Back to Belfast - and back to work! It was nice getting a bit of a reprieve in Donabate but there are too many books and contacts to be made, and precious little time. It's hard to believe that over two weeks have already passed.
It dawned on me that although I spend a good deal of time in the library, I haven't written much about it save the outlay of the floor plan so I thought I'd share a few things of interest with you 'library folk'. They have a Smart Card System with what's termed 'Smart Cards' that one uses to make copies. You have to print in size A4 only - instead of letter or custom sized. If you send a job that's not A4, you get charged for it but it won't actually print out your copies. I made that mistake a few times -- but I am learning the ins and outs of student research at QUB! Once you've saved all of your print jobs to your smart card, you can select any printer, go to it and stick your card in the printer. Pretty ingenious, no? Oh, I nearly forgot - there's also this print and photocopy purse that gives 25% discounts if you add money to it.
There are also designated terminals for students who only need to use the online catalog system. It's not a bad setup if you don't need the internet. However, the catch is that if you come across an 'ebook' you can't access it. I know this little fact because I thought I'd be clever and used one of the non-internet-access terminals and after about 10 minutes, I had to go to the internet-access terminals. Still, I think it a great idea to free up the precious few internet- access terminals.
They also provide Skype one-on-one service. You can make one hour appointments at the desk, or 'drop-in' appointments via online. Again, pretty ingenious considering a good deal of students at QUB are foreign and poor! More on the wonders of the McClay Library later...
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