Category: News

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Autumn Brings Changes In Opening Hours

Summer time is coming to an end and the new autumn opening hours will start on August 22nd 2016.

At Kaisa House there will be self-service hours on weekday mornings and evenings

The main library Kaisa House is open Mon-Fri 8-20 and Sat 11-17. The customer service is available Mon-Fri 10-19 and Sat 11-17.

Kaisa House will function as Self Service Library on weekdays from 8 to 10 and 19-20. Customer service personnel is not present during these self-service hours. The Library provides user instructions to device and premises. However, should problems arise, you can contact the staff.

Learn more about Self Service Library

New opening hours for autumn 2016
New opening hours for autumn 2016

New opening hours at the campus libraries

Starting from Monday 22.8 the opening hours at Viikki, Kumpula and Meilahti are Mon-Thu 9-18 and Fri 9-16.

All opening hours including exceptions can be found on library’s website

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Mobilizing East Asia Online on trial until Sept 13

Mobilizing East Asia Online offers a carefully selected and tightly organized range of essential English-language newspapers, magazines and pamphlets following the descent into war in East and South-East Asia from the turn of the twentieth century to the 1950s.

The Collection offers access to unique primary source material which can be used to pursue research topics in modern history, Asian studies, politics and war studies.

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British Library Newspapers on trial until Aug 31

The most comprehensive range of regional and local newspapers in Britain between the mid eighteenth and mid twentieth centuries ever made available in a digital collection, the collections within the British Library Newspapers series provide a range of publications to reflect the social, political and cultural events of the times.

The series is composed of five collections:

  • British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900
  • British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800-1900
  • British Library Newspapers, Part III: 1741-1950
  • British Library Newspapers, Part IV: 1732-1950
  • British Library Newspapers, Part V: 1746-1950

More information: http://gale.cengage.co.uk/british-library-newspapers.aspx

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Happy birthday dear arXiv!

ArXiv celebrates its´ 25th birthday 14th August. Open access archive arXiv serves the researchers of physics, astronomy, computer science and mathematics as they can free of charge submit scientific papers for the discussion. The anniversary truly gives cause for celebration, as an open archive by the end of last year has collected 139 million works whereas papers have been opened more than a million times.
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ArXiv´s user survey published in June collected 36 000 responses. A clear majority of respondents to the survey would like to keep an archive mainly the way it is, although some features, such as development of the search functionality, were seen crucial. Also development of research data archiving was pointed out as an important development line.

The vast majority of the users say arXiv should stick to what it is good at: That is to share researchers´ papers openly and rapidly. However, the pressure of a technical modernization of the archive and the expansion of the financial base is high. Currently mainly libraries and a charitable foundation finance arXiv. Also Helsinki University Library participates in arXiv´s operation and maintenance. Advisory boards of arXiv meet in September to make guidelines on the future of the archive.

Read more:

Van Noorden, Richard (2016): ArXiv preprint server plans multimillion-dollar overhaul. Nature Vol 534, Issue 7609. doi:10.1038/534602a
Rieger, Oya Y. (2016) arXiv User Survey Report : arXiv@25: Key Findings of the User Survey.

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SAGE Research Methods – new platform

A better SAGE Research Methods experience is here. The new platform has an improved search capability and overall usability. It will work equally well on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Access to the current platform will end 28th July 2016.

Benefits of the new platform include:

  • A unified platform for text and video content, providing users with a multimedia research experience
  • Improved discoverability of content, both from within the platform and from external sources
  • The Methods Map has been improved, allowing users to explore method concepts with greater ease.
  • The browse options have been enhanced to align with user needs – allowing browse by discipline, content type, and method topic.

Personal Profiles, Method Lists and Saved Searches:

  • Staff and students personal profiles will be migrated across to the new site. When you first visit the new site, click ‘Profile’ in the top right hand corner of the page, and click ‘Reset your password’. Follow the instructions to reset your password. Once this is done you will be able to login.
  • All My Method lists will be migrated across to the new site. They will now be called Reading Lists, but will contain all the content they contained on the current site.
  • Saved Searches will not be available on the new site. The new site performs searches in a different manner to the current site. This means that saved searches cannot be migrated.

https://youtu.be/BCG9jeU1IHI

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Kaisa House Group Work Room Reservations in the Office 365 Calendar

Starting July 1st, reservations for the 10 group work rooms in Kaisa House will be made using the Office 365 calendar. It is no longer possible to make reservations in the former system, Timmi, after June 2016.

