Tag: Daren Mansfield

Business School subject split – 1st June

Daren Mansfield / / Academic Subject Librarians

Although this message was originally posted in March this year, I thought it was important to re-announce that from 1st June 2015 subject support for the Business School will be split along the following lines:

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Daren will support…Accountancy and Finance, Advertising and Marketing, Economics, Events Management, International Business, Languages, Tourism, Lincoln College.

Martin O

Martin will support…Business, Business & Management, Management, MBA, Professional Development, North Lindsey College .

Our (amicable) separation is not divorce though, as both Daren and Martin will continue to work closely together as we remain part-time and unable to cover the week individually. A range of libguides will shortly be published to support these various subjects.

More Books for UGs ends on 15th May

Daren Mansfield / / Library Information

Just to let you know that our More Books service for undergraduate students will be closing on the 15th May, so if you want a book to be added to the library collection please submit your request before this deadline. More Books for Research will remain open for postgraduate students and researchers and is available at http://lncn.eu/pu57.

The More Books service for undergraduates will return in the Autumn.

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 http://library.lincoln.ac.uk/home/more-books/

National UK Blog Awards

Daren Mansfield / / Academic Subject Librarians

The Business Librarian blog has been successfully up and running since August 2011 and at that time we looked for inspiration from a range of blogs, which included Judge Business School at Cambridge University and the University of Exeter’s business librarian blog. I found that their sophisticated use of information, graphics and selected feeds was definitely the way to go, but it’s a good idea to notice what blogs exist further afield.

Blogging is such an important phenomenon that the top bloggers from across the UK assemble for the National UK Blog Awards where the Virtual World is recognised. It’s worth checking out some of the nominated blogs to gain an insight into this form of social media and perhaps acquire some inspiration if you’re interested in the design, content and ideas behind some outstanding blogs. Though not on the list of nominations my personal favourite blog, or rather daily addiction, is Ian Dunt’s splendid politics.co.uk . From the nominated list it is worth looking at Kate Russell’s blog on ICT who was voted top blog in the individual digital and technology category this year.

http://www.blogawardsuk.co.uk/

The Library is still open 24/7 until 15th May

Daren Mansfield / / University Library

Ever wished there were more hours in the day to study in our Library? Well, this is a reminder to all those students completing their dissertations and assignments, and starting to revise for exams, the Library is still open 24-7 until 15th May.

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http://library.lincoln.ac.uk/home/customer-information/opening-times/#247

Setting up a Refworks account

Daren Mansfield / / Study Skills

Have you ever wondered how to make referencing a a whole lot easier? Refworks is an online bibliographic tool that organises and then formats your references and all it takes is a few moments to set up an account – see below for a quick tutorial. Plus the University of Lincoln’s version of Refworks has a full range of referencing styles which also incorporates our very own Harvard Referencing guide:

Online tutorial on the Marketline database

Daren Mansfield / / Databases

Marketline is a very popular database used for market research purposes where researching country information, industry and company profiles is available. It is also good for international business for students wishing to find out about businesses outside of the United Kingdom. Please view Marketline’s video which gives an overview of the database, and an insight into its formidable potential. I would recommend some investigation into the database section of Marketline where you can generate some very interesting and unique charts, such as one I have just conducted on broadband activity in Afghanistan.  Why not try to generate a chart to test Marketline’s impressive archive?

easy tips on expanding your vocabulary

Daren Mansfield / / Study Skills

How do you learn new words and especially use academic language suited to a university? Expanding your vocabulary can make writing assignments easier and more enjoyable.  Here are a couple of tips:

  1. Firstly it is important to read as extensively as you can; absorb the language used in a scholarly journal article. Get into the ideas the author (s) is expressing and learn how to convey an academic argument.
  2. When searching a scholarly database like Science Direct take note of the language used and how the paper is written. Investigate the themes and how they are threaded together to deliver a convincing argument, or not (!).
  3. Buy a good quality dictionary and an extensive thesaurus to identify synonyms and antonyms. Remember to always keep them at your side when you are drafting your assignments.
  4. Read a quality newspaper like the Guardian or Independent regularly.  Newspapers are subsidised at the SU shop in the Main Building.
  5. For the slightly more ambitious reader fine literature penned from literary masters like Donne, Faulkner, Montaigne, Tolstoy, Zola or Flaubert to name just a few would be worth delving into, and get inspired to write more fluently.
  6. For anyone interested in the power of the written word it is certainly worth regularly visiting Maria Popova’s well-crafted Brain Pickings blog and particularly her piece on Kurt Vonnegut called ‘How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word‘.

