The University Library PhD digitisation project will complete the digitisation of the University of Edinburgh’s collection of roughly 25,000 PhDs.
Approximately 10,000 PhDs are already accessible online through the Edinburgh Research Archive, our institutional repository, and this project will digitise the remaining 15,000, thereby making unique Edinburgh research available to all.
The collection dates from the early 1600s to the present day and includes theses of varying sizes, styles and formats. Duplicate theses will have their spines removed using an IDEAL 4705 Guillotine and will then be fed through the 100-page-per minute Kodak i4250 document scanner. These copies will be recycled, freeing up around 500 linear metres of storage space in the Main Library building.
Unique theses will be scanned manually using a Copibook Cobalt flatbed scanner and any items in poor condition will receive conservation treatment.
Following scanning, digital images will undergo several post-processing procedures, such as de-skewing, cropping and de-blurring, and will also be OCR-ed to enable keyword searching. Fully processed files will be uploaded to ERA as searchable multipage PDFs.
All files are due to be made available online by the end of 2018. For further information, please contact Gavin.Willshaw@ed.ac.uk
You can find more information on the project blog at:
http://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/phddigitisation/
To search our databases for other PhDs and dissertations from across the world, go to our webpage for theses databases at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/finding-resources/library-databases/databases-subject-a-z/database-theses
Database trials available from 16th January
The Library has organised several trials of online databases and resources which are sure to be of interest to ECA students and staff.
You are now able to have trial access to ProQuest Film Scripts Online, Bloomsbury Fashion Central including their new Fashion Photography Archive, and the online music encyclopaedia MGG Online, (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart).
To access these and many other database trials, and to give your feedback, please go to:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/finding-resources/library-databases/e-resources-trials
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
Online resource trials
The University Library is running a large number of trials of online resources at the moment. You can access them here:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/finding-resources/library-databases/e-resources-trials
Our current trial databases cover a vast range of subjects and types of information, from contemporary Chinese politics, to history, philosophy, feminism, visual arts and popular culture. Please take a look at the trials on offer and explore these resources, and don’t forget to give your feedback so that we can decide whether to subscribe to them!
Thank you.
Free open access book: Drawing Futures: Speculations in Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture
UCL Press has launched a brand new open access book: Drawing Futures: Speculations in Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture, edited by Laura Allen and Luke Caspar Pearson.
Drawing Futures brings together international designers and artists for speculations in contemporary drawing for art and architecture.
Despite numerous developments in technological manufacture and computational design that provide new grounds for designers, the act of drawing still plays a central role as a vehicle for speculation. There is a rich and long history of drawing tied to innovations in technology as well as to revolutions in our philosophical understanding of the world.
In reflection of a society now underpinned by computational networks and interfaces allowing hitherto unprecedented views of the world, the changing status of the drawing and its representation as a political act demands a platform for reflection and innovation. Drawing Futures will present a compendium of projects, writings and interviews that critically reassess the act of drawing and where its future may lie.
Drawing Futures focuses on the discussion of how the field of drawing may expand synchronously alongside technological and computational developments. The book coincides with an international conference of the same name, taking place at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in November 2016. Bringing together practitioners from many creative fields, the book discusses how drawing is changing in relation to new technologies for the production and dissemination of ideas.
A limited number of print copies of this book are also available from https://goo.gl/kmCXs1.
It will also be available as an open access title via OAPEN library and JSTOR.
Download free: https://goo.gl/kmCXs1
JSTOR launches open access ebooks platform
JSTOR has introduced a new program to make Open Access monographs available on its platform. At the moment, 63 monographs across the Humanities and Social Sciences are available from UCL Press, Cornell University Press, University of California Press, and University of Michigan Press. JSTOR are planning to announce additional partners and hundreds more Open Access titles in the coming months.
The ebooks are freely available for anyone to use, and carry one of six Creative Commons licenses. The titles are DRM-free, and users will not need to register or log in to JSTOR to access the titles.
For further details and the full list of titles, please visit:
http://about.jstor.org/open-access
You can also access ebooks via DiscoverEd, the library catalogue, and by exploring some of our databases such as Berg Fashion Library. The best route into our subject specific databases is via the library subject guides webpage or the databases by subject page.
A book 5 storeys high…
For the month of November, 2016, Artist in Residence Susie Wilson exhibited her new artwork, “Bookwork in 69 parts”, which completed her 2016 research residency in ECA Library.
“Bookwork in 69 parts” was hung in the stairwell of Evolution House, and was accompanied by a display of Susie’s new bookworks, inside the Library. The fragile 5 storey-tall drawing in 69 sections reached from level 5 all the way down to level 0, and gave visitors to the building pause for thought.
We would like to thank Susie for all her work during her research residency and congratulate her on this beautiful new piece of work created for the ECA Library artists’ books collection.
Bookwork in 69 parts, by Susie Wilson, 2016
This is Information Security Awareness Week!
Monday 3rd – Friday 7th October 2016:
This week is Information Security Awareness Week 2016. This year the focus will be on why information matters to all University students and staff, and how you can take some simple steps to quickly protect your personal data and research content.
The main event on the afternoon of 5th October will see invited internal and external speakers present and discuss some of the issues. These will be very accessible and are aimed at all audiences, regardless of technical abilities. Bookings are now open via the following event channel:
https://www.events.ed.ac.uk/index.cfm?event=book&scheduleID=21717
The Security team will also be active on Twitter during the week, with hints, tips and useful guidance. Follow them on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/UoEInfoSec and with #UoEInfoSec
Explore the University art collections
Find out more about the amazing art and object collections that the University cares for, at http://collections.ed.ac.uk/
The collections include artworks, photographs, musical instruments, rare books, manuscripts, archives and special collections.
To find out how to access these wonderful collections, contact the Centre for Research Collections (CRC):
Centre for Research Collections
Edinburgh University Library
George Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9LJ
Tel: +44(0)131 650 8379
is-crc@ed.ac.uk
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.