The group facilities can only be reserved by the students and staff of the University of Helsinki. To make a reservation you need a Helsinki University Office365 account and calendar. You can find the Kaisa House group work rooms in the calendar under “Kaisa-talo Group Study Room”.

Further information and instructions for group work rooms on the library’s website.

Starting in summer 2016, all Helsinki University Library group work rooms will be reserved with the Office 365 calendar. In addition to the Kaisa House group work rooms you can also find group work rooms from the following places in the calendar: Viikki Campus Library, Learning Centre Aleksandria, and Learning Centre Minerva. Starting in August you will also be able to reserve the group work rooms of the Kumpula and Meilahti Campus Libraries using the calendar.

Further information and instructions for the Office365 calendar available on the Helpdesk website.

Change in reservation practices for group work rooms in the library

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Russian and Eastern European Studies Guide – тематические портал

In Russian and Eastern European studies -guide you will find the most relevant sources of information, core databases, journals, articles and news feeds in the area of Russian and Eastern European studies.

The guide provides you also with a collection of databases and portals, tips on using them, news from the special libraries and links to theses, archives and statistical sources etc. The guide is open access although some of the content is only available in the University of Helsinki network.

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Picture: Wikipedia.org CC BY-SA 4.0

Russian and Eastern European Studies –Guide has been compiled as teamwork between the Helsinki University Library, the Slavonic Library of the National Library of Finland and the library of the Aleksanteri Institute.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement!

ResearchGuides  – Library’s information sources from various research fields, expert librarians and help guides

ResearchGuide_logo

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LIBER 2016 in Helsinki: European Libraries Unite for Open Science

The LIBER Conference for European research libraries will be held in Helsinki between 29 June and 1 July 2016. The theme of the conference, Libraries Opening Paths to Knowledge, is highly topical, as it focuses on the role of libraries as promoters of open science.

The goal of the conference is to highlight the work that European research libraries do to promote science and to generate new knowledge in academic communities.

“The significance of libraries in the promotion of open science is recognised to an extraordinary degree in Europe and in the European Commission. The number of participants in the Helsinki conference is higher than ever, which reflects the great interest in the topic,” says the National Library of Finland’s Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen, current president of the LIBER network.

“For example, libraries are currently actively involved in the reform of copyright legislation to unlock the opportunities afforded by open science.”

The conference will welcome more than 500 participants from different parts of the world. Finnish representatives include the Academy of Finland as well as dozens of institutions of higher education and research organisations.

“Libraries and research funders can significantly impact the ways open science will be integrated into everyday research work in research organisations. Succeeding in this requires an open dialogue between both national and international networks,” says Riitta Maijala, Vice President for Research at the Academy of Finland. Maijala is one of the keynote speakers of the conference.

The 45th LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche – Association of European Research Libraries) conference is organised in Finland by the National Library of Finland, the Helsinki University Library and the Finnish Research Library Association.

Follow the conversation on Twitter, #liber2016


Further information
President of LIBER
Director Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen, National Library of Finland Library Network Services
kristiina.hormia (at) helsinki.fi

LIBER 2016 website
Flickr, LIBER Europe
LIBER 2016 promotional film

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Brexit or Bremain? – Oxford University Press offers free access to resources regarding some major debates

The editors of Oxford Public International Law have begun a series of debate maps indexing discussions by scholars on the public international law aspects of some major debates. The material is freely available and contains treaties and relevant articles.

On the webpage:

  • Legal resources on the Brexit
  • Israel-Gaza Wars 2008-2014
  • Use of Force in Ukraine
  • Legal Resources on the South and East China Seas
  • Legal Resources on the International Criminal Court
  • Legal Resources on the Use of Force against Syria
  • Other page: Free access to OUP resources on refugee law
Brexit cartoon by Gwydion M Williams CC-BY 2 0 via Flickr
“Brexit cartoon” by Gwydion M. Williams CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr