North Staffordshire dialect display in the Library

The latest Archives display commemorates the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Wilfred Alan Bloor, creator of the Jabez character. Under the pseudonym A. Scott, Bloor wrote over 400 Jabez tales in North Staffordshire dialect for the Sentinel newspaper, from 1968 until his death in 1993.

Many of the stories are based on reminiscences of Bloor’s early years in Scot Hay, providing a unique insight into life in a North Staffordshire mining village during the interwar period.

The Library’s Wilfred Bloor Collection comprises manuscript and typescript stories and articles, cuttings, correspondence and audio recordings. Bloor publicly performed many of his stories, some of which are available to purchase on CD from the Archives.

To find out more, contact the Special Collections and Archives h.burton@keele.ac.uk

https://www.keele.ac.uk/library/specarc/collections/wilfredbloor

The newly published Centenary Compendium of the Jabez Stories can be purchased online at http://jabezbook.co.uk/

The Keele Library leaning book tree

This is the third time Keele Library has had a Christmas book tree. This year the angles are a little unusual, but we feel that's part of its charm. All decorations are home-made and recyclable.

How many volumes do you think were used to build the tree? We are offering a prize for the nearest estimate. Please send your answer to library.orders@keele.ac.uk.

With good wishes to all our users.

Keele University Library Staff

Library and IT Services Building Closure

Regrettably, the Library will be closed from 10pm on Friday 18 December until 8.45am on Monday 21 December.

This is due to emergency repairs being undertaken on the building's heating system.

Alternative arrangements have been made to extend some facilities over the week-end.

• For BOOK RETURNS please use the out of hours bin to the left of the building 

• STUDY SPACE has been reserved in the Chancellor's Building, 9am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

           Rooms  CBA1:072, 073, 076, 077, 078, 079, 080, 081, 098 and 100

• HEALTH LIBRARY is staffed and open  as normal, 10am to 10pm on both days, and provides study space, PCs, printing and photocopying.

• PCs are provided in the Lennard Jones building, access to all students is by Keele card swipe access 9am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday

• PRINTING will be available in Chancellor's Building foyer and Lennard Jones PC Lab

The Library and IT Building will re-open from 8.45 am on Monday 21 December

Vacation Opening

Friday 18 Dec - 24 hour opening ends at 10pm
Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 Dec - CLOSED
Monday 21 Dec - 8.45am - 10pm
Tuesday 22 Dec – 8.45am – 10pm

Wednesday 23 Dec – 8.45am – 10pm

Thursday 24 Dec – 9am – 5pm

Christmas Day - Friday 25 Dec – CLOSED Bank Holiday

Boxing Day - Saturday 26 Dec – CLOSED Bank Holiday

Sunday 27 Dec – 9am – 5pm

Monday 28 Dec – 9am – 5pm

Tuesday 29 Dec – 9am -5pm

Wednesday 30 Dec – 9am – 5pm

Thursday 31 Dec – 9am – 5pm

New Year’s Day - Friday 01 Jan – CLOSED Bank Holiday

Saturday 2 Jan – 9am – 10pm

Sunday 3 Jan – 9am – 10pm

Monday 4 Jan - 24 hour opening resumes from 8.45am

Please note some services are

NOT available throughout all opening hours.

In memory of Ronnie Frankenberg

In memory of Keele's first Professor of Sociology, Ronnie Frankenberg (1929-2015), this cartoon by Max Atkinson is from papers relating to Frankenberg’s introduction of the workshop-seminar curriculum in Sociology. The papers (1973-1980s) comprise a case study, reports, workshop proposals and correspondence. To find out more, contact the Archives h.burton@keele.ac.uk

#explorearchives Researcher Jon Heal blogs about using our Archives

Amongst the Warrillow Collection are glass plate negatives, many over one hundred years old, from William Blake's stationer's shop in Longton. Inspecting the detail in the original negatives created and used by Blake to print picture postcards, I feel I’m looking over the shoulder of the man at work. Photography at the turn of the twentieth century involved the use of glass plates in a bulky camera, the setting up of a tripod, and the use of a ground glass screen to obtain a sharp focus.  The quality of these early images is quite amazing when the difficulties of photography are appreciated!

Warr.174. An early Blake view showing Longton from the tower of St James' Church (1905). Inspecting the original negative, it’s remarkable how much detail is visible through the smoke!

Looking at the glass plates also helps me to date when pictures were taken.  Earlier negatives tend to degrade, edges yellow and the surface acquires a metallic appearance, yet remarkably most images can still be seen clearly.  It is a great privilege to be able to view this marvellous collection at Keele.

