A very warm welcome to all new students – we look forward to meeting and working with you this year. And “welcome back” to all returning students – we hope you had a great summer and are looking forward to the new semester.
As always, we have been very busy over the past 3 months – upgrading, replacing and developing our services – so take a few minutes to see what’s been happening.
A quick summary of the main things to look out for are…
Library refurbishments
Edinburgh campus
A huge library refurbishment project has started on the Edinburgh campus (we are investing more than £6m over the next 2 years to improve the learning and study environment in the library). There will be regular updates on how it is going as the year progresses – so make sure you are following us on Twitter to keep up to date.
Scottish Borders campus
The library has been transformed to provide more collaborative learning spaces, 22 extra PC study spaces, a dedicated silent study space and a Design Suite with 10 new PCs and iMacs with specialist software.
A new enquiry point has been located on the first floor and coffee and vending machines have been installed.
Learning Commons 2 (Edinburgh campus)
Due to open early in Semester 1
The 3rd and top floor of Building 18 (what used to be the Post Graduate Centre) will become Learning Commons 2 – providing over 100 additional study and learning spaces for all students.
Learning Commons 1 (in Hugh Nisbet building) which opened in September 2016 has been hugely successful and we anticipate this new facility will prove equally popular.
Close to EPS, MACS and EGIS, this space offers facilities for group and collaborative study, 3 bookable rooms and MFD.
The official opening will be on 6th October 2017. Da Vinci’s café is located on the ground floor.
Teaching room refurbishments (Edinburgh campus)
The James Watt Centre has been transformed into a new teaching and learning hub with lecture theatres, study spaces, break out areas and a café.
Many other rooms across campus have had PC or AV equipment renewed.
Discovery
The library Discovery service has been updated and improved – if you’ve been searching for resources during the summer you’ll have encountered the new interface already.
See the post on New Discovery now live or jump right in from Find Resources
Blackboard app
Blackboard have launched their new Blackboard app (this replaces Blackboard Mobile Learn). Mobile Learn was removed from all app stores 1 August 2017 and Blackboard will no longer support Mobile Learn after August 31, 2017. Although Mobile Learn will continue to work for existing users in the short term, we cannot guarantee that it will work in the future and would advise users to move to the new app
See Virtual learning environment (Vision) for details.
Software upgrades
Several software upgrades were made to the student desktop and teaching machines. The main ones were (with current version of software):
- Microsoft Office (Office 2016)
- EndNote (X8.0.1)
- Maple (2016)
- MATLAB (R2017a)
- Minitab (18.1)
- SPSS (SPSS 24)
New fleet of MFDs in student and staff areas (Edinburgh campus)
A new fleet of Ricoh MFDs have been installed across campus. User guides are at Print/copy/scan.
Academic Support and Liaison Librarians
Your Academic Support and Liaison Librarian for 2017/18 will be: –
UK Campuses and IDL
- EGIS: Sarah Kelly
- EPS & Orkney campus: Kirsty Thomson
- MACS: Rachel Whittington
- SoSS: Marion Kennedy
- Evenings (Tues – Fri): Candace Guite
- TEX: Jamie McIntyre
Dubai
- All schools: Ramakanta Rath
Malaysia
- All schools: Malaysia library service desk
Effective Learning Advisors
Rachel Whittington and Candace Guite have joined the ELA team to offer support with Academic Study Skills. Based on our Edinburgh campus they join Isabelle Pottinger (Edinburgh campus), Allyson Noble (Dubai campus) and Stella Galimpin (Malaysia campus).
Library and Learning Commons opening times
Helpdesk opening times
Power Hours
Our popular Power Hour workshop programme has been reviewed and updated – see Power Hours for info.
So welcome – or welcome back – we hope you have a successful and enjoyable semester.
InformS 