Library services for apprentices

We understand that studying as a degree apprentice can feel like you've got a lot to juggle at once and things like visiting the library or spending hours on research may feel like a luxury that you just can’t fit in. Luckily, modern university libraries such as ours are full of useful time saving systems that can help you maximise the time you do have available and help you find what you need to succeed with your assignments and your career. Here are just a few of the top library services we recommend for our apprentices:

Ebooks

The vast majority of the library’s collection is now available online and you’ll find most of the books you need will be available as ebooks. This means you won’t have to take time out of your week to make a special visit to the library and spend hours searching the shelves for what you need. Instead you can simply search the collection from our website for the topic you need, narrow your results using the filters on the right to “Books” and “Full text online” and you’ll have a whole list of ebooks available in front of you. If you still have too many results to scroll through you can speed up the process by adding extra filters like refining the date to the most recently published, and the most relevant topics.

Once you find an ebook that looks useful and have clicked on the links to open it, you can then speed up your research process by using the chapters headings to navigate through the book the best section or even use the search facility (usually a magnifying glass icon) to find exact words or phrases within the book. This will save you from wasting time trawling through hundreds of pages and makes it easier to find what you need quickly.

Online guides

The library website isn’t just a way to find books and articles, it’s also packed full of guides to help you with everything from getting started with the library to academic writing and referencing.

The Subject Guides have been created by your Subject Librarians as a quick way to see all the best resources for your subject area in one easy to access place. If you ever get stuck and don’t know where you should be looking for evidence for your assignments then your Subject Guide should help you to get back on track at any time of the day.

The referencing guides for all the styles used at ARU are available in the referencing pages and if you want an easy way to store all your references in one place, then you can learn about RefWorks here: https://anglia.libguides.com/refworks.

If it’s been a little while since you last wrote an essay or you just want to give your academic writing a bit of a boost we have a collection of study skills books and Study Skills Plus offer workshops and online guides from their pages on My.ARU.

Online enquiry services

When you get stuck and don’t know where to look for information or how to reference that report you found online then ask a member of the library staff using our online enquiry system. Our instant messenger chat and email enquiry services are live between 9:00 – 17:00 weekdays so you can get an instant reply during these hours. If you message us later in the evening, overnight or at weekends, we promise to respond as soon as we can on the next working day. 

Expert staff

If you have 30 minutes spare you can either book a virtual appointment with one of our library guides who can provide an introduction to the library website to help you get started, or for more detailed enquiries about your specific research topic and your subject resources you can meet with your Subject Librarian.