Media and English blog

The Carnegies are long-running UK children’s book awards – they recognise outstanding reading experiences for writing and illustrating in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is the award for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people. More information is available on the Carnegies web page.

In the library we are fortunate to have a number of the books which have won this illustration award in recent years.

• Becker, A. (2023) The tree and the river (winner of the 2024 prize)
• Nguyen, T. and Zdung, J. (2023) Saving Sorya: Chang and the sun bear
• Pinfold, L. (2011) The black dog
• Reynolds, J. and Novgorodoff, D. (2020) Long way down: the graphic novel
• Smith, L (2017) There is a tribe of kids
• Smith, S. (2019) Small in the city

We encourage all illustration, design and creative writings students to borrow and read the books.  Explore them to discover the style of illustration, how the stories have been written and how the illustrations enhance the stories. 

…. and who knows, you could be a winner in future years!

Digital US is an online digital skills module brought to you by Student Journey, available to all Sunderland Campus students through Canvas. Completing Digital US will enable you to make a confident start with the University of Sunderland's key digital systems and develop the digital competencies and capabilities which are central to academic success, student life, employability and personal and professional practice.
 

British Online Archives (BOA) is pleased to announce the release of the first season of their podcast, Talking History with British Online Archives, in which they explore the past from a variety of angles and perspectives. 

This season comprises six episodes and will be released in bi-weekly instalments. In each episode, members of the BOA team will be joined by a historian to discuss their research and delve into fascinating areas of history.

Your Academic Liaison Librarian, Suzie Williams, regularly writes blog posts for you on your Media and English Library Subject Guide.

The posts cover a wide range of topics including details about new books we have bought for you to use, promoting key resources in your subject and much more. You can sign up to get an email alert to any new posts - there are a couple of posts each month so you won't be inundated with emails, and you can choose to unsubscribe at any time. 

Just go to the Media and English blog page and enter your email address where it says "Subscribe." Happy reading!

“The Carnegies are the UK's longest running and best-loved children's book awards, recognizing outstanding reading experiences creating through writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people” (Source: The Carnegies).

The shortlist for both awards have been released and may be of particular interest to our staff and students linked with our BA Creative and Professional Writing programme and design programmes.

(Image sourced and used with permission https://carnegies.co.uk/2025-longlists-announced/)

Are you keen to get stuck into reading for your assignments? 

Check out the latest books bought for the School of Media and Creative Industries - books we have recently bought for programmes within the School are listed here. 

It is a rolling list so gets updated each time we buy new books, so there is always something exciting for you to discover!

Back in March 2024, our Project Cataloguing Archivist, Ellie Clewlow, published a blog post giving her first impressions of the Kate Adie Collection.

Kate Adie is a British journalist who was the Chief News Correspondent of BBC television news from 1989 to 2003. She is particularly known for her reports from world events and conflicts, including the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege and the Tiananmen Square student protests in 1989, as well as wars in the Gulf and the former Yugoslavia.  

Consisting of 240 boxes and nearly 1200 news clips, the Kate Adie Collection documents her life, from childhood and student life, through a career in local radio and broadcast journalism for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and then on into her work as an author, public speaker and supporter of charitable causes. 

One year on and 240 boxes, 1200 film clips and 2350 catalogue entries later, Ellie shares an introductory guide to the Kate Adie collection to assist future researchers, alongside images of some her personal highlights from the Collection.

Her article highlights what you can find in the collections and some fab tips on how to search effectively to discover the hidden gems of the collections. 

Some of our library ebooks come from the publisher Taylor and Francis. 

Their e-book reader has recently changed so if you have made any personalisation to any Taylor and Francis ebooks you'll need to follow the guidance in our FAQ on how to manage this change before 16th February.

“The Carnegies are the UK's longest running and best-loved children's book awards, recognizing outstanding reading experiences creating through writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal for Illustration is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book in terms of illustration for children and young people” (Source: The Carnegies).

The longists for both awards were released on 12th February 2025 and may be of interest to our BA Creative and Professional Writing students and staff, and to students doing our Design programmes.

• Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025 Longlist
• Carnegie Medal for Illustration 2025 Longlist