Where do I start?
2015/16
A Brief Guide to the
Cranfield School of Management
Management Information
& Resource Centre
- September 2015 MIRC:
http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mirc
EMAIL:
mirc@cranfield.ac.uk
MIRC INSIGHTS:
http://blogs.som.cranfield.ac.uk/mirc/
CONTENTS:
MIRC - the basics
p3
Finding your way around MIRC
p4
MIRC services
p5
Borrowing and returns
p5
Finding the items you need
p6
Managing your library account online
p6
eBooks
p7
Sourcing items you can’t find on our shelves
p8
MIRC Online
p9
Electronic Business Resources - Journals and newspapers
p10
Electronic Business Resources - Company information
p11
Electronic Business Resources - Market and industry data
p12
Electronic Business Resources - Country & macroeconomic data
p13
Electronic Business Resources - Careers resources
p13
Electronic Resources - SearchPoint
p14
Accessing Library electronic resources from off-campus
p15
Plagiarism and referencing
p17
Kings Norton Library
p19
Who’s who in MIRC
p20
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MIRC - THE BASICS:
MIRC is your library service in the School of Management. We can be found on the first floor of
Building 111, just off the Executive Development Lounge. As part of the University’s Information
Services division, MIRC has a team of dedicated information professionals to support the School’s
students and staff.
MIRC’s online services are accessible both on- and off-campus 24/7 via our webpages.
OPENING HOURS:
Monday – Friday:
08.30 – 21.00
Saturday:
09.30 – 18.00
Sunday:
Closed.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Telephone:
01234-754440
Email:
mirc@cranfield.ac.uk.
Internal ext:
4440
OUR INFORMATION SPECIALISTS:
All members of MIRC staff can respond to most enquiries and support requests, however individual
course groups each have their own dedicated Business Information Specialist in MIRC, who has
specialist knowledge about the course structure, modules and assignments involved.
FACILITIES:
MIRC’s workstations all run Microsoft Windows and Office. Additional network points are available
for laptop users. Wireless access is also available. For more details, please see the MIRC website.
PRINTING & SCANNING FACILITIES:
MIRC printers are all equipped with photocopying and scanning
facilities. At registration you will be given a student ID card which
doubles as your print card with some pre-loaded credit. This can
be topped-up as required. Colour printing is available from most
printers on the network, including all printers in MIRC and the
Computer Studio. Scanning is free and items can be saved to your network drive or sent via email.
Further details on using our printers are available on the University intranet.
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FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND MIRC:
MEDIA ROOM
LAPTOP AREA
BLOOMBERG SUITE
NETWORKED
PCS / QUIET
STUDY
BOOK STOCK
SILENT STUDY
AREA
PRINT POD
ENQUIRY
DESK
ISSUE DESK
ENTRANCE
ISSUE DESK:
Borrow and return your books here.
ENQUIRY DESK:
Where to find the Business Information Specialists...
SILENT STUDY AREA:
Study spaces. Please help us to keep this area silent.
PRINT POD:
Printing, scanning and photocopying facilities.
BOOK STOCK:
Multiple copies of core texts, plus a comprehensive range of additional
texts in business and management.
MEDIA ROOM:
PC with large multimedia touchscreen, ideal for preparing presentations;
TV and video/DVD facilities. Pre-booking advised.
BLOOMBERG SUITE:
12 networked Bloomberg terminals. Access is also available to MS Office
and the internet.
LAPTOP AREA:
Dedicated space for laptop users.
NETWORKED PCS /
QUIET STUDY AREA:
16 networked PCs reserved for quiet study.
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MIRC SERVICES:
ENQUIRY SERVICES:
At any time when MIRC is open a member of staff should be able to deal with your enquiries. You
can contact us in various ways; either in person, by telephone (01234-754440) or by email on
mirc@cranfield.ac.uk, whichever is easiest for you.
TRAINING AND SUPPORT AS AND WHEN YOU NEED IT:
We offer various training opportunities throughout the year to
empower you to use our resources.
Some of these are timetabled
sessions but many others are optional. These include training on individual resources in addition
to customised sessions designed around particular modules or areas of research. In MIRC we pride
ourselves on high-quality customer service including one-to-one support wherever possible for all
of our users. If you have any support needs, come in and speak to us.
BORROWING AND RETURNS:

Loan Periods: Most MIRC books are available to full-time students and staff for two day
loan and to most part-time students for two weeks. Reference items and copies of highdemand titles are kept in MIRC for consultation access only.

