How To Use The Library

Transcription

1 English A brief guide to library resources Library and Learning Resources 07/15

2

3 Library & Learning Resources - English This leaflet provides a brief introduction to the range of resources Library and Learning Resources offers to help you with your studies. You will find more useful information in the online English Libguide ( If you need any assistance in using the library please contact Library Enquiries by: visiting the Help Desk on the ground floor of the library, visiting our Help Pages at where you can chat with us online or use an enquiry form to contact us, phoning If you would like an in-depth library tutorial please book a session with Carol Price, the Learning and Teaching Liaison librarian for the School of English via the online booking system on Moodle ( Alternatively you can contact Carol by (carol.price@bcu.ac.uk) or by phone ( ). Summon Summon is a search engine that provides fast, simple access to relevant, scholarly material, the type of information academics are expecting to see in your coursework/assignments. It searches across our Library Catalogue, E-journals and E-books and so is an excellent way to start your search for information. Currently Summon contains over 50 million items, with more being added daily. The Summon search box is available on the Library tile on the main icity page ( or via the Library & Learning Resources icity page. Books The library purchases printed and online textbooks with selection based on the recommendations of teaching staff. E-Books A growing number of key books are available online on the MyiLibrary database. The best route into the database is via the Electronic Resources link on the Library widget on icity ( By accessing via icity you should not need to log in again. There are links on the library catalogue to the individual e-books that are available and you can also use the Summon search engine (see above) to search for e-books. Printed Books The tables below show where to find books on specific subjects. Use the online catalogue to search for books on specific subjects or search for specific titles or authors. You can access the catalogue via dedicated PCs throughout the library, online at or via the Library s icity pages. 1

4 Library & Learning Resources - English If all the copies of a book you want are on loan or at another of our libraries, you can reserve it via the catalogue. If we do not have a particular book you require, you may be able to request it via the Inter Library Loans service. See page 4. Copies of books that are likely to be needed by many students are kept in the High Demand Collection on the ground floor. This will be indicated on the catalogue. These are normally available to borrow for 4 hours. Language and Linguistics Books Subject Shelfmark Subject Shelfmark Language 400 s Philosophy and theory 401 Semiotics Discourse analysis Psycholinguistics Child Language Development Language study and teaching 407 Linguistics 410 s Writing systems, incl. alphabets 411 Etymology 412 Lexicography Phonology and phonetics 414 Cognitive Linguistics 415 Dialects and variation Applied linguistics and usage 418 English Language & Linguistics 420 s History of English language Phonology: English Language Etymology 422 Dictionaries 423 Grammar 425 & Dialects 427 Middle English Usage 428 Literature Books Literature - General 800 s Critical Theory 801 Bakhtin Study and teaching of literature 807 Creative Writing Stylistics Modernism Science Fiction & American Literature (in English) 810 s Poetry 811 Drama 812 David Mamet Fiction 813 Poe Hemingway Twentieth Century American fiction English Literature and Old English 820 s Romanticism (criticism) Post-Colonial theory Victorian Writing (general criticism) Poetry 821 Chaucer Dryden Pope Romantic Poets Twentieth Century British Poetry Drama 822 Renaissance drama Shakespeare Beckett Fiction 823 Crime Writing & Gothic &

5 Other Subjects Library & Learning Resources - English Subject Shelfmark Subject Shelfmark Bilingualism Cinema Language learning & literacy education (primary) Language teaching /LAN, & Fairy tales and folk literature Folklore, legend, proverb 398 History : Ancient 930 : Europe 940 : North America 970 Linguistic philosophies Philosophy 100 s Postmodernism Reading and use of other information media 028 Religion 200s Sociolinguistics Sociology 301s Speech and language disorders Theatre 792 Translation and interpretation Verbal communication Voice and speech Journals The majority of the journals (also known as serials or magazines) the library provides are available online but some are available as print. Online Use the Summon search engine (see page 1) to search all the journals databases the library subscribes to in one search. Alternatively, search the individual full-text journal databases, as listed in the Electronic Services section below. These can be accessed via the Find Resources link on the Library and Learning Resources icity page ( -and-learning-resources) or via the Electronic Services link on the library tile on the main icity page. Use the A-Z of Full Text Journals page (available from the Find Resources link on the Library s icity page) to see if the library has online access to a specific journal. See the section Usernames and Passwords at the end of this guide for information about how to access journals off-campus. Printed Recent issues of the printed journals the library receives are shelved on the ground floor. Use the library catalogue ( to see if a particular journal is available in print. The printed journals are arranged alphabetically by journal title within subject areas. Older copies of some of the journals are held in a remote storage so if you want to view any of these, please ask at the Help Desk. If there is an article you want from a journal we do not have, you may be able to use the Inter-Library Loans Service to obtain a copy. Please see below. 3

