Creativity: Ten Habits of Highly Creative People

You've probably seen lists like this before, but you never know - there might be something here that just sparks a new thought, so try this:-

10 Habits of Highly Creative People, by Arianna Rebolini

Singing the Collections at St Andrew's University Library, Examining the Past at Glasgow

A Blog Choir? Why not, indeed!

This is a truly brilliant idea from St Andrews University Library Special Collections. They got old music out of their rare books collection, formed a choir, and started singing. They even used old singing instructional manuals. It's inspired - we love it!  Read the blogpost on their excellent blog, Echoes from the Vault:-

52 Weeks of Historical How-To’s, Week 24: Singing the Collections

And Singing Manuals revealing Singing History

Hunterian Associate Brianna Robertson at the University of Glasgow has been engaging with the Glasgow special collections in a very different, but equally imaginative way, looking at the vocal legacy of castrated singers.

Telling the World about Teaching Artistry

Rising at 4 am, breakfasting at 10 - conference habits!

Teaching Artists, Teaching Librarians

Whilst Karen was at the IAML UK and Ireland* Annual Study Weekend in Cambridge last weekend, she had the dubious privilege of being the first speaker  at the academic music librarians’ seminar.  She talked about the Teaching Artist short credit-rated course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland!   (Indeed, she'd worked away at her teaching plan and theoretical study during her annual leave, so she could talk about it at this seminar.)  Another librarian there made a Storify page about the session, so here we are for all the world to see!   

Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn

Do academic librarians need teaching skills?  How does a chartered librarian establish a place in the community of teaching artists?  Karen's PowerPoint is here.

* The International Association of Music Libraries, UK and Ireland Branch. 

Rikki Fulton Archival Material at the University of Glasgow

The Scottish Theatre Archive has an interesting online overview of their Rikki Fulton collection.  Find out more here.

So what do YOU consider Scottish?

So - what IS 'Scottish Music'?  It's all a question of cultural perception, isn't it?

Karen spoke at a recent RMA  Colloquium about what our perceptions of "Scottish" actually are.  Here are her slides for, "Scottish, Scotch and Caledonian".

William Lamb - article about the diffusion of the Scottish Strathspey

Grafting Culture: On the Development and Diffusion of the Strathspey in Scottish Music

You can read the pdf of William Lamb's article HERE.

Creative Scotland 10 year plan talks of Ambition and Potential

Read more here!

Conference: Celtic Revival in Scotland

Registration now open

'Whittaker' shares with you the online conference announcement, quoted from the  conference website:-   Programme online and registrations open The programme for The Celtic Revival in Scotland (1860 - 1930) is now available on the conference website, and registration is open. Click here to register for the conference Click here for an overview of the conference

Call for Papers: Understanding Scotland Musically

We've received notice of a CFP for a conference:-

University of Newcastle, 21 October 2014

Read the CFP here.

Effective Use of Social Media

The recent IAML (UK and Ireland) Annual Study Weekend saw a new innovation - the "Quickfire" sessions.  Karen chaired a couple of sessions on effective social media use in music libraries, before she fled for the last Scotland-bound plane of the day.

It's fair to say Karen has embraced social media both on behalf of the Whittaker Library and in her own name, but she restricted her comments to library activities for these sessions.

BLOGGING

This Whittaker Live blog was established in 1999 – there have been changes over the years, most notably abandoning the attempt to find weblinks on weekly lecture topics.  Students can find that for themselves these days!  

Content is drawn from various sources:- stock acquisitions, forthcoming events, links to other relevant postings eg Bibliolore, and news about competitions and summer courses.  

·       It’s possible to schedule blogposts, but we don't generally do so.

TWEETING

Karen tweets as @WhittakerLib by day, and @Karenmca by night.  The @Whittakerlib account is the slightly younger of the two, started because there should be separation between library-related tweets and personal ones.  This is very important, because:-

• It also enables others to tweet.   
• It keeps tweets library-related.
• It enables the library to have its own persona.
• It means non-library related chat stays outside the workplace, and anything connected with Karen's research interests doesn't clutter up the library's message.
• Messages to the Library go to our generic email account, which anyone can access.     

When Karen is using Twitter in her own right, she “favourites” links or RTs them to @Whittakerlib, but she also makes heavy use of Diigo – social favouriting.  This means any interesting links that she finds in her spare time can be saved for use either on the blog or on Twitter next time she's in the library.

DIIGO

There’s a feed from Karen's own Diigo list through to the Whittakerlive blog, but the app enables her to mark as private anything that's not to be shared.  Diigo is excellent for accessing favourites from any device you’re using, and for storing content for future use.

Bufferapp 

This is a great way of scheduling tweets!

FACEBOOK

We don't use Facebook professionally; Karen has chosen to keep her account purely for a handful of family and close friends, and a select few others.  Separation of personal and private is very important indeed, to convey a professional impression.  Having said that, the library’s canvas Wheesht bags did have their own Facebook page ...!

Excellence and Achievement for the Whittaker Library!

Karen attended the IAML(UK and Ireland) Annual Study Weekend at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge last weekend.  As well as giving a talk about librarians gaining teaching skills, she also led a couple of quickfire sessions on social media in music libraries.

