We are so lucky here in Aberystwyth with lovely rolling hills and great walks. It seemed fitting for our last team meeting of the year to escape the screens and get together outside before the Christmas break with a team walk and coffee catch up at Nant yr Arian.
This term has been busy and has passed really quickly! It’s been a great mix with online as well as face to face teaching sessions and providing support. We’ve loved being back on the Hugh Owen Level F enquiry desk, helping with many varied questions and queries.
We are here until the Thursday 23rd December, if you need any help contact us at librarians@aber.ac.uk After the break we’ll be back on the Tuesday 4th January.
Whether you’re planning ahead for your dissertation or part way through it and regretting every decision you’ve made, this guide can help you!
In one easy-to-follow and simple guide, you will find all you need to understand and manage the dissertation process from finding information sources and developing your searching techniques to evaluating and referencing the sources you use.
For help and advice for every stage of your dissertation, from concept to conclusion, take a look our our Dissertation LibGuide: https://libguides.aber.ac.uk/dissertation.
Our News and Media guide is a clear and comprehensive resource to help you navigate the tricky world of news and media throughout your time at University and beyond.
Protect your image online
Define key concepts such as free speech, misinformation, disinformation and censorship
Learn how algorithms are used to target people on social media platforms
Black History Month is an annual event reflecting on the histories and cultures of black people throughout the world. It began in America but has been marked every October in the UK since 1987.
For Black History Month, Aberystwyth University Library has published a new list of recommended reading and resources which offer the opportunity to explore some perhaps lesser-known facets of Black History:
Our Black History in Wales selections take us on journeys to explore Wales’ involvement in slavery and its pivotal role in abolishing it (Slave Wales by Chris Evans); personal journeys of self-discovery and mixed-race identity (Sugar and Slate by Charlotte Williams) and onto the first Welsh-language volume to discuss the portrayal of multiculturalism in Wales in contemporary Welsh and English fiction (Y Gymru Ddu ar Ddalen Wen by Lisa Sheppard).
Experience Black History in poetry through recent works by the Dylan Thomas Prize winning Kayombo Chingonyi (Kumukanda) and Raymond Antrobus’ debut collection The Perseverance. Delve into the astonishing online Proquest Literature One African American Poetry collection of nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The list contains many wonderful online resources, but do not overlook the Proquest One Literature Black Writing and World Literature Collection which brings together the largest and most inclusive literature collection ever curated. These are the special projects we are highlighting this month:
More than a million-and-a-half Africans, along with many Indians and South Asians, were brought to the Caribbean between the 15th and 19th centuries. Today, their descendants are producing literature with strong and direct ties to traditional African expressions.
Black Women Writers presents 100,000 pages of literature and essays on feminist issues – from 18th century narratives depicting slavery, to works by a wide range of authors during the late 1950s and 1960s, following the winds of independence that swept across Africa.
Black Short Fiction and Folklore brings together 82,000 pages and more than 11,000 works of short fiction, comprising a variety of traditions ranging from early African oral traditions to hip-hop – including fables, parables, ballads, folk-tales, short stories and novellas.
We have included a range of physical and online resources on the list, so whether you’re on campus or off, you’ll find something interesting to read. We will have a display on Level F of the Hugh Owen Library throughout October.
Climate Change is a daunting subject to get to grips with and finding reliable information to help understand this most critical topic can feel overwhelming. Tackling Climate Change is the responsibility of everyone, and whether your background is in the arts, or in politics, or in the social, environmental or physical sciences, it is vital that each and every one of us does what we can to understand the impact of Climate Change on our world.
The ‘Is Aberystwyth’s Future Under Water? Stemming the tide of Climate Change’ reading list was created by Catherine Fletcher and Annabel Cook while on an AberForward placement for the Library Academic Engagement Team. This collection of resources was initially put together to support the outcomes of the upcoming AU Festival of Research (18 – 25 October 2021) but we thought it might also be useful to a wider audience. The list seeks to provide a range of information on Climate Change both locally and globally. It includes a link to an interactive map which allows you to explore sea level rise and coastal flood threats that might affect where you live. (Be warned: it’s properly terrifying!)
We know how much students and residents cherish Aberystwyth so hopefully by shining a light on the negative impact that Climate Change may have on the town, it will help us, as a community, to strive towards making more sustainable choices.
It is not just the Aberystwyth area that the resources on this list focus on. The selection of scientific articles that we have chosen outline the effects of the climatic changes which may have an impact across the globe. We also wanted to show that the research is interdisciplinary, highlighting the vital role all scientific departments throughout the university play in investigating Climate Change. The hope is that in fully understanding Climate Change, we can more efficiently predict and adapt to the challenges we are inevitably going to face.
It is important to remember that it is not only the scientific departments who can inspire change. The arts and social sciences have a role in providing a more creative angle to thinking about and understanding Climate Change. This reading list aims to show how those disciplines are already reacting to the threat that the climate crisis poses.
We all need to do our bit. So whether it’s studying art or studying zoology (or any subject in between) we need to bring our expertise, and our inspiration, to the great crisis of our time. Do let us know what you think of the list, it is a living document and if there are resources that you think should be there, let us know and we will add them.
