Christmas Opening Hours

The Library and Resource Centre will both close on Friday, December 20th at 5pm for the Christmas period. We re-open on Monday, Jan 6th.

For full opening hours for December and January period check our website.

We wish all students and staff of the College a very merry Christmas!

Library Closed Fri / Sat

The Library is closed on Friday and Saturday of this week due to the College's 2010 graduation conferrals taking place on those days. We re-open for normal term-time hours next Monday, November 25th.

Cuairt Scoil Neasain inniu

Tá rang a trí ó Scoil Neasain, Baile Harmain, i dteannta a múinteoir Niamh Nic Roibéard, ag tabhairt cuairt ar an leabharlann inniu. Buailfidh siad le scríbhneoirí Ríona Nic Congáil agus Áine Ní Ghlinn - beirt a léifidh saothar leo os ard.

Bhí Saol an Mhadra Bháin le Ríona ar ghearrliosta do leabhar Gaeilge na bliana do dhaoine óga i 2012 (Gradam Réics Cárlos).

Tá réimse leathan scríbhneoireachta déanta ag Áine, do aois-ghrupaí éagsula. Beidh sí i gceannas leis ar cheardlann filíochta leis na páistí - cumfaidh na páistí dán dá gcuid féin.

 Tosnóidh sé sa leabharlann ag méan lae - fáilte roimh chách.


 Today, children from 3rd class in Scoil Neasain, Harmondstown are coming to visit the Library with their teacher Niamh Nic Roibéard. They will meet writers Ríona Nic Congáil and Áine Ní Ghlinn who will read some of their work aloud.

Ríona's wonderful book Saol an Mhadra Bháin was shortlisted for the Irish Language Book of the Year
Award for Young People (Gradam Réics Cárlos) in 2012.

Áine, who has written extensively for all age groups, will also facilitate a poetry workshop with the children and they will compose a poem together.

 This event will take place in the Library at 12 noon and all are welcome to attend.

Think Outside the Book!

This week (11th-15th November) is Library Ireland Week and this year's theme is "Think outside the book".

So, along with all the other libraries in the country, we're celebrating the other services we provide in the Library apart from our excellent book stock. As it turns out, there are quite a few!

Come and see our display for yourself and be sure to avail of all the wonderful ways the Library can make your life that little bit easier.

https://libraryassociation.ie/events/library-ireland-week/

New Loan and Fine Rules

In response to student feedback regarding stock availability and circulation, we have made some changes to our loan rules and also fine rates for overdue items.

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New short-loan privileges 
All users can now take out at any one time:

• Two 24-hour loan items (including DVDs) 
• Two 3-hour loans items (including Theses) 

New fine rates 
Fine rates for students returning overdue books are now:

• 50c per day (Main Lending Items) 
• 50c per hour (24-hour loans) 
• €1 per hour (3-hour loans) 

New B.A. / B.Ed loan period 
Undergraduate students are now issued Main Lending items for one week at a time. They can be renewed twice thereafter.

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We hope that these adjustments help improve circulation of library stock, particularly for core titles.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions on the changes or how we can further improve our service to meet student needs please let us know.

Attention New Students!!

A big Library welcome to all new students starting in St Patrick's this week! 

For undergraduates starting B.A. or B.Ed.courses we have Library tours and inductions scheduled over the next couple of weeks.  These are extremely useful and will give you everything you need to know to get started in St Patrick's College Library.

BA students will be taken in groups directly after your registration - either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

B.Ed.students are scheduled according to your B.Ed. group - see the allocated timeslots below:

Group A: Wednesday 2nd Oct @ 10 am
Group B: Wednesday 25th Sep @ 4.10 pm
Group C: Thursday 26th Sep @ 10 am
Group D: Thursday 26th Sep @ 4.10 pm
Group E: Monday 30th Sep @ 3 pm
Group F: Tuesday 1st Oct @ 4.10 pm
Group G: Wednesday 25th Sep @ 3 pm
Group H: Tuesday 1st Oct @ 9 am
Group I: Wednesday 25th Sep @ 2 pm
Group J: Monday 30th Sep @ 10 am
Group K: Monday 30th Sep @ 2 pm
Group L: Friday 27th Sep @ 9 am

Check the time for your group and come along - you won't want to miss this.

We look forward to seeing you!

Culture Night 2013!

The Library is delighted to once again take part in the College's Culture Night offerings this coming Friday.

