VLeBooks downtime Thursday 13th September, 5pm - 5.30pm

We've been warned of maintenance on the VLeBooks platform on Thursday 13th September, from 5pm - 5.30pm. The site will be unavailable during this period.

SID Online downtime 3rd-4th September

SID Online (Student Information Desk) will be having planned maintenance 3rd-4th September 2018. 

Please use libraryideas@beds.ac.uk or library.technical@beds.ac.uk for library queries or the SiD email for any SiD enquiries sid@beds.ac.uk.

IEEE Xplore problems

There have been some problems this morning with access to IEEE/IET electronic library (IEEE Xplore). This has been affecting many universities. If you see this error message please try again a little later:

DISCOVER, EBSCOhost and Full Text Finder https change complete (29th August)

DISCOVER, EBSCOhost databases and Full Text Finder have now been switched over to secure https. We believe they are working correctly and you should not notice any difference, existing links will redirect automatically. If you do spot anything not working as it should, please let us know and we will investigate.

Disruption to DISCOVER, EBSCOhost and Full Text Finder today (29th August)

We are currently switching DISCOVER, EBSCOhost databases and Full Text Finder over to secure https links. While the changes are being made, the formatting of pages may not appear correctly, for example:

We can only apologise for this disruption, which we have tried to minimise by choosing the quietest time of year. We hope that it won't last long but we don't have any control over how long it will take.

IEEE Xplore search engine upgrade

On 31 July 2018, IEEE Xplore upgraded to a new search engine.

This new search engine allows for a much more integrated experience and offers users:

• The ability to include wildcards with phrased searches
• The ability to include search operators such as AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, and ONEAR via the Basic Search
• Search that is optimized across a variety of file types including PDF, HTML, audio, and video
• An improved process for saved searches
• A foundation for future platform enhancements such as semantic enrichment, smarter recommendations, and concept/entity extraction

For more information, please visit the IEEE Xplore Resources Center.

Refworks downtime Sunday August 19th

The legacy version of RefWorks will be unavailable for use between 3 am and 11 am on Sunday 19th August. There may also be problems using New RefWorks and Write-n-Cite during this period, so you advised against using these during the period.

DISCOVER - top searches in July

Here are the top searches from DISCOVER last month:

NewsBank Special Reports August 2018

NewsBank’s Special Reports are news articles, images, maps and other useful content grouped for convenience under specific topics and themes. They enable users to quickly locate information while helping them gain better insight into current global issues and events.

Following is a listing of ones that may be of particular interest at this time.

August Topics
World Environment - National Water Quality Month
History in the News - VJ Day
Education Around the World
Natural Disasters
World Travel and Tourism

Additional featured Reports covering current issues and events
Issues in the News
World Economics
World Health
World Politics and Government
School and Campus Security

Each Special Report features current and retrospective coverage with new articles added daily. There are over 60 Reports to be sure the information you need is always available.
Following is a listing of ones that may be of particular interest at this time.
August Topics
World Environment - National Water Quality Month History in the News - VJ Day Education Around the World Natural Disasters World Travel and Tourism
Additional featured Reports covering current issues and events Issues in the News World Economics World Health World Politics and Government School and Campus Security
Each Special Report features current and retrospective coverage with new articles added daily. There are over 60 Reports to be sure the information you need is always available.

Special Reports are easily accessible from the left side bar on your online resource menu page, on search screens and the Other NewsBank Products link in full-text newspaper products.

This video shows you how to find Special Reports, what they are and how they can be used.