UCC Library News

From 7-11 February 2022 UCC Library's Special Collections & Archives launches its first colouring book as part of the annual international colouring festival on social media. We're sharing #ColorOurCollections images to spread awareness and better engagement with our collections by inspiring creativity and sparking curiosity.

Over the course of the week Elaine Harrington, John Rooney, Emma Horgan and Emer Twomey will share a series of #ColorOurCollections blog posts discussing how the process works. 

Access the colouring book directly: #ColourOurCollections

Share your creations with us: #ColourOurCollections @UCCLibrary @theriversideUCC 

UCC wishes to appoint an experienced administrator to the role of Head of Research Services.  Reporting to the Director of Library Services, the Head of Research Services - Library will lead the UCC Library Research Services team in developing and delivering a range of innovative services in support of robust, reproducible, and open research practices.

This new portfolio is designed to meet the rapidly developing and increasingly complex needs of researchers operating in a digital research and scholarship environment.  It is intricately connected to the University’s strategic goals to strengthen UCC’s research impact, and the role holder will directly support University-level initiatives in this area.

The role holder will become the chief authority in the University on Open Science and by developing expertise in all aspects of OS will lead on the adoption of best practice in all research-related activity.

This is a great opportunity to grow and develop an amazing team

Closing Date: 24 February 2021. Details and Application at http://ore.ucc.ie

UCC Library wishes to appoint an experienced administrator to the role of Head of Digital Systems. The Head of Digital Systems (Library) will lead a team of library and technology specialists in developing UCC Library’s digital library infrastructure, metadata services, discovery services, and digital asset management capacity.

The post-holder will oversee and further develop the following functions: library systems and support services; electronic resources; cataloguing & metadata. The position will define and articulate the vision, strategic directions, and priorities for library systems and digital services in a dynamic environment that values creativity, teamwork, and innovation. 

This is a great opportunity to grow and develop an amazing team.

Closing Date 15 February, 2022. Details and application at http://ore.ucc.ie.

A message from our Library Director Colette McKenna

On behalf of UCC Library I would like to wish you and yours a Happy New Year.

As we start into Semester 2 I would like to reiterate that the safety and wellbeing of all our students and staff remains a high priority. With that in mind there are some points I would like to remind you of:

Planning your visit

• We continue to follow public health guidelines around COVID so face coverings must be worn at all times in all our library buildings.  Please make use of the hand sanitizing stations located throughout the building. 
• The library has the longest opening hours of any library in the country. For full information on the opening hours of our buildings and service desks please visit UCC Library Opening Hours.
• For more information on planning your visit you please read Plan your Visit to UCC Library. 

How we can help you

• Library Staff are here to help you with all your information, teaching and learning needs. Staff can be contacted at our information desks, or at library@ucc.ie. If you wish to contact specific staff please see UCC Library staff list. 
• UCC Library Website is the portal to everything in the library and should be your first port of call if seeking information for your research and assignments as well as information about the library.
• Please check out UCC Library website for a vast wealth of resources to aid you with your research, teaching and learning - Library Catalogue , Databases, E-journals & Books.
• UCC Library has a number of self-directed Canvas modules which offer teaching to all UCC students on information searching and the Library resources. 
• To keep up to date with new services and information from the library why not follow us on Social Media Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

As always, our approach for Semester 2 will remain under constant review to ensure we are implementing the latest public health guidance.

Best wishes for the coming Semester.

As we progress through the Semester, the following easing of restrictions to UCC Library Services will come into effect.

Maximum Library Occupancy

UCC Library has been operating at 80% occupancy in both Boole and Brookfield Health Sciences libraries. Effective immediately, both libraries will operate at maximum occupancy. This ensures there will be ample study spaces for students in the run-up to exams. Face coverings must be worn at all times, and please make use of the hand sanitising stations throughout the buildings.

