading "What will you discover at our Discovery Day?"
Welcome, and welcome back, to all students starting the new academic year this week!
Whether you are one of the many descending on campus or one of our online or distance learners logging in from across the globe, we hope you make full use of our library resources, services and facilities while you are at the University.
Main Library
Our newly refreshed Library website has everything you need to know about the Library, while our Library subject guides help you find the resources you may need for your subject area.
I'm happy to let you know that the Library currently has extended trial access to AM Explorer, your gateway to millions of pages of primary source content. AM’s collections provide access to digitised historical materials – manuscripts, government records, rare books, maps and more – across a wide range of disciplines, from History to English Literature, Gender Studies, Sociology, Economics, Area Studies, Political Sciences and more.
While the Library already has permanent access to 21 collections from AM (listed at end) this trial access to AM Explorer gives us access to a further 66 collections covering world history from the 15th century up to modern times.
AM Explorer allows you to search through all 87 collections at one time. You can use their search to explore through a single keyword search; take a deep dive into your areas of interest; and discover new archival materials to serve your research, learning and teaching. ...continue reading "AM Explorer – your primary source hub (trial access)"
Here we are midway through the first semester, and you may start to feel like you should be looking ahead to your end of semester assessments. Often students feel a bit overwhelmed before their first hand in, but here at the library we're keen to help you feel confident from the start. Read on to find out why LibSmart is one of the best ways to prepare for your research and writing....
1. LibSmart shows you the basics of finding information in easy-to-follow lessons
Split into five simple sections, LibSmart I takes you through everything you need to find good material to base your assignments on. You'll learn about how to search the library catalogue, how to double check your course reading, and suggestions of where to go for follow up resources.
2. You can dip in and out of it any time that suits you
One of the great things about LibSmart is all new students are already enrolled! You just need to log in to learn and click on the 'Essentials' tab on the left to find it. It's there whenever you need it all year long, so if you're feeling like you need to be productive at 11pm one evening then log on and complete a module. We're sure you'll either learn something new or you'll feel more confident that you're on the right track.
3. The whole of LibSmart I can take less than one afternoon to work through
We designed LibSmart I so that it's not a huge effort for you to complete. We know your time is precious and that you may have classes to get to, work shifts to make or social activities that are a huge and important part of your student experience. We wanted to make the information in LibSmart as accessible as possible, and while you can take it at whatever pace you like, we know that some students like to rattle through it in just one day. Whichever route you chose, we appreciate the time you spend there.
4. You'll learn valuable skills on how to get started with referencing
Referencing is one of the top enquiries we Academic Support Librarians receive - people are confused by it or don't understand what, where and how to do it properly. LibSmart I has a really useful introductory module that can help you get to grips with the foundations of referencing, and offers top advice on how to find the right style and systems for you. If you're feeling stuck with where to start then this is the place to go.
5. It's so much more than just library stuff!
We know it's a lot to ask students to spend a few hours on looking specifically at library catalogues and databases especially when this isn't prescribed reading on any particular course. However, students who've spent time on LibSmart believe it's really made a difference to their experience as a student.
When I signed up, I assumed the course was just an introduction to the library but it has really been a guide to how academic research works. I wonder if more people would have signed up for this if they had realised it was not just a tour of the library to see where the books were kept. Along with the one hour "Study Skills" course I did, which was also surprisingly useful in its content, I feel I got as much learning from these free courses as the main one I paid for.
If you're interested in giving LibSmart a go, you can find out more on our website.
Alternatively if you're keen to get started straight away, just visit Learn and click on the Essentials tab on the left hand navigation. It's all there ready for whenever you need it!
As we're midway through the second semester, many eyes are turning to assignments and thinking ahead to final exams. Did you know that we've recently secured a trial of the interactive resource Skills for Study?
