Monthly Archives: September 2011

Saving PDFs

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We’ve had a few complaints recently that Summon doesn’t allow you save PDF files. This isn’t actually anything to do with Summon, but seems to be a recent change Adobe has introduced in their Acrobat Reader software.

If you find that the “save” icon is greyed out in the Acrobat toolbar…

…select “File”, “Save As” and “PDF”…

Alternatively, if the PDF has opened within a web browser window, hover your mouse near the foot of the PDF window to display a toolbar and then select the “save a copy” icon…

According to Adobe Support, the “save” icon only becomes active once a user has made changes to the PDF document. However, as the vast majority of full-text journal articles don’t allow you to alter the PDF, the icon remains inactive.

Macmillan Coffee Morning and Welcome (back) to UCB

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It’s hard to believe it but the start of a new term is only a few days away. A warm welcome to all new students and hello again to all continuing students, hope you’ve all had a great summer.

The campus will be holding a Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 23 September.   Tea/coffee and cakes (mostly homemade depending on how frazzled we are after all the inductions!) will be available for students in the Library from 10:30 – 12:00.

Students please support our coffee morning by either donating (baking or buying) cakes or by purchasing some at the coffee morning.

For more information on Macmillan Coffee Mornings click on the big green mug!

New printing system at UCB

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In the past we have had complaints about queues at the printers during busy times,  comments about the huge amount of paper wasted through students printing work and not collecting it and confusion about which print queue to send printing to.  But no more!!!  We have found a solution to all these problems!

We have scrapped all our old printers and got new ones that both photocopy and print (and before long scan too!).  All printing is sent to just one print queue – UCBY Print Queue and then you can go to any printer/copier (MFD) on campus to collect your printing.

You can now send as many print jobs to the printer as you like, but nothing will print out until you ask it to – saving money for you and paper for us!  A win-win situation.  All printing will automatically default to black and white (again to save you money), but you can easily print in colour if you really want to.

An email will be send out to all students shortly after the start of term explaining how the system works, but if you need to do any printing before then just come to the Library and Computing Helpdesk and we will be happy to help you get started.

PortalPlus

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Whether you’re a new or returning student the best place to access all the services available to you as a student is PortalPlus.

There are lots of different systems you can access, all of which have their own individual addresses. However, if you use the Portal, once you log in, it will automatically log you into most of these other services, as well as providing links to them – pulling everything into one place for you. This includes email, Unilearn, Summon, your library account and your shared storage space (k: drive). To acccess Portal simply click on the logo above.

News for Music Students…

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A lot of the music equipment that was previously borrowed from the library has now moved up to room 2/01. Joe Bradford,the music and media technician is now responsible for the issue of most of this equipment.

We still have a handful of vocal mics which are kept in a cupboard behind the library helpdesk. If you need to borrow these just ask a member of staff.

Collecting requested books has changed (slightly)…

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We’ve changed how you collect books you have requested. Instead of library staff fetching them from behind the helpdesk, they are now on the open shelves just opposite the helpdesk (look out for the ‘Requested books awaiting collection’ sign).

You’ll need to know your student number as we use this to put the books in order on the shelves, once you’ve picked them up simply take them to the self-service machine or the helpdesk to have them issued to your library account.

UCB YouTube Channel

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We’ve set up a YouTube channel for ‘UCB Library’ and are in the process of filming and uploading a set of short training videos on how to use some of our services and facilities.

Here’s one we made earlier….

How to borrow using the self-service machine

If you’ve got any (sensible!) suggestions for training videos you’d like us to produce please add a comment on our channel page.

 

***NEW*** UCB Discussion Forum ***NEW***

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Ever found that you have a question to ask, but there is no-one around to ask? Well we have found a solution for you! We have created the UCB Forum especially for our students to be able to find answers to their questions. The Forum will be accessible through http://portal.hud.ac.uk and has been broken down into chunks:

• Library
• IT
• Careers
• Disability
• Chat
• Students Union
• Academic Skills
• And more!!!

Simply log onto PortalPlus to be able to find the forum on your “My studies” tab, create an account using your Unimail account, log on an you are off! You can ask or answer any question but please keep it clean though or your account will be disabled!! Want to know how to use the new printing system? No problem – ask the forum and someone will be able to answer your question. Has someone asked a question that you know the answer to? Why not help them out by answering? Believe us, it feels good to know you can help others.

And if you really want to help your fellow students then you can even become a moderator! Julie will be asking students to keep an eye on the Forum, answering questions, reporting any abuse (although we are sure there won’t be any!) and she will be sending out an email inviting you to join her for a chat about the Forum just as soon as you have all settled back in at Uni.