University of Lincoln Libraries and Learning Skills Blog
//The Library staff have been hard at work creating a display dedicated to the Harry Potter books and items based on library-related quotes from the seven Harry Potter books. The Harry Potter phenomenon started on the 26th June 1997 when J.K. Rowling’s Philosopher’s Stone was published. The author was then know as Joanne Rowling and some first edition copies include this name. The films followed between 2001 and 2011.
//October is Black History Month and Black history happens every day. To celebrate this, the library has put together a list of 365 books by authors of colour from our catalogue and e-book collections. The list was inspired by the website Black History 365 and the list of 365 Books By Women put together for International Women’s Day by the New York Public Library. It has been assembled through searches inspired by the Black British Writers wikipedia category page, as well as the African-American writers catalogue page. It also draws lists of books by Black and BAME writers published online, such as this one from Stylist. We hope you find it interesting!
Our More Books service is open for students and staff to request the purchase of items we do not have in our collections, so please do get in touch if you notice any errors or omissions.
Continue reading “365 Books to Celebrate Black History Month Year-Round”
//This year has been the first year the University of Lincoln Library has participated in Erasmus+ International Staff Training Week programmes for librarians. It’s been absolutely wonderful to read and hear about the fantastic experiences my colleagues Oonagh and Ella had on their staff exchange trips! This is the third and final post in our series about GCW librarians’ experiences of Erasmus programmes around Europe.
My Erasmus programme, ‘Libraries on the Move: Innovating Services for Research, Learning, and Publishing’, took place at the Freie Universität Berlin, a large and prestigious research university, with 11 departments, around 38,000 students and 336 professors. The Freie Universität (Free University) was founded in 1948 by students and staff who felt they could not learn and teach as they wished in the Soviet sector of the city. The programme consisted of a general day of introduction, three days of sessions and activities specific to the four international programmes running concurrently (libraries, career services, personnel development, and internationalisation), and a final morning of wrap-up and goodbye. It was an extraordinary week and I am delighted to share it with you.
Tucked away in one of the university buildings on Otto-von-Stimson Straβe is the Ristorante Galileo, where all participants in the international programme were treated to a welcome and an excellent lunch. Dr Herbet Grieshop, head of the Office of International Affairs, introduced us to the international scope of the Freie Universität. I was impressed by the way the university prioritises the internationalisation of non-academic staff, providing them with a package of training and external activities including intercultural training, language instruction, and staff exchanges which leads to a certificate and formal recognition by the university. Continue reading “Libraries on the Move: Innovating Services for Research, Learning, and Publishing”
//Recently, I was given the opportunity to visit the University of Helsinki as part of the International Staff Exchange Week (ISEW).
This was part of the erasmus+ opportunity in which individuals from different areas of academia and academic support meet to share ideas and best practice. After encouragement from our Erasmus officers within the University, I applied to the staff exchange week in Helsinki. After putting in my application, I was quite surprised to have been offered a place as I am a newly qualified librarian working in my first post-degree role.
//In response to discussions concerning ideas for creative collaboration between the School of Design and the Library, it was proposed that we hold an installation based upon the 97 Ideas About Creativity book, copies of which are already held by the library. The Library copies of the book allow the student to write within the pages and share their own creative ideas. The installation is being held as part of the Festival of Creativity.
The installation comprises of a screen in the library, displaying one idea per day randomly from the 97 ideas contained in the book – to present the ‘Idea for the Day’. Accompanying the screen element, a computer is available to Library users who are able to control the screen and browse any of the 97 ideas.
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I recently attended an Erasmus Staff Mobility Libraries week, hosted by Sapienza University in Rome.
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The vellum chart covers the North Atlantic and adjacent coastlines from the St Lawrence River to the mouth of the River Amazon and from Scotland to the west coast of North Africa. It was drawn by Nicholas Comberford of Stepney, originally from Kilkenny but apprenticed to a mapmaker at the London Drapers Company. He signed maps from 1626-1670, of which almost 30 survive.
//The Library is excited to announce our revolutionary new drone delivery system.
In an effort to improve our Customer Service even further, we’re launching a new service for book reservations.
When you place book reservations online you can now select to have these delivered straight to your door via drone!
Books will arrive within one hour – perfect for completing those last minute deadlines.
//March is Women’s History Month and the library will be celebrating with a series of posts on resources for the study women’s history. 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.
In my previous post, I introduced two of the library’s databases for studying women’s history. These databases are available by subscription–the University Library pays for them, and all staff and students at the university are able to access them. In this post, however, I will introduce some databases that are freely accessible to all. There is no one reason for using an online database as opposed to one built by subscription. Historians who study women’s lives have (and still do) push back against the stereotype that there’s no evidence for women of the past, which has led to a concern with gathering and sharing sources to enable research. Sometimes research touches on the concerns of past or contemporary communities and so researchers want it to be freely available to all who are interested, or sometimes research involves participants and investigators outside of the university and so for practical reasons an online resource is best. Online resources can be built with or by primary and secondary school students and teachers in mind. And sometimes an open access online database is simply the best resource available for a particular subject you are interested in!
//March is Women’s History Month and the library will be celebrating with a series of posts on using our resources to study women’s history. 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.
In the first post in this series, I introduced various kinds of e-book databases and how to search them. Books provide both primary and secondary sources for women’s history (think of the autobiography of writer, such as Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road or a study of Hurston’s life and writing, Wrapped in Rainbows by Valerie Boyd) but for additional primary research, you may want to consider looking at a database relevant to the time period, geographic region, or themes of women’s history which you are interested in studying. This post will spotlight two of the library’s databases which focus specifically on women’s history: British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries; and Women War and Society 1914-1918. Continue reading “Library Databases for Women’s History”