#FairSpaceForAll starting Monday 16th October 2023

The library is a shared resource and it is essential to ensure equal access to space for all. #FairSpaceForAll Seat Reservation Policy comes into effect from Monday 16th October. 

How does the #FairSpaceForAll work? 
#FairSpaceForAll bookmarks will be available in Library spaces in 26 York Street, Ground Floor, Levels 1 and 2. Be sure to pick one up when you come into any of the study areas. The bookmark is designed to be re-used so take it with you when you leave and bring it back the next time you are in the Library.

#FSFA Bookmark

How do they work? Take a bookmark when you come into the library or when you find your workspace. When you want to leave your workspace, fill in the date and the time you leave, and be back within 45 minutes!

If you are leaving your workspace for more than 45 minutes, take your belongings with you or they might get packed up and moved to the concourse area on that floor - i.e. opposite the main lifts.

When will items be moved? Items will be moved when you have not followed the policy of noting the date and time you have left your workspace, or if you are gone longer than 45 minutes, or if you put the wrong time on your bookmark, or if you don't use a bookmark at all.

When are items cleared from workspaces? This can happen at any time, in any area of the library for any work space where the policy is not adhered to. 

Ask at the Library Information Point in 26 York Street for more information. Chat with us or emails

What does ‘removing items’ mean?

At any point during the day, members of the Library team will be checking the Library spaces on Levels 1 and 2 and may remove items on workspaces which:

• Do not have the #FairSpaceForAll bookmark on them with the time you left your workspace
• Workspaces where students have been away longer than 45 minutes, as indicated from the #FairSpaceForAll bookmark.  
• Have a 'fake time' on the bookmark i.e. later than when you really left

All items left at a workspace will be put in a plastic box. This includes devices being unplugged so if work is unsaved – it might be lost.

Any food items will be put in the box also along with bottled drinks. Liquids in containers e.g. coffee, tea, soup will be left on a table beside the collection area.

Where will the boxes with removed items be left?

What happens if I don’t collect my items on the day they are removed? 

Uncollected items in boxes at the end of the day will be removed by security into lost property for collection.

What happens if a 'fake' time is written on the #FairSpaceForAll bookmark?

Where students write a later time as their 'time left' on their bookmarks, items may be removed, as if there was no bookmark on the space at all.

Why is this needed?

Library policies indicate that when using RCSI Library users are expected to:

 …Be responsible for your own property and not leave personal belongings unattended and Allow others equal access to library resources – any study place left unattended for 45 minutes or more may be used by another individual.

Library policy includes:

3.4 Reservation of seats To ensure that all available facilities are open to every student, the principle of equal access will be enforced within the Library fairly and impartially. The library reserves the right to implement throughout the academic year procedures to assist with equitable access to study spaces including, but not limited to, FairSpaceForAll procedures https://vle.rcsi.com/mod/folder/view.php?id=30506 (navigate to Library Policy.pdf in the menu) 

Students sign-up to the library policies as part of the Student Code of Conduct.

Who should I contact? 

If you have any queries, please contact library@rcsi.ie

Guest Blog: Publish or Perish: The Travails of Publishing Open Access for the Modern-Day Clinician

 

For Open Access Week 2021, we asked one of our medical students who has published under our Open Access agreements, for a personal view on open access. Talal Almas is a final year medical student with over 100+ published manuscripts, abstracts, posters, and book chapters. While he fosters diverse research interests, his main work revolves around cardiovascular research outcomes. He later aspires to become an interventional cardiologist, using data-driven research to govern his own clinical practice in improving patient care.  He can be found at Facebook: talal.almas and Instagram: @talalalmas  

To find out more about Open Access including our current agreements see https://libguides.rcsi.ie/researchsupport/openaccesspublishing. As well as publishing through OA publisher agreements, making a version of an article available as green OA has also been shown to improve citation performance. To find out more on how to submit to the RCSI Repository see https://libguides.rcsi.ie/repository  

____________________

By Talal Almas 

The exorbitant barriers to publishing open access continue to deter countless clinicians, researchers, and aspirants such as myself. In the modern day, the scientist often finds himself at the brink of a pressing yet time-sensitive conundrum: to publish research at the astronomical cost of thousands of dollars, or to remain sated with publishing under non-open access options. While the latter might seem like a no-brainer at first, the intricacy of the decision at hand becomes more conspicuous when one considers the ramifications.  

