A focus on research in the Library

Oonagh Monaghan / February 26, 2025 / Research

Insights from the New Research Librarians after 6 Months in the Role

Dr Claire Pike (Research Librarian for College of Health and Science) & Stephen Macdonald (Research Librarian for the College of Arts, Social Science and Humanities)

Research word cloud containing words Communication, Research, Open access, publishing, journal etc.

Last Summer, two new roles were created in the Library: Research Librarian for College of Health and Science, and Research Librarian for the College of Arts, Social Science and Humanities. Although support for research is offered by all Academic Subject Librarians, the creation of these two roles allows for a greater focus on – and more dedicated time for – research support and services.

The first six months have focused on gaining an understanding of the research happening in our respective Colleges and getting to know and make contact with researchers across the institution, as well as colleagues in R&E and research librarians at other libraries across the UK. We have been attending our respective College Research Committee meetings, which has allowed us to stay updated with the latest developments and meet the Directors of Research of the College and Schools we support.

Our first major project was to produce a support guide for researchers on the Library website. This guide covers a number of areas including open access and open research, research data management, copyright, research metrics and systematic reviews, as well as a section dedicated to postgraduate research students. We have also organised a series of webinars delivered through the Research Postgraduate Development Programme and the Academic Staff Development Programme, covering topics such as reference management software and systematic reviews. Our goal is to add new topics to the programme in 2025/26.

One part of the role that we are both passionate about is advocating for open access and open research. As part of International Open Access Week (21^st-27^th October 2024) we launched a scholarly communications blog with Jade King and Charlotte Mitchell (Research Repository and Research Data Officers) which included several posts on open access, as well as delivering webinars open to everyone in the University. It was great to see a range of both students and academics attending. We are hoping to organise more University-wide events in the future advocating both open access and open research. We have also had the opportunity to contribute to the development of relevant policy documents, most recently updating the University Open Access policy to include Rights Retention.

We are both enjoying the great variety of tasks the role offers, from supporting individuals, and designing and delivering webinars, through to having more strategic input, such as policy development. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue expanding our support for researchers, fostering a culture of open research and contributing to the ongoing success of our academic community.

Library collaboration with the Reimagining Lincolnshire Project

Oonagh Monaghan / September 1, 2022September 1, 2022 / arts, decolonisation, LGBT+ History Month, Library, Reimagining Lincolnshire, Research, Uncategorized, Wikimedia, Wikipedia

(The Reimagining Lincolnshire Project who have a blog Reimagining Lincolnshire – Discovering and sharing untold stories has been engaging with local people and organisations to uncover and celebrate the marginalised and forgotten stories of our city’s past with the hope that we can imagine an inclusive future. Public space can become a bridge between past and present, a site where differences are celebrated by breaking down barriers and starting conversations. It also sits alongside the decolonising agenda at the University of Lincoln which aims to challenge the language we use and the ways in which we teach and learn. The project aims to tell the marginalised stories in new and creative radical ways, challenging existing hierarchies and oppressions that are the result of colonial legacy.

In collaboration with Librarians Hope Williard and Oonagh Monaghan, there are two projects for 2022/23.

For Black History Month, the team have partnered with Wikimedia UK to run an online Wikimedia Heritage Project ‘Wikithon’.

Secondly, Librarian, Oonagh Monaghan has teamed up with Dr Victoria Araj and College of Arts Technician, Jantze Holmes on a ‘Reimagining Zine Project’.

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How to Never Pay for Access to Journal Articles

Hope Williard / August 24, 2022August 24, 2022 / Library, Research

As we get closer to the start of the new year, the Academic Subject Librarians are starting to hear from students who are looking for help accessing content for their research. This post offers some tips for what do when you’re struggling to find that key article that everyone is citing…

First, as a member of the University, you never need to pay for access to academic journal articles. If you start your research on Google Scholar, find an article that looks great, but hit a paywall, try searching for the title of the article on the library website—we offer access to many, many thousands of journal articles. What we don’t have ourselves, we can often borrow for you!

