Come into the library this summer and have a look at our exhibition featuring many of the most important and influential figures from the 20th century who helped shape our world.

Inspiration for this exhibition has been taken from the BBC ICONS series first shown at the beginning of the year and being broadcast again on BBC 2 during June/July. The public were asked to assess and vote for icons from seven different categories of human excellence. Four figures were put forward in each category: Leaders, Explorers, Scientists, Entertainers, Activists, Sports and Artists/Writers. Following the public vote on the BBC show, an overall winner was selected, the brilliant mathematician and logician Alan Turing, who is known as the father of modern computing.

As you will read some of these figures were great intellectuals, naturally talented or creative geniuses who were pioneers in their field. Some went through hardship which gave them the impetus to improve their lot and inspire generations. Others only had the welfare and interests of others at the heart of their mission. All worked extremely hard throughout their lives to achieve their goals, some paying the ultimate price by being assassinated. Would any of them class themselves as icons?… Now there’s a question. 

The aim of this exhibition is to share with our students and staff the many resources about the ICONS that we have in the library: books, ebooks, journals, articles, children’s books, special collections and other database resources, for example Box of Broadcasts (BOB). We want to show how easy it is to look things up via LibrarySearch, but also remind people that our librarians are happy to help.

The exhibition will be up at Headington in the Welcome Desk area from 28 June. Icons posters will be on display in our other campus libraries as well.

We always like to encourage a bit of interactivity where possible so the exhibition also includes a Spotify playlist and a chance for everybody to choose their favourite ICON from the posters on display… Or suggest somebody else.

If you would like to recommend a song for the playlist contact Bob bpomfret@brookes.ac.uk