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This session provides an overview of the extensive e-resources available to Divinity Undergraduates, including e-books, e-journals, databases and the use of Moodle.

This session provides an introduction to the use of IDiscover (the University Library catalogue), for new Undergraduate students, demonstrating the main functions of the catalogue and showing how to make the most effective use of its capabilities for locating books and journals in print and electronic form.

These 30 minute small group sessions are an opportunity for you to obtain support for searching databases and using referencing software. General advice and support will be offered, and any specific queries will be addressed.

These 30 minute small group sessions are an opportunity for you to obtain support for searching databases and using referencing software. General advice and support will be offered, and any specific queries will be addressed.

These 30 minute small group sessions are an opportunity for you to obtain support for searching databases and using referencing software. General advice and support will be offered, and any specific queries will be addressed.

These twenty-minute sessions are chance to practice searching medical/scientific databases, use referencing software, and have your questions answered about literature searching for your dissertations.

Introduction to Bibliographic Searching in Theology and Religious Studies will give a brief overview of the issues of searching for publications in general, and follow this up with searching the specialist Theology and Religious studies bibliographic database ATLA and Index Theologicus.

• Nervous or intimidated about visiting the UL for the first time?
• Don’t know where to begin with a Literature search?
• Can never find the books you need on the open shelves?

Book a buddy!

Email reference@cam.ac.uk to arrange a session. Tell us what you need help with and we’ll match you with a member of library staff who can show you what you need to know, whether it’s searching the catalogue, using Electronic Legal Deposit, finding open shelf books or something else entirely.

Don't suffer in silence - Book a buddy!

The Map Department contains some 1,100,000 maps, both British and foreign, several thousand atlases and other material. This session, based in the Map Room, is designed to give an overview of holdings and guidelines for accessing and using them.

The University Library holds over 9 million physical items and provides access to millions of online resources. In this session an experienced member of UL staff will show you the basics to get you started.

The tour will include:

• A brief introduction to iDiscover - your main tool for locating resources in the UL and other University of Cambridge Libraries
• A tour of the physical spaces including the Main Reading Room and Open bookstacks
• Demonstrations of how to locate the physical items you need and brief explanations of Electronic Legal Deposit and E-Resource access
• We'll show you where the important things are such as toilets, Tea Room, and comfortable areas to work
• We'll answer any questions you may have
• We'll make sure that by the end of the tour you will know where to go to find help

• Are you a new undergrad who is intimidated by the thought of entering the UL?
• Are you a second or third year who has never set foot in the UL and is embarrassed to admit that you don't know what you're doing?
• Have you been struggling on your own and just need a few tips and tricks to get what you need?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then this tour is for you!

Finding the UL intimidating and confusing is perfectly normal. It is also normal for undergraduates to only use the UL for the first time in their third year, so you are definitely not alone!

On this tour a friendly member of our Reader Services team will show you around, explain the UL's unique way of shelving books, explain what Electronic Legal Deposit is and answer any questions you may have. Most importantly we will show you where to go if you find you need help.

Don't suffer in silence! Help is here!

The University of Cambridge has over 100 libraries, with the UL alone housing over 9 million items, and this doesn't include the plethora of electronic items available on and off campus.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and aren't really sure how to search for and access the items on your reading list then this session is for you!

We will cover

• Understanding a reference
• Understanding what kind of material is available , both physical and electronic, and how to access them
• A guided tour of some of our search platforms including iDiscover and the A-Z database index
• A few tips on searching beyond your reading list

The course will be led by members of the University Library's Reference Team who will provide friendly instruction and who will be able to answer any questions you may have.

We start with an orientation session at the Divinity Faculty (ca. 45 minutes), followed by a tour of the University Library (ca. 30 minutes) for Divinity Faculty members, led by members of the Divinity Faculty Library staff.

You own your own research right? Well it depends. In this session we will explore the sometimes very complicated world of copyright and what can happen when you publish your work. We'll also introduce you to concepts such as third party copyright, and how you can use existing licencing tools to maximise the reach of your research as well as using other peoples work to advance your own, but legally.

The Graduate Self-Assessment tool is intended for those in the Humanities & Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities schools. It is the first step in an online module designed to help you to assess your own skill-set, identify target areas for improvement and make decisions about what to do next. The tool is recommended for all first year postgraduates, but will be available for you to return to check on your progress.

