Top Sheet

Hi i am in need of a top sheet for my e-business report and was told it is on Breo however, i can not seem to find it. Please could you let me know where i could access or download the top sheet.

Its not on Breo as such you need to log onto SITS E-vision from BREO or Student Records from LRWeb (its the same thing we're just in a transition between names) and select what you require using the drop down menu.

Your Student record/ E-vision account password was given to you on registration.

Self Service

I have attempted to check books in and out when there has been no one else at the desk and been told that the staff have been told that they can not help. You said the system was to ease queuse if no one else is about what is the problem?

If you have items for issue or return staff can show you how to do this by demonstrating the self service equipment. The University has invested a great deal of time and money in up skilling staff to help with any query raised at the Customer Service desk. Issuing books is one level of enquiry. The response is to show the customer how to use the self service equipment. This is expected practice in the majority of HE and Public libraries in the UK. Our staff are trained to help with every stage of your academic journey and ensuring that you can issue, return, renew and reserve any items required for your research - not matter how tiny - is the first step.

Self Service

why can the librarians behind the desk no longer check books in and out I find this very flustrating. Is this a longer term project by the university to cut the number of librrians employed?

Thank you for your comment. No it isn't a project to cut staff. Staff do not issue, return, reserve or renew items for you but they are expressly there to show you how. If you have been refused help with this please tell me when it was and I will follow it up.Taking routine, mundane tasks away from skilled staff frees them up to deal with more complex enquiries. Lots of businesses now have a self service element to manage queues and make staff available for the more in depth, skilled and difficult to solve questions from students. It started with atms in banks and now even supermarkets have self check outs.

At Polhill particularly it means you can return your loan items at any time. You are not tied to library opening times. You don't need to queue

Library staff do not not need to be stamping books, the value of skilled staff is in dealing with specific problems and facilitating early stages of academic research.

Wifi Connection

Wifi connection isn't good... any websites.. after some time says not responding

Thank you for your comment regarding the wifi signal 22.11.11 at Park Square

If you experience problems accessing the wifi network may I suggest 2 courses of action

1 please tell staff at the Customer Service desk so they can help you and/or log the issue

2 at lunchtimes and other periods of peak usage connectivity is patchy. It is worth moving to other areas of the LRC or indeed the University to find the best connection spot eg Costas or the Campus Centre.Alternatively you could log on to one of the LRC desktop pcs and use your network space for your assignment.

SPSS

Do you have an up to date authorisation code for SPSS 17.0. The one that you supplied to me has expired according to IBM.

By the way do you have SPSS for a mac?

SPSS 17 is no longer supported. You can buy a dvd of SPSS v 19 (£2) from any LRC it is retrospectively compatible for v 17. The file is too big to be downloadable and so we are not offering a download code.

We do not have SPSS for MACs. A way around this is to use or download Boot Camp from the Apple site. Then install Windows (costs approx £100). Your MAC will then work as a PC. You can then run our version of SPSS.

Marketing info from Apple at:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/compatibility/

We don't have any individual Mac licences as they are about £500 each

"Available Items"

For some reason even though it states the books are available they are not really. I think the library should keep a copy of each book behind so students can at least copy them

Thank you for your comment. The library catalogue only indicates if a book is available to borrow. Should someone want to use a book while they are in the LRC the book will remain "Available" on the catalogue. This is unfortunate but understandable.

I would always advise checking the shelves near where the book is supposed to be and check the "Collection Points" where books are stored prior to be being re-shelved. I am sorry but having reference copies behind the counter, of all our books is just impractical and would never resolve the scenario of where the Reference copy is already being used.

Silent Study Space - Polhill

I think there should be more provision for silent study rooms. The room available is not bigger enough on the ground floor of the library.

Thank you for your comment. Yes I agree with you! Unfortunately there is very little we can do in the short term (ie this academic year) but there are several proposals under consideration which include Silent Study space. We are hoping that at least one gets funding so we can improve provision in the future

Wifi Connection

I am still having problems with the wifi connection...