#explorearchives For your dissertation

History finalist Rob Allan is using original diaries held in the Archives as source material for his dissertation. Written during the First World War by Septimus Bennett (brother of the author Arnold Bennett) the diaries describe life and work in and around a Sheffield munitions factory. Rob says “Archives are allowing me to explore individual experiences. Using the diaries alongside secondary sources is giving me a better idea of what this period was really like.” 

Find out about our Special Collections and Archives http://www.keele.ac.uk/library/specarc/

#explorearchives Original designs for bookbindings

Three unique volumes of George T. Bagguley’s finishing designs are held in the Library’s  Archives. Bagguley was an internationally renowned bookbinder of Newcastle-under-Lyme. His shop was situated on the High Street and sold books and stationery, as well as offering a printing and binding service. Established in 1890 and operating until 1952, the firm employed a number of designers (Leon V. Solon, Dorothy Talbot and Charles Connor), as well as eminent binders such as Louis Genth and Thomas E. Caley.

This elaborate design for vellum doublures (the ornamental inside lining of a book cover) was designed by Thomas E Caley in 1905. To find out more, contact the Archives h.burton@keele.ac.uk

Open Access Training - Places still available

Are you a member of Keele academic staff or postgraduate research student?

Do you want to know more about publishing your research Open Access (OA)?

Do you want to find out how you can use the Keele Publications Database to deposit your manuscripts on our Research Repository to satisfy the HEFCE OA requirements for the post-2014 REF?

Scott McGowan, the Research Support Librarian, and Hannah Reidy from Research Support Services, are delivering a series of sessions through the Learning And Professional Development Centre on;

'Publishing Your Research Open Access Using The Keele Publications Database'

Places are still available for our session next Wednesday at 10.00 at 59 The Covert, and more dates are available throughout this academic year.

To book your place for this or any other of the timetabled sessions, go to the LPDC's course schedule.

Basic Refworks Training Sessions

Hi there

Don't forgot that we are running some Basic Refworks sessions on Monday 2nd November and Monday 30th November. Get started with this reference management software and learn how to import references from databases, create bibliographies and more. As a Keele student you get access to this free. So come along and find out how to get the most out of it!

Sign up Here

New Library Subscription: English Historical Documents Online

Keele University Library now provides access to English Historical Documents Online, one of the most comprehensive, annotated collections of documents on British history ever compiled.

Use English Historical Documents Online to:

• Search documents from British history spanning the years 500 to 1914, plus American history to 1776
• Locate relevant material easily with quick and advanced searches - all documents are fully indexed by the Institute of Historical Research
• Find documents based on time periods with a scrolling timeline
• Annotate, download and print documents.

All Keele staff and students can access EHD online both on and off-campus at: http://www.englishhistoricaldocuments.com. You will need your Keele username and password to log-in from off-campus.

Sign up to our upcoming "Getting Started" Library sessions

New to the Library? Learn the basics of finding and using resources with Claire Lewendon and Debbie Steventon. Get help with:

• Using a reading list
• Accessing e-journals and e-books from off-campus
• Using e-journals

Where: Library Training Room (Top Floor, Campus Library)

When: Tue 13th October; Thu 22nd October; Tuesday 3rd November

To sign up, please click here

ProQuest Upgraded

We’ve recently improved and upgraded our subscriptions to academic databases on the ProQuest platform. Look out for both new databases and expanded full-text coverage amongst Natural Sciences and Social Sciences collections. 

The new ProQuest Natural Sciences Collection includes access to seven themed database collections: Agricultural Science; Aquatic Science; Atmospheric Science; Biological Science; Earth Science; Environmental Science and ProQuest Illustrata: Natural Sciences. 

And the new ProQuest Premium Social Sciences Collection expands on the content available before with new collections in subjects such as: Criminology & Criminal Justice; Education; Political Science and Sociology.

All Keele staff and students can access the databases from both on and off-campus at: http://search.proquest.com. For more information or help accessing ProQuest please contact the Library InfoPoint or your Liaison Librarian.

Charlotte Sneyd returns to Keele!

A previously unknown comic manuscript by Charlotte Augusta Sneyd (1800-1882) recently came to light in New York. The volume of fourteen original pen-and-ink drawings has now been acquired by the Library and safely returned to Keele for the University’s Sneyd Archive.

