Media and English blog

I hope you’re settling into the academic year well.

Through the Library we have lots of lovely resources to help you with your studies and research. An excellent place to start is to explore our Library Essentials Guide. 

Here you can find all the basics about the library including things like booking yourself onto a library tour to explore our facilities, how to do printing, learning how to use books, ebooks and journals, and so much more. 

How about sitting down with a cuppa and reading up on all we have to get you off to a good start for this academic year. 

Welcome - I’m Suzie Williams and I am your Academic Liaison Librarian.

I work with your lecturers to ensure we have the right resources for you in the University Library (in print and online) and help you to develop the skills to use these resources when doing research for your assignments.

We have lots of help and support available to you whatever your experience has been of using libraries elsewhere.

Here are 3 things you can do to get started with using the library.

• Pop into our library buildings to have a look around to explore our great study spaces. Most of the print resources for your subjects are in the Library@DavidGoldman and St Peter's Library so I recommend you start exploring there.
• Book yourself onto a library tour with one of our friendly staff/
• Explore your Library Subject Guide, specially designed for you - Art and Design Library Subject Guide.

I am looking forward to meeting you - do say hello if you see me on campus!

Ellie Clewlow has just written a blog post about how our Kate Adie collection documents the UK Miners' Strike.

Her post includes digital images from journalist Kate Adie's diaries and extracts from her TV broadcasts and gives a real insight into the strike and how it was broadcast by the media. 

Through our Sage Catalyst subscription, we have access to a range of books on research methods.

Log in to Sage Catalyst and select 'Research Methods and Evaluation'.

Titles include:

• An adventure in statistics
• Evaluating research
• How to do your research project
• Information visualisation
• Introduction to research methods
• Research design
• Visual methodologies
• and so many more

Head online, login and happy reading!

Through our Sage Catalyst subscription, we have access to a range of ebooks on study skills.

Titles include:

• Your Guide to Wellbeing at University
• The Essential Guide to Building Your Argument
• From Wellbeing to Welldoing
• Be a Brilliant Dyslexic Student
• Essential Study Skills
• Productivity and Publishing
• How to Think
• Create Your Research Poster
• and much more....

Head online, login and get reading!

The MLA International Bibliography covers a broad range of subjects including world languages and literatures, linguistics, dramatic arts, film, folklore, rhetoric and writing studies, teaching of language, and history of publishing. Its expansive scope also makes it an excellent resource for research in history, philosophy, communications, and cross-disciplinary subjects such as gender studies and area studies. 

This short video gives you an introduction to the database:

What Is the MLA International Bibliography? (on EBSCO) from Modern Language Association on Vimeo.

To discover more about how you can use this resource help you with your studies and research, you can sign up to a free five-unit online course that will help you search more efficiently, understand your search results and locate publications you want to read. You can collect digital badges for successful completion of each unit.

Go to the MLA web site to find out more about the course and sign up for free!

The University of Sunderland Library Services web site brings you a new feature called 'Collections', which replaces our monthly new book lists for all subject areas.

Previously, our new book lists have been included within our Library Reading Lists web page, and have been a way to showcase new title purchases over the academic year. These reading lists which were updated monthly reflected the continuing development of our library collections as subject areas evolve.

Collections are embedded into our Library Search, which brings with it new features that will prove useful to students and staff looking to make use of our latest titles, including the ability to pin both the collection and individual books to your 'My Favourites' within your library account.

New book collections are continuously updated as new titles are purchased, meaning you are able to view our latest titles as soon as they are available. We hope that you find Collections a useful addition to our library services.

Visit this link to access the New Books Collection for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries now. 

The Library currently subscribes to the following Media and Communications journals:

• British Journalism Review
• Convergence
• Critical studies in Media Communication
• Digital Journalism
• Journal of Communication Management
• Journal of Radio and Audio Media
• Journalism Practice
• Journalism Studies
• Media, Culture and Society
• Screen
• Sexualities

Journals are an excellent source of research material as they are where you’ll find recently published research and ideas.