Renewing Loans: Loans can be renewed in person, online (see p6), by email or telephone.

Returns: Please give returns to MIRC staff or leave them in the book-drop outside MIRC.

Returns by post: If necessary, please return items by registered post to the address below to
ensure that they are insured against loss or damage.
MIRC, Cranfield University School of Management
Building 111
Cranfield, Bedfordshire
MK43 0AL.
 Reservations: If an item you require is already on loan to another user, you can reserve it.
The current borrower will be unable to extend his/her loan and you will be informed via
email when the item is available for you to collect. (Please note that reserved 2-day loan
items must be collected within 2 days. 1-week and 6-week items are held for 5 days). MIRC
books should be collected from MIRC and Kings Norton books from Kings Norton Library.
Part-time students should contact MIRC immediately if they need a reserved item posted
out. See the section on p8 for how to place a reservation.
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FINDING THE ITEMS YOU NEED:
USING THE ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGUE:
To check a book’s availability and location, use the
Library catalogue. The catalogue provides details of all
books, conferences, theses, reports and journals that we
hold in stock. You will find links to electronic versions here too. Open the catalogue via the MIRC
webpages or enter directly at URL: http://unicorn.dmz.cranfield.ac.uk/uhtbin/webcat. Enter your
search-terms and click on ‘Search’.
FINDING ITEMS ON THE SHELVES:
Once you have found an item on the catalogue, you then
need to locate it on our shelves. From the catalogue
screen, take note of the item’s author, title and
classmark and take them to the bookshelves.
A book’s classmark is a numerical code for its subject.
This code is followed by a 3-letter suffix, usually the first
3 letters of the author’s name, to help you find items on
the shelf. This code is printed on the item’s spine label.
MANAGING YOUR LIBRARY ACCOUNT ONLINE:
You can login to your Library account on the internet via the Library catalogue. This allows you to
check which items you have on loan, when they are due for return and renew your loans if required.
In the top right corner, enter your network username and password to login.
RENEWING ITEMS ON LOAN:
From the top menu bar on the catalogue screen,
select ‘Renew Items on Loan’. Select the item(s)
you want to keep for longer and click the renew
option. The new due date will be displayed onscreen.
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eBOOKS:
Increasing numbers of course texts are now available electronically. eBooks are simply digital
versions of books, accessible online, allowing you to read, download and print pages just as they
would be in a textbook.
Cranfield’s eBooks are accessible via 2 main platforms (portals),
MyiLibrary and Dawsonera. Others you may come across include EBL and Safari.
eBooks can be extremely useful if you’re working from home or student residences. You can access
these texts without having to physically come onto campus. All you need is access to the internet.
ACCESSING eBOOKS:
Cranfield’s eBooks are accessed via our Library catalogue. As time goes by, you will notice more
and more catalogue records with electronic access available (like the title shown below).
By clicking on the blue button a new window will open and you will be taken to the eBook reader
interface. Depending on the eBook platform involved and your location, you may be required to
login using Shibboleth (see p16 for more information).
POINTS TO NOTE:
There are certain points you should be aware of when using eBooks:

As with printed books, copyright also applies to electronic texts. In fact, their very nature
makes it easier to enforce. You will find that there are restrictions on how many pages you
can download or print at any time.