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screenshot of the most renowned thesaurus available….

EndNote referencing

Daren Mansfield / / Study Skills

I’ve just  attended some preliminary training on the referencing software EndNote, which would ideally suit researchers and those committed to longer-term research projects and developing specialisms.  You can use EndNote  to search for keywords, retrieving results and viewing the abstract. The references are then stored under tagging (‘labels’) and establishing themed groups. It is similar to our other referencing software, Refworks  but is probably more aimed at higher level students or researchers.  I was particularly impressed by the way a user could find freely available pdfs within the collated references, rating the article, the flexibility it offered, the use of ‘sticky notes’, and an easy keyword search within the references. You can find EndNote on university pcs (start > all programs > EndNote). There are some videos from endnote.com that will help you if you want to use EndNote.

For Windows:

For Macs:

 

 

 

 

 

Video on searching for journal articles using databases

Daren Mansfield / / Databases

This new video, produced by Helen Williams (Academic Subject Librarian for work-based distance learners & Law), will help anyone wishing to research databases to find relevant journal articles. Highly recommended!

alighting the Transliteracy Express

Daren Mansfield / / Study Skills

I’m nearing the end of the University of Lincoln’s Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age (TELEDA) course having started the course last October. We consumed a veritable feast of social media (Twitter, Delicious, LinkedIn, Pin Interest, blogs, wikis, screencasts) as well as keeping a reflective diary about our learning journey. This engagement contributed towards an eportfolio which holds evidence of activities, reflections, scholarly research and so forth.  It’s certainly reinvigorated my interest in recording screencasts which I have routinely added to this blog, and I definitely feel more confident in engaging with social media, which happened to be my original aim of enrollment.  Without knowing it at the time,  I achieved the wonderfully titled term ‘transliteracy‘ which is the ability to write across several platforms.

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http://edeu.lincoln.ac.uk/educational-development/teleda/

If you’re interested in digital literacy then it’s worth watching the latest Jonathan Dimbleby lecture by digital guru Martha Lane Fox broadcast last month:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05p9tvt/the-richard-dimbleby-lecture-30032015 

 

 

1st June subject split

Daren Mansfield / / Academic Subject Librarians

From 1st June 2015 subject support for the Business School will be split along the following lines:
CaptureDarenPoster14

Daren will support…Accountancy and Finance, Advertising and Marketing, Economics, Events Management, International Business, Languages, Tourism, Lincoln College.

Martin O

Martin will support…Business, Business & Management, Management, MBA, Professional Development, North Lindsey.

Both Daren and Martin will continue to work closely together as they remain part-time. A range of libguides will shortly be published to support these various subjects.

 

What new books are in the Library?

Daren Mansfield / / Library Information

At the University of Lincoln we are fortunate enough to use Talis reading lists which links books in our collection to specific modules, enabling students to easily identify where print books are located in the library as well as giving them access to journal articles and ebooks off campus. Likewise, on this blog I like to showcase the past three months’ worth of newly acquired books that support the Business School.  This interactive reading list is updated every week to illustrate what new titles and additional copies are available in the Library, so it’s worth checking the Business Librarian blog regularly.

 

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New library books

Daren Mansfield / / Library Information, Uncategorized

Several new books and additional copies have arrived in the Library to support Business School students. I add them to a talis reading list which is a tab on this blog (see below) and includes the past three months of recent additions. If you would like any more books then please visit our More Books page.

http://lists.library.lincoln.ac.uk/lists/B265CE16-325F-E59A-9290-4D9FEEE7D94A.html

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Businesslibrarian email no longer available

Daren Mansfield / / businesslibrarian@lincoln.ac.uk

As part of the transfer process of Martin and I splitting subject support on the 1st June we have discontinued the businesslibrarian@lincoln.ac.uk email. If anyone wants to contact us please email dmansfield@lincoln.ac.uk for Daren Mansfield or mosborne@lincoln.ac.uk for Martin Osborne. We continue to share our subject support until the transfer date when we take on separate subjects within the Business School.