Yearly Archives: 2024

Weetabix Trifle and beyond…

Back issues of Woman's Own magazine

By Rose Lock  Women’s magazines. Trivial, eh? Just a collection of inconsequential articles on how to keep your man happy, patterns for knitted shorts, vile make-do-type recipes, and adverts for lipsticks and washing powder.  Well, yes, all of these things

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Posted in Special Collections, The Keep, The Library, Uncategorised

AI productivity tips from a librarian who prefers words over spreadsheets

AI generated Librarian creating a spreadsheet.

By Tim Graves Spreadsheets. Comma separated files. Databases. Endless columns of data scrolling away vertically and horizontally. I bet you love them, eh? In my last blog post I talked about how Artificial Intelligence has been saving me time with

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Posted in The Library

Introduction to the University of Sussex Rare Book collections

A person opening pages of 'The birds of America'. Each page appears to be about the size of their arm.

We are lucky at the University of Sussex Special Collections to have a number of fabulous and varied rare book collections, which are now part of the wonderful collections held at The Keep. As well as individual researchers ordering in our reading room, academics from Sussex and other universities use the books to teach their courses, running seminars in our education rooms where the students can get first-hand experience of handling rare volumes.

Posted in Uncategorised

Theatre and Academia Series: How the Library Enhances Your Performing Arts Education

People sitting in a theatre. The image is taken from behind, facing the stage.

by Helena MacCormack

As someone who has studied performing arts for years, I understand the unique journey that drama students embark upon. Theatre is a vibrant, living art form where practice and creativity take centre stage. However, there is a misconception that theatre students exist in opposition to academia due to the practical nature of their degrees. While practical work is at the core of theatre studies, academic research plays a crucial role in shaping your perspective as a theatre practitioner. This post marks the first of a series which will detail 5 ways in which the Library’s resources can provide academic grounding to your theatre studies, with plenty of recommendations.

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Posted in The Library

AI productivity tips from a librarian with too much to read – part 1

A pair of hands typing on a laptop on a desk.

By Tim Graves ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity I’ll be talking about free versions of three tools I’ve found most useful over the last year when it comes to handling long emails and documents.  ChatGPT  Claude  Perplexity.ai  AI document tactics To illustrate how

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Posted in The Library

#1Lib1Ref

An orange background with the text: 1 Librarian + 1 Reference = Better access to knowledge for all and a drawing of an owl with a computer mouse in it's beak

Most of us use Wikipedia every day to find out about the music of Ennio Morricone, the United States voting system or Extreme ironing (yes, extreme ironing). As much as students are dissuaded from using it, Wikipedia is one of the first places used when researching a new topic. A surprising number of people use Wikipedia healthcare information. In fact, a US study found that a large number of medical students used Wikipedia (67%), however, 65% did not know how to correct mistakes. [citation needed] When so much misinformation has become the fabric of public discourse, the need for accurate, up to date information with high quality sources is more important than ever. And you, dear librarians and library assistants, can help.

Posted in Uncategorised

The Papers of St John and Mary Hutchinson from The Jeremy Hutchinson QC Archive

Two books in a box surrounded by tissue paper. One is labeled 'SxMs207/1/1/2/2 St John Hutchinson 1917-1923 Diary'

My name is Alexander Taylor, and I am the Project Archivist working on cataloguing, preserving, and making available the Jeremy Hutchinson QC archive. The collection comprises records from Jeremy and his family’s personal and professional lives. This article will comprise the first in a series of 3 blog posts examining the collection in its entirety, with the first focusing on the uncatalogued personal papers of Jeremy’s parents, St John Hutchinson, a prominent defence barrister, and Mary Hutchinson (née Barnes), a short-story writer and model.

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Posted in Special Collections