Cairn.info - a great French Language resource

Tony Wilson introduces a new resource covering French language, history, culture, and much more...

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The Library recently subscribed to Cairn.info. This resource offers access to a comprehensive online collection of French language publications in the social sciences and humanities.

Content recently added to the Psychology
section in Cairn.info

Journal articles from major French, Belgian and Swiss publishers can be accessed by students and researchers. You could be forgiven for thinking that this resource would only be of interest to French Language students or those interested in French History, culture and society but coverage is much broader than that. You will find journals covering subject areas as diverse as Economics, Psychology and Geography.

If you want the latest content you can refine your results to see content that has only been online for the last few weeks. Should you find a journal that is really relevant to your research, you can set up table of content alerts. Like many resources, you can create your own account in Cairn.Info where you can keep a record of articles that are of interest to you and manage any email alerts that you may set up.

If you don't read French, don't despair! The Cairn International Edition is also available. This is an English Language platform where abstracts and selected articles from some of the key journals on Cairn.info are translated into English.

The English language platform of Cairn.info

So where can you get access to Cairn.Info? The recommended route is through either the e-resources guide or alternatively, you can access it through the Languages subject guide. You will see Cairn.info listed in the Language and Linguistic Science e-library in the Finding resources tab.

For more advice about using electronic resources and for general advice about Library resources for your department contact your Academic Liaison Librarian (you can find their contact details on the Subject Guide for your department).

The Minster Library - Fragments of the Past: Part 1

In the first of four posts, Jeff Berry, one of our Minster volunteers, considers the insights into the past that early recycling gives us.

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It was common practice in the early days of print for bookbinders to use parts of earlier manuscripts as strengtheners in their bindings. To modern sensibilities, the idea that these unique manuscripts were destroyed simply for their physical properties is an appalling one. It is worth considering, however, that such use represents in many cases both an instinct for efficiency and economy - after all, why use fresh vellum when used vellum will do just as well? - and a growing sense of the primacy of the text itself. In some cases, once a manuscript was in type, the manuscript itself was considered redundant, and reusing it in bindings was simply common sense.

These fragments may still be found in various books, and provide a tantalizing glimpse of information which is now lost forever. All manuscripts are on some level a puzzle. As unique, handcrafted objects, questions about their origin, purpose, and use naturally arise; this is equally true of luxury books and of seemingly more straightforward documents. How much more puzzling are the fragments, then, with much of their context lost or scattered? The manuscripts are in many cases works of art, and the bits used in the bindings are fragments of greater works. Often when viewing these fragments, I am reminded of visiting ruined medieval buildings where only the foundations or a few lengths of wall remain. It is enough to fire the imagination, but the vast majority of the data, of the history if you will, is gone.

That is not to say that there is nothing to be learned from the fragments. Quite apart from their aesthetic value, they can provide information about how early printers did business, can help to localize early books to their point of origin, can be used to track fashions and taste in literature, and doubtless can provide information in many other ways related either to the manuscripts themselves or their use as raw material.

The York Minster Library has one of the finest collections of early printed books in the country, and has a correspondingly rich collection of manuscript fragments in the bindings of those books. In this, and future posts, I would like to show you a few of the fragments which are of particular interest.

Image from a book published in Louvain, Belgium in 1562 (Minster Library V/3.N.2). The binding contains fragments of both Middle English prose and legal documents in Latin.

"An invaluable resource" - your thoughts on the Minster Library

Joanne Casey finds out what you think of the Minster Library, and details recent improvements.

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The Minster Library, in the Minster Gardens.
Photograph by Paul Shields

In February last year, we ran a survey to find out how visitors to the Minster Library feel about the services offered. We're taking this opportunity to report back on what we learnt and how we've reacted to it, and to encourage you to provide further feedback on our services.

What you liked…

Special Collections in the Minster Library
Photograph by Paul Shields

• The range of the collections
• The unique resources
• The staff
• The chance to study in a fascinating building

"The Minster Library is an invaluable resource"

"Exceptionally generous and attentive staff!"

What you'd like to see changed…

• Borrowing arrangements
• Document production times
• Charges for reprographics
• Wifi provision
• Opening hours

What we've done...

Inside the Minster Library
Photograph by Paul Shields

Services provided by the Minster Library now match those offered by the University Library as far as possible; so, staff and students can now borrow up to 50 items, on the same flexible loan model that the rest of the Library uses; items borrowed from the Minster can now be returned at King's Manor or the main University Library (and vice versa). We're also introducing a trial of the Book Delivery Service, which is already running successfully between the Morrell and King's Manor libraries.

