Tuesday 29 July 2008

Emerald InTouch



Emerald have developed a (beta) web 2.0 style platform aimed at the publisher / journals communities, which has been adapted and branded for their customer base. The public site is available for users to create public or private communities and comes with a range of content generation and community tools. You can add widgets and other personalisation features familiar to users of iGoogle, MyYahoo and many other sites.

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Archival Sound Recordings Service


We now have access to a new resource - the British Library's Archival Sound Recordings website which provides UK Higher and Further Education staff and students free access to over 12,000 recordings (3,900 hours). 

To access the resource go to the My learning / Learning support page in the portal. In the Search the Library portlet select the Online databases and academic journals link. On the next page scroll down and click on Archival Sound Recordings in the list to enter the resource. 

Collections include:

  • 400 popular music tracks (mostly British bands from the 1930s to 1990s)
  • African Writers' Club (250 hours on art, literature, music and politics)
  • Art and design interviews (e.g. Denys Lasdun, Eduardo Paolozzi, Paula Rego)
  • Beethoven String Quartets (750 recordings from the last 100 years
  • David Rycroft Africa recordings (music and poetry, mainly from Southern Africa)
  • Klaus Wachsmann Uganda recordings (1,500 recordings from 26 culture groups)
  • Oral history of jazz in Britain (with musicians, promoters and label-owners)
  • Records and record players (developments in recording technology)
  • Sony Radio Awards - drama (every short-listed play 1986-1997)
  • Soundscapes (evocative environmental sounds from Great Britain and Canada)
  • St Mary-le-Bow public debates (e.g. John Betjeman, Jonathan Miller, Diana Rigg)

Thursday 17 July 2008

Digital Lives - New Research Project


New research project to explore the nation's digital memories

* 'Digital Lives' sets to understand how we use computers in our daily lives to capture personal moments and memories

* Led by the British Library with University College London and Bristol University

* All creators and users of digital information invited to fill in an online survey
Digital Lives is a pathfinding research project that is setting out to understand how individuals retain and manage their personal collections of computerised information. From diaries, letters, jottings and photo albums to blogging, emailing, tweeting and flickr-ing, the digital revolution has affected enormously the ways in which we record our personal lives.
These largely born- digital collections will become invaluable in years to come for researchers - from biographers and historians to literary critics and scientists. Currently nobody knows for
sure what is happening to this material and whether it can be made available in the future. Digital Lives aims to begin to answer these questions.

There are two ways in which people can participate and help the 'Digital Lives' project:
* By completing an online survey at http://www.bl.uk/digitallivessurvey.html which looks
at the way people currently use their computers to capture their digital lives
* By sending in details of technologies and online services relevant for capturing, retaining and sharing digital information to digital.lives@bl.uk
More information can be found at the Digital Lives website: http://www.bl.uk/digital-lives/

Monday 14 July 2008

Nature podcasts


Listen to the latest free Nature podcast. Every show features highlighted content from the week's edition of Nature including interviews with the people behind the science, and in–depth commentary and analysis from journalists covering science around the world. More information at: http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html

Thursday 3 July 2008

Vitae Researchers' Portal launched


Vitae, a new organisation to champion the professional and career development of researchers, was launched on 25th June 2008 by Ian Pearson MP alongside the new Concordat to support the career development of researchers. Vitae builds on previous work by the UK GRAD Programme and UKHERD to build capacity in the HE sector to support researchers and will work with higher education institutions, researchers and employers to make real and positive change. Find out more at: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/