Charlotte lived at Keele Hall for much of the nineteenth century and was an accomplished amateur artist, producing paintings and drawings for the amusement of family and friends. This charming manuscript offers a satiric view of gender roles in Victorian England in the form of a prospectus of English grammar, with tenses of verbs illustrated by scenes of social aspiration and disaster. Many of the drawings feature an unmarried middle-aged woman contemplating who she was, is, and will be - no doubt based on Charlotte herself, who never married and had children.

To find out more, or to view the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections and Archives at h.burton@keele.ac.uk

National Sporting Heritage Day 30th Sept 2015

Part of Keele’s sporting heritage are the Keele Boxers, pictured here in 1956, with their inspirational coach Sam Pearson (himself a professional boxer in the 1930s). Among the students are Fred Edmunds, Mike Steele and Terry Prince. Recognise any others? If so, contact the Archives at h.burton@keele.ac.uk

Over a thousand more full-text e-journals now available!

Over the summer Keele University Library has increased the number of full-text e-journals which Keele students and staff can access. Over 1500 e-journals are now accessible through Taylor & Francis Online as the Library has subscribed to their full journals collection. 

You can access the full-text of these journals from on and off-campus at: http://www.tandfonline.com. For off-campus access you will need to sign in using your Keele username and password. As well as the latest issues you can browse back through the archives, accessing content from 1997 onwards for most titles.

The Taylor & Francis full collection covers multiple subject areas across Humanities, Social Sciences and Science and Technology.

For more information or help accessing the journals please contact the Library InfoPoint or your Liaison Librarian.

100 years of the Women’s Institute

To mark the centenary of the W I this month, here’s the first class certificate for crochet, awarded to the Keele Women’s Institute in 1937.

The first committee meeting of the Keele W I took place in the village schoolroom on 20^th April 1932. Keele W I records held in the Archives comprise minute books, correspondence, programmes and scrapbooks dating from 1932 to the 1970s.

Library Clock Tower refurbishment - open as usual

Work to refurbish the Library Clock commenced this week and is due to be completed within 3 weeks.  The Library is open as usual.

Plugs....

During the summer the Library takes the opportunity of the quieter times by getting improvements and refurbishment work done. For example this summer we're having electrical plugs installed onto many of the study desks around the building, so that you can plug in your laptops, tablets, etc. The work has started on the top floor and should be complete by the end of September.

DawsonEra ebooks - New Platform

All our eBook content on DawsonEra has now got a new, improved interface. This interface is hopefully more intuitive, with improved searching and reading capabilities. You now have the ability to save your notes and favourite titles and to share these with other Keele users. We hope these changes will improve your experience, please feel free to share any feedback with the Library.

Dawsons have produced a very in depth user's guide on the new platform.

National silence

Please note that Counter services will be temporarily suspended at 12.00 midday today (3rd July) while the Campus Library observes the National Silence to remember the 38 people killed in the Tunisian beach attack last week.

Battle of Waterloo 200 years ago today

“I saw the regiment of Black Brunswickers pass my window on their way to the field. That was the first intimation of what followed. In a few hours, the dull heavy sound of distant artillery was heard, and in a few more the wounded were brought into Brussels in increasing numbers.”

Extract from ‘Some Notices of My Life’ by John Davy (M 118/4 Raymond Richards Collection, Keele University Library)

This personal account from John Davy’s manuscript memoirs is held in our Archives. John Davy was a doctor and brother of the noted chemist Sir Humphry Davy. He joined the British Army Medical Department and, at the time of the Battle of Waterloo, was attached to the principal military hospital at Brussels as hospital assistant.

Recarpeting in the Campus Library

Over the next two weeks we are having some stained and worn carpeting replaced in the central areas of the top and middle floors of the Campus Library. The Library will remain open and we will try to minimise any disruption to library users, but please be patient while the work takes place.

Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Today

One amongst several thousand charters issued by King John, the most famous being the Magna Carta. This 'newly discovered' charter from our Archives is included in The Magna Carta Project  a landmark investigation of the Magna Carta and King John.

Notification that the king has granted his protection to the nuns of Steinfield Priory and their people, lands and possessions, 14 April 1209 (Keele University Library, Hatton-Wood M72/46/10)

Summer Opening

Please note that the Library will move to Summer Opening from Friday 12 June when the building will close at 6.30pm.

Summer Vacation Opening times are 
8.45am to 10pm Mondays* to Thursdays
8.45am to 6.30pm on Fridays 
9am to 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

*except Bank Holiday Monday 31 August when the Library will be closed.

