Social Media Search Engines

With the growing significance of social media like Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc. several search engines have been developed to search these social conversations. Samepoint, for example, allows you to search across millions of conversations occuring on blogs and social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and lots more to find out what people are saying about a particular brand, company or topic.
Other similar search engines include SocialMention, Yauba and BoardReader, some of which offer RSS feeds and realtime 'buzz' about your chosen topic.

Tesco grows on Facebook

Tesco has launched an official Facebook page as part of its strategy to expand its social media community.

The new Tesco Facebook page brings together Tesco’s existing Facebook pages and will act as the focal point for Tesco’s online relationships with customers.

Tesco plans to offer Facebook fans exclusive offers and promotions and use the Facebook pages to interact with customers and answer customer service enquiries.

Renew your Books and Beat the Fines!

Did you know that you can renew your books for a further 2 weeks if nobody else is looking for them? Library staff will do this for you on request or you can use the online renewal facility by following the steps below:

* Login to your account at: http://library.dit.ie/patroninfo.html
* You will need your ID number and PIN
* Click on 'Items currently checked out'
* Select items to be renewed and click on 'Renew Selected items' tab
* or Click on 'Renew All' tab

Please note the following:
Books and other items can only be renewed once.
An item cannot be renewed if another user has placed a hold on it.
If the item is overdue it must be returned to the library and fines paid. If nobody else needs it you can then take it out again.

In these cases library staff will be happy to help you.

Delays in receiving Loans from the British Library

In common with most academic libraries in Ireland, Aungier Street Library applies to the British Library (BL) for the vast majority of its' Inter-Library Loan requests. This commercial service from the BL normally works well and material is received in reasonable time.
The BL reported in January that, as a result of asbestos being found in their Document Supply Centre buildings, certain parts of their collection are temporarily unavailable for lending or copying. They committed to seeking out alternative suppliers where possible, but warned of inevitable delays. This has indeed proved to be the case and we would like to apologise to those of our users whose requests are still outstanding. We are making every effort to find alternative solutions and hope to clear the backlog as soon as possible.

Did you know that Westlaw UK also contains books? For easy access, Westlaw is always upgrading and enhancing its products, and one such enhancement has been launched on the White Book 2011 – details here

Below is a list of Book titles that you can access on Westlaw-UK via DIT’s subscription.

Archbold Criminal Pleading Evidence & Practice 2011 Ed.
Bullen & Leake & Jacob's Precedents of Pleadings 16th Ed.
CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts 6th Ed.
Copinger and Skone James on Copyright 16th Ed.
Current Sentencing Practice
Kerly's Law of Trade Marks and Trade Names 14th Ed.
Kerly's Law of Trade Marks and Trade Names 14th Ed.
Palmer's Company Law
Redfern & Hunter on International Arbitration 5th Ed.
Renton and Brown Criminal Procedure 6th Ed.
Renton and Brown Criminal Procedure Legislation
Terrell on the Law of Patents 17th Ed.
Totty & Moss: Insolvency
White Book 2011
Woodfall: Landlord and Tenant

Emerald takes over Social Sciences publisher

Emerald Publishing has just announced its’ takeover of Pier Professional, a UK based publisher of Health and Social Care journals, thereby adding 23 new journals to its social sciences section. These journals will gradually be added to the Emerald platform and will be accessible through the library’s subscription to Emerald Management Xtra. In the meantime they can be accessed immediately from http://www.pierprofessional.metapress.com.
Some of the journals may be of interest to the School of Media and also to Management staff and students. These include:

International Journal of Leadership in Public Services
Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research.
Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care.

Survey of over 50's reveals major potential for Irish business

A survey by Amarach Research of 500 adults aged 50+ in January and February this year, reveals many untapped opportunities for Ireland's product and service providers. According to the survey the 1.2 million people over 50 spend more on holidays, new cars, restaurants and home improvements than any other section of the population. 80% of this group own a mobile phone and 1 out of 2 buys a newspaper every day. They are enthusiastic media and technology consumers. 4 out of 10 use the Internet regularly to buy insurance, books and to book flights amongst other activiites. 29% of the group are on Facebook. The majority of those surveyed claim to be happy, relatively affluent and confident about their futures. 77% of them are not happy with their treatment in the media, however, and believe they are portrayed as 'vulnerable' or 'unable to cope'. Learn more at the Business of Aging Conference website at www.businessofaging.com. Take a look also at Dick Stroud's book The 50+ Market available in the library at 658.802. Stroud is one of the lead speakers at the conference.

New Reports from Mintel

Mintel Irish Reports have just published the four new reports below which may be of interest.

1) Alcohol Retailing
2) New Media and the Irish Consumer
3) 'Food on the go' Opportunities for Lunch time trade
4) Outdoor Activities and visitor attractions, Ireland

To access select Mintel Irish Reports from the A-Z listing of databases on the library website at http://www.dit.ie/library/databases/

Horizon Report 2011 - emerging technologies in Higher Education

The most important emerging technologies affecting Higher Education over the next 1-5 years are listed by the 2011 Horizon Report from Educause as:-
* Electronic Books
* Mobile Phones
* Augmented Reality and Game Based Learning
* Gesture based Computing and Learning Analytics.

Key Trends are identified as follows:

1) The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing.
2)People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want.
3)The world of work is increasingly collaborative, giving rise to reflection about the way student projects are structured.
4)The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized.

Challenges:
>Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.
>Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag behind the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching.
>Economic pressures and new models of education are presenting unprecedented competition to traditional models of the university.
>Keeping pace with the rapid proliferation of information, software tools, and devices is challenging for students and teachers alike

The full report is available HERE

Papers Invited - Alerting service for Researchers.

Have you had a look at the Proquest database Papers Invited on the library's A-Z list of databases?
The database consists of detailed information and deadlines about calls for papers for forthcoming conferences and special issues of scholarly journals. These calls for papers are issued by professional bodies, journal editors and other conference organizers in all disciplines and from all over the world. Thus, the database serves as an alerting service for researchers, scholars and students that are seeking opportunities to present and publish their research.

Subject coverage includes computers and information technology, literature, social sciences, psychology language, journalism as well as management and related areas.