 We will have on display some fascinating items from our Special Collections including:

• Rare books and personal items of figures such as Dan Breen and Michael Davitt
• Beautiful Dolmen Press publications, previously displayed in IMMA's 2010 The Moderns: The Arts in Ireland from 1900 to the 1970's exhibition
• The first picture book ever published as Gaeilge
• Rare Irish language manuscripts from the College Archive

We'll be situated in Belvedere House where there will also be tours of the old building as well as a jazz-inspired perfomance from our artists-in-residence the Fidelio Trio at 6:30pm.  

We'll be there (along with the books) from 5:15pm onwards so pop along and say hello! 

Book Sale

Just a quick reminder that our book sale is still on outside the Library and extra stock is being added all the time. All books are still €1 each and you can pay for them in the Library. All proceeds are used to purchase new Library stock.

June Bank Holiday

The Library will close from Saturday, June 1, to Monday, June 3, inclusive, for the Bank Holiday.

We re-open at 10am on Tuesday, June 2 when we revert to our summer vacation hours of 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm.  For full Library and Resource Centre opening hours check our website.

More Like This...

When you find a book that is particularly useful for your area of study, our Catalogue now has a handy way of nudging you towards other titles that may be of interest.

On the full title page, you can quickly see what other titles have been loaned to users who have borrowed the title you are viewing.

For example, if you search for Commonsense Methods for Children with Special Education Needs (Westwood, P.) you will see the following suggestions at the bottom of the full title page:

This may also be useful if the particular book you're looking for is out on loan, so you can if there are any alternatives that may meet your needs.

The information is local - taken specifically from loan data from SPD, Mater Dei and DCU - so it should be particularly relevant to users on the linked campuses.

E-books Warning

When accessing our e-books at present you may get a security warning in your browser.  This is related to a recent platform update but it is perfectly safe to ignore the warning and proceed.

Depending on which browser you are using the warning page is slightly different.  These warning pages (and how to proceed) are indicated below.

Internet Explorer

Chrome

Firefox (three steps)

1. 

2. 

3. 

This issue will be rectified as soon as possible but in the meantime just proceed as indicated above to view the e-book you wish to access.

Library Rules: Food & Drink

We remind all students that no food or drink (other than bottled water) is allowed in the Library.

The Library is particularly busy at this time of year and we ask all users to respect our rules and regulations.  These help ensure the Library remains a clean and comfortable space for study and research. 

Short Loans for Study Week

From 5pm on Thursday our 24-hour loan items will be issuing over the study week (until Monday, May 20).

This is to accomodate students not on campus during the break in lectures.

America Online

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) was launched this week, a resource with great potential for academic research.

There are already over 2 million digital objects from America's libraries, archives and museums in the collection.  It will continue to grow in terms of the quantity of objects in the collection and also the ways these objects can be filtered and presented.

From the site itself:

"The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. "

The use of open data and APIs will mean that the contents and collections can be further harnessed in the future to create new tools and methods of research.  Five related apps are already available from the DPLA site.  One of these allows cross searching of DPLA with Europeana, a similar initiative and portal for digital objects and collections from European libraries and museums.

The site itself has various built-in functionalities allowing the user to view collections by location, chronologically or to explore as exhibitions covering subjects such as the Great Depression and US Activism.

Extra Hours for Exams

The Library will have extended Friday & Saturday opening hours during May to accommodate students studying for exams.    

Fridays (May 10, 17 & 24) : 9am to 10pm

Saturdays (May 11, 18 & 25) : 10am to 5pm

1913 Lockout Display

To commemorate the centenary of the Dublin Lockout of 1913, Strumpet City by James Plunkett has been chosen for the One City One Book campaign.

We have on display in the Library a number of related books on the Dublin Lockout and the social and political conditions which led up to this historic event.

For more information on the book and a list of events running throughout April see the One City One Book website: http://dublinonecityonebook.ie/

Easter Hours

Library opening hours over the Easter vacation are as follows:

Mon, March 25 : 9am-5pm
Tue, March 26 : 9am-5pm
Wed, March 28 : 9am-1pm
Thu-Tue, Mar 29-Apr 2 : Closed
Wed, April 3 : 9am-5pm
Thu, April 4 : 9am-5pm
Fri, April 5 : 9am-5pm

St. Patrick's Weekend

The Library is closed on Monday, March 18 for the Saint Patrick's Day bank holiday.

Our opening hours over the weekend are:

Friday - 9am-5pm
Saturday - 10am-1pm
Sunday - Closed
Monday - Closed
Tuesday - 9am-10pm

Cambridge E-books Trial

We have obtained trial access for one month to Cambridge's complete online collection of e-books.

Cambridge Books Online contains thousands of e-books titles in the humanities, social sciences and education.

Chapters can be downloaded in pdf format and titles are indexed in such a way that they are easily discovered through commonly used search tools such as Google Scholar.

