Meet your Academic Librarian #13

  Hi, my name is Ellie Downes and I’m the Graduate Trainee for 2015-2016. I graduated in July 2015 after a degree in English Literature right here, and have simply refused to leave, having fallen in love with the town, the beach and swimming in the sea.

During my final year I practically lived in the library, and when I wasn’t there I was trying to carry at least half of the contents home with me, so it made sense for me to work here as well. I am a bit of a book hoarder, probably having far more books than I should but I am incapable of throwing or giving any away despite swiftly running out of room. To put in perspective, when I was a child watching Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the best bit for me was not the iconic dancing scene, but the size of the library.

Outside of work and study, I am a massive Tolkien nerd having first read the Hobbit when I was 7, and carried on through Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, the Adventures of Tom Bombadil etc. . I’m a keen swimmer; pool, sea, lake, river, I’m not fussy and have continued swimming in the sea until November, when it started getting a little chilly.  During my time as a student I was in a few societies, where fancy dress seemed almost compulsory -explaining the photo below. I’ve had an Incredible time in Aberystwyth and hope to continue.

Aspire Self-Paced Training Now Available.

Information Services has just published a comprehensive guide to creating and publishing your reading lists in Aspire.

The guide will take you through what you need to know before actually creating a list; setting up your personal profile; building a module reading list; adding the Aspire bookmarklet tool to your browser; using this to create bookmarks for your resources and adding those resources to your list before going on to publish your list. The handbook can be found here and can either be viewed on the website or downloaded for quick access.

Box of Broadcasts - Now Available!

Aberystwyth University’s ongoing investment in its library resources continues with the fantastic Box of Broadcasts (or “BoB"!) This “user-friendly system allows staff and students to record and catch-up on missed programmes on and off-campus, schedule recordings in advance, edit programmes into clips, create playlists, embed clips into VLEs, share what they are watching with others, [and] search a growing archive of material”. This archive currently runs to over one million programmes and the site provides access to over 60 radio and TV channels.

Latest enhancements listed on the site include:

• “the addition of all BBC TV and radio content dating from 2007 (800,000+ programmes)
• over 10 foreign language channels, including French, German and Italian
• an extended 30 day recording buffer – more time to record missed programmes
• a new look website, improved navigation
• Apple iOS compatibility – watch BoB on handheld devices
• searchable transcripts
• links to social media – share what you’re watching online
• a one-click citation reference, allowing you to cite programmes in your work”

There is also a Twitter feed: @bufc_bob where not only are site updates posted but there are tweets from users reporting interesting finds in the BoB archive.
Click Box of Broadcasts  to access the site, sign in with your Aber credentials and enjoy unparalleled access to a wealth of TV and radio broadcasts.

Mass Observation Parts III and IV – Now Available!

As part of its commitment to continued investment in its libraries, Aberystwyth University has recently purchased two additions to complete the Mass Observation Online resource, the famous study of “the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain”.
Parts III and IV extend the coverage begun in the previous two parts. With extensive use being made of material drawn from diaries of men and women from 1946-1950 and Directives from the years 1946 and 1947, 65 new Topic Collections have been created. These include:

• Propaganda and Morale
• Conscientious Objection and Pacifism
• Police, Law and Invasion Preparations, 1939-1941
• Personal Appearance and Clothes, 1938-54
• Children and Education, 1937-1952
• Women in Wartime, 1939-1945

In addition, and as stated on the Mass Observation Online website: “The new content provides opportunities for in-depth research of subjects from an age of post-war austerity and the rise of consumerism and the welfare state: demobilization, health and the NHS, reconstruction, industry, sport, holidays and leisure”

The Mass Observation Online website can also be found via Databases A-Z on Primo, if you are off-campus you will need to sign into Primo with you Aber username and password to access the resource.
Please email the Subject Librarians at: acastaff@aber.ac.uk with any comments or questions you have about Mass Observation Online.