British Council Films
Launched this month is a digitised collection of films produced for the British Council in the 1940s. Insights to a different era, both of documentary film making, but also how we presented ourselves to the outside world. Lots of great material however for social and local historians, and with the additional benefit that they can be downloaded and re-purposed under a Creative Commons license.
My education favourite is ‘Learning to live’, described by the contemporary catalogue in these terms “Britain has many well-planned new schools with modern equipment. These are described in the picture of a day in Billy Brown’s Nursery School, his sister’s Junior School, and the Senior School where his brother is a prefect. At all stages of education, children learn to be useful citizens.” Interestingly the senior school featured in the film is Northwood in Hillingdon, still in the same building. I imagine the lantern slide projector (part of the modern equipment) has been retired!
Tags: access, eResources, history, New video
Try the Book Citation Index
The Library has another three-month trial of Thomson Reuter’s ‘Book Citation Index’ in the ‘Web of Knowledge’ (WoK). The Book Citation Index (BKCI) does exactly what the journal citation indexes do, in that it maintains a count of the number of times a book or a chapter in a book is cited in other published works. Currently, there are 30,000 editorially selected books in the database, which date from 2005 onwards. These make up 15.7 million of the newly cited references in WoK, and Reuters aims to add approximately 10,000 new books per year. Thirty-four percent of the books belong to the Social and Behavioural Sciences whilst eighteen percent are in the Arts and Humanities. The rest are books in the sciences. Information on how material is selected for inclusion in the database and a full list of publishers is available on the site.
Reuters continue to develop the functionality of the database and since the first trial in October 2011, the enhancements include:
- Reciprocal links to/from book records and book chapters;
- Accurate citation counts from journals, conference proceedings and other books; and
- Full bibliographies from books and book chapters
An online tutorial is a good starting point for searching this new citation index. Access to the Web of Knowledge is from the ‘Other Databases‘ page or from the Databases, A-Z guide.
The Library would very much like your views on this new resource. Access comes at a price so please let us know whether you believe this resource will be useful for your research and whether you think it provides value for money. You can do this by filling in an online survey which can be accessed here.
Tags: access, Book Ciation Index, citation, citations, databases, eResources, impact, REF2014, research, research support, Web of Knowledge, Web of Science
The Department of Education in Developing Countries: insights into change
Ooh, I’m a bad blogger. I really meant to give some updates on things I came across in the records of the Colonial Department, but realised the other day that I’ve almost finished with them now, but forgot to write anything. Sometimes the end can spring up on you suddenly. My first post is here , and the follow up here
So, where were we? The Department of Education in Tropical Areas (or ETA), became the Department of Education in Developing Countries (EDC) in 1973.
It is during the late ETA, and EDC period that connections with universities in other countries, particularly in Africa, can be tracked through the papers. And it is here I feel the collection comes into its own, not just as an example of the work of the Institute, but also in prividing snapshots of life in countries in the process of gaining independence, or in the aftermath of it. Two particular examples stand out for me, though I am sure there are countless more;
file IE/COL/23/63 (1979-1981) contains a letter from a member of staff at the University of Zimbabwe discussing the state of schools post segregation. She discusses more and more children turning up at schools, both at ones that were previously reserved for white, and for black children
file IE/COL/19/8 (1964-1966) contains papers regarding a planned conference that never took place. The papers refer to a conference that was intended to take place in Nigeria in 1966. However, the country was in the throes of the Nigerian Civil War, also called the Nigerian-Biafran War, so it could not go ahead. Often an archivist would discard papers regarding a conference that never actually happened, when the transaction so to speak, was not completed. I couldn’t have done this. While it’s not quite whitewashing history, it would be isolating the department from external occurences, and therefore ignoring the context it developed and grew within.
When working with archives, it’s often quite exciting to find find material that relates a collection to things occuring in the wider world. Archivists do love to bang on about context, but it can make quite an isolated, collection, and indeed experience, feel part of something bigger. It can also help you learn a lot about historical events that you probably didn’t learn about in history lessons at school. Do leave a comment if you have any interesting examples of similar!
Tags: archives, Biafran War, Colonial Department, context, Department of Edcuation in Tropical Areas, Department of Education in Developing Countries, historical events, Nigeria, Zimbabwe
Initial feedback on LibGuides & LibAnswers
Rozz Evans and I have just finished teaching a one-week, intensive ‘Information & Literature Searching’ course for the MPhil/PhD students. The students (13 in total) who attended the course were introduced to LibGuides and LibAnswers, the Newsam Library’s new information portal which is under construction and due to be launched at the start of the new academic year.