Thank you for taking the trouble to write again. I am sorry that you are still experiencing difficulties with the wifi connectivity. Last week (Nov 7 - 13th) we were experiencing a number of problems particularly with laptops using the Vista or Windows 7 platforms.

I am hoping these problems have now been resolved

If you continue to have problems in the LRC it would be worth trying to connect elsewhere in the University (eg Costas or the Campus Centre) or you could log on to one of the LRC desktop pcs and use your network space for your assignment.

Drop box at Polhill

Thank for taking the trouble to write a comment form regarding your suggestions for the library at Polhill.

Drop box:

The Returns Unit outside the library can be viewed as bit of a mixed blessing. If you are used to returning books inside remembering to do this before you come in is a new behaviour and inevitably will be irritating while you get used it. Dropping the books off in the Returns Unit is an advantage because

you don't have to lug the books around the library

or

you can drop them off as soon as come on campus so you don't have to drag them round with you

Staff "who aren't allowed to help us"

I am sorry that just simply isn't the case.

Staff cannot issue, return, reserve or renew items for you but they are expressly there to show you how. If you have been refused help with this please tell me when it was and I will follow it up.

Taking routine, mundane tasks away from skilled staff frees them up to deal with more complex enquiries. Lots of businesses now have a self service element. Learning Resources has introduced self service to manage queues and make staff available for the more in depth, skilled and difficult to solve questions from students.

At Polhill particularly as well as the comments above, it also means you can return your loan items at any time. You are not tied to library opening times.

Library staff do not need to be stamping books, the value of skilled staff is in dealing with specific problems and guiding early stages of academic research.

Self service

What do we pay your for nowadays - we do everything ourselves?

Thank you for your comment. Taking routine, mundane tasks away from skilled staff frees them up to deal with more complex enquiries. Lots of businesses now have a self service element to manage queues and make staff available for the more in depth, skilled and difficult to solve questions from students. It started with atms in banks and now even supermarkets have self check outs.

At Polhill particularly it means you can return your loan items at any time. You are not tied to library opening times.

Library staff do not not need to be stamping books, the value of skilled staff is in dealing with specific problems and guiding early stages of academic research.

Self Service

I prefer to speak and interact with real staff members when I come to the library. Why have staff if you can use machines for everything?

Thank you for your comment. In recent years the University has invested in self service equipment to reduce pressure on queues for mundane tasks and extend opening hours.

Issue, return and renewal activities are now done via self service at every campus. This frees up staff time to answer IT and research questions. We consider it of greater value to have trained staff to deal with these type of queries on an individual basis to encourage good academic practice.

Staff are available to show you how to use the self service equipment so please do not hesitate to ask at any time

Wifi Connection

When I try to connect to the internet on my laptop some times it does not connect

Thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately sometimes the wifi signal varies. It is good practcie to move to a different location to see isf the signal is stronger there. At Park Square there is no wifi signal in the IT Suite

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libraryservices/availableservices/wifi

If you experience further problems talk to staff at the customer service desk and be sure to tell them where you are trying to connect to the wifi network

You have few computer and some are out of service. The laptops are very temperamental and they are generally unusable. The study/reception is very noisy and there is nowhere to go to study in peace

Thank you for your comments regarding pc provision at Butterfield. As there is a finite amount of space at Butterfield we can only install as many pcs as there is space for. Inevitably (as on every campus) some pcs will be out of use in the short term if they have problems either with the hardware and software. When demand is high I appreciate that this is very frustrating. Every effort is made to keep all the pcs working properly.

I will bring your comments about the laptops to the attention of our Library Development team. It could be fluctuations in the wifi signal rather than the functionality of the laptops. it is difficult to comment without having a specific example.

