Anna 0:33
So hello Victoria thanks for agreeing to be interviewed today.
Firstly, could you just introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role? Perhaps explain what an academic liaison librarian is?
Victoria 0:48
Yes, of course. Hello. Thank you for having me. My name is Victoria Rees. And my role in the library is to be the point of contact between the academic school which is soft in my case, and the library to ensure that we are providing the tailored library services needed to support yourselves and the academics in your school. In other words, I am your link to the library and the aim to support your research and help you explore your subject via the library's physical and digital collections. It will be useful for you to find out who your academic liaison librarian is, as a team, we work with your academics and the wider library to provide you with the access to the resources that you need.
Anna 1:30
Well, that's great. So you act as a kind of bridge between the library and students and staff really?
Victoria 1:36
That's right. Yeah.
Anna 1:38
So the next thing I wanted to talk to you about really is the support that the team offered to students. So perhaps you could tell us a little bit about the support that you and your colleagues often,
Victoria 1:49
Of course, essentially the academic liaison librarian team will support your locating, retrieving and evaluating information using the catalogues and databases we have in place by the library. In today's society where information is everywhere, thinking and analysing what you are presented with is a great skill to obtain, especially with the possibility of fake news that we are all too aware is out there. We offer support in many formats. We work with your lecturers to provide information sessions within your courses. We also offer standalone sessions called the bite size that are great for giving you the information you need to fully utilise the library and a well worth a look. All the information on these sessions can be found on the website. We also offer 40 minute one to one appointments with students like yourselves, where we can sit and focus specifically on the topic you're studying and come up with keywords, search strings and search techniques to help you navigate the resources available. These are offered both in person and online depending on how you learn best to book these you just need to head to your school department page on the library website. Further to this we also offer library dropping sessions. These are weekly during term time and a great to help you with those quick research queries you may have.
Anna 3:12
So there's a lot of support out there for you to access yes with lots and lots of ways that students can meet the team and get support. So that's really useful to hear about and yeah, so they just need to go to the website to find out about all the different ways if they forgotten them later. That's right.
And as I'm just talking about online support Are there any other things that you wanted to mention about support students could access online?
Victoria 3:41
Well, other places that students could explore would include the subject guide pages on the library website. These are created by your academic liaison librarian and will help you to identify really relevant and useful materials specifically for your subject. They are a great source to begin to immerse yourself in your subject. The study Hub Pages are another extremely useful site to look at, full of information on research and assignments and well worth an investigation if you have the time. And there is also the library pathway, which is a design set of steps to take you through using the library and researching full of hints and tips, videos and podcasts. This is a great place to go.
Anna 4:25
Feedback does tell us actually that the subject guides are really valued and a really brilliant place to start. So make sure you find your subject guides that are relevant to you if it's what I'd say. And hopefully students will see you as an academic liaison librarian at some stage anyway, as you mentioned earlier, so hopefully one way or another they will get the support they need.
Victoria 4:49
Yes. And I'd like to add Do not be afraid to get in touch with your librarian. Even if you think your query is small or it's not for your main assignment, we are there to help so never be cautious to get in touch and just ask.
Anna 5:03
Brilliant.
So finally, I just wanted to talk to you about whether you had any top tips for students who were starting a research project or a dissertation and what would they be?
Victoria 5:17
Well, I am glad you asked me that. I always get students coming to me stressed or overwhelmed and so some top tips from my time in this role supporting students as well as based on my own experiences of writing research projects, would be initially discover who your academic layer liaison librarian is. That has to be one of my first tips so you know who to get in touch with if you need help, then look for when the dissertation bite size is running. This is a session designed to get you started with your dissertation and is jam packed full of useful information. And then I have a series of top tips.
So number one would be to start small. Sometimes one of the hardest things to do is just to get started. So my advice is make your first task an easy one that you can tick off the list. Maybe it is create some keywords for search and with possibly as a mindmap. Maybe it's read that chapter that was recommended by your tutor or print off those articles suggested for reading whatever that small task is once you've done it, congratulations, you've made a start.