Log on and searching!

These resources are really valuable when researching for your assignments.

Euromonitor focusses its industry analysis across consumer goods and services, including market performance, market size, company and brand shares and profiles of leading companies and brands. For example, fashion students may want to research market sector data on consumer trends and spending.

The Fashion History Timeline is an open-access source for fashion history knowledge, featuring objects and artworks from over a hundred museums and libraries that span the globe. The Timeline website offers well-researched, accessibly written entries on artworks, garments, films and specific time periods, for those interested in fashion and dress history.

IBISWorld provides industry intelligence that analyses the environment of over 400 UK industries. Each industry report provides detailed performance data and analysis on the market, leading competitors, operating strengths and weaknesses, external drivers, major player market strategies, industry profit and cost structure benchmarks. For example, you can access industry data on the fashion industry on manufacture, wholesale and retail.

World Global Style Network is an online style gallery. The first time you use it, you will need to set up an account with your university email address (username@sunderland.ac.uk).

The Shakespeare database is an up-to-date textual resource and includes information even on the latest feature films that have yet to be broadcast on non-subscription channels available on Box of Broadcasts such as Spielberg’s West Side Story (a Disney exclusive) and Joel Coen’s Macbeth (currently streaming only on Apple TV).

It has over 10,000 entries! The resource includes websites, podcasts, features films, TV and radio broadcasts and much more, some of the latest additions include an episode of the BBC’s Father Brown series that quotes liberally from Much Ado About Nothing; a video recording of an interview with Simon Russell Beale about his Shakespearean roles; a podcast devoted to love of the Bard from a teenager’s point of view; a radio documentary about Lady Macbeth; an uncut production of Macbeth shot entirely in close-up using iPhones; a DVD release of The Winter’s Tale filmed at The Globe; and much more.

You can access it for free online.

[Based on text provided with permission by Learning on Screen]

VADS, the Visual Arts Data Service, is an online resource with over 140,000 images from over 300 art and design collections in the UK. These images are free to use for non-commercial use in education providing that you give appropriate acknowledgement through your referencing.

Images cover many areas in the visual arts including fine art, media, design, applied arts and fashion. To check how you can use these images, explore the FAQ section which gives clear advice to ensure you use the images in an appropriate manner.

Remember that you can use Cite Them Right, the university’s referencing tool, to ensure you reference all your sources correctly.

The library subscribes to Convergence (the international journal of research into new media technologies) from 1999 to the present day, with online access from 2018 onwards.

This academic journal is internationally peer-reviewed and aims to encourage and advance interdisciplinary enquiry into contemporary convergent media and allied innovative technologies.

Articles in recent issues include:

• A Special Issue on Digital Expressions of self
• QR codes during the pandemic
• Microstock images of artificial intelligence
• Digital reproducibility in locative media
• Sexualising characteristics of adolescent on TikTok

Hop onto Library Search to get stuck into this journal.

The University Library has a wealth of resources, both online and in print, which you can use when researching for your assignments.

Here are lists of some of the most recommended journal titles in these subjects:

• Film, Media and Cultural Studies
• Journalism, Social Media and Public Relations
• Media Production and Screen Performance

You can access them from the Media and English Library Subject Guide journals page - scroll down to where you see the heading 'Media journal lists' and start exploring!

Let's have a look at some of our books on gaming design:

• Bang (2016) Picture this: how pictures work
• Barker, Smith and Attwood (2021) Watching Game of Thrones: how audiences engage with dark television
• Galuzin (2016) Preproduction blueprint: how to plan game environments and level designs
• Lemarchand (2021) A playful production process: for game designers (and everyone)
• Lengyel (2016) Foundations of game engine development. Volume 1 - Mathematics
• Lengyel (2019) Foundations of game engine development. Volume 2 - Rendering
• Rogers (2019) Understanding esports: an introduction to the global phenomenon

Our Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries Creative Lives talks offer many examples of how creative professionals live, work and thrive in the arts and creative industries. You will gain an insight into the creative process and career routes through a series of talks from local and nationally-renowned practitioners at different career stages, many of whom are University of Sunderland alumni. You’ll hear from artists, designers, makers, photographers, curators, filmmakers, and much more.