Second, try installing a browser extension called Lean Library—it links up with our website and steers you towards links to access content that we pay for, but that would otherwise appear to be behind a paywall if you aren’t regularly logged into or using our site. If you are being really thorough, you might then want to…

Third, double check our library’s journal holdings. Despite the vastness of the internet, not all academic research is easily available online. For instance, you might want a digital copy of an article that was published in 1992, but the publisher has only digitised articles from 1995 to the present. A search of our journals via Electronic Journals or Browzine is an easy way to quickly check for access issues of this sort. Don’t worry if our library doesn’t offer access to an article, because we might be able to obtain it from another library for you–this is called interlibrary loans.

Finally, if a search of the internet, our websites, and our journals turns up nothing, you can request an interlibrary loan by filling out our request form. Select the type of material you want to find, ‘journal article,’ from the drop-down menu. Interlibrary loans are free for you and delivered straight to your inbox—article loans tend to arrive within 3-5 working days. The article is then yours to download, keep, and use in your research.

And there you are–in three or four steps, you have gone from not being able to access materials you need for your research, to having what you need at your fingertips.

If you are struggling to access academic content or have any questions about how to find research materials, remember that your academic subject librarian is always here to help. We can speak with you about your research by appointment (a perfect option if you have several articles you’re trying to track down or if you’d like a refresher on what databases or journals might be useful for your topic). You can also email us questions about finding material.

Best of luck with your research!

Discovering LGTBQ+ Histories

Hope Williard / February 18, 2022February 21, 2022 / #LGBTHM22, LGBT+ History Month, Research

Happy #LGBTHM22 everyone! If you have picked up some of the books in our library displays, you might have noticed that a number of them are about queer histories. The way these stories are told has changed over time, but a plethora of gender identities and expressions, and experiences of sexuality and identity, are a constant of human history. In other words, queer people have always existed. History books like Sapphistries or The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes depend on a wide array of sources, particularly what historians call primary sources, which are materials–diaries, documents, drawings, and more–made by someone who lived through or experienced a particular time, place or event. Historians often think of primary sources as texts but they aren’t always–comics in a zine like Not Trans Enough could be something historians use to understand the lives and experiences of trans people in the 2010s, in the same way that a Pride flag facemask will be a primary source to a scholar looking back on the 2020s.

a white woman wearing a pride facemask and a blue shirt stands on a sidewalk — “Love happens here” by gerrypopplestone is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

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LGBTQI+ History Month – Finding resources in the unlikeliest of places

Sarah Lewis / February 14, 2022February 23, 2022 / #LGBTHM22, LGBT+ History Month, Library, Research, transgender

By Sarah Lewis

During LGBTQI+ History Month, the Library is blogging and sharing resources on social media to further shed light on the content we have which may be of use in research or for general interest purposes. In preparation for this, we conducted a brief survey of our databases and, in particular, I wanted to see if some of our less obvious databases also contained pertinent content on LGBTQI+ subjects and issues.

Black image of human head with large rainbow question mark inside it

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The Lions of Lincoln Cathedral Library

Hope Williard / October 13, 2021October 15, 2021 / Research, Special Collections

Welcome to a visual feast of the king of the beasts, as seen in manuscripts and printed books of Lincoln Cathedral Library. Some of the images are realistic and some less so but still evidence of our long term fascination with the magnificent animal found at the top of the food chain.

Oldest Lions

illuminated initial showing a group of lions on a background of intertwined blue vines — Lincoln Cathedral MS 147 f.96r

One of our oldest lion’s is the 12^th century decorated initial in a manuscript of Peter Lombard’s Sentences (specifically, Psalm 52), described by Rodney Thomson as ‘white lions on square, coloured grounds edged with green’. Can you see them? Look closely!

medieval illuminated letter D, with a red lion in the centre of a green letter — Lincoln Cathedral MS 193 f.27v

This lonely lion in a 13^th century initial from Ivo of Chartres’ Decretum is much easier to spot!