Seat Booking

After 7^th November, it will no longer be required to have a seat booking for a study space in Brookfield Health Sciences Library and throughout most of Boole Library. There is unrestricted access to 2400 study spaces available throughout both libraries. We do know, however, that some form of a seat reservation system is useful to some of our users planning their visit to the library. For that reason, from November 8th, seat booking will remain in place in the Quad Reading Room on Q Floor of Boole Library. This service provides 92 pre-bookable spaces and Library staff will monitor the Reading Room regularly to ensure that bookings are in place. Bookings for the Quad Reading Room can be made from November 8^th directly from the Library website.

Coming Soon

In the run-up to exams, the Library will reintroduce additional services used in previous years to ensure maximum access to study spaces for all users:

• Space Hogging Campaign to free-up unused study spaces that have been hogged with belongings.
• The Quad Reading Room will be available for 24/7 access during study and exam weeks.
• Weekend access to the New Reading Rooms on Q+1, Q+2 and Q+3 will return in time for the end of semester.

Further details on these will be provided in due course.

As always, the library is closely following public health guidelines. Please remain vigilant and ensure that all safety protocols are followed.

UCC Library continues to operate the longest opening hours of any academic library in the country, with the Boole Library open from 7:30am – 1:30am seven days a week. As part of UCC Library’s on-going commitment to UCC’s Green Campus initiative and our responsible use of energy consumption within library buildings, we have made a small change to Reading Room access over the weekends. This change is introduced as a pilot project to explore the impact on energy costs.

As of Friday 15th October, the New Reading Rooms on Q+1, Q+2 and Q+3 of the Boole Library Building close from 8pm on Friday evenings until 7:30am on Monday mornings. The areas impacted are indicated in blue on the following maps: Q+1, Q+2 and Q+3.  

Over 1200 bookable study spaces will still be available for Library users. All other Library spaces such as the Creative Zone and Group Study rooms also remain available for student use. 

Access to the library’s collections is unaffected. The Library will continue to review patterns of usage of the library building and will reinstate weekend access to the new reading rooms prior to examinations period.

Brookfield Health Sciences Library is unaffected. 

The latest newsletter from UCC Library is now available. Please click through for information about Library opening hours, new services and staff, Special Collections, Workshops, as well as some tips for getting the best out of UCC library.

UCC Library, as a member of the IReL consortium, has helped to secure numerous open access agreements with academic publishers. These Transformative Agreements typically allow corresponding authors from eligible institutions (including UCC) to publish their articles open access immediately on publication at no extra cost. For a full list of current agreements (including approximately 10,000 journals), and information on how to avail of them, please consult our new guide: https://libguides.ucc.ie/OAagreements/home

1. Check UCC Library's OneSearch. We have thousands of eJournals and eBooks available for use 24/7. Many publishers have allowed free or improved access to eBooks at this time. A full listing is available on the eBooks listing and is being updated as new resources are added.

2. Search the Internet Archive for digitised , largely 19th century publications. Hathi Trust or Gutenberg Project can also help.

3. Search the National Emergency Library to borrow any of the 1.5 million digitised 20th century books. Sign up for an account and 'borrow' up to 10 books for 14 days.

4. Try Google Books and Google Scholar . Make sure you are logged in with your UCC credentials as ,  if the book is there , you will have greater access to the resources.

5. If the book is based on someone's PhD thesis, it's worth checking that institution's institutional repository to find an uploaded version. There may also be copies forwarded to RIAN - Ireland's research repository.

6. If the book is based on someone's PhD thesis and they did their PhD in the UK , check EThOS where there might be full text or not.

7. Depending on how old the item is an online version may be available on Europeana, DPLA (US), Gallica (France), DDB(Germany), e-rara (Switzerland). These all hold digitised versions of books , but usually not 20th / 21st century.

8. It can be worth adding the book title and researchgate / academia into a Google Search box as sometimes the author has uploaded part of a book to their academic profile. If this is the case then you can contact the author themselves once the URL has been identified.

9. Sometimes database versions of books exist e.g. Loeb series.

10. If the item is in any way general rather than academic it can be worth checking BorrowBox with the public libraries. BorrowBox can be used on a smartphone / tablet / computer. If you don't have a public library account one can be set up immediately online.