You may have heard YouTube and other social media sites referred to as ‘rabbit holes’. ‘Disappearing down a rabbit hole’ means that even when you start out with good intentions in searching for information, you could end up reading or watching extremist content or fake news as you continue to follow links to the next …
Continue reading YouTube rabbit holes: Are algorithms pushing us to consume more fake news?
Face-to face teaching halted overnight, the Easter holidays were brought forward a week and we all became distance learners When I finished my undergraduate degree in 2009 at Brookes, I had little thought of doing any further study. I had been working at Oxford Brookes Library in Circulation and the Audio-visual unit initially and then …
June is LGBTQ+ Pride month. Due to the pandemic, some Pride events will again be taking place online, including Oxford Pride. Last year, we curated a list of LGBTQ+ resources available through the Library. This includes: Books and ebooks (both fiction and non-fiction)DVDsTV shows and films on Box of Broadcasts We've just updated the list …
Continue reading Ideas for what to read and watch in Pride Month
As the world opens up for international travel again, many of us are desperate to get away for a well -earned break. But if you were heading off to Paris, would you be happy using a travel guide written in 1886? It might mean that you’re missing something rather important… When we reference sources in …
In the digital era, anybody can publish a research article, a news item, or an opinion piece online. If we want to prevent the spread of misinformation, we should usually ensure any publication we use comes from an authoritative source. What is an authoritative source? An authoritative source can range from an expert in your …
Starting in January 2021, a cataloguing project began with the Paul Oliver Archive of African American Music (POAAAM), housed in Oxford Brookes Library's Special Collections. Funded by the European Blues Association and an Archives Revealed grant from The National Archives, the cataloguing project will make accessible a unique collection of never-before-seen material. We have been …
Continue reading The Blues and the Gay Community: A Story from the Archives
The academic book supply market has long played second fiddle to the world of scholarly journals: library book budgets suffered for years as libraries made room for challenging journal price increases. Significant attention was paid to the journals world when librarians tried to stop the acquisition of Academic Press by Elsevier in 2000 and since …
Continue reading Where will libraries buy eBooks and who will pay the bill?
Let's start with a definition of fake news: Any manipulative account of a supposedly newsworthy event or state of affairs which purports to be factually accurate but which is deceptive, misleading, fraudulent, demonstrably false, and/or unverifiable — especially sensational accounts in social media that are designed to ‘go viral’.'Fake news' (2020) in Chandler, D and Munday R (eds.) A Dictionary of Media …
It is not unusual for universities and other research organisations to pay publishers twice: Paying to publish: If a researcher wishes a paper to be published Gold Open Access, then an article processing charge may be paid by the university.Paying to read: The university library may then buy a subscription to a package of journals …
https://youtu.be/6umhqr5gGj4 LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that provides instant links to full text content for articles as you research on the web. Nomad works with Oxford Brookes Library to find the fastest path to content across thousands of publisher websites. You can add the browser extension to any of these browsers: Google ChromeFirefoxMicrosoft EdgeBraveVivaldi …
BrowZine is a new product that we’ve introduced to help you explore and use our electronic journals more easily. BrowZine revisits the world of browsing journals across all our online collection, and the joy of serendipity that comes with it, in a simple and highly attractive user interface adorned with the colour and splendor of …
Continue reading Browsing with BrowZine – introducing our new e- journals service
Tip One: Refine your search results on LibrarySearch When LibrarySearch dispalys your search results, it sorts them by "best match". But, if you want to see the newest books and ebooks on a topic, you can change the order of your results. To do this, look for the 'sort by' box down the left hand …
A number of academic liaison staff have been involved in projects looking at how the library could help with decolonisation and diversification of the curriculum. Libraries are complicit in supporting constructions of knowledge that perpetuate existing power structures, and how at the same time they may have the potential to serve as sites of resistance …
As we approach the end of this most challenging of years, I want to give a few "thank yous", to selected organisations (and their representatives) who work with our library here at Brookes - the publishers, aggregators, intermediaries, and all those other players who comprise the academic publishing and information community. As librarians, we have …
Over the last year, professional services staff, from Learning Resources (LR), Oxford Centre of Staff and Learning Development, Centre for Academic Development, as well as academics, with expertise in writing and avoiding plagiarism, worked on a new Academic Integrity course for all Oxford Brookes undergraduate students. We released the course in July 2020. Below is …
This summer, we’ve been diving into the BBC’s list of 100 novels that shaped our world. One of the categories is rule breakers and the BBC panel selected these 10 books: A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy TooleBartleby, the Scrivener – Herman MelvilleHabibi – Craig ThompsonHow to be Both – Ali SmithNights at the Circus – …
This summer, we’re diving into the BBC’s list of 100 novels that shaped our world. One of the categories is adventure and the BBC panel selected these 10* books: City of Bohane – Kevin BarryEye of the Needle – Ken FollettFor Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest HemingwayHis Dark Materials Trilogy – Philip PullmanIvanhoe – Walter ScottMr …
This summer, we’re diving into the BBC’s list of 100 novels that shaped our world. One of the categories is crime and conflict and the BBC panel selected these 10 books: American Tabloid – James EllroyAmerican War – Omar El AkkadIce Candy Man – Bapsi SidhwaRebecca – Daphne du MaurierRegeneration – Pat BarkerThe Children of Men – …
This summer, we’re diving into the BBC’s list of 100 novels that shaped our world. One of the categories is love, sex and romance and the BBC panel selected these 10 books: Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen FieldingForever – Judy BlumeGiovanni’s Room – James BaldwinPride and Prejudice – Jane AustenRiders – Jilly CooperThe Far Pavilions – M. …
Continue reading Exploring novels about love, sex and romance
This summer, we’re diving into the BBC’s list of 100 novels that shaped our world. One of the categories is politics, power and protest, and the BBC panel selected these 10 books: A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled HosseiniBrave New World – Aldous HuxleyHome Fire – Kamila ShamsieLord of the Flies – William GoldingNoughts & Crosses – …
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The Scholarly Communications Team @ Oxford Brookes University Library