Another 12^th century depiction illustrates genealogies of the Counts of Flanders and Kings of France with a lion rampant.

a medieval drawing of a lion — Lincoln Cathedral MS 98 f.120r

It’s interesting to compare the medieval lions to each other!

Early Modern Lions

a woodcut of a lion — Conrad Gesener, Historiae Animalium (1551-1558)

Swiss physician Conrad Gesner is often considered to be the father of modern zoology. His three volume History of Animals was the first comprehensive reference work on the subject, covering quadrupeds, fish, and birds. Illustrated throughout with fine hand-coloured woodcuts, this work attempted to include all the available information on each animal. Although it was intended to be factual, there are many wondrous and mythical creatures scattered throughout each book, including a unicorn. This was the first attempt by anyone to describe the animals and their habitats accurately. If you are visiting Lincoln please do not miss the new exhibition space at the Cathedral. An animated version of Gesner’s rhinoceros will be there in 2022!

painting of a shirtless man, sitting on a rock reading a book. A lion sleeps at his feet. — Illustration of St Jerome and the lion (undated drawing)

The story of the church father Jerome and the lion is a delightful story of a saintly scholar coming to the rescue of a limping lion, removing a thorn from his paw. The lion repaid his kindness by remaining by his side until his death around 420 CE and appears in many paintings with St Jerome. The cathedral owns a beautiful drawing of this story, a hand-coloured illustration with no provenance but visible pin holes where it has been displayed in the past.

The earliest printed book held in the Cathedral Library is a copy of Jerome’s Epistles printed in 1468.

Lions of the Nineteenth Century

illustration of two lions, one crouching facing left, and a lioness surrounded by three cubs — Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1857)

Oliver Goldsmith’s History of the Earth and Animated Nature was first published in 1774, describing the history of the earth, geographical features and many species of animals in eight volumes. The Cathedral has a two volume abridged version, which appeared in 1853. It is mentioned in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, read and enjoyed by Maggie Tulliver.

a black and write print of a man tying prone with a lion pouncing on his back — David Livingstone, Missionary travels and researches in South Africa (1857)

Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873) was not enamoured of the artist’s impression of him being attacked in by a lion, which was published in ‘Missionary travels and researches in South Africa; including a sketch of sixteen years’ residence in the interior of Africa’ in 1857 and tried to have it banned. The attack took place in 1844 during a journey to Mabotsa, Livingstone survived the encounter but the lion did not.

The cathedral library also holds a letter from Livingstone addressed to Col Winyard in 1862, detailing the trials and tribulations of travel in Africa at that time, which featured in Lincoln’s Black History Trail in October’s Black History Month, as part of the University of Lincoln’s Reimagining Lincolnshire project. You can learn more at https://reimagininglincs.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk

Lions Today

Throughout the cathedral’s history, lions have sparked the imagination and interest of the people who illustrated, wrote, and collected its books. We hope you have enjoyed getting to know the lions of Lincoln Cathedral Library.

Images shared with the permission of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral. Blog written by Claire Arrand with help from Hope Williard.

LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Oonagh Monaghan / February 26, 2021February 26, 2021 / healthcare, Library, Research, transgender

Its near the end of LGBTQ+ History month so we are focussing on LGBTQ+ mental health and wellbeing research in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Exploring LGTBQ+ History in an Online Archive

Hope Williard / February 12, 2021 / Library, Research, transgender

February is LGTBQ+ history month in the UK and library blog is celebrating by featuring posts about resources for exploring LGTBQ+ lives in the past, present, and future. This first post in our series is about one of our online archives. We would love to hear your comments and questions about the posts: please tweet us @GCWLibrary, email us at library@lincoln.ac.uk, or tell us your thoughts in the comments section at the end of the post.