There is no silent or even quiet study provision at Butterfield sadly, due to lack of space. I would encourage you to come into Luton to use the Park Square LRC

longer opening hours

nearly 300 pcs

levels 2 & 3 are designated Silent working areas

The University bus will bring you into Luton

Headphones

Why are we unable to hire headphones from the library? I find this very disappointing.

I am sorry that we cannot help you in this matter. Learning Resources stopped supplying headphones about 3 years ago because:

majority of students seem have their own ear buds / headphones

damage to headphones raised a few health and safety issues

loss through theft depleted the number of available headphones considerably

We will not be changing this decision this academic year as resourcing does not allow it

Self Issue machines

New system for checking books out of the library entails entering one's password on a large touch screen - in full view of people. I don't see how we're supposed to keep our password secret if using this system

Thank you for your comment regarding our new self issue machines.

Please can I put your mind at rest? Although the on screen "keyboard" is potentially in view of other people (same way as the print credit kiosk is and - to some extent - our previous self issue machines were) even if watching it is difficult to guess the letters/digits being typed in from finger movements. Of course the letters/digits appear as asterix on screen.

Our existing equipment which has a similar facility has not had any of these particular security issues in the past year or so that we have been using them.

If you would like to discuss this further please ring me 01582 489341

Group Study Space Park Square

Level 2 group study room.. told by security silent study.. told by LRC staff group study...

There used to be group study rooms on levels 2 & 3 since October 2010 they have been re-designated silent wifi rooms. The only group study rooms in the LRC are in the Social Learning Space on the ground floor. The notices in the rooms are quite clear. I am concerned that you say that LRC staff told you there was group study space on our silent floors. I can follow this for staff training.

I do apologise for any confusion over this but clearly the silent floors cannot have (even with the door closed) noise creating group study rooms.

Please make use of the group study space available in the Social Learning Space and the Campus Centre

Public Holidays

We are requesting that you open IT Suite on Bank Holidays specially at submission times.

All University buildings are closed on Public Holidays. Students are given plenty of advanced notice to plan their activities. Unless there is resource to open the University we cannot open the LRC/IT Suite.

Assignment hand ins

The customer service stands are always staffed with unmannered people and sometimes rude.
The Silent areas are NOT respected and it's impossible to study in silence.
The LRC telephone number goes straight to answer phone after 4 ring-tones and when someone finally answers they do not bother in giving me an answer to my rather simple query: What time is the Assingment Hand-in service open til?
They recognise it is a service part of LRC but they said they just ignore the answer and suggest ringing the Switchboard.

Thank you for your LRC comment received today 31 May 2011. I am sorry that your experience with the staff at the Customer Service desk of the LRC wasn't the most friendly and helpful. It is our policy to be as informative and helpful as possible. Please could you give me some specific details so I can follow this up as a training issue?

If you have any assignment queries I would advise you to contact:

lutonassignments@beds.ac.uk

Although the assignment handling unit is next to the LRC we do not administer hand ins or have specific details about hand ins. LRC Staff would be wary of giving incorrect advice

The LRC/ITSuite is open until 2am Mon - Fri and 10pm Sat & Sun (during term time) access to the assignment handling unit is available until then

Levels 2 & 3 are our silent floors. If there is an unacceptable level of noise please report it to the Customer Service desk or to security and they will come and patrol.

Hand ins

PLEASE INSTALL MORE PRINTER'S AND GOOD SCANNER'S ,AT THE TIME OF SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENT THERE IS A VERY LONG RUSH ,EITHER TO PRINT OR TO LOAD CASH IN OUR ACCOUNT ,AND PLS INSTALL OR CHANGE COMPUTERS THEY TAKE AROUND 5 TO 8 MINUTE TO START AFTER LOGGING,
PLEASE LOOK IN THESE MATTER AND MAKE CHANGES IF CAN

Thank you for your comment. I sympathise with the panic around assignment hand in. I would say that time management - in other words planning your assignment hand in - is an essential part of academic practice. Its never a good thing to leave hand ins until the last minute when every hold up seems destined to wind you up and make you feel rushed.

