10 Library Essentials for Academics

Our Library homepage is at  www.wlv.ac.uk/lib, and you and your students can get support in the Library or via our online chat service, called Library Assist.  Assist is staffed 24 hours a day and queries are referred if they cannot be answered immediately. 

Your starting point for finding resources is LibrarySearch, the library catalogue. Here you’ll discover ebooks, print books, e-journal articles, online newspaper articles and more on your topic. And for more in depth searches, use our Subject Resources pages where you’ll find full-text databases covering journals, British Standards, market reports and archival resources.

There is also an A-Z of databases.  If we don’t have an article you need, you can request a copy via inter-library loan.  Physical books can also be requested via the inter-library loan service, for collection from our Libraries. 

We can also support you in your own academic inquiry and research – take a look at our Research webpages. 

Training can be provided for you and your colleagues, by request, on topics such as advanced literature searching, keeping up to date, Open Access, research data management, archival research and raising your research impact and profile. If you have published or are planning to publish, read the Open Access Publications Policy and consider taking advantage of one of our Gold Open Access deals.

There’s also our own institutional repository WIRE – which gives Open Access to the outputs of our research community.  

If the book you need is not available in LibrarySearch, please consider an inter-library loan request before suggesting a book for purchase. Please click here to make your book purchase request. Requests that meet the criteria in our Collection Management and Development Policy (PDF, 550K) will be purchased.

You should request texts for a reading list by adding them in Leganto and click SEND LIST to submit.

University approved guidance for referencing can be found online at Cite them Right. It includes a wealth of examples of Harvard Referencing and other referencing systems (e.g. Oxford, APA) for courses where their use has been agreed in-Faculty.

Our referencing pages offer additional quick guides which can be downloaded. When carrying out literature searches, you or your students may find it useful to manage your references using RefWorks.  Set up an account using your University email address; get started using this workbook: Guide to New RefWorks

Library inductions can be delivered to your student cohorts in person or online, at the start of their course or after they have settled in.  We can cover the Library as a study space, the electronic and print resources on offer, our Skills for Learning support and Library Assist. Updates can also be provided for returning students. Tours of the physical Library can be arranged. Please contact your Liaison Librarian to agree dates and times. 

Skills for Learning workshops can be delivered during your module teaching time (bookable via skills@wlv.libanswers.com) or you can link to our online Skills resources in Canvas.  For more information, including a list of topics covered by our workshops, see Academic Skills For Your Students.  To encourage individual students to take up Skills support, please consider using our Skills for Learning Referrals online form.

Students can also book on to our online workshops independently, come along to a drop-in, or request an appointment.  Workshops are delivered online via Canvas on subjects such as academic writing, referencing, critical thinking and presentation skills.  All students are signed up to the Canvas course Skills for Learning – Introduction to Academic Study Skills, which includes videos and interactive content. 

Module reading is provided to students through Leganto reading lists, which they access through their Canvas courses. Module leaders edit the lists by logging into Leganto – reading lists should be reviewed annually.

The Library aims to provide electronic copies of Essential reading, utilising digitisation (a legal scan) where appropriate. Support is available via Leganto - a Guide to Managing Your Reading Lists. See our Leganto pages for further information and email Leganto@wlv.ac.uk if you need assistance.

Guidance on staying within the law when creating online teaching materials is available via our Copyright pages. 

Much of our library accessibility support is freely available to all students, but if students have a specific Library need, please ensure they register with the Disability and Inclusion team via ASK@WLV. We rely on their expertise to flag requirements to us.

Our accessibility support includes:

• study space
• 1:1 induction
• accessible copies of texts, including RNIB Bookshare
• guide to freely available assistive software
• SensusAccess - a self-service file-conversion platform which can convert documents into a range of media.