Dreaming of a Winter Wonderland!

With just two weeks of the Autumn term left the LRCs are getting into the Christmas spirit with trees, decorations and Christmas themed displays! Check out our trees...

The LRCs will be closed over the Christmas break but don't for get you can access all our online services such as e-books and mySearch from our Moodle pages 24/7.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

From all the LRC Staff

Celebrating Diversity Week 2013!

All three Colleges was busy last week celebrating Diversity Week. We hope you had fun... we certainly did and here is what we got up to!

Around the world with your LRCs!

Guildford College LRC

79 Students attended two talks by Bob Thompson 'Developing Education in Africa: experiences of volunteering in South Sudan'

There was good feedback from the talks and the Foundation Degree Early Childhood Studies students hope to make a link with a school in South Sudan.

Farnham College LRC

54 students and staff contributed to the Why I love my Country Display! They covered 21 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Comments included: 

• the fact that many nationalities live in harmony with each other (Malaysia and Nepal) 
• “you can lay on a beach, diving in crystal clear sea water, enjoy the breeze on the mountain top, trek through a rain forest, or shop and party in the City of Malaysia” 
• ”I love the sound of the traffic and how it is still bright at night from the lights of the billboards everywhere” (HK) 
• “Vietnam is where saying “I love you” is impossible, according to the BBC, since we have more than 40 different pronouns to describe the relationships between individual and groups, based on ages and positions.” 
• Nepalese students commented on the beauty of the mountains and fantastic food, but one said that a surprising thing was how there would suddenly be a strike and they would have a day’s holiday. 
•  UK students said they love their freedom of speech, free healthcare and education and several said they love our weather!
• One student was reading the descriptions on the board and realised there was a student in college from her home town in Zimbabwe – she is going to try to make contact...watch this space...

Merrist Wood College LRC

At MW LRC students participated in an Equality and Diversity Treasure Hunt Quiz.

We have also had lots of equality and diversity fiction being borrowed from our displays at all the LRCs if you are interested in borrowing some E&D resources here are our recommended reads and watches!

A selection of Equality & Diversity Resources

available from your LRCs

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

Fiction: about a young hermaphrodite (FC LRC: F WIN)

Britain’s Gay Footballers (dvd) BBC 3

Amal Fashanu, niece of Justin Fashanu, the only ever openly gay British professional, goes on a mission to discover why no gay player has followed in her uncle's boots in over twenty years. (MWLRC: 796.334 BBC)

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Fiction: a murder mystery with the detective, and narrator, Christopher Boone a fifteen year old with Asperger's Syndrome. (All LRCs F HAD) Show More

Show Less

Drawing Autism by Jill Mullin.

A collection of inspirational artwork produced by people with autism. (FC LRC: 709.04 MUL)

Equality and Diversity in Policing by Brian Stout

(MW LRC: 363.2 STO)

Equality and Diversity in the Lifelong Learning Sector 2^nd ed. by Ann Gravells

(GC & MW LRCs: 374.017 GRA)

Finding the Real Me: True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity by Tracie O’Keefe

(FC & GC LRCs: 306.77 OKE)

Killing Honour by Bali Rai

Fiction: about honour killings and violence towards women. (All LRCs: F RAI)

Milk (dvd) starring Sean Penn

Film: inspiring story of the first openly gay man to be voted into major public office in America, Harvey Milk. (GC LRC: 791.437 MIL)

Noughts and Crosses Trilogy by Malorie Blackman

Fiction: Against a background of prejudice, distrust and violence a romance builds between, Sephy a cross and Callum a nought. One that is to lead them into terrible danger… (MW LRC F BLA)

Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Fiction: A quirky comedy that brings two people with mental health problems, Pat and Tiffany, together. (MW & GC LRC F QUI)

Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt

Fiction: about Jenna who survives a car crash that kills her best friend but leaves her permanently scarred. (GC LRC: F JAR)

Succeeding in College with Asperger Syndrome: a student guide by John Harpur

(FC LRC: 371.90474 HAR)

Untouchable (dvd) starring Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy

Film: a French comedy drama about the friendship between a rich quadriplegic and his Senegalese carer.  (GC & FC LRCs: 791.437 UNT)

Zelah Green by Vanessa Curtis

Fiction: Zelah calls herself a “cleanaholic” and through her rituals has found a way to cope with the tragedy in her life. (FC LRC: F CUR)

Top e-books in November

Business keeps top spot  in November's top ten e-books by pages viewed followed by Beauty Therapy, IT, and Hospitality..

