Library
8 February 2021 2023-11-09 11:46Library
Library
ICSS Library & Learning Resource Centre
The Library & Learning Resource Centre provides a variety of resources and services to staff and students of Imperial Collage of Social Studies. The library is well equipped with modern facilities and offers information, guidance, and responsive support services that help students and staff to access and utilise the schools’s wide-ranging academic resources, including help with reading lists and sourcing relevant materials.
One-to-One Student Support Sessions
We've made sure that our campus libraries are packed full of the equipment and resources you need.
Stock Recommendations Request
Using the Library
Study Area
The library also has dedicated study spaces available for students to study independently, research and/or work on their coursework. This is a quiet zone and offers a suitable environment along with facilities to plug-in laptops and use the college Wi-Fi. Currently there are Twelve designated spaces for students available throughout the week.
How do I borrow physical items?
You can borrow books and other materials using self-service checkout or at library help desk. All students and staff will need to use their ICSS ID to borrow books, journals, and other resources from the library by contacting the Resource Officer at the Library. The ID card must be valid at the time of use.
How do I reserve, renew, or return an item?
You can check what books you have out on your account, place hold on an item and renew items by accessing your e-Library account. You can also visit your library to borrow, renew and return items, collect items requested through our ‘click and collect’ service on our online catalogue, and use pc’s.
You can renew items before they are due back as long as.
· Other borrowers have not reserved them
· Your library record with us is not expiring in the next few days, and is not blocked due to having incurred more than £10 in fines
Please look out for our library renewal emails which will let you know if your renewals have been successful(and the new due dates for your items) or if some items cannot be renewed and need to be returned to us.You may return an item at library help desk or can self-return by using e-Library account online while you are in the library and place item back on return shelf.
What are the Borrowing Rules?
The number of books allowed for borrowing is specified in the below table:
Library Users | No. of Books | Borrowing Duration |
Faculty Members | 7 | 21 days |
Students | 5 | 14 days |
Staff | 3 | 14 days |
Note: Teaching practice items can be borrowed for 12 weeks. | ||
How much are the fines?
· If you keep overdue items that are on hold then we will charge fines: £0.50 per day per item (up to a maximum of £10 per item)
· If you incur charges on your record of more than £5 then you will not be able to borrow more items from us until this fine is reduced to £5.
Lost/Damaged or Un-returned Books
The borrower must replace the lost/damaged material or pay the full price as stated on the item.
Library Clearance
The library will sign the clearance form only when all the borrowed items are returned to the library.
ICSS Library Catalogue
Imperial Collage of Social Studies students can search, renew, and reserve books online. Please use your Academy login credentials to use your online library. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact us at
Online Resources
Students have access to books and electronic resources(e-resources), these include e-books, journal articles, databases and more. These online resources are available on and off campus. If asked, log on to the resources using your college username and password.
EBSCO host Education Full Text
EBSCO is a renowned and must have database for any academic institute, offering a user-friendly and optimised search interface with regular updates that make it easy for anyone to find what they are looking for quickly. You can access more than 24,000 subscribed e-resources and acquire knowledge of general business and education concepts.
EBSCO open access academic databases >>
EBSCO Open Dissertation Project – Join the movement (bilboards.com) >>
Perlego Digital Textbooks. It provides unlimited access to over 1,000,000 digital textbooks, over 950 topics and subtopics to choose for students and teachers. Perlego provides individual access to many of the key texts you will use on your programme of study, as well as unlimited access to all the books on Perlego. How to Access: The above resources are available on campus. Please email librarian@icss.institute for remote/off-campus access details.
Open-Source Databases
A-Z Databases
Find the best library databases for your research.
Archives Hub (JISC)
The Archives Hub provides access to over 18,000descriptions of unique and unpublished primary source material held in archives and manuscript collections in over 80 UK universities, colleges, and research institutes. The Archives Hub forms part of the emerging National ArchivesNetwork and covers a broad range of subject areas.
Bibliomania
Thousands of free e-books, poems, articles, short stories, and plays. Also study guides, dictionaries, biographies, religious texts, and popular non-fiction.
CORE
CORE provides seamless access to millions of open access research papers.
Directory of Open Access Books(DOAB)
A collection of freely available academic eBooks in a wide range of subjects. An initiative to increase discoverability of peer-reviewed open access publications from across Europe.
Directory of Open Access Journals(DOAJ)
Access to over 1500 quality controlled scientific and scholarly electronic journals that are freely available on the web. The service will continue to grow as new journals are identified. The Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access academic journals and is not limited to particular languages or subject areas.
