(Found via here). An article in Salon entitled Reading retreats: Paradise for book lovers. The article discusses the rise of holidays specifically for reading. It also looks London's School of Life has created Bibliotherapy, which is:-
Once upon a time, it was easy to find books you could enjoy and which felt relevant to your life. Now a new book is published every 30 seconds, and you would need 163 lifetimes to get through all the titles offered on Amazon. That’s why The School of Life has set up a bibliotherapy service: the perfect way for you to discover those amazing but often elusive works of literature that can illuminate and even change your life.
Great, but as individual consultations cost £70.00, I think I might use my own mind to choose my books thanks.
Showing posts with label university of london. Show all posts
Showing posts with label university of london. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A Cilip talk about finding your way around London
Today I went to an interesting talk with Cilip entitled Legible London: A Wayfinding System for London, with Tim Fendley from Applied Information Group.
The talk looked at :-
The Mayor wants everyone to walk more. But how do you get information on the easiest or quickest routes for navigating your way across London? Many visitors use the Tube map! Is that really the answer?
Tim discussed how 44.5% of peoples navigate through London to get to area's is via the tube map. Tim's company is looking how we can improve finding our may around London easily and walk more.
Tim was saying how our cognitive behaviour is to look for visual markers to find our way around (for example Selfridges at Oxford street is seen as a good marker). Also he discussed how at Tube's there are multiple exits which make finding the correct exit more difficult.
It was an interesting discussion about how this organisation is trying to change how people find there way around London.
The talk looked at :-
The Mayor wants everyone to walk more. But how do you get information on the easiest or quickest routes for navigating your way across London? Many visitors use the Tube map! Is that really the answer?
Tim discussed how 44.5% of peoples navigate through London to get to area's is via the tube map. Tim's company is looking how we can improve finding our may around London easily and walk more.
Tim was saying how our cognitive behaviour is to look for visual markers to find our way around (for example Selfridges at Oxford street is seen as a good marker). Also he discussed how at Tube's there are multiple exits which make finding the correct exit more difficult.
It was an interesting discussion about how this organisation is trying to change how people find there way around London.
Monday, August 10, 2009
What is an academic library?
Whilst meeting my mentor for my Cilip chartership we discussed the what my working role was and what is the role of an academic library and librarian?
Since then I have been thinking what is an academic library in the broadest sense? Via wikipedia it is:-
a library which serves an institution of higher learning, such as a college or a university — libraries in secondary and primary schools are called school libraries. These libraries serve two complementary purposes: to support the school's curriculum, and to support the research of the university faculty and students.
But every library has an individual approach to this. Where I work, te library is part of the University of London, and serves 22 London Universities. From tropical diseases to art. The academic library therefore has a large remit to cover. The mission statement of the library can be found here. The library therefore can at times be unwieldly with so many patrons to 'satisfy'. On top of this the Library is also being rewired, which means a three week closure, retraining and re-acquainting ourselves with re-opened area's.
I also feel academic libraries serve are what Tony Hirst recently wrote in a blog post:-
- students (i.e. people taking a course);
- lecturers (i.e. people creating or supporting a course);
- researchers;- folk off the web (i.e. people who Googled in who are none of the above).
Do we within an academic library fulfil our criteria for the 3 groups? I couldn't really discuss that here on my blog, but I do feel that things should be simplified for users. Anyhow, no more to add.
Since then I have been thinking what is an academic library in the broadest sense? Via wikipedia it is:-
a library which serves an institution of higher learning, such as a college or a university — libraries in secondary and primary schools are called school libraries. These libraries serve two complementary purposes: to support the school's curriculum, and to support the research of the university faculty and students.
But every library has an individual approach to this. Where I work, te library is part of the University of London, and serves 22 London Universities. From tropical diseases to art. The academic library therefore has a large remit to cover. The mission statement of the library can be found here. The library therefore can at times be unwieldly with so many patrons to 'satisfy'. On top of this the Library is also being rewired, which means a three week closure, retraining and re-acquainting ourselves with re-opened area's.
I also feel academic libraries serve are what Tony Hirst recently wrote in a blog post:-
- students (i.e. people taking a course);
- lecturers (i.e. people creating or supporting a course);
- researchers;- folk off the web (i.e. people who Googled in who are none of the above).
Do we within an academic library fulfil our criteria for the 3 groups? I couldn't really discuss that here on my blog, but I do feel that things should be simplified for users. Anyhow, no more to add.
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