As the guides were integrated into the course content (in both the presentations and on the ‘worksheet’ for suggested hands-on exercises), students were asked to provide feedback on the portal and the relevant guides (Getting Started, Research Skills, Databases A-Z, EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, Interlibrary Loans, Using Other Libraries and Bibliographic Measures and Citation Searching) via an online survey form. This is so that we can continue to improve the site in preparation for the formal launch in September/October 2012. The present site is a prototype that was created specially for the IOE’s Learning & Teaching Conference 2012 to demonstrate the potential for improving the student experience.
In addition to the guides, the students were also asked to interrogate LibAnswers, the new online enquiry service, and to submit a query on this new online enquiry platform which we are hoping to trial during the Olympics. As the guides became integral to the learning, some students provided additional feedback on the course evaluation forms. The feedback has been positive and helpful as some students suggested ways in which we could improve the portal. This feedback is summarised below: Read the rest of this entry »
May Bank Holiday Opening Hours
The Library will be open for current card holders only from 11.00 – 20.00 on Monday 7 May. There will be no Membership or Enquiry service.
Tags: opening hours
Cheers to Brno students
While it is comforting to know that universities around the world are busy with the serious business of educating the next generation, it is also fun to consider some of the novel ideas in education. For example, in the Social Studies Library at Masaryk Univeristy, Brno, the problem of mobile phones in the library has been reduced by offering a special ‘Mobil Box’.
I discovered another quirky idea on the last day of my Erasmus Libraries week when the centre of the city seemed to be taken over by students in groups dressed in all manner of outfits — brides’ dresses, soldiers, flowerpots. They were blowing horns, carrying baskets and politely asking for money donations. This colourful student in the photo explained that they were students sitting exams and they were asking for ‘party money’. I couldn’t think of a happier way to get rid of my loose change on my last day. Cheers to the students of Brno.
Tags: Brno, Czech Republic, Erasmus, libraries, Masaryk University, mobile phone
Spires inside
I mentioned spires in a previous blog from Brno in an attempt to show that libraries can inspire from the inside. What I didn’t expect to find were actual, physical spires (although they appear to be upside down) as seen in the student area outside a Masaryk University library above.
And sometimes libraries just provide resources and room for thought as in the Moravian Library open to all below.
Spires in Brno
I got a bit obsessed with doors during a visit to Finland last year. This year in the Czech Republic, I’m getting a bit fixated with turrets, towers, steeples and spires. Although I really admire these high-rise additions, it has dawned on me that they are not always necessary. Even so, a world without spires would be a bleak one.
I just spent a very busy day looking at very modern libraries at Masaryk University and although there was a distinct absence of spires in the architecture, there were definitely some soaring ceilings and a feeling of upward movement inside the libraries. It was also comforting to see that students and libraries are similar no matter where they are — heads down and thoughts soaring up. Perhaps we need to concentrate on the spires inside buildings with educational inspiration and aspiration.
Tags: achitecture, Brno, Czech Republic, Erasmus, libraries
Event: Remembering London Lives Friday 18th May
Remembering London Lives: Going to School in London
London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, EC1R 0HB
Friday 18 May 2012
10am-3.30pm
FREE EVENT—PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE
To book call: 020 7332 3851 or email ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Come along to this joint event between London Metropolitan Archives and the Institute of Education Archives and share your memories of school days in London. There will be a chance to see film footage from the Inner London Education Authority, documents and photographs. There will also be time to share your thoughts and memories of your time at school or as a schoolteacher.
Full details:
Remembering London Lives: event details
Event Programme
Why MUST?
So here we are — about 30 of us from over 20 countries — at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic for MUST.
Brno is known as the ‘city of universities’, and with a population of less than 400,000, it earns it name with 6 private and 6 public universities and over 80,000 students. Masaryk University is one of the most popular universities in the country with over 44,000 students, 15% of which are international.
So what is MUST and why are we here?
MUST stands for Masaryk University Staff Training week and we are made up of university international office staff and librarians primed for a week of visits, discussions and cultural exchanges aiming for better understanding and sharing. What I’ve understood already is that although we come from different cultures and have an assortment of accents, our mutual bond is education. And lucky for me, the shared language is English.
Tags: Czech Republic, Erasmus, library, Masaryk University
