University of Kent

Kent IT and email account

All students of the University of Kent at Brussels are provided with a Kent IT account. Claim your IT account online. Your IT account gives you access to:

• a web based Kent email account. You can set this up to forward your email to an alternative email address, click the Managing email tab for details.
• all e-resources subscribed to by the University of Kent

View information about computing facilities at Brussels (login with your Kent username and password)

Libraries and their catalogues

It is recommended that you make full use of the physical resources (books, hard copy journals, etc) available to you locally at libraries in Belgium.

The Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) are the University of Kent's partner universities in Brussels. You are entitled to student ID/library cards from both. Visit the websites of their libraries for information about access, opening hours, borrowing allowances, renewing online, inter-library loans, etc.

• Library of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and its catalogue VUBIS
• Library of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and its catalogue CIBLE

View a list of other libraries in Belgium you have access to.

'The Shelf'

You can borrow books on a trust basis from a reserve called 'The Shelf' at the Brussels site. Search 'The Shelf' online via the University of Kent (Brussels Campus) catalogue.

To check out a book, scan the barcode on your student card and then the barcode on the back of the book. Return books to the UKB Office.

Templeman Library

Your KentOne (student ID) card acts as your Library card for the Templeman Library. It provides:

• access to the Library building
• the ability to borrow items; more information about borrowing
• the ability to reserve or renew items online.

No inter-site loan service operates between the Canterbury and Brussels campuses. If you are unable to visit the Templeman Library, it is recommended that you use the inter library loan facilities available at the VUB and ULB libraries to request any books not available to you locally.

Search the University of Kent Library catalogue; you can get direct access to any e-books listed here by clicking on LINK TO BOOK and logging in with your Kent IT username and password.

E-resources

University of Kent Library Services subscribe to a vast range of online resources, as well as providing a gateway to many relevant, freely available resources. Visit the resources web pages for full information and access.

Use your Kent username and password to access subscription resources through the Library's web pages or via Shibboleth/federation access. More information about access to e-resources

The three subject guides listed under the 'subject support' tab highlight the most important online resources for the subjects studied at Brussels.

E- journals

Search the journals database for the title of a journal, newspaper or magazine; you are then able to access the full-text, if available, by logging in with your Kent IT account details.

Full-text access to journals is also available to you through Antilope, a union catalogue of the journal holdings of academic, research and special libraries in Belgium. If an article has a V-link button, click it and login with your VUB student ID number preceded by v (eg v1234567) and VUB IT account password to access the full text.

Newspapers

Many UK and international newspapers are available online, including The Times from 1985 onwards and other historical newspapers. For full access to all the online newspapers available to you, use the newspaper resources pages and the Nexis service; login with your Kent IT account details.

Databases

Bibliographic databases help you find journal articles and other relevant material for your essays or research. Most databases work with the 360 Link service to tell you whether you can access the full-text article. Click on the 360 Link to full text button in the search results and login with your Kent IT account details.

E-books

Kent Library Services subscribe to a wide range of e-books, as well as listing many free online e-book services. You can search for and access subscription e-books (with the exception of pre-1800 titles) via the Library catalogue. From the catalogue search screen, click the Simple Limits drop down box and select E-books. Login with your Kent IT account details.

Visit the e-books pages to search subscription and free e-books services or to browse an alphabetical list of subscription e-book titles.

Reference resources

The reference resources pages provide access to subscription and free reference services, such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias and map services. Use your Kent IT account details to log into subscription resources. The following is especially recommended to Brussels students:

• the IISS Armed Conflict Database

Free online information

While you should always ground your research in reliable resources, such as books, peer-reviewed journals, major newspapers, etc, a lot of useful information is freely accessible on the internet. One way to start searching is through subject directories which are similar to search engines, but are subject orientated and often retrieve more relevant and academically sound web pages than commercial search engines.

Below is a selection of recommended resources:

General resources

Think tanks

Economic and financial data

Information about the EU

Maps and geographic information

Migration information

Humanitarian relief

Geopolitical, military, and intelligence-related information

Corruption

Long-range policy making and prediction

Directories of NGOs

Nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction

Subject guides and subject support

Subject guides are subject specific introductions to library resources, written by academic liaison librarians. The following guides are the most relevant for students at Brussels. Of particular importance to you will be the online resources listings in these guides:

• Politics and International Relations;
  subject liaison librarian: Anna Miller
• Lawlinks;
  subject liaision librarian: Ben Watson
• Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR);
  subject liaison librarian: Jason Harper

The librarians' contact details are available on the Templeman Library subject support page.

Reference management and referencing styles

Referencing means acknowledging the original author or source of any material, including web pages, you have used in your written work (eg essays, reports, dissertations or theses). A number of referencing styles are in use at Kent; these are described on the academic integrity web pages.

Reference management software enables you to build up a personal database of references to all the texts, articles, and other sources that you have used, or are likely to use, in a dissertation, essay, or piece of research. RefWorks is available online and is suitable for the needs of most students.

Training

Online tutorials:

Information searching for students at the University of Kent at Brussels

Intute Virtual Training Suites:

• Internet for Law
• Internet for Government and Politics
• Internet for European Studies