Occasionally, if a large amount of users attempt to access the same item at the same time,
access to the item may become ‘locked’. If this happens, try again later or contact MIRC staff.
eBooks can be slightly daunting the first time you use them. Please don’t hesitate to ask any
member of MIRC staff for a quick demonstration if you are unsure.
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SOURCING ITEMS YOU CAN’T FIND ON OUR SHELVES:

For items that we would normally have here at Cranfield (but which are currently out on
loan), please place a reservation.
 For items that you cannot find on our catalogue, please use our Document Supply service.
PLACING A RESERVATION:
To place a reservation, find the item you require on the catalogue and click on ‘Reserve this for me’
(shown here, on the left, beneath the image of the book’s cover).
You will be prompted to select which of the copies you wish to reserve and, if you have not already
logged in, you will need to enter your (CCNT) User ID and password. Your reservation will be
confirmed. Please note that reservations can only be placed on items that are currently on loan.
DOCUMENT SUPPLY:
We can obtain books, journal articles, reports and conference papers from other libraries on your
behalf. Use the Document Supply Service via the Library Catalogue, and we will do the rest. MBA
and MSc students are entitled to 10 (free) requests throughout their course. Staff and research
students have an initial annual allocation of 30 (free) requests.
To place a request, open the
Library catalogue and click on the
Document Supply Service link on
the top menu. From the options,
select the type of document you
require and fill out the on-screen
form.
You will receive an email when the item is available to collect.
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MIRC ONLINE:
MIRC WEBPAGES:
URL: http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mirc
The MIRC pages are designed to be a gateway to our
services and online subscription resources. In addition to
the Library catalogue and customised support pages for
most courses, you will find details on and links to all of our
electronic resources.
MIRC INSIGHTS:
URL: http://blogs.som.cranfield.ac.uk/mirc/
Have a question? Check out MIRC’s blog. Here we are posting responses to frequent enquiries, from
simple ‘How tos’ through to more in-depth research questions. Use the search function or browse
our posts by subject or date. All feedback is welcome.
COURSE SUPPORT PAGES:
In addition to our pages on your course Blackboard, we also
have support pages for taught courses. Use the grey tabs
along the top of the MIRC webpages to enter the section of the
site dedicated to your course-group.
Here you will find pages posted to support specific courses
along with other support materials we think you may find
useful. All further ideas and suggestions are very welcome.
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ELECTRONIC BUSINESS RESOURCES - JOURNALS AND NEWSPAPERS:
WHAT ARE JOURNAL AND NEWSPAPER SERVICES?
These are huge databanks of journal articles – made accessible through a single search interface.
Whereas the Library catalogue holds details on books and journals, these services hold details
about the individual articles within those journals, including the full-text in many cases. They hold
content from:

Academic and peer-reviewed journals

Trade and practitioner publications

General interest business titles.
Articles are indexed by various criteria allowing you to search across thousands of titles
simultaneously. They are extremely valuable sources of information for research, saving you a
huge amount of time and effort sourcing material. Between them, Cranfield’s electronic business
resources provide access to hundreds of thousands of articles in full-text format.
SERVICES AVAILABLE IN MIRC:
Our major full-text services in business and management are:

EBSCO Business Source Complete

Emerald Full Text

ABI/Inform via ProQuest

Factiva (international press).
Various others are available at Cranfield in fields such as aerospace, engineering, the environment
etc. These may also be of interest if you are researching a specific industry.
SEARCH SCREENS:
Although each service has a different interface, there are similarities across resources. Multiple
search boxes allow you to build up a search by combining terms, then limiting by specifying
additional criteria to target appropriate articles. For most articles, a link to full-text is provided.
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ELECTRONIC BUSINESS RESOURCES - COMPANY INFORMATION:
COMPANY PROFILES:
Company profiles will generally include a company overview and key facts, information on
structure and strategy, details of top competitors, major products and services, prospects etc.
Various services contain company profiles including:

MarketLine Advantage - Over 31,000 profiles across companies worldwide.

Global Insight - For Automotive, Healthcare & Pharma.

Factiva – Select ‘Companies/Markets’ for company snapshots including
financial results and peer-group analysis.

