Library and Information Services, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Monday 30 June 2014

The Pied Piper and his Clarinet - a blogpost by Bibliolore

While Whittaker was away this weekend, the lovely people at RILM posted a charming blogpost about the Pied Piper of Hamelin (Hameln, in Germany).  We thought you might enjoy it, so click here for the link.

When not entertaining you with informative music tit-bits, you'll find RILM itself is the abstracting/indexing database that musicians use to source reliable writings about all aspects of music.  Find it on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Library and IT Mahara pages.

Thursday 26 June 2014

Keep up-to-date with UK Higher Education Policy

The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education periodically issues policy documents which may be of interest to administrators and lecturing staff, not to mention tutors undertaking a postgraduate teaching certificate.

The Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has a number of these policy documents. You can find them here - the latest one arrived and was added to stock just today.

Leadership Foundation for Higher Education homepage: http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Online Search Facility for Scottish Music in Wighton Collection, Dundee

Great News!

Friends of Wighton have made a temporary search facility for the Wighton Database.  Andrew Wighton was a Victorian collector of Scottish music.  His entire collection was  bequeathed to the City, in Dundee Central Library, and is kept in a fabulous newly-created space.  A few years ago the collection was catalogued online, and all the songs and tunes in every book were listed on the Wighton Database. 

For a while, this database has been off-line and unsearchable, although Google sometimes retrieved its contents.

So this NEW temporary search page is a great blessing!  Our congratulations to the Friends of Wighton for making this happen.

Search the Wighton Database at http://www.johnbagnall.info/allwighton.html

Friday 20 June 2014

What Makes a Digitally Competent Teacher? Edutech Tells All

We came across this useful posting on the Edutech website:- 

The 7 Characteristics of a Digitally Competent Teacher

 This is likely to be of considerable interest to our B.Ed. students, and the PGCert students training for their teaching certificate in Higher Education.   Also to our Teaching Artist community.

Edutech (Cool tools for the 21st century classroom) homepage - HERE.


Thursday 19 June 2014

Glasgow School of Art: Help Rebuild the Mackintosh Library

After the devastating fire at Glasgow School of Art a few weeks ago, the Library staff have carefully put together a list of the rare books that need to be replaced.  If you come across any in bookshops, or perhaps have an elderly relative who has been an art-loving book-collector ... 

Make no mistake, these books are special, and hard to find.  But we share the GSA Treasures blogpost in the hope that maybe we might be able to help in some small way.

GSA Library Treasures - blogpost

Straight to the GSA Wants List pdf

One for the Wardrobe Department

Now our students are leaving for the summer, presumably those associated with the Royal Conservatoire's Wardrobe department will be turning their attention to their own summer wardrobes.  So we share this, notified to Karen by a sewing friend:-

Free Sewing Patterns - So Sew Easy

Might be useful!

Royal Musical Association - Research Conferences

Researchers at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland may find events to interest them amongst this events listing from the Royal Musical Association:-


  • RMA Research Students' Conference, 8-10 January 2015, University of Bristol. Deadline for proposals of academic papers or compositions in several categories, 27 October 2014.
  • DETAILS

  • A) RMA Study Day, "Amateur music-making in the British provinces", 18 June 2014, University of Leeds.DETAILS
  •  B) RMA-supported conference, "Music, emotions and well-being:
  • historical and scientific perspectives", 20 June 2014, Centre for the History of the Emotions, Queen Mary, University of London. DETAILS
  • C) RMA-supported conference, "Music and screen media", 25-6 June 2014, University of Liverpool.DETAILS
  • D) RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group, 4th Annual Conference, 27-8 June 2014, King's College London.  DETAILS
  • E) RMA-supported 42nd Medieval and Renaissance music conference, 3-6 July 2014, University of Birmingham. DETAILS
  •  F) RMA-supported conference, "Continuities and ruptures: artistic responses to Jewish migration, internment and exile in the long twentieth century", 6-8 July 2014, University of Leeds.  DETAILS
  • G) RMA-supported conference on Music literature, historiography and aesthetics, 17-18 July 2014, Institute of Musical Research, London. DETAILS
  • H) RMA-supported conference, "Hollywood's musical contemporaries and competitors in the early sound-film era", 26-8 July 2014, University of Surrey. DETAILS
  • I) RMA-supported conference, "The music of war: 1914-1918", 29-31 August 2014, British Library, London. DETAILS
  • J) 50th RMA Annual Conference, 4-6 September 2014, University of Leeds. DETAILS
  • K) RMA-supported conference, "Schoenberg at 140: legacy and reminiscence", 13-14 September 2014, Canterbury Christ Church University. DETAILS

Visit http://rma.ac.uk/conferences/ for information on more RMA events from November 2014 onwards.

How do you Measure Theatre's Value, asks Fin Kennedy

Spotted earlier this week, a Guardian Culture Professionals article that might interest our budding drama professionals and their teaching staff.


