Congratulations to all our graduands! Although you’re moving on, this doesn’t have to be the end! Here are 3 pieces of advice to ensure your transition from student to alumni is smooth and that you make the most of out being a Warwick graduate!
Tidy up any loose ends
You’ve probably started lots of online accounts using your Warwick email address while you were here, and if you set up an Endnote online account you will have received extra goodies for doing so (more storage space, extra referencing styles…).
If you plan on using your references after you go (you never know when the urge to do a Masters might hit you!), you might want to think about what will happen to them once you’ve left us *sniff*. Your bonus features will last for a year after the last time you log in via the Endnote page on the Library website, so to maximise the benefits of your connection to Warwick, remember to log in just before your IT account expires. And don’t worry, even after the year is up your account won’t disappear, you’ll just lose access to the extra referencing styles and storage. Another good idea, if you do plan on continuing to use your account, is to change the email address associated with it to a personal one – or even your Warwick email for life – in case you ever need to click the “forgot your password” link…
If you’re going to another university or to do research elsewhere, you may find you want to switch to a new reference manager, perhaps one available at your new institution, or that you’ve purchased or downloaded for your own computer. If that’s the case, don’t forget you have the option to export your references in various formats ready for use elsewhere – but think about doing this before you close or lose any accounts!
And finally, make sure you return any Library books you’ve borrowed. Yes, that includes the one stuck down the side of your bed!
Keep making the most of the Library
Once you graduate, that is not the end of the University’s interest in you. The Warwick Alumni Association offers a range of benefits including use of Library facilities.
In previous years when you stopped being a student here you didn’t get to keep access to all the tens of thousands of electronic resources that the Library subscribes to. However, we’re happy to announce that Warwick graduates can now access the alumni version of these journals as part of their alumni benefits! How great is that? Between them JSTOR, Emerald, ABI Global and Business Source provide many thousands of academic articles and millions of images, letters and other primary sources, and that includes some of our most popular journals. It’s not quite the same access as you had as a student but you can still study some wonderful resources.
Want to come into the Library to borrow our books? Or just need a quiet place to work on your own projects? As a Warwick graduate you can apply for a swipecard that will (amongst other things) give you access to the Library and allow you to borrow up to five books for up to two weeks.
And while you’re here you might need to get online. Once you have your swipecard you will be able to get a Warwick Guest wifi password which will give you access to the Guest wifi network across campus (including the Library). So that’s all the internet, anywhere on campus!
Keep in touch!
Although you’re no longer going to be spending days on end in the Library, battling on with your dissertation; catching up with friends over a flapjack in the Library café; or giggling over one of John Donne’s saucier works in LG Rootes, that doesn’t mean you have to go cold turkey. We’d love to hear from you – send us a tweet @WarwickLibrary! Or keep up with our #StudyHappy penguin, Kirby. We’d love to see where his new home is! Tweet a photo or share on Instagram on the hashtag #WarwickLibrary ?
We wish you all the best in your future endeavours!
Image: Graduation & Safe Driving / State Farm / CC BY 2.0
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