These online talks are open to all students and staff in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, as well as other member of the university and the general public. There’s no need to book individual places, just join online on the day - Tuesdays at 4pm online.

• 30th January - Paul Raymond
• 6th February - Jill McKnight
• 13th February - Sophie Buxton
• 20th February - Ross Millard
• 27th February - Mark Duffy
• 5th March - Vicky Higginson
• 12th March - Dominic Wilcox
• 16th April - Laura Brewis

Please join us via this link – Click here to join the meetings.

There are many reasons you might need to do research in a newspaper archive. You might be interested in how an event was reported in London versus Glasgow vs New York. You might be interested in when a term like ‘Covid’ or ‘Black Lives Matter’ first appeared in the newspaper media. You might be fact-checking or researching an article you’re writing, or you might just want to read more so you can become a better writer.

The newspaper archive that the University of Sunderland Library subscribes to is called Newsstream. This resource contains online full-text access to over 600 UK regional, national and broadsheet newspapers as well as international press such as The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Bangkok Post, South China Morning Post, and the Jerusalem Post.  Coverage goes back as far as January 1982 to the present day for some titles, although this varies by publication.

Remember, you might also be interested in how the news is reported on the TV and radio, and you can use Box of Broadcasts to do the same types of searching as you can in Newsstream for print media.

Here is a 10 minute video tutorial which walks you through how to access Newsstream:

The University Library has a wealth of resources, both online and in print, which you can use when researching for your assignments.

Here are lists of some of the most recommended journal titles in these subjects:

• Film, Media and Cultural Studies
• Journalism, Social Media and Public Relations
• Media Production and Screen Performance

Happy reading!

How are you getting on with using Box of Broadcasts?

Isn’t it a brilliant resource?!

For anyone who hasn’t discovered it yet, Box of Broadcasts (often know as BoB) is an on-demand TV & radio streaming service. The University Library subscribes to this resources so that our staff and students have access to BoB’s archive. It also gives the ability to record upcoming programmess over 65 free-to-air channels from the UK and beyond.

This series of short videos will help you get the most out of this resource for your studies and research including:

• How to access and search BoB.
• Using the programme guide.
• Using your own personal area of BoB.
• How to make a playlist and clips.
• How to request a programme.

Need help with referencing? 

Cite Them Right is an excellent online tool to help you reference your assignments.

You can access Cite Them Right via the link above, at the top of any search in Library Search, or the link within the orange “popular now” section on the library home page.

In Media programmes you will go beyond resources such as books and journals and consult a wide range of sources when doing your research including:

• directors’ commentaries
• film or drama reviews
• films
• podcasts
• social media
• television programmes

Cite Them Right gives clear advice on how to reference numerous types of information using Harvard and other referencing styles as well.

The Library also holds online drop-ins where you can join the chat function LibraryTalk w

Need help with referencing? 

Cite Them Right is an excellent online tool to help you reference your assignments.

You can access Cite Them Right via the link above, at the top of any search in Library Search, or the link within the orange “popular now” section on the library home page.

In English programmes you will go beyond resources such as books and journals and consult a wide range of sources when doing your research which may include:

• anthologies
• bibliographies
• film or drama reviews
• historical books in online collections
• lines within plays
• podcasts
• social media
• television programmes

Cite Them Right gives clear advice on how to reference numerous types of information using Harvard and other referencing styles as well.

The Library also holds online drop-ins where you can join the chat function LibraryTalk with your questions about referencing to get sound advice.

The joy of our library resources is that you can research topics of interest from multiple sources and compare and contrast what you find.

For example, the Tate Modern London is currently exhibiting 'A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography', bringing together 36 artists who use photography to reimagine Africa’s place in the world. It is inspired by the continent’s rich cultural traditions, as well as present-day social and political realities. 