Once you have completed the self-assessment exercise a number of options for developing your skills will become available to you, ranging from reading articles to signing up for relevant face-to-face workshops.

We encourage students to take the survey about once a year, but it is particularly useful for those who are just starting their PhD and for those who are just entering the final year of their PhD.

You will need to click here to gain access to the self-assessment tool.

If you already know the basics of Research Data Management (RDM) – for example backing up your work, file storage options - but now need to know more about effective strategies for sharing your data, then this course is for you!

This course gives a brief recap on RDM and then covers managing personal and sensitive data in the context of the new GDPR legislation, why it is a Good Thing to share your data, and how to do this most effectively in terms of describing your data, deciding where to share it, and using licences to control how your data is used by others. You will even get to write your own Data Management Plan (DMP): these help you manage your data throughout a project and after it has ended and are increasingly required as part of a grant or fellowship application. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you are completely new to the concept of research data management then the beginners course is for you.

What would happen to your research data if your lab exploded, or your laptop was stolen, or your cloud storage account was hacked? How could you prevent data loss in these situations? Managing your data effectively is vital to help you do this.

This workshop will introduce the basic principles of Research Data Management (RDM) and how they are relevant throughout the research life cycle.

Intended for those who are new to RDM, this course will firstly explain what RDM is, and then go on to cover basic data back-up and storage options, file sharing tools, and strategies for organising your data, as well as providing guidance on managing personal or sensitive data. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you already have a basic understanding of RDM then the advanced course is probably more appropriate for you to attend.

Finding secondary literature to inform and support your research is paramount to any higher-level research. This session focuses on the concepts as well as practical issues, to give participants a more comprehensive understanding of the issues and features of literature searching.

Please bring your own wifi-connected device, so that you can look at some of the platforms.

Scopus is a citation and abstract database of peer-reviewed literature that can be used by researchers to determine the impact of specific authors, articles/documents, and journals. It contains over 76 million records in the areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities. In Scopus, it is possible to perform quick searches by document, author, or affiliation. You will learn how to perform basic searches, analyse the results, check affiliation and researcher profiles and consult journal metrics for the over 23,000 titles currently in Scopus.

This session will be delivered by Dr Charles Martinez, Senior Customer Consultant, Elsevier.

Please bring your own device so you are able to follow along with the session examples.

Interested in using software to manage and organise your references, but not sure where to start? Or confused about the different software options available? Come along and hear about two popular reference management software packages - Zotero and Mendeley - and learn how they work and which of them might suit you best.

This session equips participants with all the fundamental skills that they need to build and execute effective search strategies to locate and critically evaluate relevant materials for assignments, literature reviews, projects and other related research activities. The structure of the session with move through the processes of basic keyword generation, constructing search strings, understanding which resources to search, before finishing with developing critical evaluation skills to assess quality and relevance of found items

This session will take place in the Pink Room. If this session is fully booked please join the waiting list - we will move venues if there is demand.

This session will introduce participants to different methods of communicating research before moving on to a discussion around best practice and techniques when preparing a presentation. Participants will be introduced to concepts around good design, accessibility, data presentation, and accessing Creative Commons licenced materials for their work. The session will conclude with an exploration of good delivery techniques with additional advice on what to do if it all goes wrong.

This session will take place in the Pink Room. If this session is fully booked please join the waiting list - we will move venues if there is demand.

This session will help prepare you to begin your literature review. You will learn strategies for searching for relevant material, how to troubleshoot common search problems, and how to stay up to date with new publications in your field.

Please bring a laptop, tablet or other web-enabled devide with you to the session.

This session will develop skills that will help you get the most out of your literature review. From a foundation of effective search strategies, you will learn how to critically appraise academic literature, techniques for getting through sources quickly and evaluating their relevance, engaging with key material and beginning to write your literature review itself, as well as ensuring accuracy in your citations and references.

Please bring a laptop, tablet or other web-enabled device with you to the session.

An introduction to the use of the specialist Theology and Religious studies bibliographic database ATLA for undergraduates, providing information on how to make the most effective use of this resource; of particular relevance to those preparing or working on a dissertation and wanting to acquire wider bibliographic information on a specific topic.