Bloomberg – From a company’s Equities menu, select DES, description.
COMPANY FINANCIALS:
Financial sources can be extremely useful, giving anything from straight financials to
an insight into company structure, ownership and strategy.

Thomson One – Company financials for listed firms worldwide.

FAME – For financial data and ownership information for UK and Irish companies (both
public and private). No full-text analysis provided.

Bloomberg - From a company’s Equities menu, select FA for financial analysis.

Perfect Filings - Fulltext filings and annual reports for listed national and international
companies. Shibboleth login required both on- and off-campus (see p20 for details).

Bankscope – Financials for banking institutions (international coverage).

Factiva – Key financials are available in the Company Snapshot section, including five years
of financials and ratios. This can be downloaded into a spreadsheet.
SPECIALIST FINANCIAL SERVICES:
MIRC also has subscriptions to various specialist financial services, including the following:

Datastream – The world’s largest historical financial numerical database – providing share
and commodity prices, stock market data and macroeconomic statistics etc.

Thomson One – Also provides coverage of M&A, private equity, bond and share issues and
brokers’ reports.

SDC Platinum – For global new share and bond issues and international M&A deals.
Some of these can be a little tricky to use, so we would advise that you ask a member of staff for
some guidance the first time you want to use them.
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ELECTRONIC BUSINESS RESOURCES - MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA:
When researching an industry, its value and performance, competitors, brands and trends in the
market, it is worthwhile having a look at some of the following services:
MARKET RESEARCH:
 KeyNote:
For
UK
consumer
and
industrial
market
information. Thousands of reports are available across 30
sectors. Key Note is very easy to navigate. Reports can be
downloaded to pdf.
 Mintel: UK market research in financial, industrial, retail,
leisure and consumer markets. In addition to market
reports, Mintel also provides links to related news items and market
updates on the same screen.
 Passport: 21 sectors in international consumer, industrial and service markets. Links to
related reports and statistics are always displayed on the right-hand-side of the screen.
INDUSTRY PROFILES:
 Global Insight: International intelligence and forecasts in automotive, healthcare and
pharmaceuticals.
 IHS Technology - International intelligence in telecoms.
 MarketLine Advantage: More than 6,500 market profiles with international coverage. Each
will generally include a ‘Porter’s 5 Forces’ analysis.
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ELECTRONIC BUSINESS RESOURCES - COUNTRY & MACROECONOMIC DATA:
COUNTRY REPORTS:
For comprehensive full-text reports login to:

IHS Connect – In-depth country analyses

MarketLine Advantage – Includes PESTLE analysis.
DATA AND FORECASTS:

Passport – Click ‘Search’ on the black menu bar then use the
‘Categories and Topics’ structure to select your datasets
and geographies.

Datastream – Ask staff for details.
RISK ANALYSES:

IHS Connect – Country risk ratings and analysis.

Bloomberg – Use the ‘CRIS’ homepage to monitor economic indicators related to the
economic crisis. Data available for Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
ELECTRONIC BUSINESS RESOURCES - CAREERS RESOURCES:
MIRC and the Career Development Service work together to support you in researching potential
employment opportunities and preparing applications.
ONLINE RESOURCES:

Vault Career Intelligence - Comprehensive online career library site
providing industry guides, company profiles, careers advice and much
more.

Workmaze - Access to in-depth recruitment guides in various areas
including Management Consultancy and Finance.

MBA-Exchange – MBAs can register to create a personal account. Provides access to job
vacancies, recruiter information, careers advice, online recruiting events, Twitter and blogs.
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ELECTRONIC RESOURCES - SEARCHPOINT:
WHAT IS SEARCHPOINT?
SearchPoint is a service which allows you to search across multiple
electronic resources simultaneously. Access it from the MIRC homepage.
It’s a good for a quick search.
Search results include books (both print and electronic), newspaper
and journal articles, theses, conference proceedings, research papers
etc. Where available, links are provided to full-text. New content is
added regularly. SearchPoint has both Basic and Advanced search
options.
WHAT DOES SEARCHPOINT INCLUDE?