DiVA Academic Archive/DiVA Portal
DiVA Portal is a finding tool for research publications and student theses written at 47 universities and research institutions. It is developed and maintained by Uppsala University Library and serves as online academic archive for research and student theses for long term preservation of publications.
EBSCO Open Dissertations
Open Dissertations is an open-access database built to assist researchers in locating both historic and contemporary dissertations and theses. It contains records (some with links to full text) for more than800,000 electronic theses and dissertations from around the world.
EThOS: Electronic theses online service (BritishLibrary)
Search over 500,000 doctoral theses. Download instantly for your research or order a scanned copy quickly and easily.
EUR-Lex
Free access to European Union law and other public documents, including the Official Journal. Contents amount to over 2 million documents with full text back to 1951.
Getty Open Content Images
Getty Collections is releasing all their images of public domain artworks in high resolution. Images are freely available to download and use. The link takes you to the Open Content browse and search site.
Legislation.gov.uk
Managed by The National Archive on behalf of HMGovernment. All UK legislation is published here, including original (as enacted) and revised versions of UK Public General Acts (Statutes) in full from1988, and UK Statutory Instruments in full from 1987. There are additionally, partial datasets for UK Public General Acts (1801-1987), and for UK StatutoryInstruments (1947-1986). Changes to and by legislation can be tracked from2002.
London Lives 1690-1800
Primary source database of 240,000 records of 18th century London and Londoners, searchable by name. Material includes parish, hospital and guild records, coroners’ reports, poor relief, and criminal justice reports. Users may create individual accounts for increased functionality and the ability to contribute to the database.
Open Access Theses and Dissertations(OATD)
Open Access Theses and Dissertations is an index of over1.5 million electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). To the extent possible, the index is limited to records of graduate-level theses that are freely available online.
Open Research Library
The Open Research Library (ORL) is planned to include allOpen Access book content worldwide on one platform for user-friendly discovery, offering a seamless experience navigating more than 20,000 Open Access books.This vital infrastructure is slated to comprise the most comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed Open Access books accessible for everyone.
Open Research Online (ORO)
Open Research Online (ORO) shares the OU’s high-quality, peer-reviewed publications. It features over 30,000 research outputs across abroad range of OU research from science to arts. Nearly three quarters of OpenUniversity research was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent in the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014. Where copyright permissions allow, a full copy of each research publication is directly available from ORO.
OpenDOAR
An authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. As well as providing a simple repository list, OpenDOAR lets you search for repositories or search repository contents. Additionally, it provides tools and support to both repository administrators and service providers in sharing best practice and improving the quality of the repository infrastructure. Current development work is funded by JISC, with contributions from the CRC host organisation, the University of Nottingham. OpenDOAR has also been identified as a key resource for the Open Access community and the leader in repository directories.
Oxford Text Archive
The Oxford Text Archive develops, collects, catalogues, and preserves electronic literary and linguistic resources for use in HigherEducation, in research, teaching and learning. It holds several thousand electronic texts and linguistic corpora, in a variety of languages. Includes online versions of works by individual authors, standard reference works such as the Bible and mono/bilingual dictionaries, and a range of language corpora.Searchable by author or title.
Project Gutenberg
A collection of over 57,000 freely available e-books.Searchable, with list of “top” authors and titles.
The Electronic library of mathematics
The Electronic Library of Mathematics contains online journals, article collections, monographs, and other electronic resources in the field of mathematics. All material is in electronic form and access is generally free, except for some periodicals with a “moving wall”,i.e., a certain delay period after which resources become freely available.
The London gazette
Searchable archives of the London Gazette, Britain’s continuously published newspaper, dating back to the late seventeenth century.Includes the Edinburgh Gazette and Belfast Gazette. Note that to save searches, users will need to register.
UK Data Services
UKDS provides access and support for an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes. It comprises several specialist data services that promote and encourage data usage in teaching and research. N.B. Registration required (on first visit only).
Using other libraries
Local Public Library ServiceICSS Library and Learning Resource Centre is expanding their resources to ensure that each student at Imperial Collag of Social Studies has access to books and online resources. The London Libraries Consortium is a partnership between 18 London library services, with Redbridge being a part of the partnership. We would like to sign up every single student to be a member if the Redbridge Libraries Consortium. This would give everyone the opportunity to access and borrow books from your local public library (Redbridge Central Library) and all other libraries in the consortium. Student will also have access to thousands of online resources.
