Services for Academic Staff
Information Services (IS) provides a range of services for academic staff to support teaching, learning and research.
- Acquiring library resources
- E-learning services
- Software by request
- The library catalogue and electronic resources
- Aberystwyth University research
- Subject librarian services
- Formal liaison with academic departments
- Information Services service guidelines
If you haven't already done so, ensure that you also visit this Information for New Staff page aimed at ALL new staff which includes essentials such as activating your computer account and applying for your Aber card.
Acquiring library resources
- Use the Purchase Request form in Primo (the library catalogue and discovery service) to order books, DVDs etc. from your departmental cost centre
- Contact your subject librarian if you are considering subscribing to a journal or to arrange a site trial for an electronic resource
- Use the Document Supply forms in Primo to request books, articles or dissertations from other libraries. Find out more about Document Supply
- Information Services staff can arrange the digitisation of book chapters and journal articles on module reading lists so they can be made available for viewing via the AberLearn BlackBoard VLE
- Create web links to items in Primo in your reading lists
- Your subject librarian will contact you regarding book purchases on receipt of module approval forms for any new or revised modules you have submitted for approval by Faculty
- To have an existing module checked for library resources you can upload the module reading list or e-mail the list to lenstaff@aber.ac.uk
- Contact lenstaff@aber.ac.uk to modify the different loan periods for books in stock on request
E-learning services
- AberLearn BlackBoard - Virtual Learning Environment
- AberLearn BlackBoard FAQs
- Nexus - sharing Good Practice in Technology-enhanced Learning at Aberystwyth University
- E-learning support Delicious bookmarks
- Specialist teaching equipment
- AberCast lecture capture: available in all centrally-timetabled teaching rooms
- Videoconferencing: book one of the five videoconferencing suites
Software by request
IS staff can arrange
- the installation of software on public workstations (specifications and local settings permitting)
- the upload of example files (for teaching) to public workstations
- supply site-licensed software for installation on institution-owned computers e.g. EndNote (reference management), NVivo (qualitative data analysis)
The library catalogue and electronic resources
- Search Primo to find books, journals, DVDs, newspapers, dissertations and rare books in all Aberystwyth University locations. Find e-books and e-journals too.
- Sign in to
- use My Account to manage your loans, requests and renewals
- use your E-Shelf to store records of items you have found
- set up alerts to receive messages about incoming books that match your regular search terms
- To browse or search our e-journals collection in Primo, click E-journals A-Z
- Search Primo Central to find full-text journal articles from thousands of journal titles. Find Primo Central in the Search menu in Primo.
- Click Databases A-Z in Primo to browse all our subscribed databases and some high-quality free online resources
- Follow the advice here to view full-text from Primo search results
- Look out for the @aber buttons in search results in subscribed databases; clicking on the button will check our e-journal holdings for full-text
- Follow the advice here when working off-campus to ensure you can access e-books, e-journals and online databases subscribed to by Aberystwyth University
Aberystwyth University research
- PURE is the Aberystwyth University current research information system (CRIS) which will hold details of staff’s current research activity (outputs, esteem, student supervision). It will be used to make the University's REF submission and will interact with CADAIR to populate the repository with staff's completed research outputs.
- CADAIR is the Aberystwyth University open access repository for showcasing higher degree dissertations and other research output.
Subject librarian services
Contact your subject librarian directly by phone or email, or email acastaff@aber.ac.uk (rota service)
We provide: for staff
- An introductory visit and/or tour of library facilities by arrangement
- Advice on library services for academic staff by phone and email
- Collaboration on resourcing the library and information skills training
- One-to-one training on request; we can visit you on campus for e.g. use of online catalogues and resources on and off campus, content alerts or EndNote training
- Refresher/update sessions for groups of staff by arrangement
We provide: for students
- Subject and skills enquiries by phone and email and one-to-one help or training on request
- Undergraduate induction: talks and library tours (trails) in Welcome Week
- Postgraduate induction: by arrangement with academic departments
- Induction talks and library tours (trails) by arrangement for students starting at other times of the year
- Custom information skills training for students in partnership with academic staff as part of your modules or other teaching programmes e.g search techniques, referencing software, avoiding plagiarism
- Learner support events e.g. Primo Roadshows 2012, First Assignment event 2011 (in collaboration with colleagues, other support departments, the Guild and academic staff)
- Optional on Wednesday afternoons: the Undergraduate Study Practices Programme and Postgraduate Study Practices Programme
Formal liaison with academic departments
Subject librarians liaise directly with IS Representatives drawn from the academic staff in each department. Other forums include
- Round Tables: an opportunity for IS staff to discuss strategic changes to more closely meet departments' needs and to report on relevant events and developments
- IS staff also attend departmental Staff and Student Consultative Committees to take questions and feedback from staff and students and report on new facilities and services
- Departmental Boards: subject librarians are happy to attend to highlight important developments and improve their background knowledge of the departments they support