 

The ability to publish open access allows a researcher to disseminate their research to the scientific fraternity at an exponentially higher rate, dramatically increasing the outreach of a specific published article. In my personal experience, for instance, it is indubitable that articles published under open access agreements have, indeed, garnered a mounting number of citations, reached wider audiences globally, and elicited an exceedingly greater impact than their non-open access counterparts. Over the course of the past year, I have had the utmost privilege of leading and publishing a vast array of research projects under the open access license. This has been possible through the numerous open access agreements that RCSI has partaken in within the recent times. For a medical student with very sparse resources, and virtually no funding for any of the projects, such agreements have been pivotal in facilitating the scientific prolificity that I have been so lucky to foster over the past one year. Considering that the cost of publishing an article open access can range anywhere from 1000 USD to 4000 USD, publishing even an immaculate piece of scientific literature poses an insurmountable challenge to a medical student with sparse financial means. My research team, formed through extensive transnational collaborations, is left to convalesce, often being called upon to contribute a share towards the overall publication costs. Over time, such costs, even when divided amongst the authors, can accrue and amount to astronomical values, frequently deterring budding and exuberant scientists from publishing their astounding research.  

 

With the perpetually-evolving scientific milieu today, clinical innovation and transparency, particularly gleaned through a researcher’s publication output, have become more instrumental than ever before. In the modern day, the number of publications and citations a researcher garners across their publications often govern their scientific fate. In this context, publishing open access becomes somewhat of a necessity in order to bolster the likelihood of procuring more citations. For a medical student such as myself, open access publications foster a culture of increased transnational collaborations, which subsequently increase the overall research output. Indeed, were it not for the open access publication agreements that RCSI has recently become a part of, a myriad of the research projects would not have spurred to fruition, transnational collaborations would not have been feasible, and monetary concerns would have become the bane of my own scientific prolificacy. I am therefore utterly grateful for these agreements and to all that they have facilitated in my medical career thus far. I am equally grateful to all my collaborators, peers, and colleagues, who have all supported our research projects—cognitively, emotionally, and financially—in times prior to the advent of the aforesaid publishing agreements.  

 

Fortunately, I have continued to publish meaningful research, curate clinically-relevant research questions, and spur the data obtained to fruition so that we may be able to contribute towards ameliorating patient care—someway, somehow, someday.  

RIMS now connected to RCSI Repository

It is now possible to submit publications from your RIMS profile to the RCSI Repository to make the full text available to all as Open Access. Many funders now require Open Access for research publications as a condition of funding. RCSI’s own policy also requires all journal articles and conference papers by RCSI staff to be added to the Repository, and encourages deposit of other material. 

For RCSI Researchers looking to submit via RIMS

Within RIMS Symplectic, the Research Website Profile Module https://rims-profile.elements.symplectic.org look for new options to Deposit publications.

 

Just upload the PDF file of your paper and it will be transferred along with the reference details to the RCSI Repository. Guidance on the versions of papers that can be deposited can be found at libguides.rcsi.ie/researchsupport/openaccesspublishing

All items deposited will be checked and validated by Library staff before going live. 

All items previously submitted to the Repository (previously known as e-publications@RCSI) remain available and do not need to be submitted again. 

repository.rcsi.com

 

There is a new indicator in RIMS showing against all journal articles or conference papers published since 2019. This is to indicate publications which, under the RCSI Open Access Policy, are expected to have full text deposited in the RCSI Repository. 

More detailed instructions on Where to Deposit and How to Deposit can be found on libguides.rcsi.ie/repository/submittingviarims

 

More information on using RCSI Repository at:

libguides.rcsi.ie/repository

Access the RCSI Repository at:

repository.rcsi.com

Questions to:

repository@rcsi.com

BrowZine – RCSI Library’s platform for viewing e-journals

BrowZine provides a user friendly interface for discovering, monitoring, reading and keeping up-to-date with online journal content RCSI subscribes to.  Use BrowZine on your smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop to browse and organise favourite journals and full-text articles on your personal newsstand. Find out more about:

• BrowZine Features
• Download the BrowZine App
• Create a Personal Account to use the My Bookshelf and My Articles features
• Further Information & Support

BrowZine Features

With BrowZine you can: 
Browse and read journals:

• Browse thousands of top journals by subject, easily review tables of contents, arrange by impact factor and download full-text academic articles.