Adam Matthews Explorer (AM Explorer), is one of the library’s newer databases, and contains a huge range of online archives organised around a wide range of themes. Queer histories A collection that might be of particular interest for exploring LGTBQ+ histories in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries centuries is Sex and Sexuality. The archive collects the research papers, notes, and interviews of people who have researched sex, sexual behaviour, sexuality from an academic and medical perspective, such as Alfred Kinsey and Norman Haire; and archival collections which focus on lived experiences of individual people.

Handwritten notebook page — Page from the Diary of Anne Lister (1791-1840)

You can do a keyword search within the archives represented in the collection (the take a tour page gives you a good overview of the collection as a whole) or browse specific parts of it. One particular part of the collection lets you explore the diaries of Anne Lister, a nineteenth century gentlewoman who wrote about her relationships with women and travels across Europe. An introductory essay offers some context and background on who Anne Lister was and her importance in lesbian history. You can also explore the papers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century gay rights advocate Edward Carpenter. To explore twentieth century gay and lesbian history, you can explore the responses given by participants in the National Gay and Lesbian Survey.

Orange paper with typed letter to National Gay and Lesbian Survey Participants, 1996 — National Gay and Lesbian Survey, Letter to Participants, 1996

The Sex and Sexuality archive also focuses on a wide range of collections from specific libraries, such as the Kinsey Institute, which has collected a large library and archive of material relating to sex and sexuality–you can explore collections ranging from romantic and erotic pulp fiction to an archive of materials on cross-dressing in the nineteenth century and much more besides. You can also explore collections from the ONE Archive at the University of Southern California Libraries, including papers, photographs and letters which provide a firsthand view of queer lives, relationships and advocacy in twentieth century America. On the other side of the pond, archivists have collected a huge range of material from the UK’s National Archives relating to sex and sexuality–you can see some of the highlights here

Image of two white women wearing glasses standing on a hillside — Photograph (Sue Gaff and M Doyle) from Esther Herbert and Marvyl Doyle Papers and Photographs

Even if you have some experience researching for your studies, working with an online archive can sometimes be overwhelming! There are a range of ways to explore the collection in order to find material you are looking for or interested in. You can search for specific names or keywords–if you are searching for particular words and phrases keep in mind that our vocabulary around sex and sexuality has changed a lot (and continues to do so), so you might find it helpful to take a look at the research tools section for ideas. If you are interested in browsing specific topics, like gender identities or art and literature, there’s a feature that lets you browse by topic. And if you struggle to locate material that is relevant to your research or interests, do contact your subject librarian–we’re here to help!

GCW Library Contributes to History Day 2020

Claire Arrand / November 2, 2020November 3, 2020 / Research, Special Collections

Library staff are participating in History Day 2020, a set of interactive events which allow students, researchers, and lovers of history to explore archival, museum, and library collections that tell us more about the past. Our contribution takes the form of two blog posts–links and more details below!

MS 95 f.6v – a fragment of a 15th century antiphoner (a book of the responses sung at different parts of a Catholic church service. The manuscript was subsequently used to cover other manuscripts)

In ‘Silencing the Music‘, Special Collections Librarian Claire Arrand and music librarian Hope Williard reflect on the delay coronavirus has caused for a joint research project with two undergraduate students, Valerie Arinda and Megan Lomas. Our project, ‘Distant Music: Uncovering the Music of Lincoln Cathedral Library’, will involve investigating Lincoln Cathedral’s incompletely catalogued manuscript and printed sacred music. Due to the pandemic, and the impossibility of conducting socially distanced or online research, the project has been put on hold, but we hope you enjoy reading about it, and getting a sneak peek at some of the cathedral’s musical treasures.

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Google AND the Library

Sarah Lewis / March 18, 2020August 12, 2020 / Internet, Library, Research

Librarians can give you many reasons why our resources are considered preferable to those you might find on the open web – such as the resource’s reliability, relevance and the review process, to name a few.

While, yes, we librarians love to extol the virtues of the Library and would prefer our students, staff and researchers make use of our wonderful (and not inexpensive) print and electronic resources, we are aware that many people find using Google for their research easier and, dare we say it, quicker!

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