While the trial is live, why not dive straight in to http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ and browse or search your own areas of interest.

If you want to check a particular title or search for a term you can start right away by typing your terms in below:

• 
• Widget Search Keyword
• 

This trial is obtained for the purpose of assessment for any future purchase.  We'd be glad to hear from staff or students about how relevant these collections are to you or your department.

Remember to check our Trial Databases page on our website to see what is currently available in addition to our existing resources.

School Placement Resource

World Book Online is an excellent online resource primarily aimed at children and those working with or teaching children.  It is currently available on trial access to all SPD staff and students.

Click here to access the collection - it's also available via our website.

To access this resource you'll need our trial login which will be emailed to your College account.  If you haven't received this, please just ask in the Library or Resource Centre and a member of staff will help you.

This site is presented in four sections - World Book Web, Speciality Sites, World Book Digital Libraries and World Book Classroom.

Together these contain children's literature, encyclopedia articles, primary source collections, educator tools, student activities, pictures, audio, and video, complemented by current periodicals and related websites.

As with all of our trial subscriptions we invite feedback from staff or students, so please let us know if you like it!

Catalogue Down - Update

Please note our Catalogue is not functioning properly today due to the wider network issues.  Issues at present include:

• no availability/shelfmark displaying
• no access to 'my account' features

Users looking to renew loans or reserve items may do so at the Issue Desk or by contacting us info.library@spd.dcu.ie | 01-8842170.

Update 10am, 28th Feb - All features have now been restored.

Swetswise E-journals Access

Please note that the Swetswise journals platform will be unavailable from 11am until 5pm this Sunday (February 24) due to essential maintenance work.  Any links on our Journals A-Z which bring you to this platform will not work during this time.

Often e-journals are available via more than one platform or database.  A really handy of way of checking this is to use DCU Library's SerialsSolutions tool - just enter the journal title and it will return you a complete listing of the different platforms it is available on along with information on how many issues or years are available (this can vary from one database to another).

Books for School Placement

If you’re about to head out on school placement and are wondering which books to bring with you into the classroom, we can help!

Check out our LibraryThing account @ www.librarything.com (username: StPatsJLibrary / password: farmerduck).

Click on a curriculum strand (see tags) or on a theme (see collections). Then check availability of anything you find interesting in the Catalogue.

This is a work in progress so all comments welcome!

Cameras for Loan

Digital cameras are now available in the Library for students and staff to take out on loan. In addition we  have three tripods which may be taken out with cameras or on their own for use with any camera type.

The loan type is for 3 weeks (memory cards, batteries and charger packs are all part of the camera package).

This initiative is the result of funds from the Quality Promotion Fund for St Patrick’s College. The initiative was sparked by the Art Education staff member Andrea Cleary as a first step towards promoting a culture of recording good quality children’s art works.

It was initially intended for the use of students on the B Ed when out on teaching practice. This semester a group of students will be asked to record their art teaching experience through images of the children’s work. The long term aspiration is that the resulting images would become available for all as a visual resource.

This first step could not have come to fruition without the opportunity to apply to the fund, secondly the vision of the Quality Promotion Committee for approving funds and thirdly the Cregan Library for agreeing to house and manage the loan of the equipment.

Thanks to all involved and those that are about to contribute!

Longer Hours for 2013

The Library and Resource Centre are offering longer opening hours than ever for 2013.

• Resource Centre open throughout August 
• Extra opening hours for Library and Resource Centre during TP and Exams (January-May)
• Resource Centre open until 10pm during February, March and April

This increased hours for the Resource Centre alone mean it will be open for an extra 133 hours during 2013. You can see opening hours for both the Resource Centre and the Library on our website.  

These changes were made in response to requests from the Students Union and should ensure that these services are available when students most need them.  

This is only possible thanks to the continued hard work and co-operation of Library and Resource Centre staff.  A huge thanks to all involved!

Síol Information Week

This week is Síol Information Week and our theme is Avoiding Plagiarism.

Check out our new web page on citing and referencing that hopes to answer all your questions on getting it right. If your question is NOT answered, please ask us and we’ll endeavour to fix that!

Also, come see our small exhibit of plagiarism (alleged and actual) cases that have made the headlines as well as our slideshow that highlights our top 8 ways to avoid even a hint of the accusation!

It’s all there for perusal in the display area in the Library this week.

Late Fri / Sat Opening

To accommodate students preparing for exams the Library is open later than normal this Friday and Saturday:

Fri, Jan 4: 9am-10pm
Sat, Jan 5: 10am-5pm

For full Library and Resource Centre opening hours check our website.

Good luck to all those taking exams next week.  Oh, and Happy 2013!