If you're visiting London you can visit the exhibition in person, and there is a really useful guide to the exhibition on the Tate web site. 

However, through the University library you can also borrow the Exhibition Catalogue which is an extremely vivid catalogue which textual entries complementing the images. Suzie Williams, our Academic Liaison Librarian for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries has read the catalogue and has discovered lots about the artists, their work and their message.

The exhibition was also featured on 'Sunday Brunch' on Channel 4, which current students and staff can watch through our subscription to Box of Broadcasts (log in with your Univeristy login details to watch this clip).

The library subscribes to the British Journalism Review from 1999 to the present day.

It is a well-regarded publication including essays and interviews which newspapers don’t reach. This journal is a forum for analysis and debate, and appeals to practicing journalists, academics and students.

Articles in recent issues include:

• Subjective views on matters journalistic
• Ukraine – media in the midst of war
• Levelling up – why do reporters all look the same?
• Book reviews on recent publications

Hop onto Library Search to get stuck into this journal.

Naomi Austin, one of our Senior Lecturers in Fashion at the University of Sunderland, recommends two of our library databases to her fashion students.

“I’d recommend IBISWorld for industry data on the fashion industry (manufacture, wholesale, retail etc.) and Euromonitor for market sector (consumer trends, consumer spend, market and industry stats, turnover and the like). Using these resources ensures you have access to clear and current statistics which means that you can understand the market at a professional level.”

On IBISWorld, each industry report provides detailed performance data and analysis on the market, supply chain, operating strengths and weaknesses, external drivers, major player market strategies, industry profit and cost structure benchmarks.

Euromonitor focusses its Industry analysis across consumer goods and services, including market performance, market size, company and brand shares and profiles of leading companies and brands.

There are excellent help videos provided by each of the databases which will help you navigate around the system and find the information you want for your research.

The library subscribes to the journal Critical Studies in Media Communications from 1998 onwards.

This peer-reviewed journal publishes original scholarship in mediated and mass communication from a cultural studies and/or critical perspective.

Articles in recent issues include:

• Establishing 911: media infrastructures of affective anti-Black, pro-police dispositions
• Promoting extreme fitness regimes through the communicative affordances of reality makeover television
• A not so special episode: laughing at abortion on television
• Casting heroes and victims of disaster events

Hop onto Library Search to get stuck into this journal.

The library has subscribed to a new collection of eBooks from Sage publishing. The package includes unlimited access to many titles including some we previously could not buy as eBooks.

To view eBooks from Sage Catalyst, visit the library homepage, search for Sage Catalyst via Database Search, and then go to View Online.

You can view all the eBooks relevant to you in Sage Catalyst by selecting relevant subjects in the category section. You may wish to explore:

• Study Skills
• Communication and Media Studies
• Or one of the many other categories!

In addition, all Sage Catalysis eBooks are discoverable on Library Search.

If you know the title of the eBook, you can visit Library Search and click on the full text link from the record to access the eBook.

If you need any further help with accessing SAGE Catalyst or any of our other databases, please get in touch via Library Chat or email at library@sunderland.ac.uk.

The Shakespeare database is an up-to-date textual resource and includes information even on the latest feature films that have yet to be broadcast on non-subscription channels available on Box of Broadcasts such as Spielberg’s West Side Story (a Disney exclusive) and Joel Coen’s Macbeth (currently streaming only on Apple TV).

It has recently reached the milestone of having its 10,000th entry! The resource includes websites, podcasts, features films, TV and radio broadcasts and much more, some of the latest additions include an episode of the BBC’s Father Brown series that quotes liberally from Much Ado About Nothing; a video recording of an interview with Simon Russell Beale about his Shakespearean roles; a podcast devoted to love of the Bard from a teenager’s point of view; a radio documentary about Lady Macbeth; an uncut production of Macbeth shot entirely in close-up using iPhones; a DVD release of The Winter’s Tale filmed at The Globe; and much more.

You can access it for free online.

[Based on text provided with permission by Learning on Screen]