You do know when your assignments are due so plan accordingly by topping up your print account.

I will flag up your comments about the slow log in and scanners to our Technical team. None the less it is not good practice to leave printing until the last minute please try to bear this in mind.

Good luck with your assignment

IEEE Computer Society Digital Library access

I happened to read IEEE explore papers with university login from LRweb but they say that "All online seats are currently occupied at your institution. Users will be logged out after 15 minutes of inactivity." any plenty of papers are not included in this subscription type !!!!

Our subscription to IEEE Computer Society Digital Library gives us access to 27 society magazines and transactions and more than 3,300 conference publications. In addition we also provide access to the complete IEEE / IET Electronic Library to allow students and staff to identify further abstracts that we may be able to get full text copies via our document supply service http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libraryservices/docsupply. It sounds as though you came across some abstracts which we do not subscribe too.

You might find it useful to talk to Chris Whitfield http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/ALLs/Chris_Whitfieldour computing Academic Liaison Librarian for further help and advice.

Staplers

I think you should keep staplers because at the time of assignment submissions we face problem....

Assignments are stressful. It is part of the academic process to manage your time effectively and have all the resources (including staplers) to create your assignment. The LRC does not have a budget to provide free stationery to students, that includes: paper, plastic sleeves and staplers. I am sorry I cannot help you with this. Perhaps you can get a little collection of things together so you won't get caught out again.

Noise in Park Square LRC

Students make a lot of noise while they are studying...

Thank you for your comment. I understand your frustration. I has to be said however that one person's noise is another person's quiet. We have tried to respond to different styles of studying by creating a silent work areas in the LRC. On levels 2 & 3 at Park Square Luton we have 2 whole floors for silent working. This is enforced by security patrols. The rest of the LRC is quiet study - and as I've indicated this is open to interpretation.

Please may I suggest that you study on levels 2 & 3 where you will find its a lot quieter, by anyone's definition

Help to Access On-Line journals

I'm having trouble finding how to access online journals. This is the only guide found on the website but it's just a vague description: http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/guides/resources/journalguide

Thank you for your enquiry.The best on-line advice is here:

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/digital

I would advise you to contact your Academic Liaison Librarian:

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/ALLs

and make an appointment. Your Academic Liaison Librarian is best placed to advise you on the most effective way to identify and retrieve resources for your assignments.

Stationery

Can you please provide us with some stationery such as staplers because it gets tough when we have to hand in an assignment

Thank you for your comment.

Assignments are stressful. It is part of the academic process to manage your time effectively and have all the resources (including staplers) to create your assignment. The LRC does not have a budget to provide free stationery to students. I am sorry I cannot help you with this. Perhaps you can get a little collection of things together so you won't get caught out again.

Dissertations

Finding a sample undergraduate dissertation... is nearly impossible

Thank you for taking the trouble to write to me about your concerns regarding finding dissertations and the helpfulness of LRC staff.

The index you refer to is extremely out of date and should never be used as an academic tool.

You may find these pages on our website helpful

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/guides/subjectguides/applied-soc-studies/Dissertations-and-research

When looking for a dissertation go onto the catalogue and click on the "Advanced Search" tab

http://library.beds.ac.uk/search/X

fill in all the details. When you get to material type click on the down arrow to see your choices and click on dissertation this will take you to your correct resources.

If you are not finding the materials you want, you need to improve your search terms. If you would like further help with this I would advise you to make an appointment with your Academic Liaison Librarian to address this:

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/ALLs/Subjects

Fines

I was annoyed to learn that I owed the library an amount of more than £11 only when I came in requesting a service. May students be made aware of any outstanding fines just like when one has overdue books, not to be informed when your access to service has been blocked.

