Online research facilities at York Libraries

Research on line
Students, independent researchers and small businesses can now access many of the world’s best academic papers across science, technology, medicine and other disciplines through York’s Libraries and Explore centres.

This is the result of a unique collaboration between librarians and publishers, who have made their journal content available for free to UK libraries under a new initiative, Access to Research.

Access to Research will provide licensed online access to over 1.5 million journal articles and conference proceedings through library terminals. With 8,400 journals included in the initiative at the moment, this will make content in the fields of Health and Biological Sciences (20%), Social Sciences (18%) and Engineering (14%) available to the public for the first time. Users will also be able to read a wide variety of articles in the fields of Art and Architecture, Business, Environmental Science, History, Journalism, Languages, Politics, Film, Philosophy and Religion, Mathematics and Physics.
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‘Gold box’ for York’s Archives

gold box minster web 2A giant ‘gold box’ to house the City of York’s most precious historic documents will be craned into place at York Explore this week.

The new state-of-the-art vault will be home to 800 years of the city’s history and is part of the £1.6m Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Gateway to History project to preserve and open up York’s internationally-important archives to people across the city – and across the world. Thousands of books, manuscripts and maps will be safely stored on nearly a mile of shelves in the climate-controlled box.

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York libraries help older people get connected online

City of York Libraries are holding a series of free taster events to introduce older people to the benefits of being online. These will be held as part of the national Spring Online campaign, which was formerly Silver Surfers Day and which has now grown to an annual week-long event.

Acomb Explore Library

Acomb Explore Library

There are currently around seven million people who have never used the internet and of those around six million are aged over 55 years. These people are missing out on the many benefits that being online offers, such as accessing a wider range of products and services, saving money and being better connected with friends and family.

The local events are as follows:
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Libraries introduce new service to help residents with planning applications

Acomb Explore Library

Acomb Explore Library

A new service is being introduced at York Libraries to help residents who are submitting planning applications for extensions or loft conversions to their properties.

Residents are now able to walk in to three York libraries (York, Acomb and Tang Hall).with their address and postcode details and can purchase specially printed site plans and location plans of their properties. These two documents are often needed when submitting planning applications to the council.

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Dringhouses library revelation

Dringhouses Library

Dringhouses Library

A freedom of information request has revealed that the Dringhouses Library building was gifted to the Council in 1942 for use only as a “Library or for other public uses”.

The revelation comes at a time when there are increasing concerns about the future of small libraries.

The Labour Councils decided to cut the libraries budget by £250,000 in 2013/14 and a further £150,000 in the forthcoming financial year.

The library service is now in the hands of an independent social enterprise trust which is currently looking to appoint new Directors

There will be an Open Evening at Acomb Explore, Front Street, Acomb, on Wednesday 12 March from 4pm – 6 pm, for anybody who would like to learn more. The management team and other Explore directors will be in attendance and able to answer questions. The person specification and role information for the new posts and can be found here.

To express interest in becoming a Community Director or the Finance Director of Explore, email fiona.williams@york.gov.uk by 24 March 2014.