Do You Know Where Your Bag Is?

Unfortunately from time to time we need to remind everyone that there may be people around who want to leave with your belongings as well as a book. Please, when you’re using the Library:

• Don’t leave any of your belongings unattended – even if you’re surrounded by other people studying, they may not notice anything, and it takes a split second for someone to walk away with your things.
• Don’t sleep in the Library – this makes you an easy target for opportunistic thieves to help themselves.
• Keep any items of value, purses and bags out of sight or out of reach at all times.
• If you aren’t doing so already, make sure that you regularly back up the contents of your laptop, and consider buying (and using) a Kensington lock or similar that can secure your laptop.

Christmas & New Year Opening

The Library will be open at the following times over the Christmas and New Year holidays:

• Friday 21st December: open until 9pm
• Saturday 22nd: 12 noon – 5pm
• Sunday 23rd: 12 noon – 7pm
• Monday 24th – Tuesday January 1st – Closed
• Wednesday January 2nd - 8.40am – 11pm
• Thursday January 3rd – 8.40am – 11pm
• Friday January 4th – 8.40am – 5pm
• Saturday January 5th – 12 noon – 5pm
• Sunday January 6th - 24 hour opening resumes from 12 noon.  

Loan periods are extended to cover vacation dates, but if you are travelling outside of the University vacation please ensure any borrowed items are renewed to cover the period that you are away.

Have Your Say, Win Food…

Our 2012 Customer Survey is now underway, asking about the way you use the Library, your thoughts on our services, and how you think we should develop.

Whether you have a view on our opening hours, on the choices in the vending machines, or how other people use the Library, tell us what’s important to you, what you like, and what we need to work on.

As a thank you for taking part in the survey, which should take about 10-15 minutes to complete, there will be a prize draw in early January where one lucky participant will win a week’s worth of food vouchers courtesy of our colleagues at Big Mouth Brunel.

Changes to access for external members

From December 3rd there will be changes to the pricing and structure of visitor access to the Library. In brief, the changes are as follows:

• Brunel Alumni: Reference membership for Alumni is now free of charge. Borrowing membership for Alumni will be £20 for an annual subscription.
• External Reference membership is £25.
• External borrowing membership is now £80 per year, with no admin fee.
• Corporate membership is now available at £200 per year, with 4 cards.

All other bands of membership, and arrangements for day passes, remain the same. You can find more details, including an application form, at http://www.brunel.ac.uk/services/library/visitors.

 

Online reading lists update

Most staff and students will be familiar with our online reading list system, Aspire, that the University began using last year. Most modules have a reading list and they are included in this online system to make it easier to access them and link through to Library holdings or online content. Blackboard modules automatically include a link to the reading list.

For academic staff and others who log in to Aspire, there will be a change to the authentication system behind it on Monday 26 November, so you will notice that you’re asked to log in twice. This just ensures that all your settings from your existing profile are brought over to the new profile; you shouldn’t notice any other difference. If you’re an academic not yet using Aspire, get in touch and we’ll show you how much fun it is to create your reading lists there!

Update on Heating

As a result of works to fix leaks in the Bannerman Centre yesterday, the heating in the Library is currently not working. We will be open as usual today, and have a number of electric radiators temporarily in use on Floors 0 and 1 – if you are working in the Library please use these areas. We are liaising with colleagues from Estates and Maintenance to assess how long the heating will be out of service and will give further updates as we have them.

If you are planning to use the Library this weekend please accept our apologies for this inconvenience.

Library Elf wants to help you!

One elf is a real life librarian…

As Christmas draws ever closer, elves are surely on your mind, but have you taken a look at Library Elf? Brunel Library has a subscription, and it’s a system (presumably run by elves) where you sign up for free, provide your library account details, and choose which reminders you’d like and on what timescales. The elves then send you emails or RSS entries reminding you about items due or reservations available, with calendars and links through to our renewals page.

Whilst our Library system sends out a variety of notices, we are unable to customise these to different timescales for each user, so this can be a great extra way to keep on top of your account. (If you give the Library your UK mobile phone number, though, we’ll send you reminders by SMS, too!)

There are a lot of libraries signed up to Library Elf – click here for the full list - so if you use other subscribing libraries, you can add those accounts too, and get reminders covering those as well as your Brunel account. Very handy!

Also this year, the elves have been working hard on a mobile version of the site, amongst other new features. You can try out the beta version of Mobile Elf by entering https://www.libraryelf.mobi in your mobile device’s browser. Let us know what you think!

Important updates about Inter Library Loans through the British Library

The British Library has been going through exciting developments to update their document supply system and workflow.  Although a lot of the changes have been behind the scenes at the British Library and here at Brunel University, there are some important updates that you, the user, should be aware of. 

Inter Library Loans Charges

We have reviewed and updated our inter library loan charges so that they are in line with the British Library charges.  Please see below the new inter library loan charges which are effective from the 1^st October 2012:

Electronic Delivery of Journal Article        £7.50

Photocopy of a Journal Article                      £7.75

Loan                                                                            £11.60

Renewal of a Loan                                                 £4.30

What else has changed?

Previously inter library loans were issued for 3 weeks, which were guaranteed and then another 3 weeks if no other user had requested the item.  You were able to return the book to Brunel Library by the due date listed in the book and we sent it back to the British Library.

 This has now been changed so that books are issued for 6 weeks and there is only one date listed inside the book.  However this date is when the book is due back at the British Library.  Overdue fees are payable by you for books returned a day late. To avoid incurring overdue fines and guarantee that books will get back to the British Library by the due date, books will be issued to you for 5 weeks. 

 Can I renew Inter Library Loan books?

 Yes you will be apply for a renewal for your inter library loan books at a cost of £4.30.  This is payable by you or your department, as applicable.   Please note that you must return the book to Brunel Library for us to be able to process your renewal.  If a renewal is successful then it will be issued to you for another 2 weeks.

NSS Success for the Library

Following the publication of the Library NSS scores for the sector by the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL), we are pleased to report that Brunel University Library has risen from 11^th in the sector in 2011 to 4^th in the sector in 2012.This marks the fourth year in a row that the Library has improved its satisfaction rating, increasing by 10% in that time. It also follows on from the shortlisting for the THE Award for Outstanding Library Management Team in 2011 and the shortlisting for the THE Award for Outstanding Student Support in 2012.

Whilst these results all indicate that we are moving in the right direction, and reflect the success of services such as ASK, which continues to see dramatic increases in the number of students being supported, we’re aware that there is always room for improvement. Throughout 2012/13 we will be launching a range of initiatives that ask for feedback on specific areas of our services, or for your thoughts on new services we could be offering – keep following the blog for more details on these.

Returning Student? Don’t let old fines block your account!

If you’re a returning student, please remember that any fines or charges on your Library account from previous academic years need to be cleared by  October 25th to prevent your account being barred. If you have queries about charges or fines or believe there has been a mistake, please don’t ignore it, let us know now by sending an email to library@brunel.ac.uk and explain what has happened.