I was reading the education supplement in Tuesday’s Guardian and saw that the Royal Institute of British Architects are launching a returners course via London Metropolitan University for women who’ve taken a career break. It's in their article a Women at Work. RICS has a campaign called Raising the Ratio which aims to boost women’s status in the surveying profession. There’s a page dedicated to the campaign .

I often get calls from women returning to the profession after a career break who need to get up to speed with what’s happening in particular surveying areas. The best way is to look at our Hot Topics at  where you’ll find we’ve selected the best material on burning subjects. You can use these to then view material online  - as we put online reports as well as ebooks and case law on these lists. You can use these to borrow material from us. Once you’ve picked what you want to borrow email us a form so we can process your order quickly. The great thing here is we post out for free. You’ll also find our lists under the Knowledge Base area in our online database - good for swatting up on your faculty specialisms. The cherry on the cake   is our Knowledge Alert fortnightly bulletin which filters all the latest goings on in property and construction with links and saves you the time of reading hundreds of magazines. You can sign up by emailing my colleague tnorton@rics.org. If you’re a member sign up through the member newsletter preferences by logging on rics.org selecting My RICS from the toolbar, then My Details from the left hand choice of options on the screen. You can then pick up the E-newsletters tab and add it to your choices .

If you’re recently returned to work after a career break or are about to, let us know what you think of these services. If you’ve got any ideas of what else we could do to help you, do suggest these to us on the blog.

RICS library regularly receives requests for information on Compulsory Acquisition of Land (Rates of Interest after Entry) Regulations 1995.

The Annexe to the Circular Letter on Compulsory Purchase: Rates of Interest after Entry published on 12 March 1997 provides general guidance on the payment of interest on compensation at the prescribed rate

Updated rates of interest tables are available in pdf and word format. 

Last Friday the Professional Information team got a call in from a solicitor who was not sure what use class a veterinary practice came under and was writing this into a lease. We usually ask enquirers to take a look at the Planning Portal page which gives the latest listing. You'll see by following the last link it unfortunately doesn't list what a vet's practice comes under! The solicitor thought it was a D1. Peter, one of Information Officers, recommended checking it in the Land use gazetteer: the comprehensive guide to land uses and their use classes by Stephen Godfree which drills down into many more different types of premises than those listed on the Planning Portal web page. We've got a copy here in our library so if you come up against a building use that's not on the Plannint Portal web page, email us @ library@rics.org or give us a call on +44 (0)870 333 1600 option 1 x3714 and we'll check it out for you!

Over the past couple of weeks a few careers requests have come my way. A typical one from a school library wanting to get the latest RICS careers literature. Our Contact Centre team in Coventry can send out a careers pack. You can email them at contactrics@rics.org to get one. Otherwise if you want to save the trees a useful revamped site is www.rics.org/courses. You can use this to find surveying courses around the world as well as to find out what Chartered Surveyors do under the Careers button.

It's tricky keeping on top of what's happening for businesses out there. On Friday one of our members was trying to find out what was on the cards for VAT as a client thought they'd be able to get a VAT reduction on building materials for a refurbishment.

After scouting on the website I found this article on the 2008 budget. You'll see on page four a there's a mention of VAT on buildings.

I had a chat with our specialist Information Officer Annette Howard as this had a residential property angle and she came up with this guidance VAT: Land and buildings - New Schedule 10 of the VAT Act 1994 on the HM Customs and Revenue website which includes a helpline phone number.

Do let us know if you've found any handy sources of information on this topic too. 

Due to an RICS Books warehouse move the Library has some old and surplus Bookshop stock to sell at discounted rates.

The titles are mainly on computing with a few surveying titles. The computing titles may refer back to previous versions of software but are priced accordingly and include the popular ‘for dummies’ series, the Microsoft ‘Step by step’ guides and a good, easy-to-use series called ‘In easy steps’.

Check the website for a list of titles: http://www.rics.org/Services/Library/booksale.html

Just email library@rics.org letting us know which books you are interested in, giving your membership number. We will email back confirming if they are still available and sending you a credit card slip to complete.

Prices are as stated plus a postal charge of £3 for the first item and 60p per item after that.

Don’t forget RICS Books has a much larger selection of current titles available at www.ricsbooks.com and a Bookshop you can visit at Great George Street.

I was reading The Guardian yesterday and found an interesting story on the energy company E.ON and the University of Nottingham who are set to build a 1930s semi to test out how to make old UK housing stock more energy efficient . It made me think of how useful our Hot Topic listings on Green Buildings are. You’ll find they split into Energy Performance Certificates for  Non Dwellings which has a handy introductory page on our website like green buildings and listings of material for Energy Performance Certificates for Residential Property and sustainable construction. Let you us know what you think of them and the E.ON and Nottingham joint venture.

I received an enquiry today from a member who was interested in tracing details of buildings in a street near London Bridge station.

Here is a list of useful sources which I found.  Is anyone aware of any additional sources which they would like to share?

London Metropolitan Archives  

RIBA

National Archives

Southwark Council Local History Library 

The Survey of London - a multi-volume series of  English Heritage's architectural and topographical study  of London is available for reference at RICS Library.  For details of volumes held search www.rics.org/library using keyword Survey of London.

For more general sources outside London local public record offices and local history societies are worth contacting.

The library has been approached for information on construction of a Victorian shop front. The Victorian Society and local history societies may be able to help.  If you know of any sources or books which look at the construction of shops circa 1880s which include diagrams please can you email Annette Howard at library@rics.org  

Last Friday I got a call from a member wanting to find out the latest information and figures on offices changing into residential property in London. I found there was a lot of material on our online database much of it around the 1990s. You can find the material on there by putting in these search words:

offices and london and residential and conver$

Finding the latest statistics is much harder. One way would be to contact the planning departments in central London local authorities to find if you can get figures on a change of use from commercial to residential.

Our resident Information Officer specialising in commercial property, Peter, also suggested contacting London Residential Research and the journal Planning in London.

As you can see two heads are better than one . Have any of you got any other sources we may have missed?

If you find yourself looking for official RICS guidance, here's a page you should put in your bookmarks or favourites:

http://www.rics.org/guidance

Current RICS Practice Statements, Guidance Notes, Codes of Practice and Information Papers are free member downloads.

The page also contains links straight to RICS Forms and Contracts which are available to buy on the RICSBooks website. Non-members who want to get hold of RICS Guidance should head straight over there.

We sometimes hear from RICS members, even student members, who have never used the library. If you live a long way from London or Edinburgh, maybe you think the resources are difficult to get to?

In this case, you would be wrong! If you borrow a book from the library, we post it to you absolutely free of charge!

All you need to pay for is the return postage (we recommend covering yourself with recorded delivery if it's an expensive item) - I'm sure you'll get help from our friend with the black and white cat.

There’s no better place to start your search for UK law reports than the free website BAILII (British and Irish Legal Institute) where you can find British and Irish case law and legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish material.

Of course you won’t find every case there – it is comprehensive but selective.

RICS Library and Information Services can provide you with photocopies of most other property-related law reports or case summaries at £8.50 per report (post) or  £13.50 per report (fax) for RICS members and £15.00 (post) or £25.00 (fax) for non-members.

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