Not all services are available at all times

24  hour opening will resume from 8.45am on Monday 28 September 2015.

New exhibition in the Library

Keele History student Rob Allan has produced a display on Arnold Bennett's activities during the First World War, contributing to the University's commemoration of the centenary of the war. The Campus Library holds material relating to Bennett’s professional and personal life, including original literary manuscripts and a large amount of family correspondence. During his work placement in the Archives, Rob researched and digitised original records to illustrate Bennett's war-time experiences.

Take a look at the display on the top floor of the Library, 

or view at Arnold Bennett: A Writer at War

Rang and Dale's Pharmacology latest (8th) edition now available as ebook

For those of you wanting to get hold of a copy of Rang and Dale's Pharmacology...some good news!

We now have the latest edition (8th) available as an e-book. Find it via Catalogue Plus 

First for student experience

The TimesHigher Education survey of student experience showed that Keele students rated the Library and its opening hours to be joint top nationally in 2015. This comes on the back of a series of funded improvements in recent years, for example in the variety of learning space available, the extension of Library opening hours at both the Campus and Health libraries and in the range of online and print resources now offered. However, we're definitely not going to rest on our laurels and Library staff will continue to work hard to find ways to improve the student experience in the years to come. 

New: McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science and technology

The Campus Library has acquired the 2012 'McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science & technology'. This 20-volume set is ready to consult and can be found in the Quick Reference area (1st floor) at Q121.M2.

 

Catalogue Plus - 'more like this'

Another new feature was introduced in Catalogue Plus and the Classic Catalogue this morning. When you're looking at the full record for a book, underneath the 'Similar items' section you'll now see a 'See more' link. This brings up a pop-up window with links to similar books by subject, author, etc. complete with book covers. This should be very useful if you've found a useful book and are looking for other books on the same topic.

#ShareMyThesis Competition - Mac Laptop Top Prize (For PhD Students)

Studying for, or recently completed, a PhD at Keele?

The British Library, Research Councils UK and Vitae are running a competition challenging you to encapsulate what's great about your research in one tweet.

The challenge

The #ShareMyThesis competition challenges PhD students past and present to summarise why your PhD research is important in 140 characters or less. The competition is open worldwide and to entries from all subject areas.

First, tweet why your PhD research is important using the hashtag #ShareMyThesis. Your tweet should convey why your research is important (not just what your research is about). Make sure your tweet is self-contained and understandable to a non-specialist.

Tweets must be received by 9 February 2015 at 10.00. The competition judges will then select the top eight tweets.

Next, the eight shortlisted entrants will be asked to write a short article (up to 600 words) elaborating on your tweet and explaining why your PhD research is important.

The judging panel will select a winner and two runners up by 20 March 2015.

Prizes

The winner will receive a 15-inch MacBook pro. Second prize is an iPad and third prize a £200 Amazon voucher.

Find out more at http://www.bl.uk/share-my-thesis/

Information Skills Training for this Semester

Keele University Library staff will be running a number of training sessions at the Campus Library this semester, during February, March and May. It would be great to see some of you there. Topics include:

·         Getting started with the Library

·         Off Campus Access to electronic Library Resources

·         Finding journal articles

·         Open access publishing

·         Refworks (Basic and Advanced)

·         Dissertation Research Surgery

To find out more, and to sign up for any of these sessions, please go to: http://www.keele.ac.uk/library/support/train/

Access 1,200 extra journals online!

The Library is pleased to announce that all Keele University students and staff can now access 1,200 additional journals online. Following extensive negotiations, the Library has reached an agreement with Wiley to subscribe to their full journals collection. This means all Keele University users can access the full-text of 1,400 Wiley journals both on and off-campus via Wiley's Online Library at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com. As well as the latest issues, you can browse back through the archives, accessing backfile content from 1997 onwards for most titles. 

The Wiley journals full collection includes titles from a wide range of subject disciplines across Health Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, many of which are high impact-factor, peer-reviewed journals.

The titles will be fully integrated with Library discovery software, making it easier for you to find and access content. 

For more information or help accessing the journals, please contact our Info Point or your relevant liaison librarian

New feature in Catalogue Plus

This morning's upgrade to Catalogue Plus included a new Shelf Browse feature. If you click on the shelfmark for a book you've found, the system will bring up a popup window of a virtual library shelf, indicating the books shelved next to the one you've found. This could be useful for finding more books on the same subject. Hope you find it useful, and please let us know what you think.