One of my favourite things about working at a university is being able to see new ideas grow and develop. Many universities, including mine, foster this process through small grant schemes, which are designed to enable research projects to get off the ground. It was through one of these that I first heard of the… Read more Thing 18: Augmented and Virtual Reality
Earlier this week, I attended one of the Proquest Books Week online talks ‘Diversifying Reading Lists and Content Acquisition’ (the programme is available here). I hope that sharing my notes from this valuable event might be useful as my own institution and others around the world work to decolonise our campuses and libraries. The speakers… Read more Diversifying Reading Lists and Content Acquisition
Academic books are the product of considerable time, effort, and expertise and a crucial part of many scholars’ careers. There are many handbooks on how to publish and be a productive writer (some examples from our library are here, here, and here); some of these books also cover how to get academic books in front… Read more Promoting Your Book to Libraries in Four Easy Steps
Every year, the House of Commons Library holds an Open Day for library and information professionals from around the UK. It’s a chance to look behind the scenes at the library which supplies MPs with research and information they need to do their job as parliamentarians. The 2020 open day was held at the Palace… Read more Information is the Lifeblood of Parliament: Visiting the House of Commons Library
Back in June, I went to the third annual gathering of UK-based history librarians, which is always a wonderful opportunity to meet colleagues and continue learning about the field. Libraries matter enormously for the study and research of the past and it could be argued that the current situation is uniquely challenging for student and… Read more History Libraries and Librarians in 2020
Confession time: I have a terrible sense of direction. After getting a smartphone, I embraced the use of navigation systems like Google maps and became much less stressed about the prospect of trying to find a place for the first time. Geolocation, the use of data from GPS or mobile towers to determine the location… Read more Thing 17: Geolocation Tools
Further Reflections on Digital Curation Sixteen posts in and I have yet to bookmark my own blog, which means that every time I begin to write a post, I end up googling ’23 Things for Digital Knowledge’. A few weeks ago, this led to me discovering and bookmarking the 23 Research Things Programme at the… Read more Thing 16: OneNote / Class Notebook
Before I became a librarian, I had never heard the phrase library jargon. Now it’s something I think about whenever I’m preparing to teach or talk about pedagogy. Unfamiliar or overly specific language can be a barrier for students but it’s tricky to know what to use instead. Is ‘online archive’ clearer for students than… Read more Thing 15: Digital Curation
My work on 23 Things for Digital Knowledge and my growing interest in how to be an effective and engaging teacher in online spaces led me to attend the Medieval Academy of America webinar, Online Teaching and Medieval Studies yesterday. This post aims to record a few brief notes and reflections from that event. The… Read more A Cool Thing: Online Teaching and Medieval Studies
Gentle reader, how are you doing? I hope you and yours are all healthy and safe. When I began this challenge in February 2019 I had no idea how much change lay ahead and how important digital means of learning and interacting would become. While lockdowns are shifting and changing around the world, it looks… Read more Thing 14: Audio