The social meaning of hair: a photographic exploration

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Two photos of a black female tugging at her hair, one an extreme close-up, the other taken from a short distance.We are excited to be displaying a fascinating photography project on hairstyles by Pharmacy student Tinevimbo Mupfacha.  Our hair helps define us.  For millennia, civilisations around the world have styled their hair to express their individuality and personality.  This blog post reviews just some of the trends in the history of hair in social and visual culture.  Tine’s display explores the social construction of hair and asks how changing our perceptions could help improve our world.

Come see for yourself

The display is available to view on the wooden display boards in the first floor landing display space outside Area 1B, just up the wooden stairs from the Atrium.  It makes a great break from revision (and taking regular breaks helps you retain information!).

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The summer starts here!

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The University Library in summerThe Library closes tonight at midnight.  From tomorrow (Saturday 2 June), the Library will operate shorter Summer Vacation opening hours.  We will open at 10 am on Saturdays, closed on Sundays but open 24/7 from Monday-Friday throughout the vacation (except August Bank Holiday Monday) to support our hard working postgraduate students.

Our electronic resources remain available to everyone 24/7 from anywhere over the internet all year round.  Some resources require you to have set up the VPN (or Web Proxy) to use from home/elsewhere.  Step by step setup guides are available here on MyPort, and we are here to walk you through the setup process and answer any other queries face-to-face during staffed hours, and 24/7 by phone and online chat.

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Artist’s books by Guy Begbie now on display

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A cabinet display of experimental artist's books by Guy Begbie.

We are pleased to display a series of experimental artist’s books produced by Guy Begbie.  You can find some of these books displayed in the first glass cabinet on your left as you enter the Library Atrium and still more up the wooden stairs in the glass cabinet on the first floor display area, just outside the Area 1B Individual Silent Study Zone.

You can find more about Guy Begbie and his work and even ask the artist a question on his website: https://guybegbie.com/

Visitors are welcome to view the displays.  Please bring photographic ID with you and sign in at Reception.

Your display here?

We are always on the lookout for creative sorts from all departments and walks of life to display their passion in the Library.  If you or someone you know has any sort of display, artwork, photographs or three dimensional artworks to display, please get in touch.  The Library hosts some of the most visited display spaces on campus and we would be very happy to help you choose a suitable display space, mount and promote any display of your academic, hobby or personal project materials.

 

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Data Protection Policy

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It is likely that most of you will have been bombarded by emails over the last couple of days inviting (or begging) you to remain on a company’s mailing list, or at least to view their updated privacy statement.

Of course the Library is equally affected by changes to the Data Protection legislation, so here is our invitation to review our policies.

If you are a member of the University (staff or student), then there is no specific Library policy. All our use of personal data will be covered by the University policy.  If, however, you are an external reader or visitor this will not apply.

Hence we have produced a Data Protection Statement just for you.

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Disability in the Modern World

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A database reminder

One person in seven experiences disability (World Bank, World Report on Disability, 2015, Washington, DC). Yet the story of this community and its contributions is largely absent from the scholarly record. Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement is an online collection that fills the gap, with a comprehensive and international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.

Read more ›

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Outstanding books for young people with disabilities

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I’ve just taken delivery of a collection of books, nominated by the UK for IBBY’s List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities, 2017.

Some of the books are intended for use by young people with disabilities and others depict young people with disabilities. You may recognise some authors, such as Jacqueline Wilson whose novel, Katy, is a modern re-telling of the classic, What Katy Did. It is interesting to see that the popular publisher Dorling Kindersley has some braille books Counting and It Can’t be True in the collection too. Other books are multi-sensory or beautifully illustrated.

You can see the collection alongside some of the international entries, which we have purchased for the library collection, in the glass cabinet in the atrium near to the self-issue kiosks. Next Wednesday, 30th May from 13.00 – 16.00, we’ll open the cabinet so that you can come along and take a closer look at or, indeed, feel of the books!

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Euromonitor Passport: Spring 2018 update

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Euromonitor have released a video announcing updates to Passport.  Find out what has changed in their video:

 

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Maths Cafe returns in September (but help is still available over the summer)

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Maths Cafe returns in September 2018The Maths Café is done for this academic year but they will be back as usual from 17th September 2018.

In the meantime, if you have any mathematical or statistical quandries:

  • the Library offers a huge range of textbooks and monographs in the library, including many ebooks available online
  • Learning Support Tutors in your faculty may be able to help – the Technology Faculty has a Maths tutor available over the summer and the Science Faculty offers a tutor who can help with Statistics
  • the Maths Cafe Moodle site offers plenty of online resources and courses
  • you can still email mathscafe@port.ac.uk throughout the summer months
  • if you are a postgraduate student you can also contact the Graduate School

Failing all of that, you can always approach your dissertation/research supervisor and ask who else might be able to assist you.

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Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day! 

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The doorway to resourcesGlobal Accessibility Awareness Day celebrates all the improvements made to make resources and services available and useful to as many people as possible.  All the advances we make in Making resources available in more formats and supporting different ways of working and learning allows people with physical and cognitive challenges that prevent them from working effectively with printed materials.

There is really no distinction between tools that make resources accessible and those that help people personalise their learning and make resources work in better ways for them.  No two people are the same, and designing to support diversity means that everyone benefits from a wider choice in how they learn.

Read more ›

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Introducing RNIB Bookshare: electronic resources for widening accessibility

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The University has been a member of Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) Bookshare scheme for many years, including in its previous incarnation as Load2Learn.  The support of the RNIB is invaluable in providing students and staff with many of the accessible formats they need. Upon declaring a disability to the Library, we meet with individual students to discuss their needs, and those who qualify and wish to take advantage of accessible formats are signed up with RNIB Bookshare.  We try to purchase accessible e-books (which you can find in the Library catalogue) whenever they are available, so the sooner we know what units are being studied the sooner we can obtain resources. If the particular title needed cannot be purchased as an e-book, we then check RNIB’s list of publisher partners. If the publisher is working with RNIB, we can request the book through the Bookshare website.   Read more ›

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