[apotoftea]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
UEA has a 24hour library You might think this is really normal, but my undergraduate college didn't have one and it drove me round the bend! So nice to be able to come in and work whenever I need to.

Even over Easter? Wow.

Both my institute library and archive are closed until Wednesday (since 5pm Weds) and the main uni library is closed until Tues.

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by apotoftea)
Even over Easter? Wow.

Both my institute library and archive are closed until Wednesday (since 5pm Weds) and the main uni library is closed until Tues.

Yup
All the Cambridge libraries were open for all of Easter, its just that they weren't 24 hour - and at undergrad my typical working day was 8pm to 2am/all night
I really needed it today because David's parents are visiting to complain to him about something, so I'm only going to make be around for the obligatory bits.

[Craghyrax]

I was wondering how everybody else searches for academic articles? Do you tend to use specialist databases like Web of Knowledge, or (in my case) Social Science Research Network (SSRN) or do you just rely on Google Scholar?

(Original post by apotoftea)
Even over Easter? Wow.

Both my institute library and archive are closed until Wednesday (since 5pm Weds) and the main uni library is closed until Tues.

Also they've just introduced a special mobile number you can text if someone's making a noise on your floor. Love it!

[flying plum]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
I was wondering how everybody else searches for academic articles? Do you tend to use specialist databases like Web of Knowledge, or (in my case) Social Science Research Network (SSRN) or do you just rely on Google Scholar?



Also they've just introduced a special mobile number you can text if someone's making a noise on your floor. Love it!

Gosh, is it that bad?! I usually just go an ask people... I don't use the library at Nottingham, as it's always insanely busy. At KCL, the library is set up like small rooms, with mezzanine levels. people would often think they were alone and so would often have to ask them to be quiet, but no one was ever nasty about it. I loved that library....

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by flying plum)
Gosh, is it that bad?! I usually just go an ask people... I don't use the library at Nottingham, as it's always insanely busy. At KCL, the library is set up like small rooms, with mezzanine levels. people would often think they were alone and so would often have to ask them to be quiet, but no one was ever nasty about it. I loved that library....

Well there are several different 'zones' and there are often people laughing, giggling and arsing about on the 'silent' and 'quiet' study floors, when there are four others to choose from, all with plenty of space

And I've never had much luck asking people to be quiet. Once a girl was on her mobile phone and I asked her to go to the mobile zone. She gave me the hand until she'd finished her call. Then she acted surprised that other people could hear her and promised not to do it again. 2 mins later she was on the phone again

[flying plum]

whoever was talking about whether or not to get a kindle the other day - the coolest thing I like about it is that I can read PDFs. So, you download a free piece of software onto your computer, and then save journal articles. Right-click on the journal article, and click 'send to kindle', and like magic, it appears on the kindle. It's 'mazing!

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by flying plum)
whoever was talking about whether or not to get a kindle the other day - the coolest thing I like about it is that I can read PDFs. So, you download a free piece of software onto your computer, and then save journal articles. Right-click on the journal article, and click 'send to kindle', and like magic, it appears on the kindle. It's 'mazing!

That's probably not the most basic one, right? My fiance got a basic one for Christmas. It does PDFs but the text is really tiny and you have to upload them. Nice thing is we've been sharing it as he doesn't use it that much

[QHF]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
I was wondering how everybody else searches for academic articles? Do you tend to use specialist databases like Web of Knowledge, or (in my case) Social Science Research Network (SSRN) or do you just rely on Google Scholar?

I'm mostly a specialist databases person. Enough people have mentioned Google Scholar to me that I feel like I should use it more, though.

[flying plum]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
That's probably not the most basic one, right? My fiance got a basic one for Christmas. It does PDFs but the text is really tiny and you have to upload them. Nice thing is we've been sharing it as he doesn't use it that much

ah yeah, it's the keyboard one. I deliberately got it so I could type easily and make notes and stuff. you can also resize the text which is handy (though I'd have thought the basic one wo uld be able to do that to in the interests of equality and all that). I use it more for work stuff rather than books (still have romantic attachment to real books), so deliberately got that model.

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by QHF)
I'm mostly a specialist databases person. Enough people have mentioned Google Scholar to me that I feel like I should use it more, though.

Heh, its the opposite with me.

[Cirsium]

? I have the most basic Kindle and I can get pdfs on it... That's the only reason my Mum has one

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by Cirsium)
? I have the most basic Kindle and I can get pdfs on it... That's the only reason my Mum has one

Where did I say that basic Kindle's can't display PDFs? Or was that directed at flying plum's post?

[sj27]

I have a tablet with a kindle app ( also a PDF reader which makes the PDF aspect moot though).
Things I love about the kindle: you buy a book and it's there instantly; if more than one in the family (my husband has an actual kindle) you can set it up so that each kindle receives copies of the books you buy; that you can get sample chapters (usually the first one) of most books; it's wonderful for travelling - no longer going on holiday with heavy bag due to books! Also, no longer walking into bookshops trying to remember the name of that book that sounded good - read the review and if it sounds interesting, zap the book or at least the sample chapter to the kindle.

But, like someone else above, I still have a romanticized notion of books. So far, I have this idea that "serious" books should be in book form, while "non-serious" ones (eg 'airport novels') are good for kindle :P . I have a feeling that will change over time though.

Like I said before though, you can't get an author to sign your kindle!

Also, a friend I hadn't seen for ages (living in Canada now) visited recently, browsed my bookshelf, and made the point that it's not so easy to size people up by their bookshelves anymore - you don't go into someone's house and say "can I see what you have on your kindle!"

[cpchem]

Reaxys and SciFinder are my main go-to sites for 'how do I make this?' searches, and web of science for more general things. Never used google scholar.

[ice_cube]

I only use google scholar. Databases only ever spit out stupid things for me, I don't understand them

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by ice_cube)
I only use google scholar. Databases only ever spit out stupid things for me, I don't understand them

It probably varies by your discipline, but so far the specialist databases seem to turn out less of the things I'm after than google scholar. I don't know if its just because they might only search official journal sources. Google scholar often turns up free PDFs other people have uploaded onto their own websites, which means free access to lots of things my institutional access doesn't cover!
So yeh, I was just wondering whether my impression was mistaken or whether other people (particularly social scientists) found the same...

My fiance also only uses Google Scholar for Philosophy (he uses Pubmed for his science interests)

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

I just type stuff into JSTOR's search engine and see what comes up

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by ice_cube)
I only use google scholar. Databases only ever spit out stupid things for me, I don't understand them

Thanks.
It probably varies by your discipline, but so far the specialist databases seem to turn out less of the things I'm after than google scholar. I don't know if its just because they might only search official journal sources. Google scholar often turns up free PDFs other people have uploaded onto their own websites, which means free access to lots of things my institutional access doesn't cover!
So yeh, I was just wondering whether my impression was mistaken or whether other people (particularly social scientists) found the same...

[sj27]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
Thanks.
It probably varies by your discipline, but so far the specialist databases seem to turn out less of the things I'm after than google scholar. I don't know if its just because they might only search official journal sources. Google scholar often turns up free PDFs other people have uploaded onto their own websites, which means free access to lots of things my institutional access doesn't cover!
So yeh, I was just wondering whether my impression was mistaken or whether other people (particularly social scientists) found the same...

This...particularly useful for those of us in the limbo in-between academic stints without subscription access!

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by sj27)
This...particularly useful for those of us in the limbo in-between academic stints without subscription access!

Definitely!
I don't know about Zotero but there are also lots of free things on Mendeley, which is handy.