Anna 6:26
Well, yes, that's that's one of the things that students do tell us once they've completed a dissertation is their tip would be just get started whatever it is. Just get over that initial inertia and get going and you'll you'll feel a lot better.
Victoria 6:39
Great. I guess my next tip would be to have a plan. Each stage of your project will take time. Make sure you have a rough plan in place to give you the time you need to do it all I would suggest that you start early research always takes longer than you think it will and that you make sure you have enough time for proofreading and editing as well. The last thing you want is to run out of time on an extended research assignment. And there are lots of planning tools on the study hub to help students with that as well. So do have a lunch. Thanks, Tori. Sorry. Excellent. That's great. My next tip would be where do you start? Well begin with Library Search. Go to your university library homepage. You'll be able to do a broad search across a wide range of resources all in one go. Use the filters to narrow your results. Use key words and combine them with an or a not terms. Attend an introductory bite size on how to use the library search to learn about all these features, you'll find is a great place to begin your research and begin with what we call a background or a scoping search. By starting nice and broad. You'll be able to see the amounts and types of information on your wider topic and then you can narrow down from there. Thanks Victoria. And there are videos on the pathway about how to search library search and also about search techniques as well to help you so do have a look at those. Excellent. My next tip would be reference as you go. This may seem obvious but we have all been there where we have read something key to the argument we're making and where was that? Where did I find that? My recommendation is have a system to record items as you go. It can be as simple as a photo of the cover and publication page. You could use a reference management tool or you can write down the full bibliographic reference as you go along. Whatever your system keep a track of the items using the study hub has some fantastic referencing guides that you can access so do look there for more information on this.
Anna 8:51
Yeah, that's a really good tip Victoria. And if people do get stuck with referencing as well, they can talk to the academic skills team about some support with that. So do look at the StudyHub.
Victoria 9:05
My next thing I would say is be critical. What do I mean by that? Well, essentially, think more and maybe read less. Make sure you don't lose sight of your focus when reading. How relevant is this item to your research? If it isn't relevant, then do you want to be spending time analysing it? Yes, it's also necessary to maintain an open mind and be flexible in your project so you can change it as needed. But always keep a focus in mind. Now a good way of thinking about this is to ask yourself the question, what would you like someone reading your dissertation to understand by the end of it?
Anna 9:44
Yeah, that's really good. And I think as well it's just keeping an eye on the focus as you're reading and writing and when you're writing if the focus changes a little bit, don't be afraid of that. Don't be worried by that. But just evaluating the focus as you go along is really good.
Victoria 10:00
Definitely.
Next, I would say don't compare. This research journey is completely your own. Do not compare your progress with others. It could overwhelm you and it could cause anxiety, stick to your plan. Be true to your own topic. And remember, any work you do that maybe doesn't make it into the final cut is not wasted because it all adds to the wider concept, context and your greater knowledge of the subject and yeah, that's a really good tip.
Anna 10:31
I like that one.
Victoria 10:33
And then I would say enjoy it. This is your opportunity to use the skills and knowledge you've gained so far on the course and to apply it to a topic that interests you choose something you are genuinely interested in and the rest will fall into place and visualise how proud you will feel once you have completed it. Yeah, that's that's really good. And one of the main tips we got from a student survey about dissertation was to choose something you're really passionate about and you're really into otherwise it's just going to be told tedious and stressful. So really think about something that really interests you definitely. And finally, remember you are not in isolation. If you feel you are struggling at any stage of the process, or need a pointer just to get you back on track. Then do ask for help. You have the subject expertise from your personal tutors. You've got the research expertise of the librarians and you've got the academic skills expertise from the Ask team. There are opportunities to engage with all these people throughout the process by a sessions one to one appointments, drop ins and emails. Never be afraid to come forward for assistance. And good luck.
Anna 11:48
Well thanks so much Victoria and yeah, so please, please do ask for help if you if you get stuck on on along the way.
And we will have those top tips available separately as an audio device so he just wants to listen to those tips again another time you can find them on the pathway as well. But Thanks Victoria so much. That's been really great. Thank you