Too much e-mail? Take control of your inbox

Microsoft recently posted an article called taking control of your inbox – I thought that it offered some useful tips for dealing with the ever increasing mountain of email that we all receive. Following some of the simple ideas could help to reduce the size of your inbox to avoid those annoying “your mailbox is over the limit” messages.

Here is the link if you want to read it: http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/manageinfo/email.mspx

Clive Richards, Learning System & Software Manager, Swansea University

Local Index of Child Well-being 2009

Local Index of Child Well-being 2009 represents the first attempt to create a small-area index exclusively for children in England.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/childwellbeing2009

State of the World’s Children 2009

The State of the World’s Children 2009 examines critical issues in maternal and newborn health, underscoring the need to establish a comprehensive continuum of care for mothers, newborns and children. The report outlines the latest paradigms in health programming and policies for mothers and newborns, and explores policies, programmes and partnerships aimed at improving maternal and neonatal health. Africa and Asia are a key focus for this report, which complements the previous year’s issue on child survival.
http://www.unicef.org/sowc09/

EndNote workshops

EndNote workshops for postgraduates will be held on:

Mon. 2nd Feb 1.30-3
Wed. 4th Mar 3.30-5

EndNote allows you to build up your personal database of references which can be formatted automatically in Word when you write papers or books. It is available for use on campus or can be bought at a discounted price (approx. £66) for use at home. You can find more information about EndNote on the LIS web pages at: http://www.swan.ac.uk/lis/HelpAndGuides/bibliographic_referencing/endnote/

Please book by replying to Susan Glen at s.glen@swansea.ac.uk

SORT – Swansea Online Research Tutorial

Develop and improve your research skills using these online tutorials. Discover techniques for successful & efficient literature searching, and  how to find theses, conference papers, official publications, and statistics. Learn how to keep up to date with current research in your area.

SORT is available via the My Organizations section on Blackboard. Login using your usual network login.

Online maps for local crime statistics

Police forces in England and Wales are now providing access to local crime statistics via online maps. These allow the public to drill down to ward level and view crime trends in their area. The statistics include information about burglary, robbery, theft, vehicle crime, violent crime and anti-social behaviour. The maps should be available via the local police web sites, although you may have to hunt around for the links. Once you have found the maps, you can either browse them or enter your post code to find information on just your area. The interfaces and presentation of the data can vary considerably between police forces as does the break-down of the crime statistics. Thames Valley provides a basic map and tables of data, while others such as the Metropolitan police offer graphs as well as the figures. All of the online maps colour code areas according to the levels of crime: high, above average, average, below average, low or no crime.

BBC Prison Study

This site, hosted by the BBC Prison Study, provides materials for teachers, researchers, students and individuals interested in ‘The Experiment’, a televised social psychological experiment devised and supervised by the academics Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher. The Experiment was broadcast in 2002 but its findings continue to be published in academic journals. The site includes detailed information about the study itself, activities based on the study (such as the opportunity to complete psychometric tests similar to those given to the participants), FAQs, and further resources such as DVDs. It should be useful for students, teachers and researchers.
http://www.bbcprisonstudy.org/

Women in sport

Women in Sport is Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation’s magazine. This web page provides access to the back copies of the magazine (PDF), which can be downloaded with the use of acrobat software. This online archive stems from 2003.
http://www.wsff.org.uk/products/back_copies.php

Use electronic resources at home – with Athens

A reminder that you can access most of Swansea University’s LIS subscribed electronic resources from your PC at home.  But first you must set an “Athens” cookie on your PC.  This will only take a minute and you should only have to set the cookie once.

Go to
 http://www.swan.ac.uk/lis/DigitalLibrary/athens/athens_cookie/ and follow the instructions. 

Now you’re ready to access electronic journals and databases on and off-campus.

When asked for your Athens username and password, enter your Open Access username (student number)and password.