general news

Extra study space in the central area during April and May

Looking for study space in the University central area for revision? The Main Library, George Square, will be busy but there are alternative spaces available.

At the Main Library the Lower Ground Floor, Ground Floor and Floor 1 are open 24/7: in addition, Floors 2, 3, 4 and 5 will also remain open 24/7 from 07:30 on Saturday 22 April to 23:59 on Sunday 14 May.
The four teaching rooms on Floor 1 of the Main Library can be used (79 seats) from Saturday 8 April to Sunday 21 May, as well as the Centre for Research Collections Research Suite on Floor 6 (12 seats) from Monday 17 April to Wednesday 17 May.
Look out for the library helpers in purple t-shirts who can assist you in finding a space.
As an alternative to the Main Library, why not try the 200 additional study spaces which are available from Monday 17 April to Friday 19 May in the David Hume Tower (DHT) Hub (rooms LG06-LG11).
Or use other libraries and open open access computing spaces.
The Law Library and David Hume Tower Ground Floor computer lab are open longer on 5 Sundays: 23, 30 April; 7, 14, 21 May 12:00-19:00.
Please also take a look at the interactive study spaces map at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/study-space

Main Library at George Square to go 24/7!

The University Main Library at George Square will be opening 24/7, from 20th March 2017. A lot of work by Library, Security and Estates staff behind the scenes has gone into making this possible.
For more information, please see the announcement at
http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2017/main-library-to-open-24-7
and the Main Library webpage at
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/using-library/lib-locate/main-lib

 

Welcome to new students!

We would like to welcome all new ECA students starting their courses this January. Please do pop in to ECA Library in Evolution House where you can pick up lots of information and leaflets about the Library services.
For information about collecting your student ID card from the Main Library, George Square, see here:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/card/getting-first-card/first-student-card
For information about ECA Library see here:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/using-library/lib-locate/eca-library
For all other Library information see here:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery

Digital skills training

Information Services Group (ISG) at the University of Edinburgh offer a wide range of courses to support digital skills development. Their current programme encompasses a variety of workshops on working with data, including:

  • Creating a Data Management Plan for your Grant Application (Wednesday 12-Oct-2016, 12:00 – 13:30)
  • Good Practice in Research Data Management (Friday 07-Oct-2016, 09:30 – 13:30)
  • Handling Data Management using SPSS (Monday 12-Sep-2016, 09:30 – 12:30; Monday 14-Nov-2016, 09:30 – 12:30)
  • Introduction to NVivo (Tuesday 27-Sep-2016, 09:30 – 12:30; Tuesday 01-Nov-2016, 09:30 – 12:30)
  • Introduction to Visualising Data in ArcGIS (Wednesday 28-Sep-2016, 14:00 – 17:00)
  • Introduction to Visualising Data in QGIS (Thursday 01-Dec-2016, 14:00 – 17:00)
  • Managing your research data: why is it important and what should you do? (Monday 10-Oct-2016, 11:30 – 13:00)
  • NVivo: Beyond the Basics – Queries (Monday 03-Oct-2016, 14:00 – 17:00; Monday 14-Nov-2016, 14:00 – 17:00)
  • Using EDINA Digimap (Wednesday 28-Sep-2016, 09:30 – 12:30; Thursday 01-Dec-2016, 09:30 – 12:30)
  • Working with personal and sensitive data (Friday 14-Oct-2016, 12:00 – 14:00)

All courses must be booked via the Digital Skills website
If you are unable to attend a course you have booked, you should cancel through the Event Booking channel.  Attendance is recorded, and failure to attend without prior notice may affect your future bookings. For over-subscribed courses ISG frequently offer standby places to people on the waiting list, so please ensure you arrive in good time or your place may be reallocated as a standby.
 

RSA Open: ECA Library Prize winner announced

Cecile Simonis awarded the ECA Library Prize at this year’s RSA Open Exhibition.
We are happy to announce that the Royal Scottish Academy judging panel has chosen artist and printmaker Cecile Simonis, as the recipient of the 2016 ECA Library Prize, for her work “Drones”. Cecile has won a year’s free borrowing membership at ECA Library. Cecile studied in Belgium and Italy, and is now resident in Edinburgh. She teaches drawing and printmaking and has strong connections with Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop. More information about her work can be seen at
We look forward to welcoming Cecile to ECA Library.
‘Drones’, by Cecile Simonis, with permission of the artist.

Thought for the day…

“Painting, sculpture, any act of artistic creation, has a special relationship with slowness. As the American writer Saul Bellow once noted, “Art is something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes… the eye of the storm… an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction”.
– Carl Honore, In Praise of Slowness: challenging the cult of speed, HarperCollins, 2005.

Happy National Poetry Day to all our readers

8th October, 2015:
When I am Among the Trees
 
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness,
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
– Mary Oliver.

Residency begins at ECA Library for artist Holly Prentice

Monday 2nd February 2015:
We are delighted to welcome Holly Prentice to ECA Library today. Holly has already begun to explore our 2000 artists’ books and will be producing an exhibition, several workshops and a new book-work, as part of her month-long research residency.
One of the workshops will be a free and open to all drop in session at ECA Evolution House, room 2.15, during Innovative Learning Week, more details here soon…

Holly Prentice chosen as next research resident for ECA Library

ECA Library is pleased to announce that Holly Prentice has been chosen as the successful recipient of the ECA Book Artist  Research Residency 2014/15. Holly will take up the Residency in early Spring 2015 (exact dates to be confirmed), based in ECA Library, Evolution House.
Holly is an artist who graduated from ECA in 2012 with a First Class degree in Drawing & Painting. Her work has been shown in exhibitions across the UK, from Aberdeen to Sheffield, to Ullapool, and at European venues such as the Universitat der Kunst, Berlin.
Holly uses libraries, archives and collections for research and as inspiration for her practice. We look forward to seeing the ways in which her month long exploration of ECA Library collections inspires her own work. More information about Holly’s plans for the residency will be posted here later this month.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all applicants for the time they took to apply for this award.