Changes in the library

Welcome back everyone!

We’ve made a few changes to the library space over the summer. The first floor has been redesigned as a social study area, with more tables for groups of two or three people to study. To accomodate this, half the book collection, from shelf number 500 on, is located on Floor Two. You’ll notice that the Mount Oliver collection has been moved to the rolling shelves in front of the Journal Archives on Floor Two. Student Projects/ Theses are now to be found in this area as well.

If you want to work in a group of more than three people, you should go to one of the study rooms. Some of the fixed pcs have been moved from these rooms back out into the open areas in order to free up the rooms for group study. New signs on the study room doors give you all the necessary information about the rooms, including the strength of the WiFi signal in each room.

Floor Two is for quiet and individual study. Whispered conversation is okay in this area, but the silent study area (the semicircular area upstairs) should be just that!

See our opening hours for the year here.

Any questions? Just ask a member of staff - we’ll be happy to help.

Welcome all first years!

Going to college for the first time is a big step, no matter how old you are. There’s a lot to learn, new people to meet, even finding your way around the campus is a challenge at first. The library will be here to help you all the way through your course of study at DkIT, so come and visit us!

The library holds collections of books, theses, journals, DVDs, CDs. There are computers on both floors of the library and WiFi as well as points where you can plug in laptops. There are spaces for individual study and for those who want to work in groups. We give training on topics including how to search library resources, how to get started on your assignments and how to reference material – your lecturer will book sessions for the class. Meanwhile there is always a member of library staff on duty at the Library and Information Desk ready to answer your questions, or you can email your query to Library@dkit.ie.

We wish everyone starting at DkIT the best of luck with your studies.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
Henry David Thoreau

Bloomsday 2012

“Dead! says Alf. He's no more dead than you are.”
[Ulysses – Cyclops episode]

The sixteenth of June is Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce’s Ulysses is set. The novel follows Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom around the streets of Dublin so Bloomsday is usually celebrated by tours of Joyce’s Dublin among other events.

Copyright restrictions on Joyce’s work were in place up to the end of last year. Joyce’s heir, his grandson Stephen James Joyce, guarded the copyright fiercely, refusing permission to stage events as innocuous as public readings of Joyce’s work. Joyce afficionados are therefore not mourning the passing of copyright, however much a wake for the copyright last January in Oslo might suggest otherwise.

This year, then, the celebrations are set to be bigger and better than ever. Anybody who wants can get up and read a passage from Joyce or stage a production.  The downside is that the Joyce memorabilia industry has also been unleashed, though Joycean tat might be viewed as a small price to pay for copyright freedom.  What do you think?  Before answering that you should read your free copy of Ulysses online courtesy of the Gutenberg project...

Poetry Launch

Dundalk-based poet Barbara Smith is launching her second poetry collection, The Angel’s Share, at 6 pm on May 23^rd at the Basement Gallery, Dundalk Town Council - everyone’s welcome.  Barbara has previously given creative writing classes in DkIT Library and we’d like to wish her every success with the new collection. 

If you’re interested you should also check out the poetry collection in the library which features local poets like Vona Groarke as well as Irish poets from further afield including Heaney, Kinsella, Kennelly and Meehan.  During the academic year DkIT Library is the venue for a writers’ group meeting on Thursdays at 7.30pm and poetry readings are a periodic occurrence … we’ll keep you posted. 

The Library during Exams

Exams are almost upon us and though it’s a stressful time of year for everyone we hope to make the library space as accommodating as possible.  Here are a few pointers on what’s available during these two weeks:

o       All group study rooms including the Anaverna and the Whitaker Archives are walk-in (you don’t have to book) and the Training Room will be opened as needed

o       10 computers on each floor are available to book one hour in advance, for one hour, via the catalogue page

o       The open areas of the library apart from the space behind the Information Desk are for individual study only.  Niall our library attendant will be looking for your cooperation so that all users can avail of the space

o       The library will be open until 10pm Monday to Thursday on both weeks of the exams.  Library services will be available, but if you need technical or printing support you will have to be here before 5pm

These are a couple of useful links to DkIT past papers and to exam tips provided by the University of Melbourne respectively: http://exampapers.dkit.ie/ http://courseworks.unimelb.edu.au/research_and_writing/exam_preparation/exam_day_tips. 

Best of luck to everyone.  I’ll leave you with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi to get you motivated:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

DkIT Library Prize

You worked hard, you got your projects in – ever feel like you could use a little appreciation?

DkIT Library is inviting undergraduate students to seek recognition for written work you have already done to be in with a chance to win an iPad. If you've completed and submitted a project as part of your course, all you have to do now is fill out an application form and return it with the project to us. You could soon be the proud owner of a new iPad. 

We’ll be taking a slightly different angle on assessing the paper to your lecturer, as assessments will be based primarily on your ability to gather and present information. This includes:

• Using infomation from various sources
• Critical thinking and ability to evaluate information
• Writing and presenting your work
• Crediting the source of information and applying the Harvard Referencing system

The deadline for submissions is 20th June 2012 and assessments will be made by 1st September 2012. Papers can come from any field of study or discipline with the exception of Learning to Learn/Learning to Research/Learning to Study modules. For more information on the judging panel and the criteria they will use to judge the entries, see the entry form which you should fill out and submit with your work. Papers can be submitted by hand to the issue desk or electronically to informationskills@dkit.ie.

Elsevier Boycott

9535 researchers (so far) have signed a petition to boycott the publisher Elsevier, which publishes academic journals.  The reasons for this: Elsevier charge a very high price for individual journal titles.  In order to get a fair price for the titles you want, you have to subscribe to ‘bundles’ (this is when you subscribe to a number of different titles, some of which might be no use to you at all).  Secondly, Elsevier support measures like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) which aim to restrict the free exchange of information.  (See the website Cost of Knowledge).  Two issues arise here: publishing models and internet privacy.

The problem is not only with Elsevier but with a publishing model that sees academic researchers creating research, taxpayers’ money often funding it, and other researchers reviewing the work, often for free – but publishers charging a high price to make it available.  That means that research departments and libraries like this one spend the greater part of their budgets gaining access to the research. 

There is another way!  The Open Access Model sees authors choosing to make their articles freely available, either by publishing in an open access journal, or in an open access repository, or on a private web page (like a blog, for example).  If you’ve ever found a good academic article on Google Scholar and noticed with relief the link to the side taking you through to a pdf file that you can read online straightaway, you know what I’m talking about.

These issues are further complicated by the efforts of various governments to come up with legislation that will tighten up on online copyright.  The most famous examples of these are SOPA and PIPA mentioned above.  They have been put on hold in the US, I understand, but a similar law has already been passed in Ireland.  The reason why these laws are creating problems for people is that it means that an open access website, such as a blog or YouTube, would itself be held accountable for what people reply or upload.  One well-known example was the case of MegaUpload being taken down recently, in the spirit of these new initiatives.

Bringing it all back home: the library subscribes to the database Science Direct, which is provided by Elsevier, but we don’t subscribe to any of their bundles.  We have an institutional repository where researchers can make their research freely available, and the Higher Education Authority states that any research they fund must be placed in such a repository as soon as possible after publication. 

It’s impossible for this blog post to even mention all the issues raised and there are no easy answers.  The model is still evolving, and the debate is open and heated.  For more info and comment visit the Guardian website. What do you think?  Should information be free?  Should media be free?