h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Doesn't exist anymore does it?

Not for a couple of years in fact.

At least I though so. The BIDS ISI database certainly is now subsumed into the WOS or Web of Science.

http://wos.mimas.ac.uk

BIDS is still there: http://www.bids.ac.uk

David - who hates Web of Science even more than he hates BIDS...

Hmmm, except you can't search in the science areas as far as I could see.

You're right. The only Sciences database which hasn't been farmed out to someone else (Web of Science or Science Direct) is INSPEC, a physics database. No idea how good that one is, as I've not had the pleasure of being part of an institution that subscribes to it! BIDS seems to be a bit of a pick and mix.

Ha well, WOS is exactly the same as BIDS used to be anyway.

Can't say I ever used it as an undergraduate anyway -although times may have changed.

One thing that has annoyed me ever since I advanced into post-graduate and then professional science is that the University libraries have very much shorter opening hours outside of term time yet around 50 % of the population of the uni is still around (ie. post-grads and staff) and with all due respect to the undergrads, the library is far more useful for research purposes than it is for undergrad purposes really and we are still around and still in need of it throughout the year.

I can't speak for other places, but we open until 7pm (instead of our usual 9.30pm) over the summer. The main reason we have reduced summer hours is because 'they' don't let us take leave during term time , so you end up with less than half of the staff for much of the vacation, making the full opening hours impossible.

Having said that, though, the powers that be here have just decided they want us open until 9.30 for about 5 weeks over the summer. Not sure how we'll manage it, but the possibilities of extra 'pool' staff, and even of the near-mythical overtime have been raised. Unfortunately, this would mean doing 12.5 hour shifts...

David - is weighing up extra money vs. more than half the day in the library...

What are your hours off term? I'm working at a campus library right now, and we're open 8-7 Monday-Thursday, and 4 hours Friday-Sunday. (That's all they'll give us a budget for.

On term:

Monday: 9.30am - 9.30pm
Tuesday-Thurday: 8.30am - 9.30pm
Friday: 8.30am - 7.00pm
Saturday: 10.00am - 5.00pm
Sunday: 12.00pm - 7.00pm

Off term:
Monday-Friday: 8.30am-7.00pm
Saturday: 10.00am - 5.00pm

They are chucking extra money at us to do this extra-long opening this summer.

12.5 hour workdays?! I thought our 9 1/2 hour Monday-Thursdays were bad

We're usually open until midnight when regular classes are in session.