Stay Current with MyBookshelf:

• Create a personal bookshelf of titles to follow and receive notifications every time a new article is published.

Stay on track with MyArticles:

• Save your favourite journal articles into My Articles collections for later reading. All the articles in My Articles will stay in sync between all your devices.

Access on any device:

• Easily access BrowZine from your iOS and Android device and on the web to stay up to date wherever you are.

Save and export articles:

• Use the BrowZine app to save articles for off-line reading or export to services such as EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero and more.

Download the BrowZine App

To get started using BrowZine, visit RCSI Library on BrowZine or download the app from the:

• Apple App Store All iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches with iOS 9.0 or later.
• Google Play Store All Android Tablets and Smartphones with Android 4.0 and up
• Amazon App Store Kindle Fire HD Tablets with Android 4.0

Scan QR code to download app

Create a Personal Account

You will be asked to create a personal BrowZine account to use the MyBookshelf  and MyArticles features.

Once you have downloaded the app, you search for Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland and connect using your RCSI Network Username and Password. (this is your RCSI email prefix and the same password)

Download the BrowZine app, select RCSI and login with your network credentials.

Further Information & Support

Learn how easy it is to use BrowZine in this brief video introduction.

Further information can be found on the BrowZine LibGuide.

Alert RCSI Library Closure in Response to COVID-19

*updated 7/4/2020

In line with government policy the RCSI campus, including libraries at York Street, Mercer Building and Beaumont Hospital are closed at present.

The campus may be closed but the library is still open with 24/7 access to e-resources and the library team providing expert services remotely.  Fuller information on library service arrangements are available at libguides.rcsi.ie/alertlibraryclosure

Please email library@rcsi.ie if you have any questions.

Library Life Blog: Monday 9th March 2020 - Sunday 15th March 2020

Library Life is our weekly blog to let you know what will be going on around the library next week to help you plan your days and be aware of what is on.

If you have any suggestions of things you would like us to add to the blog for 2020 please get in touch: library@rcsi.ie

Extended Hours starting Monday 2nd March

#FairSpaceForAll - Bookmarks available in 26 York St Library Spaces

See our full explainer blog post on #FSFA here.

How do they work? Grab a bookmark when you come into the library or when you find your seat. When you want to leave your seat, fill in the date and the time you leave, and be back with 45 minutes!

If you are leaving your seat for more than 45 minutes, take your belongings with you or they might get packed up and moved to the concourse area on that floor - i.e. opposite the main lifts.

When can items be moved? Items can be moved when you have not followed the policy of noting the date and time you have left your desk, or if you are gone longer than 45 minutes, or if you put the wrong time on your bookmark, or if you don't use a bookmark at all.

When are items cleared from desks? This can happen at any time, in any area of the library to any desk not adhering to the policy. Sometimes only one desk might be cleared, sometimes all desks might be cleared so the best advice is to adhere to the policy!

Ask at the Library Information Point in 26 York Street for more information.

All Library Policies can be found on the Library Website www.rcsi.ie/librarypolicies

Additional Study Spaces this week *

*updated 10th March 2020

  

Library BiteSize Sessions: Skills Sessions to get the most from your library*

*updated 03/03/2020

Keep an eye out here on our blog or on our Moodle page for updates.

Library Space Bookings

*Check local signage for updates. Blog will be updated too. All information correct for time of publication.

Computer Room Bookings

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
		10:00-13:00 Moodle Training	11.00-15.00 NQAIS

Expo Stage Bookings

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
09:00-17:00 PIBS	09:00-17:00 CIMSA	09:00-17:00 AMSA	09:00-17:00 Sea Society

Tours in 26 York Street this week:

• Wednesday 4th March 11am-2pm: Weekly Porters tour (all floors)

In 26 York Street this week:

• Monday 9th - Friday 13th: Cultural Diversity Month (Student Societies)

Do you have other news you would like us to highlight to Library users?

Any comments or thoughts on how we can make this weekly blog post more useful? Email library@rcsi.com.