Being a student again is an interesting experience, especially from a Library use point of view. Studying at a different institution to my home one puts me back in the shoes of someone who has no idea of the workings of the Library. I'm now able to look critically at how an academic library attempts to familiarise students with what it has to offer.
Here are some observations so far:
- I only got my student card a week after I arrived here. That meant that I was an outsider for a week: I was stopped by security when I wanted to enter the Library and I couldn't use any of the facilities.
- We were introduced very early on to our personal subject librarian. She gave us an hour lesson on what we could find on the Library web site and how to use the databases.
- I still can't get into the Library databases. There's a process you have to go through to get a pin number in order to register on the site. The pin has apparently been sent to my institutional email address, but I have no idea what that is. This is very frustrating, as I have an enormous amount of work to get through and some of the sources we're using are only available through the institution's databases and/or e-books.
- I really appreciate being able to communicate, via email, with my subject librarian. I've emailed her about the pin problem and hopefully, we'll be able to sort it out together.
- Being able to use the Research Commons is fantastic. There's a comfortable lounge to sit in, free, fast wireless, coffee on tap and clean bathrooms just around the corner.
- I have no idea how to photocopy anything yet. I'm going to go to the Library today to find out.
No comments:
Post a Comment