Scots Trad Awards

GREENTRAX RECORDINGS PRESS RELEASE (6th December 2008) The Scots Trad Awards of 2008 was this year recorded for TV transmission on MG Alba/BBC Alba. Artistes involved with Greentrax Recordings again picked up some of the premier awards:

• MARGARET STEWART -Gaelic Singer of the year "Togaidh Mi Mo Sheolta" CDTRAX 311
• JEANA LESLIE AND SIOBHAN MILLER - Up and coming Artist of the Year
• THE SCOTTISH POWER PIPE BAND - Scottish Pipe Band of the Year
• THE PEATBOG FAERIES - Live Act of the Year

For further information please contact Ian Green - iangtrax@aol.com Tel. 01875 815888 or Cath Mack - cath@greentrax.com Tel 01875 814155

Soundsgood - project about giving audio feedback

Another one for teachers, here. A lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University has been leading a project about giving audio feedback via the university's VLN (Virtual Learning Network). It has apparently been a popular development with students. Sounds interesting? Visit Bob Rotheram's SoundsGood blog. (http://soundsgooduk.blogspot.com/)

Teacher Training Videos

Tips and tricks for using Word, Flickr, setting up a blog - and much more - at this award-winning website by Russell Stannard, a lecturer at Westminster University. http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ Well-worth a visit for anyone wanting just a few hints about using new electronic media.

Social networking - can you ignore it?

When the sensible and forward-thinking people at JISC start talking about the value of social networking software, then you can't dig your head in the sand any longer. Do you know your Bebo from your MySpace from your Facebook? (Have you found your own music librarian on MySpace, come to that?) JISC has dedicated part of their website to an examination of how institutions can engage with social networking software. Visit it here.

ETHOS - Electronic Theses Online

In brief - accessing British doctoral theses online is currently 'clunky' and cumbersome. The ETHOS project hopes to change all that. Their Beta (trial) website goes live on Tuesday 9th December. There's already plenty of background info at http://www.ethos.ac.uk/001_EThOSnet_Home.html

Here's what they say:-

EThOS Update: We are pleased to announce that on Tuesday 9 December we will be launching a beta phase for EThOS which will mean the system going live. Welcome to the Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) toolkit - the companion to the forthcoming EThOS Service.

• Using this toolkit will enable your institution to work in partnership with other Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and the British Library to ensure a high level of national and international visibility for UK postgraduate theses and dissertations.
• EThOS aims to enable end-users to access the full text of electronically stored UK theses, in secure format, via a single Web interface.
• The toolkit shows how theses produced by students at your institution can be accessed, via EThOS, from the British Library or from your institutional (or consortium) repository.

Effective practice with e-portfolios

The way ahead! Copies of this JISC-funded report are on order for the Whittaker Library, and will be available within the next couple of weeks.

Musica Scotica 2009 call for conference papers

Musica Scotica 2009 will take place on Saturday 25th April 2009 from 10am - 6pm in the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.* At previous meetings papers have been given on a wide variety of topics, ranging from chant to James MacMillan, and fiddle manuscripts to bagpipe music. We look forward to another successful day, bringing together researchers working in different areas of Scottish music. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are invited for 20 minute papers. They should be sent to Professor Graham Hair (conference2009@musicascotica.org.uk) as soon as possible and no later than 28 February 2009. All general enquiries should be sent to Jane Mallinson, at this e-mail address: MusicaScotica2008 'at' yahoo.co.uk (yes MusicaScotica2008 is correct!). Please feel free to forward this announcement to anyone who may be interested.

Musica Scotica Mailing List (if you'd like to be advised about new publications and events) - http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/contact.htm