The British Library
The British Library is the UK’s largest library with over 150 million items inmost known languages. It is entitled to receive a copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland. Most of its items are kept in closed storage – you’ll need to request them and then use them in the British Library’s reading rooms.
How do I join?
BL reader passes are free, but you will need to give details of the material you wish to consult. You will also need to show personal identification and proof of address. You can find full registration information on the British Library’s website.
Help & Support
Online Support
Book one-to-one Student Support Sessions
Student support sessions are available at ICSS Library to help with:
· Introduction of the ICSS Library and Resources
· Searching online learning materials
· Harvard Referencing online
· Information literacy webinars
· One-to-one tutorials
· Functional skills webinars
· Access to other resources with our partner institutions
Please request your session via emailing at: icss.institutelibrarian@
Self-Service options:
Student Induction to Library and Learning Resources
One-to-one support sessions
Books Recommendations/Stock Suggestions
At Caspian Imperial Collage of Social Studies we are keen to hear about book recommendations from students and teaching staff. This will help us to develop more current and relevant stock. If you would like to suggest any course related title(s), please email your request to at librarian@icss.intitute
Campus Help Desk and Support
Library help desks offer face-to-face advice and support.
Library Services
· Setting up your library account
· Finding books and other resources in the library
· Borrowing and returning resources
· Harvard Referencing
· Submitting coursework and assignments
· Help with ICT e.g., setting up Wi-Fi, printing, and scanning facilities.
If you have any queries, please contact librarian@icss.intitute
Library Policies and Procedures
User Responsibilities and Ethics
Library seeks to provide a safe, secure, and appropriate study environment for the benefit of all service users. All service users are expected to treat Library facilities, library Services staff and fellow users with dignity and respect. Students who demonstrate unacceptable behavior will not be allowed to use the library and maybe banned from all services and will be referred under the Student Disciplinary procedures.
Visitors
Visitors may use our books, periodicals, online databases, and other materials on-site for general and research purposes, providing use does not conflict with our primary responsibility to the ICSS students and staff. Visitors are required to show some official identification at the library reception.
Electronic Resources
Electronic databases are limited to the Imperial College of Social Studes authorised users (students, faculty, and staff). Users attempting to access library databases both on and off-campus will be required to log in with their User ID and password. Users must follow ‘Fair Use’ as outlined in the Copyright Law and provisions of license agreements with individual providers. Online database material obtained must be used for personal, non-commercial purposes. Improper use generally includes, but is not limited to, utilizing robots/auto crawlers, downloading entire e-Journals, printing numerous copies of a single article, or publishing articles made available through the databases. Unauthorised use of ICSS Library databases and other electronic resources can result in revocation of access.
Library Users Privacy
All library records and other information relating to an individual’s use of the library and its resources are considered confidential. These records include, but are not limited to, circulation records of library materials, address, and other registration information, reference or informational questions asked, and computer database searches. This information, however, may be consulted and used by library staff while carrying out library business.
Collection Development Collection Development is a process of systematically building library collections to meet the studying, training, teaching, accreditation, and learning needs of the users. Priority for library resources to be purchased for the library is given to those materials which meet direct curricular needs in the courses offered. In most cases, the latest edition of the book must be purchased. The library will annually evaluate the users’ needs with the help of the Learning Resources Advisory Committee and recommend sufficient latest books to be purchased.
Ask a Librarian Service
Students, faculty, and staff of the Imperial College of Social Studies can submit reference or general library enquiries to the Librarian during library opening hours or via email24/7. Emails will usually have a reply within 48 hours, excluding holidays. Librarian or Academic Research Support Officer will answer your enquiries as soon as possible.
Types of enquiries may include:
· The availability and locations of materials in the library
· Enquiries about services of the ICSS Library
· Verification of bibliographic citations
· Addresses for corporations, institutions, and publishers
· Request for brief biographical information
· Assistance with the use of the catalogue, or the online databases
· Harvard Referencing· Use of resources of partner institutions and public libraries.
Referencing Guide
What is Referencing?
During your course you will be asked to find information from various sources for portfolio and assignments. These will influence your thinking and you need to acknowledge the authors or creators who produced them. Referencing is the way you let others know which sources you have consulted as part of your work.
At ICSS we are keen to hear about book recommendations from students and teaching staff. This will help us to develop more current and relevant stock. If you would like to suggest a title(s), please submit your request by filling up the form below.
We will do our best to provide suggested titles as per our stock acquisition policy.