Thank you for your comment received today 18.3.11

Customers are expected to manage their own library accounts and so checking for due dates, fines and reservations is an expected part of academic practice.

The University of Bedfordshire does not block accounts until £22 of fines are owing. If your account was blocked when you made your complaint it could be because you had a billed item (customers are notified of billed items) - this is an item that is more than 5 weeks overdue.

Services from home

i am PG student of BED n my id is XXXXX. i would like to access the library from home.

please let me know how i can access.

Thank you for your enquiry.

There are guidance pages on LRWeb to help you access the library and its electronic resources from home. Please follow these links:

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libinfo/servfromhome

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libinfo/newstudents/skills

If you require further assistance please make contact your subject librarian and arrange a 121 session for the next time you are in Luton

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/help/ALLs/Departments

Easter Opening Hours

I am a sutdent at the University of Birmingham, and was intending on using the library at Bedford Polhill Campus over the easter holiday. I was just wondering if you could confirm that the library will be open over the easter break and what the opening hours will be? I was also wondering whether the Bedford Collection includes books for law, or if that is all in Luton?

To use Polhill Library you will need a Sconul Access card. University of Bedfordshire only applies the Sconul Vacation Scheme to the summer vacation starting in June

There is a small law collection at Polhill. The main collection is in Luton.

The library will be shut 21 - 25 April, 29 April and 2 May other than please check our website for opening hours

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/opening/ph

My library password has the characters: $ % @ as this makes the password more secure. I cannot use the self service equipment

I appreciate your comments about using "special characters" to make your password secure. You are obliged to follow our rules and they state...

... the library catalogue (which you use for renewing books and using digital resources off-campus) and self service machines cannot use special characters

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/faq/passwordtips

Please change your library password to comply with this requirement. All students are expected to use the self service equipment.

External Students

.. I have noticed that.. many students from different Universities are accessing the services at Luton. As a student I feel there is a question of security as we do not know these students...

Thank you for expressing your concerns. I would like to reassure you. The University of Bedfordshire is part of a co-operative scheme with most Universities in the UK, called Sconul Access. Students from other institutions apply for a card to use the resources in our University on a reference or loan basis (depending on their course of study). There is one kiosk pc which external users are allowed to use.

University of Bedfordshire students also take advantage of this scheme (particularly part time and distance learners). They can apply to use Universities near their home town if its more convenient for them to study there.

If you have any particular security concerns please raise them with security staff on duty

Binding Dissertations

I am a 4th year QTS PE student and have a question about printing off my dissertation. We have seen some past dissertation examples which are all printed onto good quality thicker paper. I was wondering if the library offers a service like this??

Thanks for your enquiry. Reprographics handles this type of work. Please visit the reprographics office at Bedford, Polhill (Schools Office - Copy Shop) and they will let you know if they can meet your specifications.

Saving files

I saved my work to the desktop when I was working in the iT Suite. I logged off and when I came back I couldn't find my files...

Oh dear. When you are working on the University network it isn't the same as working on your home pc. Saving to the desk top is only useful for that session. As soon as you log off the work is lost. Always save your work to your network space.

Different versions of Office

My new laptop has Office 2010, I can't open any of my files created at Uni on it.

If you are experiencing problems between two versions of Office (eg University Office 2007 new laptop Office 2010) you need to turn on the compatibility mode in Office 2010 - you can then use that to save documents in 2007.

We are advising customers not to save in RTF (not being fully supported by Word 2010 or future releases) as we believe they will lose formatting and other functionality from the document which may cause more problems than originally occurred from 2007 opening a 2010 document.

Microsoft advice at:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178980.aspx

SPSS for MACs

The LRC has received several request for copies of SPSS for MACs. The answer is:

Need to use (may be installed already) or download boot camp from the Apple site to use windows applications and thus run our version of SPSS.

Marketing info from Apple at:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/compatibility/

We don't have any individual Mac licences as they are about £500 a go.