Turn your textbook into a podcast
Tired of reading? You can listen to the printed word using screen readers and even digitise chapters from printed books in moments.
Tag: diversity
A helping hand with heavy books
Our other basket has wheels on! (And an extending handle, it really is quite nice.)
From wheeled trolley baskets for gathering your books to adjustable desks and book scans converted into accessible electronic formats you can enlarge or have a screen reader read to you online.
Check back tomorrow for a post on how you can turn a book chapter into a podcast in minutes for free using just your smartphone!
Athena SWAN volunteering opportunity
Building on its current departmental bronze award, the Faculty of Business and Law (BaL) will be applying for an Athena Swan Silver Award in November 2023. Work on this important area supports the drive to act on gender equality matters and thus improve the experience for staff and students. The team needs to be gender-balanced but currently lacks representation from students who identify as trans and nonbinary. Dr Karen Middleton, BaL Athena SWAN Chair, would be delighted to receive expressions of interest for a vacancy that has arisen on the team for trans and nonbinary students.
From Schrödinger to social justice: Urban Dictionary to the rescue
The desire for certainty is strong in most people but we should resist comfortable but false certainty.
I never thought I would be quoting the eponymous Urban Dictionary but one of the phrases recently added draws attention to how often we make unwarranted assumptions about other people: Schrödinger’s Queer. The term describes a person (usually in the public domain, a celebrity) about whose sexual orientation nothing is known, and argues that until evidence emerges like they marry someone or appear with romantic partners in public, no assumptions can safely be made about their sexuality. Like the eponymous unstable caesium atom in Schrödinger’s original thought experiment, we cannot know whether it has decayed (killing the cat) or not until we open the box and see whether the cat is alive or dead. Until the evidence presents itself, we are left with uncomfortable uncertainty.
Become app happy and learn in ways that best suit you
Here we see the glazed smile characteristic of someone listening to one too many textbook chapters in a single sitting.
Everyone learns differently and yet most educational systems are produced for scale, risking a one-size-fits-none approach to learning. Happily, there is much you can do to personalise your world at university.
From visually collaging research to converting the printed word to and mp3 audio file, routine process automation and revision aids, we have everything you could possibly want.
…and even thee’s a little odd
Have you ever felt like you were at odds with the world or been to an event where everyone else seems to know what is going on, how to behave, where to go, etc, except for you? In a world where we have all normalised a one size fits nobody solution for every situation, autistic people suffer because they have to adapt that much more in order to fit in. Combined with enduring prejudice, such barriers have reduced the proportion of autistic people in paid employment to less than 16% in the UK, despite autistic people often being the best candidates for a diverse range of roles.
New releases!
Artist's impression of librarians upon the arrival of new eresources
Good news, everybody! We now have many more information resources of interest to surprisingly wide audiences, from everything tangentially related to computing to resources that help diversify the curriculum and more archives on British history from Victoriana to the modern day. Whether you are into History, Design, or Electronic Engineering, we have something new here for you.
Come celebrate Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Month with us
Come view Dr Annabel Tremlett’s latest photography exhibit exploring the self-identity and lifestyles of Roma, Gypsy, and Traveller communities in celebration of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, now showing in the library ground and first-floor display areas.
Welcome to Dementia Action Week
Asking the same question over and over again. It’s not called getting old, it’s called getting ill. Dementia affects people of all ages, from childhood to old age, but it is possible to live well with dementia. What makes the difference is people like you and me knowing how to make the world more friendly for people with dementia. So why not sign up to become a Dementia Friend today?
Happy IDAHOBLIT 2022!
Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia & Transphobia!