Library catalogues – our print and electronic collections (includes eBooks, theses etc.)

Electronic journal services – e.g. EBSCO Business Source Complete, ABI/Inform etc.

CERES, Cranfield’s institutional research repository.
WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED?
Please be aware that, despite its advantages, SearchPoint is NOT a one-stop-shop. Due to their very
nature, many key business resources are not included. These include financial information,
market research services, international press, economics and statistical data sources. Where you
need to do an in-depth search, we advise that you use individual electronic resources.
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ACCESSING LIBRARY ELECTRONIC RESOURCES FROM OFF-CAMPUS:
There are 2 ways of accessing our electronic resources from off-campus:

The University Extranet

The Internet (Shibboleth).
This section explores both and is meant as a step-by-step guide to use when you login from off-site.

Using the Extranet involves logging into a secure area and using services from there as
though you were on-campus. This is generally the easiest option.

Access via the Internet will require you to navigate directly to the MIRC webpages and log
into each service directly using a system called Shibboleth.
USING THE EXTRANET:
Login to the University extranet at URL:
https://extranet.cranfield.ac.uk/.
At the login screen shown here, enter your regular CCNT login.
A successful login will take you to the University
extranet homepage. You are now effectively ONCAMPUS. From the Web Bookmarks menu, select
the link to MIRC which will take you to our
extranet homepage – which looks exactly same as the MIRC internet homepage. The only difference
is that you are now classed as being on-campus.
You may have noticed that electronic resource pages and links have both on-campus and offcampus options. When you are logged into the Extranet, you should select the ‘on-campus’ access
options where available.
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Please be aware that some electronic subscriptions – primarily specialist finance services - are
available only in MIRC. Outside MIRC opening hours, these are accessible 24/7 from the SOM
Computer Studio, adjacent to MIRC. Bloomberg is accessible only during MIRC opening hours.
ACCESS VIA THE INTERNET:
Navigate directly to the MIRC pages at URL: www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mirc. In order to gain
access to any of our subscription services, you will need to select the ‘off-campus’ option on the
electronic resources page and you will then be asked to login using your normal CCNT details.
Because our subscriptions are open only to registered members of the University, you will need to
identify yourself as a Cranfield student before logging in. We use an authentication system called
Shibboleth to login to our electronic services from off-site.
A number of resources may require you to login via Shibboleth when on-site or on the extranet. An
even smaller number of specialist services require you to contact Library staff for login details.
To access a Shibboleth-authenticated service:
1. Select the Shibboleth (or institutional) login option on the service
homepage.
2. If prompted for your institution’s Shibboleth federation, select UK.
3. From the list of UK institutions select ‘Cranfield University – Shibboleth’.
4. The Cranfield login page will appear, allowing you to login to the service with your CCNT
username and password.
Please note that most of our resources will not require all of the steps mentioned above. Most will
take you directly from Step 1 to Step 4.
If you have any problems using the Shibboleth login, please contact the Library Resources team
(libraryresources@cranfield.ac.uk) for assistance.
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PLAGIARISM AND REFERENCING:
All academic work builds on the foundations laid by other researchers. The acknowledged use of
their work forms the basis of academic writing. Failure to make such acknowledgement is known
as plagiarism. This includes copying and pasting into your work from electronic or print sources,
inserting diagrams and charts without acknowledging the source and using direct quotations
without quotation marks.
The University Academic Misconduct Procedure defines plagiarism as:
“the use, without acknowledgement, of the intellectual work of other people, and the act of
representing the ideas or discoveries of others as the candidate’s own in submitted assessments
and publications”.
Available at https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/EducationServices/Documents/HANDBOOK%20academicmisconduct.pdf
WHY IS PLAGIARISM SO IMPORTANT?

The University takes plagiarism very seriously. Ignorance is no excuse and penalties are
severe.

