Library Audio Tour Script

Point number 1. Welcome to Docklands Campus Library and Learning Centre. We occupy the first and second floors of the building known as the Business School. This will seem quite obvious if you are listening to this whilst inside the library but to enter the library you need to use the entrance on the ground floor of the building and swipe your student ID card at the turnstiles. From here you can either walk up the stairs or use the lift to the 1st or 2nd floors to the library or carry on into the ground floor to use the IT service’s facilities such as the IT help desk, open access PCs and printers. There are also two library self service kiosks located near to the stairs on the ground floor-you’ll be hearing more information on these in a minute…

Now head towards the library counter services desks and look around you for point number 2.

Point number 2. The four machines you see here are more self service kiosks. These can be used to issue, return and renew library loans. To issue, you need to swipe your student ID card and enter your four digit PIN, initially every library user’s PIN is set at 0000 but we recommend that you change this as soon as possible at the Counter Services desk. You can choose your own PIN but try to make it something you’ll remember-most people choose birthdays. Once you’ve swiped your card and entered your PIN place the books, one at a time, in the V-shaped channel underneath the screen to issue them-a list of the items issued appears on the right of the screen. When you’ve issued all the items you need to press ‘Close account and issue receipt’ on the touch screen and a receipt will be printed telling you the titles of the items you’ve borrowed and the dates they’re due for return. To return items it’s even simpler-no need to swipe your card-just press return on the touch screen then place each item, one at a time, in the ‘V’ and select ‘Close account and print receipt’ when you’ve finished. A receipt will be printed-make sure you hang onto the receipt until next time you come to the library-just in case-as it’s your proof that the items have been returned. You can also extend or renew items you have on loan by swiping your card, entering your PIN then pressing the ‘My account’ button on the touch screen. A list of all the items you have on loan will appear and you then need to press the little box next to the title of each item. A green tick will appear in the box and when you’ve selected all the items you want to renew just press the ‘renew’ button at the bottom of the screen. It might seem a little daunting using these machines at first but it’s quite simple once you’ve got the hang of it and they can save you a great deal of time queuing at the Counter Services desk.

Point number 3 is just behind you. Point number 3. Here you can see our Counter Services and Enquiry desks. The enquiry desk has a member of staff to answer library related queries such as how to use the online databases and referencing. The Counter Services desk is primarily for the collection of reserved materials and the issue of DVD’s but you can also issue, return and renew regular library stock. There is also a small collection of Short loan books and materials, these are reference items that are issued to you to use inside the library for 4 hours at a time-bring them back on time, it’s 50p an hour fine on these items! The staffed hours for these desks are normally 9am to 9pm weekdays and 10am to 5pm at weekends during term time. During holiday periods our staffed hours vary so please check the Library and Learning Services website or pick up a leaflet at the desks. The area behind these desks is our staff office so if there is a particular subject librarian you wish to speak to please ask for them at the enquiry desk.

Point number 4 is to your left near the photocopiers.

Point number 4. There are photocopiers on both floors of the library, they will all do both black and white and colour copies on A4 or A3 paper. Black and white copies cost 5p per sheet and colour copies cost 50p per sheet. To use them you will need to purchase a photocopy card which can be purchased from the card dispenser machine next to the self issue service machines on the 1st floor. The card costs £1 and is a re-chargeable card that is already loaded with 50 pence worth of credit, to top it up you need to put it into either of the two white machines next to the card dispenser and add cash. The cards will hold a maximum of £5 of credit. When you come to copy just put your card into the card reader next to the copier, lift the copier lid and place the item you want to copy face down in the top left corner of the glass then press the big green button on the right of the control panel-this will give you a black and white copy on either A4 or A3 paper depending on the size of your original (the copier is clever and can sense the size of the paper you’ve put on the glass). To do a colour copy you need to select colour on the left hand side of the touch screen panel. All of the copiers will print onto acetate or OHP sheets and these can be bought at the issue desk.

Point number 5 is very close – next to the circular table. Point Number 5. What you see here are some of our library catalogue terminals known as OPACS, they are an easy-to-use way of searching for books and materials in the library and it’s a good idea to spend some time familiarising yourself with them. There are clusters of them on the round tables dotted around the library. You can look for materials by typing in either the name of the author, the title, a subject or a combination of all these into the ‘Search for’ box. A subject search is very useful as you can type in a particular word or phrase and the catalogue will find any items we hold with that word or those words anywhere in the title-a bit like an internet search engine such as Google. A quick way of looking for an item that you know the details of is to type in the author’s surname and the first word of the title in the box. But whichever way you do it a list of titles should appear on the screen and you can click on the title to reveal more information about the item. Why not press the pause button on the MP3 player now and have a quick go at doing a search-press play again when you’ve got a list of search results.

Now, hopefully you’ll have a list of books on the screen in front of you. Point with the mouse and click on one of the titles displayed in blue text. As this catalogue covers all of our libraries you need to make sure of the location of the item you’re looking for, this information is displayed below the bibliographic details of the item. If an item is not on loan to another borrower it will say ‘Available’ followed by the library it is held at, for example Docklands, followed by the shelfmark.

The shelfmark is a very important piece of information, this tells you what shelf in the library the book is on. The books are filed in number order using the dewey decimal system of classification-the number sequence starts with 001 on the first floor and the books on the shelves follow this sequence until they reach the final number, 999, on the second floor. This filing and classification system means that all the books on a particular subject should be shelved at the same location. For example books on Civil Engineering are shelved at 624. Now you may be thinking ‘but there are hundreds of books on civil engineering-how do I find the one book I’m looking for amongst all of them?’. Well, the books within a classification number are then broken down into alphabetical order under the name of the author or title. So, for example, if you’re looking for ‘Civil Engineering Practice’ by Stephen Scott you can find it on the shelves at 624 SCO.