Here's November's chart:

4144   BTEC Level 3 National Business Book 1
2086   BTEC Level 3 Business Book 2 
645     Beauty Therapy. - 3rd ed.
354     Aromatherapy: therapy basics
293     Official guide to body massage
217     Book of JavaScript
115     Theory of hospitality and catering   
113     BTEC Level 3 National in IT
81       Beauty therapy. - 2nd ed.
78       Information systems project management
   

The top downloaded books for November were:

33  Understanding addiction
6    BTEC Level 2 First Business
6    An introduction to animal behaviour
5    Armstrong's handbook of management and leadership
5    Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice

We Love New Books!

You might have noticed that at GC LRC we haven't had a new book display since we lost the space when we installed the new self-issue system!

We now have a brand new display. We love New Books and we hope that you do too so pop in and borrow one today!

We are also sending out lists of new resources by email to Teaching staff. We sent the first lists out just after half term and will be sending more after Christmas!

Half term opening hours

All three LRCs will be CLOSED on Friday 25 October for the staff training day.

Guildford College

The LRC will be open every day in half term.

9.30 - 4.30
Closed for lunch 12.30 - 1.30

Farnham College

The LRC will be closed all week.

mySearch - what is it and why do I need it?

What is mySearch?

mySearch is an online research tool that “pulls together” many of the LRC resources so that they can be explored using a single search box. In other words, rather than searching the Library Catalogue for books and a database for journal articles, you can go to mySearch and get results which include books, e-books, and journal articles in one list. In fact, you could think of mySearch as the Library’s version of Google.

The link can be found on the LRC E-Resources page (you will need to login to Moodle for access) or here on the blog (see links on the right).

It works like this...

Technically-speaking, mySearch provides an integrated index for many of our resources. Although it is an EBSCO product, your search results will also include non-EBSCO resources such as:

• Heritage, the Library Catalogue
• BioOne
• Britannica

Not only does it search most of our resources with one search box, it returns your results quickly and ranks them according to relevancy. It’s powerful and should be of help finding resources for your research. Just keep in mind that, like Google, it may return a large number of results and you will need to use judgment when assessing their value.

I'm having trouble using mySearch...

Well, it’s a new tool for you and for us! So, it may not be obvious how to do some of the things you have grown accustomed doing with the other databases. So we would like to encourage you to explore this resource along with us and give us feedback on your success and frustration with it.

Remember the LRC staff are happy to help if you are having trouble or want some help with searching for information.

Top e-books in September

We start another year with Business back in top spot  in September's top ten e-books by pages viewed with Tourism, IT, Carpentry, Counselling, Childcare and Beauty Therapy all staking their claim. Tourism top the download chart but we also have entries for Arboriculture and Construction.

Here's September's chart:

2977   BTEC Level 3 National Business Book 1
1403   BTEC Level 3 Business Book 2 
267     JavaScript Professional Projects
249     BTEC Level 3 National in IT
126     Learn JavaScript in a weekend
88       Carpentry and joinery Level 1.
69       BTEC National Travel and tourism Book 2   
51       Counselling skills and theory
50       Facials and skin care in essence
43       Working with children
   

The top downloaded books for September were:

5    Travel & tourism for BTEC Level 3 Book 1
3    Doing your research project
3    Edexcel diploma: Construction and the built environment
2    Trees : their natural history
2    Effective organisational communication