Academic conventions require acknowledgement when you use or quote other people’s
work in any form - ideas, words, images…

Each assignment you hand in is accompanied by a signed statement that it is entirely your
own work.
HOW CAN IT BE DETECTED?

Tutors’ familiarity with the plagiarised material.

Changes in the style or quality of written English.

Identification by Turnitin, the University’s plagiarism detection software (see below).
TURNITIN:

A sophisticated piece of software that will check your work
against several million sources for ‘non-originality’.

It gives you an ‘originality report’ to which your tutor also has access.
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WHAT SHOULD YOU CITE?

Anything that isn’t common knowledge – or your own work.

Both direct quotations and paraphrased (re-worded or abridged) text.

Images, charts and diagrams that you have obtained from elsewhere.
CITING YOUR SOURCES:

In-text citation: Identify the original author of the point you are making. This can be done in
various ways eg.
o “According to studies by both Smith (1997) and Chadwick (2003), …”
o “………” (Knox, 2005)

Full bibliographic references at the end of your work enable your reader to identify and
obtain the works you have cited.
Cranfield University follows the Harvard (Cranfield) style of referencing. For more information, see
the Library’s ‘Author-Date Referencing Guide’. This is available on our Referencing Support page at
URL: http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/p17857. This is also available from your course portal.
MENDELEY:
If you would like to effortlessly produce superbly formatted references for your assignments, like
those shown here, there is a resource available to help you do so.
Mendeley is a web-based references manager. It allows you to
create your own personal database of references and to create
bibliographies and reference lists. References can be added to
your account in various ways including ‘drag and drop’ for
PDFs and a ‘web importer’ widget for webpages and databases
in addition to manual input.
You can then use the Mendeley add-in on Microsoft Word to
insert references into your document as you go along.
Taken from: Peluso,
D.(2010). Compete,
Coordinate,
Collaborate. OD
Practitioner, Vol. 42
(4), pp40-46.
Training in Mendeley is available on request. Please ask MIRC staff for details.
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KINGS NORTON LIBRARY:
All members of the University also have access to the Kings Norton Library (KNL), Building 55.
Kings Norton is the main University Library which provides a service to all Schools on campus. In
addition to subject stock on business & management, the sciences and engineering, you will find
PhD and MSc theses, journal collections, fiction and special collections. In terms of business and
management, Kings Norton stocks more research-focused items.
BORROWING & RETURNS:
Kings Norton Library has self-service terminals on the first floor, adjacent to
the Welcome Desk. There you can borrow and return loans, collect KNL
reservations and Inter-Library Loans. Staff are on-hand at the KNL Welcome
Desk to deal with any questions.
LOAN PERIODS:
Kings Norton Library has different loan periods to MIRC, ranging from 48
hours through to six weeks depending on your course and the item
involved. Each item is issued with a receipt detailing the date on which it
is due for return.
ENQUIRY SERVICES:
The Kings Norton Enquiry Desk is situated behind the Welcome Desk. There you will find the
Information Specialists whose subject areas include health, social sciences, the environment,
materials science, aerospace and engineering.
The University’s Business and Management
Information Specialists are all based in MIRC.
The Information Specialist for the Social Sciences at Kings Norton is Heather
Woodfield.
Further information on the Kings Norton Library and its services is available on their intranet
pages at URL: https://intranet.cranfield.ac.uk/Library/Cranfield/pages/default.aspx.
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WHO’S WHO IN MIRC:
A quick introduction to the MIRC team…
Mary Betts-Gray
Business Information Specialist
Sheila Chudasama
Business Information Specialist
John Harrington
Head of Learning and Research Support
Tracey Nunn
Business Information Specialist
Annette Sandford
Business Information Advisor
Karen Stokes
Business Information Specialist
Contact Us:
Email: mirc@cranfield.ac.uk
Tel: 01234-754440
MIRC Insights:
http://blogs.som.cranfield.ac.uk/mirc/
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