Meet your Academic Services Librarian #6

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the librarian for English & Creative Writing, Modern Languages and Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

Joy Cadwallader

My name is Joy Cadwallader and I was a monitor in the library at school, an online library catalogue builder in my 20s, an IT help desk advisor in a library in my 30s and now learning and teaching librarian in my 40s. The books have been following me around :)

At work I am interested in how librarians can help students when they find that more is expected of them e.g. when beginning a degree, starting a dissertation or becoming a postgraduate. This coming academic year I plan to spend more time in academic departments so you can ask me questions in passing and I can find out more about how and when we can best help you via training, resources and support. In my spare time I am studying for a Library & Information Masters (part-time by distance learning), adding some theory to the observations and feedback at work.

Meet your Academic Services Librarian #5

This year we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the librarian for Computer Science, and Mathematics and Physics.

Sahm Nikoi

I grew up in a part of the world characterised by “book famine”. In the West, the concept of a library brings up a particular image; this image is completely different in many parts of Africa today where libraries are frequently described using terms like “community resource centre”, “rural library”, “suitcase library”, “barefoot library”, “camel library” and “home library” to mention a few. After sixth form, I was posted for my National Service to a community in Cape Coast where I worked with the Ghana Library Board to promote reading skills in primary schools. Because the main library was a few kilometres away I was forced to find some innovative ways of delivering library services to the community and the wheelbarrow provided the answer, an experience which gave birth to a lifetime career in Library and Information Services. I therefore like to describe myself as the wheelbarrow librarian (see pg. 184).