How do you Measure Theatre's ValueRead it here.

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Are you a Digital Native? Are your younger Siblings?

Interesting article here on the BBC News and Technology pages. Educationalists refer to the current generation as "digital natives" - it's a controversial subject, because not everyone is as comfortable in the digital environment as their most tech-minded peers.

This BBC article examines the topic in the context of an even younger generation:-
Do we need to rescue our kids from the digital world? 
By Jane Wakefield, Technology reporter

Monday 16 June 2014

Scottish Journal of Performance: Vol.1 No.2 just published

Read on ....

Scottish Journal of Performance is published by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Social Media, Anyone? Guardian Media Culture Professionals Network Shares Tips

Karen's favourite culture website offers useful tips on one of her particular interests - social media for professional networking.  Take a look ...

Social Network Culture

Conference: Understanding Scotland Musically

Updated pages for this forthcoming AHRC-funded conference can be found here:-

Understanding Scotland Musically


AHRC sponsored two-day conference, 20 - 21st October 2014, Research Beehive, Newcastle University.

Understanding Scotland Musically

With a keynote address from

Dr Gary West

'Understanding Scotland Musically: Do we? Can we?’

Friday 13 June 2014

New Palgrave E-Books for the Whittaker Library

Heroin-addicted musicians in New York?  Medieval Music?  Wagnerian influence on dramatists?

We've been adding an ambitious range of E-Books to the Whittaker Library stock.  All published by Palgrave, this time, you can take a look in our catalogue to see what's there.  So far, they're mainly music books - there will soon be drama titles as well.

Look in our catalogue here!

You can Search the National Archives

Anyone with an interest in history (music, drama or anything else at all!) will be curious to find out what's in the National Archives, and the Archives have a new search interface to help you find out.

We tried searching for Suffrage, Stage Lighting, and Scottish Songs - not all at once!

Results show (a) what's in the National Archives, and (b) what's in other archives.  Very impressive, and very promising.  Do take a look:-

Thursday 12 June 2014

Composer Agostino Di Scipio featured in Contemporary Music Review

Agostino Di Scipio, Composer


The latest issue of Contemporary Music Review is devoted to the music of Agostino Di Scipio, described editorially as,

" ... a well-known composer and theoretician, especially in the circles of computer music and live electronics."
Agostino Di Scipio, portrait from website
Here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, our staff and students can read the journal electronically, but the paper copy is also catalogued amongst the music book stock. 

Creative Artists - Could You Write a Column for Ideas Tap?

Arts Columnist Required


Spotted on social media, this interesting writing/journalistic opportunity for some creative young person ...

We're looking for a new arts columnist, who'll get paid £100 p/w to write a weekly 500-word column for :
(Whittaker sighs - if only there had been social media when 'he' was younger ...) 
 

Friday 6 June 2014

Tropical Forest? Whittaker Library? Guess the link!

You know those clever little leaf-cutter ants, bearing big bits of leaf as they process through a tropical forest?

They come to mind today, as the Whittaker Library welcomes a steady procession of staff and students diligently returning books at the end of session. All library materials must be returned today.

Once accounts are clear, staff and continuing students can borrow again for the summer. 


There are special arrangements for graduating students.  If you are leaving at the end of Trimester 2, please do remember to return all your Library materials, and have a great Summer!

The Library is open normal term-time hours until Saturday 14th June. The following week, we commence Trimester 3 hours, when the Library will be open from 9-5pm Monday – Friday.

In addition, we will be extending opening hours until 8pm on Tuesday evenings from 8nd July – 2nd September. 

The Library staff are here throughout the summer to support you in your studies, so please do make use of the facilities.

Reddit - Introduced by the Guardian Culture Professionals Network

Do you use Reddit?  It's a social media website that the author of this article describes as highly influential, but perhaps not as well-known as it should be.

So we need to know about it!  Read the Guardian article here.

Find Reddit itself, here.

(No prizes for guessing where Karen's curiosity will be heading this weekend, then!)

Euphonium and Tuba in Atlanta

Whittaker's in-tray contained an invitation today:-

2014 International Euphonium Tuba Festival
at Emory University in Atlanta, USA
 
22-28 June 2014

The invitation comes rather late for our readers to book attendance, but we wish the Festival a happy and fulfilling week all the same.

More information can be found at Euphonium.com - if you play Euphonium or Tuba, maybe you'd like to save this link to your favourites.


Thursday 5 June 2014

Researcher Support

Research Support - Supporting Researchers

One of the ways we support our research staff and students is by sharing relevant weblinks with them.  Indeed, Karen has a Diigo list for this very purpose. You can see Karen's Research Support List here.

Also, if you scroll down the left side of the screen, you'll see her many other lists - there could be useful material there, too.  Feel free to browse.

NB  Why not start your own Diigo account today?  Save favourites "to the cloud", on any device you own.  It's invaluable!