Based on the bestselling The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell, Skills for Study offers an interactive and personalised solution to help students hone their academic skills while developing skills required by employers:
Confidence with Numbers
Getting Ready for Academic Study
Referencing and Understanding Plagiarism
Critical Thinking Skills
Group Work and Presentations
Research Principles
Employability and Personal Development
Projects, Dissertations and Reports
Time Management
Exam Skills
Reading and Note-making
Writing Skills
Each of the modules comes complete with exercises, activities, and module assessments along with supplementary videos, articles and blogs. We know how popular the Study Skills Handbook is for students from a range of disciplines, so here's how to access this interactive resource:
That's it, it's that easy! More information about the trial is available on the E-Resources trials page. Our trial ends on the 24th April so have a good look before then, and if you want to offer any comments on this or any of our other E-Resource trials then please consider filling in the trial feedback form.
Whether you're the type of person who makes New Years resolutions or not, we hope you'll consider resolving to get comfortable with referencing this year. We have lots of resources available to help you with citations in your assignments, and we know it's something many students struggle with and so can often leave to the end of their work. Some top tips for getting ahead of the referencing panic:
Record the information you read as you go. You can do this using a reference manager, bookmarking tools in your browser or DiscoverEd, or good old pen and paper. Whatever method you're comfortable with, starting off with good organisation will help you down the line.
Leave more time than you think you'll need. Do you usually give yourself a day or two before the assignment deadline to sort references? Double it! Triple it! Build in contingency time for writing up and correcting references - and for asking for help if you need it - and if you end up not needing all that time then submit early and then reward yourself with a treat for being ahead of the game!
Be consistent. There are lots of referencing styles out there (you may already be familiar with Harvard, APA, Chicago, OSCOLA), but whichever one you use for your work, be consistent in how you reference. Make sure you have all the component parts of each type of reference and then style them in the same way each time - this helps you spot when information is missing as well as looking good.
Use the tools available to you. This includes reference managers like Endnote, Zotero and Mendeley (or any others!), or even 'quick' citation engines like ZoteroBib or Cite This For Me. We highly recommend you use Cite Them Right Online which is a database we subscribe to for all staff and students to use - it will show you how to construct references for every type of material in a huge range of styles. Not sure how to reference a personal email, a blog post or a youtube clip? Use Cite Them Right to check! NOTE: Please make sure you check any reference that is created by a citation tool, as they are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Get help in plenty of time! Still feeling lost at sea? We've got training sessions on the MyEd booking system and also recordings on Media Hopper (click on '174 media' below the title card for the full list of videos) designed specifically to help you. There's also part of the LibSmart online information literacy course dedicated to the basics of referencing, and we have a whole subject guide on the topic. If all else fails, contact your Academic Support Librarian and ask for a one-to-one appointment where we can sit down with you and work through the problems you're facing.
Do you have any top tips for referencing? We'd love to hear them, you can leave them in the comments or tweet us @EdUniLibraries.
We're midway through the first semester now, and many students will have settled into the routine of lectures, seminars and practical class preparation. You may even be thinking ahead to the end-of-module deadlines moving ever closer, and beginning to consider how to research and write assignments. For some students this can be stressful or confusing as they realise they don't really know where to start with looking up resources to back up their work. Don't panic though, we've got you!
Enter, LibSmart! This is our online information literacy course which you can access via Learn at any time throughout your studies. It's self-enrol and open to absolutely everyone, and will provide you with a great grounding in how to access resources online and via the library, and how to reference your research correctly. There's five modules in LibSmart I and although we recommend you work through them all, you can dip in and out of the bits you feel you need a bit of help with.
If you've completed that, you may find that you want to go a step further. In that case, check out LibSmart II which has ten modules on a variety of different topics all designed to help you get to grips with a specific focus. Unlike LibSmart I we don't ask you to work through all the modules here, just pick 'n' mix your favourites! You might be interested in health information and systematic reviews, or legal information and government and policy research. Maybe you're unsure of what's in our Special Collections and you'd like to explore that more fully. Students who've completed these modules before have said that they're extremely useful and relevant to their work.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can find out more on the LibSmart webpage. Remember you can access LibSmart any time you like throughout the year, and for each module you complete you get a digital badge!
There's a video here on how to self-enrol in case you're unsure of the steps. Hope to see you in LibSmart soon!