The most exciting news for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland was our receiving both an Excellence Award for the Whittaker Library, and a Personal Achievement Award for Karen herself.

More about the Awards: The Excellence Awards are presented every two years and acknowledge activity in music libraries which demonstrates sustained good work and good practice with the potential to be adopted and adapted by others. The Awards also recognise outstanding personal achievement by individuals. Music collections from any sector in the UK and Ireland can be nominated for the Award, no matter what their sector, size or type. The nominations for this year’s Awards were judged by a panel of experts from both the music and library worlds, chaired by Professor Jan Smaczny of Queen’s University, Belfast. Music libraries play a key role in supporting the study, performance and enjoyment of music and underpin the vibrant diverse musical life and heritage in the UK and Ireland and, as Prof Smaczny has said,” the very musical infrastructure of the United Kingdom and Ireland depends fundamentally on the work of music librarians. [Music libraries] look after communities, those who study music and perform, those who pass on their expertise through instrumental and vocal tuition; and those who simply enquire and enjoy.” This year saw the following 14 institutional libraries and 4 individuals receive the Excellence Awards:-

Libraries of Excellence:- Barbican Music Library,  British Library: Music Collections,  Britten-Pears Foundation,   Cambridge University and Pendlebury Library, Cardiff University, Irish Traditional Music Archive, Trinity Laban Conservatoire,  Kent Performing Arts Library, Henry Watson Music Library,  Royal Northern College of Music, Somerset Performing Arts Library,  Surrey Performing Arts Library, Westminster Music Library,  Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Personal Achievement:- Dr Catherine Ferris,    Dr Karen McAulay, Ruth Walters, Rosalind Edwards.

Citations for award winners can be seen 2014 here.

Reminder of Whittaker Library Holiday Opening Hours

Library Spring Break opening hours

Monday - Friday, 9.00am- 5.00pm

Easter Monday, 21st April, 9.00am- 5.00pm
Normal service continues from Tuesday 22nd April (9.00 - 20.30 pm.)

Reflective Journals, Learning Journals

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE | ECITCARP EVITCELFER

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE | ECITCARP EVITCELFER

Has your tutor suggested keeping a reflective journal?  Or they might have called it a 'learning journal'?

Have they suggested looking at the documentation that other Masters students have submitted in previous years?

Here in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Whittaker Library can help!  Take a look in our catalogue - we've done the searching for you here.

If you're not on campus today, don't worry - we have e-books which may also be useful to you, eg:-

• Reflective Practices in Arts Education (2006) click here.
• Jennifer Moon - Learning Journals (2006) click here.

Here's a direct link to our catalogue if you'd like to try searching further keywords.  Happy hunting!  

LIBRARY OPENING HOURS

• We close at 5 pm today (Friday 28th March) and are only open on weekdays from 9.00 to 17.00 pm during the vacation. 
• We're not open in the evenings or at weekends during this period. 
• Normal hours resume on Tuesday 22nd April (9.00 - 20.30 pm.) 

Forming Good Habits (Practising, Revising, Fitness, Meditation)

 James Clear - Forming Good Habits

Here's a useful link if you're trying to discipline yourself to get some work done, get fit - or anything else you know would be good for you!  (Never mind New Year's Resolutions - sure you can have Second Quarter of the New Year's Resolutions too!)

http://jamesclear.com/small-habits

International Academy of Music, Nice (France) July-August 2014

The Whittaker Library received another summer course announcement this morning - to Nice, in the South of France.

July 21 to August 18, 2014 at the Conservatoire Pierre Cochereau, with accomodation on campus.

• Masterclasses
• Teacher and Student Concerts
• International Music Competition

French website:- http://www.academie-internationale-ete-nice.com/
English website:-http://www.hexagone.net/music/academy_nice.htm

Or an Opera Conference at home? Oxford Brookes ...

Whittaker was asked to tell you about Oberto, Oxford Brookes University's opera research unit.

There's a conference in September that might interest opera researchers ... in Oxford, UK.

OBERTO

Oxford Brookes: Exploring Research Trends in Opera

Passports at the Ready! Summer Music Courses in Weimar, Germany and Lyon, France

The Whittaker Library has received more brochures about summer schools in Europe.  Is your passport up-to-date and ready?!

Today, we share with you:- 

• Weimar Bach Academy, 5-16  August 2014 (Focusing on Bach cantatas, as the German course title indicates: Weimarer Bachkantaten-Akademie)
• Weimar Masterclasses, 18 July - 2 August 2014
• Lyon Academie de Fourviere - International Academy of Music, 26 July - 7 August 2014: Strings, Voice, Piano, Accompaniment, Improvisation, Chamber music, Piano Jazz

We'll pop the brochures in our own internal mail to the heads of appropriate departments at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Handling Criticism, by Liz Bennet

Whether you write, perform or do some other form of creative art, criticism goes with the territory.  

Education professor Pat Thomson authors a blog, Patter, and today she has invited guest blogger Dr Liz Bennet to write about accepting feedback:-

learning to accept reviewer feedback as a gift

by Dr Liz Bennet, University of Huddersfield