CONNECT

ERC, IS and LIBRARY NEWSLETTER - Issue 2, January 2010

Welcome to the second issue of CONNECT. In this issue you will find further updates
and information on the services and support that ERC, IS and Library Services can offer
whether you are staff, student or researcher.

Earlier this year we conducted our first LRC user survey, giving you the opportunity to
comment on and rate our LRC services. I would like to thank those that responded for
their time, and to emphasise how useful those comments are. We have taken your re-
marks on board and made changes where we can. You will find a summary of the results
and our response below.

We will be running the survey again in semester 2 with a chance to win some prizes, so
Fraser Muir keep a look out for more information nearer the time.
Director, IS & LRC

As always, I know you will find something interesting in the following pages but if you
have any suggestions on the format or content of CONNECT please do not hesitate to
let me know: fmuir@qmu.ac.uk

Feedback to the 2009 LRC Survey

In April 2009 we asked you to tell us what you thought of the LRC facilities and activities. We then chose
two ways to feedback to the survey respondents. We offered face-to-face meetings to those who had
requested further contact, with additional feedback being delivered via the LRC blog.

We commented on the major areas of concern in the blog: June – quiet and silent study spaces; July –
LRC opening times and loan periods. To read our feedback, visit the LRC blog:
http://qmulrc.blogspot.com

Library blog Of course, the annual survey is just one way of giving us feedback.
You can do this every day in several ways:

Email: lrchelp@qmu.ac.uk / Telephone (0131 474 0000 and ask for the Learning Resource Centre) /
The ‘you said, we said’ noticeboard / meebo (via the library web-page) / Facebook / Twitter.
Or why not come and talk to us at the Service Desk?

IS wins off-site storage contract Information Dissemination

Information Services have recently begun provid-
ing off-site storage facilities for Edinburgh College
of Art backup media. This is a first venture for the
department, and it is hoped that it will lead to fur-
ther opportunities in this area.
Do you have a message you want to share with the
rest of QM? Not sure of the best way to get that
message out?
This intranet site might just help you:

eca
http://is.gd/5c1uv

Covering the use of Moderator, Infobox, plasma

screens, and more, the site gives details of how to
decide which will best suit your message, along with
how to access each method.
 Coming soon to an MFD near you...
Monday January 25th to Sunday March 7th 2010.

The Copyright Licensing Agency has selected Queen Margaret University to undertake a survey of our
photocopying activities. For six weeks, every time you make a copy from a book or a journal on one of the
MFDs in the LRC, we need to know about it! The Copyright Licensing Agency uses the survey to identify
the authors, artists and publishers of the books and journals being copied, and thus ensure that licence
fees are distributed equably.

During the survey period in the LRC, a Data Collector will either write down the details of the item that
you’re copying, or will take an additional copy. This shouldn’t take too long, but please be patient with the
Collector. If you’re a member of staff, there will be a yellow survey box next to every MFD on the staff-side
of the Academic Building. Simply take another copy of the book or journal’s ISBN/ISSN/title page (and a
copy of the article’s first page), attach a label showing how many pages and copies you’ve made, and put
them into the yellow box next to the MFD. Find out more here: http://is.gd/6v7oz.

New Storage Area Network (SAN) Winning IT

IS has recently purchased a replacement Storage Area QMU’s thin client infrastructure won a
Network (SAN). A SAN is a sophisticated way of providing Green Gown award for Green ICT in
substantial amounts of computer storage. The SAN serves as June 2009, and was shortlisted for an
the centralised file storage location for all staff and students, e-Government award in November.
so that every user’s ‘My Documents’ and Group directories
are stored there. Read the story here:

All the data that is stored on the original SAN has been http://is.gd/5fVp6
migrated to the new SAN. This involved moving over 8 million
files and 2.1 million folders. The amount of data stored on the
SAN continually increases, including a significant amount of
historical data which must be kept to comply with legislation. Sustainability is a key driver in all
This data is backed up on a rolling schedule and data is securely QMU technology initiatives.
stored off-site to provide for a disaster recovery situation.

iTunesU
iTunesU is a freely available service from Apple that can be accessed via the Music Store on iTunes. 
Teaching materials, lectures and interviews on a wide variety of subjects are uploaded from universities
and colleges all over the world for everyone to enjoy.
Here at QMU, we are building our iTunesU site and hope to go live very soon.  There is a lot of amazing
material that is already available via WebCT, various servers as well as our web pages.  There are the
professorial lectures, guest lectures and conference talks.  It is our aim to have these audio and video files
accessible from one place and to encourage interests in other disciplines. 
As well as the existing content, we are looking for eager individuals and departments to record new
material.  If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Laurie Roberts (lroberts@
qmu.ac.uk) at the LRC or visit the intranet site at: http://is.gd/6v7yT.

Did you know …? Did you also know …?

…. That QMU currently backs up almost 5TB (TB = terabytes) of data? …. That IS staff have over
136 years of QMU service
One Terabyte = one trillion bytes. between them?

One byte represents one character of data, so that cat or dog would
each be represented by 3 bytes.
 Lecture capture
Lecture capture is an umbrella term describing any technology that allows instructors to record what
happens in their classrooms and make it available digitally.

