Meet your Academic Services Librarian #14

I’m Lloyd and I am the new Subject Librarian for the School of Art; Welsh & Celtic Studies; History & Welsh History and Law & Criminology.  I joined Information Services after finishing a PhD in Digital Library Collections/Art History with the School of Art and Research Department of the National Library of Wales.  My first degree was in Art History at Nottingham University, and later on I got an MSc in Information and Library Management from the University of the West of England.  In between, I’ve worked in a number of different types of libraries, including the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library, University of London; the National Library of Wales; the library of the Courtauld Institute of Art; and public library branches in Newport. 

The impulse to impose order on chaos may have come from an unwieldy and unnecessarily big record collection.  This collection was initiated by my grandmother giving me a 7”of Public Enemy’s Don’t Believe the Hype when I was about 12.  While I like to think my Nana is a big fan politically engaged east-coast rap, it was actually just unsold stock from her music shop, the mighty Falcon Music in Llanelli. I worked in the shop when I was a bit older, by which point the shop sold instruments rather than records.  Working in your gran’s guitar shop is still the coolest Saturday job you can have.    

For more information on the importance of maintaining a large collection of obscure records and to practice information/digital literacy skills, check out Roy Shuker’s Wax Trash and Vinyl Treasures: record collecting as a Social Practice available at Hugh Owen Library in physical and ebook formats.  

To find out how to insert a hyperlink directly to an individual record in Primo, see this FAQ.

Meet your Academic Services Librarian #12

I’m Simon French and I’m the Library Graduate Trainee for the 2014/2015 session. The photograph is of me on a literary pilgrimage to Shakespeare and Company in Paris. As you can see, even when I’m on holiday I don’t want to stray too far from the books!
Books have always played a major part in my life. One of my earliest memories as a child was joining my local library. The first time I went in, I couldn’t believe my luck. I could have any three books that I wanted. Free! This was too good an opportunity to miss. Obviously I was going to make it worth my while and so I picked the three largest books I could find.  After nearly forty years my memory of that day is a bit sketchy but I distinctly remember that one of the books was called something like ‘Warplanes of the Third Reich’. It was a huge book, bound in blue cloth filled with technical diagrams and details along with silhouettes of the planes in question. I could barely lift it and quite what use it would have been to a small boy in 1970s rural Herefordshire is anyone’s guess, but I didn’t care. It was the size of the thing that mattered.

Yet my working life did not begin in a very bookish fashion. I started out selling polythene bags for a living but the excitement of that soon waned. I stuck it out for five years and then I threw in the thrills of the bag factory to go and pursue my first love – books. I studied for my BA and MA in English Literature at the University of the West of England in Bristol. I then got a job researching and cataloguing manuscripts and rare books for an antiquarian bookseller. Some six years later I struck out on my own path and for ten more years I bought and sold books for a living.

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 #2

This term we will do a series of posts introducing you to the members of the Academic Services Team. This time it is the Information Studies and Management and Business librarian.

Anita Saycell
Having spent many voluntary hours from the age of 14 working in my local public library (not all Essex girls spend their time going out) my library career was starting to take shape. Next step was a paid job in the public library before heading West and studying for a Librarianship degree in Aberystwyth. An Assistant Librarian post at the Home Office followed, and then I joined Information Services at Aberystwyth University in 2003. When not working I have an active toddler to keep up with and any spare time left I teach swimming and enjoy walking, cycling and generally being outdoors.

Also see: a day in the life of a librarian.