The numbers on the books – what do you think?

We are running a survey to find out about your views on the shelfmarks on Library stock, with the aim of making things easier to find on the shelves. It is a short survey, taking about 5 minutes to complete, and we would be grateful for your help. You can find it at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/shelfmark.

RILM - Music Database

RILM is a key database that will allow you to search for music literature by topic. Using keywords you can browse abstracts that cover all areas of music including:

• historical musicology


• ethnomusicology


• instruments and voice


• librarianship


• performance practice and notation


• theory and analysis


• pedagogy


• liturgy


• dance


• criticism and music therapy

RILM is available to view via the Library tab in MUSE. Under 'Library eResources' click the link  'Access the Library's subject databases' and use the A-Z table to search for RILM.

You may also want to look at RIPM - Retrospective Index Music Periodical. We currently have trial access to this index which provides access to Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth century music literature.

This trial will be available to registered staff and students of the University of Sheffield until 4th March and we would welcome your feedback. Follow the link above and click on the 'Access arrangements' link in the Quick links box for further details. You may be prompted to log into MUSE.

Western Bank Library extended opening hours

From Sunday 9 January to Thursday 3 February Western Bank Library will be open longer hours to cover the revision and exam period.  The hours are shown in the table below.  Opening hours for other library sites can be found here and helpful information on preparing for exams can be found from the  Student ’s Union.

	Opening hours	Staffed service
Monday - Thursday	09:00 - 00:00	09:00 - 19:00
Friday	09:00 - 21:00	10:00 - 19:00
Saturday	10:00 - 18:00	12:00 - 18:00
Sunday	10:00 - 00:00	12:00 - 18:00

War Magazines Collection

The Library has recently acquired a new collection of illustrated war magazines from the First and Second World Wars. This collection is now catalogued and available from Special Collections. It contains

The War Illustrated 1914-1919

The War Illustrated 1939-1947

War Weekly 3rd November 1939-5th August,1941

They describe and comment on events at home and the wider world. There are plenty of illustrations and so have a very visual approach to the subject matter.

I know that the departments of  Journalism and History have both expressed an interest in this collection, so I am delighted to let you know that this collection is now available.

For more information please check Special Collections webpages here:

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/special/warmag.html

eReader Prize Draw

As (hopefully) you’ll be aware we’ve been running a pilot ereader loan scheme in our libraries, which came to end in November. An Amazon Kindle and Sony eReader were loaded with content and loaned to customers in exchange for feedback as part of an evaluation project. Those who took part in our survey were entered into a prize draw to win their own ebook reader!

The prize draw
The prize draw event was held in the Western Bank Library Exhibition Gallery on 6 December 2010. We were delighted to welcome Joe Oliver, Sheffield Students’ Union Education Officer, to introduce the event and pick out the names of two lucky winners. Prize draw entrants were invited along and the event was also attended by Martin Lewis, Director of Library Services, Heather Thrift and Tracey Clarke, the Associate and Assistant Library Directors, and the ebook reader evaluation project group members.

The winners
The lucky ebook reader winners are from the departments of Philosophy and Automatic Systems & Control Engineering, winning an Amazon Kindle 3G and a Sony Reader Touch respectively. Neither of the winners were able to attend the draw, though we’ve since contacted them with the good news and they’re very pleased!

Thank you!
Many thanks to everyone who took part in our eBook reader evaluation. The results of the survey will be made available shortly on the Library web site.

More photos can also be found on Flickr.

Christmas vacation loans

Christmas vacation loan periods start next week (beginning 13th December). 

More detailed information on return dates can be found on the Library web pages.

To avoid fines please keep your borrower record up to date.

You can renew items through the Library tab in MUSE or by ringing the renewals hotline (0114) 222 7201

Supporting our learners survey

The Library is looking at new ways of delivering help, information and enquiry services in our sites and would welcome your thoughts and suggestions.

If you could spare the time to complete a brief survey your suggestions will help us to determine how best to support you in your learning and research.