We’ve been subscribing to a great resource affectionately known as ‘LISA’ for many years. This resource has been invaluable to Information Studies students and staff for many years.
LISA (Library & Information Science Abstracts) helps to focus searching for international scholarly literature on library and information science. However, as suggested by the name it is an abstract service only.
We are really pleased to announce that we now have access to the ‘Library & Information Science Collection”. This new collection now searches our much loved LISA, as well as the Library Science Full Text Database.
In summary we now have over 300 full text journal titles included when you search the ‘Library & Information Science Collection’.
Assignments: from Resources to Referencing has been prepared by the Subject Librarians at the University to develop key information literacy skills essential for academic study – from finding high quality academic materials to citing resources correctly in your assignments. The module is available to all students on Blackboard.
The module currently contains three sections:
Library and IT Induction
• Provides everything you need to know about getting started with library services and collections.
• A quiz to practice using library resources.
Referencing and Plagiarism Awareness
• Helps you understand the importance of accurate referencing; how to create accurate citations and references; how to manage your citations using referencing software tools and how to interpret your Turnitin Similarity Report.
• This guide includes a quiz which allows you to practice the skills you have learned using the specific referencing style specified by your department
News & Media Literacy
• This guide helps develop critical skills in evaluating the information we consume online. You will learn how to define key concepts such as free speech, misinformation, disinformation and censorship; understand concepts of selection and bias in the media and how to spot fake news.
• This guide includes a quiz which allows you to test the knowledge you have gained.
Further guides and quizzes will be added to the module in future.
If you require guidance in using the module, have any questions on using library collections and services or have any feedback, please contact: librarians@aber.ac.uk / 01970 621896
If you are anything like me then you are probably rejoicing in the fact that the BBC’s archive of historic radio and television programmes is being made available through Box of Broadcasts.
I for one can’t wait to watch post-apocalyptic fun-fest Z for Zachariah (broadcast in 1984 as part of the Play for Today strand). If that’s not your thing, how about Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs talking about Jack Kerouac on Arena in 1988 ? Not for you? Then maybe an episode of Horizonfrom 1980 exploring how voice-controlled word processors are set to revolutionise the office). Or how about a personal tour of Stratford upon Avon in the company of Welsh playwright Huw Lloyd Edwards inArall Fyd from 1972?
Of course this is the BBC so there is so much more: cultural highlights (BBC Television Shakespeare); landmark light entertainment (Multi-Coloured Swap Shop – that’s my childhood, right there!) There are flagship news shows (Newsnight) and historic accounts of landmark social and cultural events (Yesterday’s Witness). It all adds up to a resource of unparalleled quality and depth.
Box of Broadcasts have put together some useful information on how to access the historic content in the archive, but if you get stuck with anything please don’t hesitate to contact your subject librarian for help.
Here are some other useful links for finding your way around Box of Broadcasts:
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.
As a student, do you want to know how copyright affects how you might prepare for and write your assignments? Perhaps you are a lecturer, and you want to know if showing a film or television programme during a lecture or seminar might be breaching copyright legislation? Or are you a researcher looking to protect your own work from being used by others without your permission?
Answers to these and many other questions about copyright are dealt with in our new Copyright LibGuide. The LibGuide offers not just a comprehensive overview of the current copyright legislation but also practical advice on common copyright scenarios that you might encounter as part of your work here at Aberystwyth University.
The LibGuide is available in Welsh and in English.
(Engraving by William Hogarth. In the Public Domain)
If you are anything like me then you are probably rejoicing in the fact that the BBC’s archive of historic radio and television programmes is being made available through Box of Broadcasts.