Unfortunately there are some things that we're not able to change at the moment, but we can explain why that is:

Document production 

It's frustrating when you have to wait for us to fetch you items that aren't held on the open shelves. We always try to make such items available as quickly as possible after you request them, but as the Minster Library has a small team of staff, it's not always possible to do this as quickly as we - or you - would like. We do our best to meet our target of producing the documents for you to use within 24 hours

Photograph by Paul Shields

Charges for reprographics

These charges are set by the Minster, rather than by the University. They reflect the fact that these are unique and precious resources, and the charges have to cover the cost of providing reprographics, and enable the Minster to make a small profit on this aspect of the service. However we are reviewing our charging structure in line with other comparable institutions, and hope to introduce changes soon.

Wifi provision

The older the building, the trickier it often is to provide reliable wifi coverage in all areas. Wifi within the Minster Library is provided by the Minster IT team, rather than by the University's IT Services, and they are investigating the situation. IT Services are also looking into the possibility of providing eduroam coverage within the Library.

Opening hours

The Minster Library is open 9am - 5pm on weekdays. It's closed at the weekends. Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to provide the extra staffing resource necessary to extend the opening hours.

Photograph by Paul Shields

What else could we do?

We'll be running another user survey soon, so you can let us know what else we could do to improve the services we offer. And, of course, your comments are welcome at any time - you can email lib-enquiry@york.ac.uk, fill in a comment card, or let us know in person. You can find out more about how we receive and respond to feedback at:

• Library feedback

Looking for clinical skills advice? Look no further than Clinicalskills.net!

David Brown, Academic Liaison Librarian for Health Sciences, explores the new Library resource Clinicalskills.net.

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Many students struggle to get to grips with the huge range of clinical procedures that they come across on placement. Clinicalskills.net, a new online resource from the Library, can help you with illustrated procedures and suggested reading for a range of topics, giving you an opportunity to reinforce your learning from practice.

What’s available? 

The procedures on Clinicalskills.net cover a range of themes from Adult, Child and Primary Care with more areas (such as Midwifery) to be added over the coming months. You can browse for procedures based on theme, or search for a specific procedure.

What does each procedure include?

Each procedure includes an introduction highlighting the rationale and key points to be aware of, before showing an illustrated, step-by-step outline of the procedure with additional narrative. After the procedure you will find a list of references, alongside suggestions for further key reading and information on when the procedure was last updated.

Mike Parker, Lecturer in Acute and Critical Care Nursing, notes that the platform “allows students to save and print PDFs thus enabling them to develop a bespoke library of clinical skills”. Click on the PDF link at the top of the procedure to download. 

How do I get access?

David Brown, Health Sciences
Librarian

Use the link on either the Health Sciences Subject Guide or the E-resources Guide for access. If you have any questions about using Clinicalskills.net, please contact David Brown, the Academic Liaison Librarian for Health Sciences, via lib-healthsci@york.ac.uk.

The Library holds a range of other resources to support clinical skills training, including electronic access to the Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures. You will also find numerous books on clinical skills via YorSearch.

Library services for staff and students with disabilities

Jack Coppack outlines recent improvements to the services we offer to support Library users with disabilities.

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When it comes to improving the accessibility of our services to staff and students with disabilities, we are aware that we can always be doing more. Already this year, we have upgraded a number of our services based on your feedback. Whilst we are constantly striving to meet expectations of accessibility, we wanted to share some of our successful (and ongoing) improvements.

Hearing Loops: All of our public contact points in the Library are now equipped with hearing loops. The system is able to wirelessly amplify conversations whilst reducing background noise for users with hearing aids.

Accessible Entry to Library: In addition to the disabled parking spaces available in the Library car park, we have also changed the process for entering via the accessible entrance at the rear of the Morrell. Now, staff and students who've registered their disability with us will be able to independently access the building using their University cards. All of our registered users with disabilities are also able to bypass the turnstile system in the main foyer and use the central accessible gate. This access point scans the chip in your university card, negating the need to hold the barcode directly onto a scanner. If you need to register yourself as having a disability, please speak to the Library & IT Help Desk, who will be more than happy to help you.

Library Catalogue Terminals: We have updated and modernised the browsers on Library catalogue terminals to include additional accessibility options.

Library Tours (ongoing): 1-to-1 tours of the Library are offered to all our registered disabled students. As part of this tour, we are working towards including further details about our IT support services for disabled users.

Visual Impairment Support (ongoing): We dedicate a lot of time to creating accessible reading material in suitable electronic formats for our rapidly growing community of visually impaired students. Currently, we are working with a range of people across the University to improve the process and communication around this service and to ensure that it delivers a high quality and timely service.

Whilst we are pleased with our progress so far, we never want to rest on our laurels! We thrive off your feedback to tell us how we can improve our services. We have an established Information Services Disability Group which meets on a termly basis. Membership includes people from Disability Services, Equality and Diversity Office, YUSU and GSA as well as selection of our own staff and it is an effective way for us to discuss your suggestions and implement structured, enterprising plans of action.

Please have your say and help us to better ourselves by contacting us with feedback and/or suggestions at lib-enquiry@york.ac.uk, or by filling out a comment card in one of the Library buildings.

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Useful links:

• Disability Services
• YUSU information for disabled students