6 Inter-Library Loans Service Library & Learning Resources - English You can use the Inter-Library Loans Service to request journal articles or books that the library does not hold. Articles are delivered to your University address, usually within a few days. Books take longer, usually about four days and you would need to collect these from the library. Loan periods for books vary and are dependant on whichever library the book has been borrowed from. Request forms are available on the Inter-Library Loans section of the Library and Learning Resources icity pages ( Electronic Resources The library subscribes to a number of online databases providing a wide range of different types of information. Below are the databases which are most relevant to English. These can be accessed via the Electronic Services link on the Library tile on the icity page ( By using the Summon search engine (see page 1) you can search across the majority of the databases at the same time. Arts and Humanities Citation Index - citations from journals in the arts and humanities. Available via the Web of Science database. Early English Books Online (EEBO) - full-text digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America from Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) - contains full-text digitally-scanned facsimile page images from printed books published ERIC - provide access to references in education. It covers English literature, literacy, linguistics, and teaching English. EThOS - the British Library s database of UK PhD and other doctoral theses. Many of the theses can be downloaded immediately. InfoTrac - full-text journal articles covering a wide range of subjects. John Johnson Collection - searchable collection of digitised printed ephemera. JSTOR (Language and Literature Collection) - archive of full-text journal articles covering literature, language and literary criticism. JSTOR (Ireland Collection) - archive of full-text articles from over 75 Cross disciplinary titles, international in scope, while also providing a rich focus on Ireland. Literature Online (LION) - a fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 328 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources. MyiLibrary -(see E-Books page 1). Nexis UK - access to the full text of regional, national and international newspapers. Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online - the largest dictionary of the English language. 4

7 Library & Learning Resources - English Periodicals Archive Online - archive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. ScienceDirect - access to over 2000 full text journals, including several language and linguistics titles. Times Digital Archive - contains full-text digital facsimile page images of every copy of The Times from 1785 to World Shakespeare Bibliography Online - database consisting of the most comprehensive record of Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions published or produced worldwide between 1960 and ZETOC - summaries of articles and papers from journals and conference proceedings. Usernames and Passwords If you are on-campus you should not need to log in to access any of the electronic resources listed above. If you are off-campus we recommend you access them via the Electronic Services link on the Library tile on icity ( There should then be no need to log in again. More information about usernames and passwords is available at the Library Help Desk and also on the Library and Learning Resources icity pages ( If you have any difficulty logging on please us at elibrary@bcu.ac.uk. Digital Library The University s digital library holds a range of materials, including past exam papers and student projects. There are also book chapters and journal articles that lecturers have requested to be included. The Digital Library is accessible via the Library & Learning Resources icity pages and you will need to log on using your Library borrower number (i.e. the barcode number on your student card) and your 4 digit library PIN. MAP (My Assignment Planner) Being faced with your first assignment at University can be a daunting task. This guide will take the worries out of assignment planning. Follow the straightforward steps to plan your time effectively. MAP can be found at Centre for Academic Success The Centre for Academic Success is available to give you advice on study skills and help you improve your English language skills. For more information, go to the Library and Learning Resources icity page ( or Success@bcu.ac.uk 5

8 Library & Learning Resources - English Library & Learning Resources, Birmingham City University icity: 07/15