The catalogue can be used to do other things besides look up books, you can also use it to reserve items and check and renew the items you have on loan using the ‘e-shelf’ and ‘My Library card’ functions. To access these functions you need to sign in using the username and password you use to log in to the networked computers. Take some to time familiarise yourself with these functions. It may all seem a little daunting to begin with but the OPAC catalogue terminals are easy to use and you’ll soon get the hang of how to look for books on the shelves, reserve items and manage your library account.

Point 6 is just behind you. Point number 6. We have a large stock of DVDs, CDs and Video tapes which you can borrow as part of your loan allowance. You can borrow a total of 15 items which can be a mixture of books, CDs, Videos and DVDs. Most audio visual items are 1 week loans. The DVDs & Videos, CDs and books are all kept in their separate filing sequences but all follow the decimal number then alphabet filing system mentioned earlier. To borrow a CD or DVD you need to take it to the Counter Services desk during staffed hours-no self issue I’m afraid. They can however, be returned using the self-service kiosks. Video’s can be both self-issued and returned.

Now make your way to the second floor using either the stairs or lift, point 7 is at the top of the stairs near the lift.

Point number 7. From this vantage point you can see the IT area on the ground floor. All the PCs on the ground floor and in open areas on the first and second floors of the library are available on open access for you to log on and use. There are a few exceptions such as the scanner PC on the first floor and occasionally some areas of the ground floor and first floor are booked for teaching purposes. All PCs are connected to the student print system; the main bank of printers is located on the ground floor. You can send the print job from any PC on campus and pick it up at these printers. Printing costs 5p per sheet for black and white and 30p for colour for details on how to use the print system or for any other IT queries please see the staff at the IT helpdesk on the ground floor.

Whilst you’re here take notice of the bridges that cross the gap between the two sides of the library.

Point 8 isn’t far away, look to you’re right whilst facing the bridges. Point number 8. On the second floor of the library the numbered sequence of books continues, on this floor the sequence runs from 338.5 to 999, any numbers below these are located on the first floor. As mentioned before, your library loan allowance is 15 items which can be a mixture of items. Most books are loaned for either one week or four weeks, you can tell which is which by looking on the spine- the one week books have a label saying...you guessed it-‘One week loan’, the four week books don’t have any label. You may occasionally come across a book with a ‘Not for loan’ label on it, these are reference only items which cannot be borrowed and must be used only in the library. We have a fines system in place for the late return of loan items, one week loans are 30p per day and four week loans 10p per day. Fines can mount up quickly so please either return or renew your items-you can renew by phone, in person whilst in the library or online using the library catalogue.

Now walk down to end of the building, the end where you can see the airport buildings out of the window, to find point number 9.

Point number 9. The areas around the books and journals on the second floor are our quiet study spaces, in these areas (as it says on the green signs) the rules are- Quiet discussion only-no noisy chatting; the coffee shop, canteen and bar are not far away! Brief mobile phone conversations only-a loud, lengthy phone conversation is very distracting to people trying to study. Music or audio clips must be inaudible to other people-you can listen to your music player whilst studying but don’t have the volume SO LOUD THAT OTHER PEOPLE CAN HEAR IT. Children must be quiet and supervised-if you have to bring your children with you to the library please try to keep them quiet and don’t allow them to use run off and use the place as a playground-it isn’t. No food or hot drinks-this speaks for itself; it’s unhygienic, the library gets dirty, library materials get spoilt and the food odours bother other people-eat in the canteen!

The Silent study room you can see here is, as the name implies, strictly for silent study this means- No conversations-this is the only area in the whole building where you can’t talk, move outside the room if you need to talk. No mobile phone calls-again, just move outside to make your call. No food or hot drinks-again, use the canteen! No children-if you have children with you please use any other area in the building.

To find point number 10 cross the bridge over the gap to the other side of the library. Point number 10. The shelves on this side of the second floor contain our journals collection, journals are a good source of up to date information as they are published frequently and often contain articles and information unavailable elsewhere. They are shelved alphabetically in title order, journals with titles beginning with the letter A are shelved at the end near the lift. All journals are for reference only and cannot be taken outside the library, if you need to copy articles to use at home there is a photocopier at the end near the start of the sequence.

Point 11 is on the other side of the lift where the circular wooden partitions are.

Point number 11. This area is known as the Hub and is used for a variety of activities. As you can see there is a service desk, this is home to the Skillzone team. Skillzone is a service which offers help, advice and guidance on many aspects of study such as ICT skills, careers and study advice and student finance. They run themed workshops throughout the year , check with them for more details.

The large open area in the centre of this space is for group study and discussion. There are a also four small pods, one is used by Skillzone for one to one meetings, another is for private group study, one has a large TV and DVD player which can be used for group viewing and the other contains Apple Mac video edit suites. To use the Apple Macs you will need to register with the Multi Media Production Centre on the 1st floor of the West Building, details can be found on posters in the edit suite pod. The very large pod in the centre of the hub is for open access study and group work but is also frequently booked by teaching staff for seminars.

This concludes our audio tour of the Docklands library and learning centre, please return the MP3 player to the desk on the first floor. If you have any questions or would like more information on anything covered in this tour please take a look at the Library and Learning Services website or ask a member of the library staff-we’re happy to help.