In its simplest form, lecture capture might be an audio recording made with an iPod; alternatively, the
term might refer to a software capture program that records cursor movement, typing, or other on-screen
activity. Lecture capture systems offer three important benefits: an alternative when students miss class;
an opportunity for content review; and content for online course development. Lecture capture enhances
and extends existing instructional activities, whether in face-to-face, fully online, or blended learning
environments.

QMU has investigated a number of lecture capture options and will be piloting in academic subjects in the
coming academic year. Our solution is a blended hybrid of technology, suited to the environment in which
learning is undertaken.

Lecture capture is achieved using two technologies:

• Echo 360 – currently in room 3148 - will be used to capture audio, video and the presenter but is
limited to only one location
• SMART software, already available in all teaching rooms, will be used to capture audio and
presentation. Supplemented by the addition of standard boundary microphones capable of picking
up both the presenter and the audience

Output will be centrally stored, available to the presenter for review. Once checked it will be made available
to students using a variety of mechanisms; for example WebCT and iTunesU. Learn more here:
http://is.gd/6vaK4.

Room info screens

Have you noticed the appearance of a number of plasma screens in the main academic building? This
is a joint project with Estates and Facilities to provide live information on room booking and timetable
information in the teaching areas on levels 0 to 3.

The screens will display up-to-date information on the availability of rooms as well as timetabled lectures
and tutorials to help you find the room you need quickly and easily. In the LRC, the screen will allow you
to see what IT Labs are free and if a class is booked for the immediate future, meaning you shouldn’t be
evicted by a timetabled or booked session just after you have logged in. Find out more here:
http://is.gd/6vaqo

Business Intelligence project

IS are delighted to welcome Ranjit Nagubandi, who joined the department at the end of August 2009 as
Business Intelligence Co-ordinator.

Business Intelligence – also called Management Information – refers to the skills, technologies, applications
and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context. The
purpose of the BI project is to identify and analyse the University’s diverse information needs, and improve
how that information is gathered from various systems.

QMU has deployed an application called Business Objects which will be used to collate and compile
all relevant business reports. Ultimately staff will be able to use Business Objects to self-generate the
reports their roles require.

If you would like to know more about the BI project, please contact Ranjit directly:
rnagubandi@qmu.ac.uk or visit the intranet here: http://is.gd/6v7RC.
 Smartcard portal
Did you know that you can top up your smartcard and print accounts online, using your credit or debit card
via PayPal or WorldPay? If you create or use an existing PayPal account the top-up process takes less
than a minute to complete and the additional cash is available to spend on your account immediately.

What’s more, you can check your balance and recent transactions via the same cashless portal for both
smartcard and print accounts. Especially useful if you want to check how many bacon rolls you have
purchased this week.

You can add a minimum of £5 and maximum of £20 at any one time with any multiple of £5 in between.

Jump the queues in Food for Thought – use your smartcard. http://apps.qmu.ac.uk/cashless

Student Room Booking System Thank You!

This year the LRC launched a new service to allow students
to book the LRC’s group study rooms and individual study
carrels themselves. Students no longer have to come to
the LRC service desk to book these rooms, as they can do
it online from anywhere with an internet connection. This
dramatically cuts down queues at the service desk.
Students can also set email preferences to allow them to
receive confirmations of bookings, cancellations etc. As the
system is database driven we can gather very specific sta-
tistics about the patterns of room usage.
The Student Occupational Therapy
Society (SOTA) raised £121.56 to help
purchase books for the LRC.
We were so impressed by the efforts of
the students we offered to match the sum
raised. The result was the purchase of
much needed texts on reflexivity (Inviting
reflexivity into the therapy room: how
therapists think in action, by Fabienne
Kuenzli.).

The Room Booking system can be located either by click-

ing on room bookings on the LRC home page or by going Remember: you can recommend books
directly to: http://erc.qmu.ac.uk/library/eRoomBookings for purchase by using the Iwantthisbook
option on the LRC home page.

eResearch, eTheses and eData

eResearch - http://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk - our repository of research outputs, now has over 800 items in
it, and in the months November - December 2009 received 2,210 unique visits. The most popular article
is an open access one (i.e. we are able to allow visitors to read and download the full article) which in
the same month was accessed 172 times. This clearly demonstrates the benefits of placing articles in
the repository, and publishing them following an open access model. It is also worth noting that over 75%
of visits to eResearch are generated via search engine searches, with the most popular engine being
Google generating 1,561 visits in the month described.

eTheses - http://etheses.qmu.ac.uk - our digitised collection of PhD theses and selected Masters
dissertations, has received 384 unique visits in the month November - December 2009, with again the
majority of visits coming from search engines.

eData - http://edata.qmu.ac.uk - is our newest repository and is still in its

early stages. It can be used to archive research datasets, or as a central
place to store data whilst it’s being analysed. Data can be kept in eData on
an open access, closed access or embargoed basis.

For further information on our repositories, or if you have any other LRC
research support questions, please contact Helen Muir in the LRC:
hmuir@qmu.ac.uk